tomorrow, the soaking tarbais beans which have to be blanched, the salt-
rubbed duck legs which will have to be confited in duck fat and herb, and
I notice the produce that José and I bought earlier at the market.
I make a final swing through the dry-goods room, note that I'll be
needing more peanut oil soon, more peppercorns, more sherry wine
vinegar. I'm already working on an early draft of tomorrow's Things To
Do list, tomorrow's order list. I've got striped bass already ordered, and
baby octopus, I remind myself. José's got a boner for black mission figs
—he saw some at the market—so I'll have to tell Janine to start thinking
about figs for a special. I have weekly inventory tomorrow morning,
which means I'll have to weigh every scrap of meat and fish and cheese
in the store and record it, count every can, bottle, case and box. There
will be payroll tomorrow, making sense of the punch-ins and punch-outs
of my not very computer-wise cooks and porters and dishwashers, all
fourteen of them—and there's that extra shift for Carlos who worked
extra for me last week, and the extra half for Isidoro the night he covered
Omar and Omar doubled twice to cover the vacationing Angel—and shit!
—there's the overtime for that event at Beard House, and a promo party
for what was it? A Taste of NoHo? Burgundy Night? A benefit for
prickly heat? I have to record all the transfers of food from my stores to
our outposts: the smoked salmon I shipped off to Washington, the
flageolets I sent to Miami, the rosette and jambon de Paris I sent to
Tokyo. I have to record all the stuff I gave to the butcher counter up
front, and Philippe, my other boss, wants a list of suggestions for
specials for the Tokyo chef. I peel off my fetid whites, groaning like
2000 Year Old Man as I struggle into my jeans and pullover.
I'm on the way out the door but Isidoro wants to talk to me. My blood
runs cold. When a cook wants to talk to you, it's seldom good news:
problem with another cook, minor feud, paycheck problem, request for
time off. In Isidoro's case, he wants a raise. I gave Carlos a raise last
week so I'll have a rash of greedy line cooks jumping me for money for
the next few weeks. Another note to self: Frank needs the 16th off so I