Jimmy G stretched as he stepped out of the chef’s office. Actually he yawned first, a big wide yawn that he covered with the back of his hand just before he reached both arms out wide to his sides above shoulder height. Once both arms were out there he raised them up to a parallel position overhead and reached up high.
Victor, Jimmy Banquet Chef and Bill, surprise, surprise, were finished with the sauté work. They had panned-up the last breasts, shut off their stoves and left the pans to cool down before carrying them off to the pot washer station. They stood not far from the chef’s office and smoked a cigarette.
“Ya,” Jimmy G said as he walked up to them.
“Good morning,” Jimmy Banquet Chef said.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Victor said.
“Ya.” Jimmy G stood there with them. He yawned again, covered his mouth as he did so, stretched his arms out again then dropped them to his sides, bent them at the elbows and moved his elbows back to stretch his shoulders and back.
“We did all the chicken breasts,” the banquet chef said.
Jimmy G didn’t say anything. He shrugged his shoulders, didn’t look the slightest bit concerned about his not having done any work.
“Want to crack some eggs for tomorrow breakfast?” Victor asked him. Victor looked at the banquet chef and made a face as if to say “yeah right.”
Jimmy G didn’t answer. He didn’t do anything except turn and walk away. When he came back several minutes later he carried three mugs of espresso which he made himself over by the room service kitchen. They all stood together, drank the coffee and smoked.
“About thirty dozen,” Victor said.
“I’ll do it,” Bill said.
“We’ll all do it,” the banquet chef said. “Your partner can start the set up for the room for tonight.”
“Ya, ya,” Jimmy G said.
“We should pan up the bacon and sausage too,” Victor said.
“And the ham steaks,” Bill said. “All I want to do in the morning is the cooking.”
“We can make the potatoes too while we’re at it.”
“Not me,” Bill said. “By then, I’ll be setting up.”
“Well, let’s get started,” the banquet chef said.
They did ten dozen eggs apiece kind of as if it were a race. They each had a large china cap set into a pot and they each cracked two eggs at a time, one in each hand. The shells went directly into trash cans.
This part of the prep work did not take long and when they’d finished, they put all the cracked eggs together into one area in the walk-in. Each of their pans was wrapped tight.
Bacon, sausage links and ham were placed on sheet trays. This was a tedious chore, especially the bacon which had to be separated and laid out carefully strip by strip. The ham and sausages were easy because they could be handled in quantity and quickly set into place. The hardest part of this work was gathering the sheet pans, wrapping them in film and then carrying them off to the walk-in.
When this was done it was just about time for Bill to start work with Jimmy G gathering the needed things for The Falstaff Room. Jimmy was supposed to have started the work, but he didn’t. He went out and sat by his aunt. Kalista wasn’t working yet, but she was in her uniform and checking her pantry to see what she would need.
That’s how Bill found them, found him. Jimmy was just about back to sleep. Bill had gone to find him, to see what he’d done so far.
“Sit awhile,” Jimmy G said. “We’ll get it done fast and then you can go change if you want to.”
Bill did want to put on a clean uniform. He didn’t want to sit yet. He wanted to finish setting up before he took a break.
