roast beef on buffet one!" when none was needed, or creating national
emergencies that would cause security to gang-rush the "mezz
bathroom" to break up a non-existent fight. It was a wild-style life. It
wasn't unusual to see naked women hosing ice cream off their bodies in
the kitchen pot sink (the Howard Stern event); sinister Moroccan food
tasters packing heat (Royal Air Maroc party); Ted Kennedy in a kitchen
walk-through eerily reminiscent of RFK's last moments; our drunken
crew, in a hostile mood, bullying a lost Mike Myers into "doing that
Wayne's World Ex-eel-lent thing"; Rosie Perez hanging on the sauté end,
fitting right in as if she worked with us, sitting on a cutting board,
"What's good to eat in here, boys?"; a clit-piercing on stage (Stern
again); Madonna fans trying to sneak through the kitchen from the hotel
(she brings her own eggs for Caesar salad); concerts, swimsuit models,
hard-core hip-hoppers, go-go boys. One day there would be a wedding
for 100 people where the customer spent 1,000 bucks per person for
lobster and truffle ravioli, individual bottles of vodka frozen in blocks of
ice, baby wedding cakes for every table, and the next, the whole club
would be tented over, filled with dervishes and dancers from North
Africa, serving couscous and pigeon pie for a thousand.
Thanks to the Bigfoot Program, I never ran out of food, was always
prepared, was never late, and Steven helped enormously. What finally
made him a serious character in my eyes was the night he ran a knife
through his hand while trying to hack frozen demi-glace out of a bucket.
Squirting blood all over the place, he wrapped his hand in an apron and
listened to my instructions: "Get your sorry ass down to Saint Vincent's,
they've got a fast emergency room. Get yourself stitched up and get
yourself back here in two fucking hours! We're gonna be busy as hell
tonight and I need you on the line!" He returned ninety minutes later and
managed to work, one-handed, on the sauté station, very capably
cranking out 150 or so à la carte dinners. I was pleased with this
demonstration of loyalty. Working through pain and injury counts for a
lot with me.