later with pears, lemon verbena, some baby fennel, fingerling potatoes
and some turnips with greens, for all of which I'll have to come up with
specials. The joke around Les Halles is that every time José walks in the
door, the food cost climbs 2 percent. The man would have me mount all
my sauces with Normandy butter and foie gras, garnish everything with
fresh truffles if I didn't squawk—but he loves food, a good thing in an
owner. José gets a dreamy look on his face when he hears about black
truffles coming into season, or the first softshell crabs of the season,
even at sixty dollars (!) a dozen, or anything seasonal, high-quality,
classic French, gamey, or difficult to find. He wants to be the first to sell
it, whatever it costs. It's a strategy that seems to be working. The
backbone of the business may be steak-frites but our regulars are often
pleasantly surprised to find 15 dollars-worth of exotic food on a plate
they're only paying 20 for, and little extras like that help develop a loyal
clientele. Life with José means frequent surprise deliveries of very
perishable and very expensive items, which I have to scramble to find
outlets for, but what chef doesn't enjoy a load of Dover sole, still
dripping with channel water and twisted with rigor, falling into his
clutches? Okay, my grill man won't be too thrilled—he's the guy who'll
have to skin and bone and reassemble them to order—but that's just
tough.
Back from the market, night crew suiting up in the locker-room, I have
just enough time to assemble the orders for Saturday. This is something I
enjoy doing. My young gangster friend Segundo and I take a full tour of
my walk-in and reach-ins. I've got two clipboards under my arm: one to
assemble my orders (one page for Saturday, another to begin the Monday
list) and a second for prep lists—my Things To Do Tomorrow list.
I break it down by company as I go along. De Bragga gets the Monday
meat order; Schaller and Webber, the bacon. Riviera and Ridge get the
produce—I'm too embarrassed to talk to Baldor right now. I see I need
40 pounds of whitewater mussels, 30 pounds of squid, eight whole fish,
and a new fish of the day for Saturday and Sunday. I call Wild Edibles