1/18/06
My older brother is a bit of a neat freak. A couple years ago I went to
spend Christmas vacation at his house and one Saturday afternoon I found him
meticulously cleaning his guest bathroom; being sure to move and dust
everything. When he was done he turned to me and said
“Do you know what this is called?”
“Um I don’t know – good housekeeping?”
“No, attention to detail. I’ve gotten as far as I have because I pay
attention to the details”
“Um, Ok”
That conversation was short but powerful. I have come to realize that
attention to detail is everything and as I try to build my reputation as a
chef I must pay close attention to the little things if I want to stand out.
Unfortunately Rey’s words didn’t mean as much to me until I watched two
people make very big mistakes.
Our fruit tarts at work are brushed with chocolate on the inside to keep the
pastry cream from softening the pastry shell too quickly. A catering order
came in for a fruit tart without chocolate. Unfortunately that detail
although passed down didn’t stick and the crust got brushed with chocolate
anyway. When the owner came up to us a week later trying to figure out what
happened. We were all horrified to know that a nice lady with an allergy to
chocolate had eaten the tart and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
The store paid for medical expenses but was not to happy that our chef had
made the mistake.
Months after the chocolate incident things were pretty much back to normal.
I was cutting up brownies as I watched a coworker of mine work on an order
our sous chef had given him. It was for 50 roast beef biscuit sandwiches.
I’m not sure why they didn’t follow the order. I just know that the sous
chef said use ham. My coworker put his heart and soul into those
sandwiches. The line cook looked at me and said “It sure is taking him long
with those sandwiches, I mean gosh!” 45 min later he finally put them on a
tray and sent them out for delivery.
The next day the recipient called in wanting a refund.
She said she ordered roast beef because the people attending her event were
Jewish.
Needless to say she got her money back. The sous chef isn’t the sous chef
anymore and the guy that made the sandwiches…. We call him hamboy.
Pay attention people,
andiepandie31
