accounts, the names of other chefs who buy his fine smoked sturgeon,
salmon, trout and fish eggs. I have had enough and cut him off cold. "So
. . . WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING CALLING ME IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING LUNCH RUSH?!" I scream into the phone,
smashing it abruptly into the cradle.
I catch the duck just in time, roll it over skin-side down again and pull it
out of the oven. I've got a filet poivre on order—not on the regular lunch
menu—but it's a steady customer, says Cachundo, and I'm set up for it
anyway, so I start searing one off. Another pasta. I pour extra virgin into
a pan and sauté some paper-thin garlic slices with some crushed red
pepper, add the artichoke hearts, roasted vegetables, some olives. I don't
know why, but I always start humming Tony Bennett or Dino—today it's
"Ain't That a Kick in the Head"—when I'm cooking pasta. I like cooking
pasta. Maybe it's that I always wanted to be Italian American in some
dark part of my soul; maybe I get off on that final squirt of emulsifying
extra virgin, just after the basil goes in, I don't know. More porc
mignons, the runner calls down to Janine, who's making clafoutis batter
at her work station in the cellar, and she comes running up to plate
desserts . . .
We're doing well, so far. I'm keeping up with the grill, which is a faster
station (unless a table orders a côte du boeuf or a faux filet for two or a
whole roasted fish, which slows the order down). Omar is up to date with
the appetizers, and I'm actually feeling pretty good, right in the zone. No
matter what comes in, or how much of it, my hands are landing in the
right places, my moves are still sharp and my station still looks clean
and organized. I'm feeling fine, putting a little English on the plates
when I spin them into the window, exchanging cracks with Carlos,
finding time to chide Doogie Howser for slipping that filet poivre by me
without checking first.
"Doogie, you syphilitic, whitebread, mayonnaise-eating, Jimmy Sear-ass
wannabe—next time you slip a special order in without checking with