Cooking is more than just a hobby or an activity. Like many other professions, passions and careers, it is a chosen lifestyle. People always ask what its like to be on the other side of the restaurant wall. How do you live with the crazy hours and the no holidays and the insane stress? It is a tough place to be, I must admit, but there is no place that is more reliant on trust and teamwork aside from the armed forces. The kitchen is one place where you can talk so much smack to your teammates and still have the bond of brothers.
To be on the line, with the world swarming around you and heat burning at your back, brings on an adrenaline rush like no other. Think of it as a war movie. Every night, all the cooks go into battle under the chefs strategical plans to dominate the oncoming fury of the dining room. The constant flow of tickets that swim out of the printer, the bark of orders from the chef and the interaction between the cooks all decide how the night will proceed. And as in all movies and real life, you win some and you lose some.
From the lost battles, lessons are taken away that provide lifelong teachings about how to react to different situations. For example, what do you do if there is a misfired ticket or a cook misses a call? Do you stop everything and wait for chef or a more experienced cook to tell you what to do? Absolutely not. You figure out what you are missing as quickly as possible and you move forward with the progression of fires. That's it. Now don't get me wrong, this sounds easy in writing but in fact it is extremely difficult with all the stress that is weighing on your shoulders. The one thing you strive for as a cook, aside from perfection, is to not get the banana from the chef. That is one of the worst feelings, when you feel as if you let your commander down. You just don't do it.
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