Chapter 1: Another Day

  “Ordering in! Table Six, 3 Guests. Three tasting menus with mods, two gluten free, one vegetarian.” Shouts Wilbur from the expo station, Marco moves towards the range and flips the filets cooking in the cast iron pan. Marco realizes he hasn’t called back and repeats back the order that was just called out.

  “Freaking mods,” Marco whispers to himself, moving to open fresh containers from his lowboy to limit the amount of cross-contamination for the gluten free guests at table six. He grabs a trimmed portabella mushroom and the bottle of miso glaze for the mushroom dish. The tasting menu is five courses of old, dated, and tired food in Marco’s opinion, the little bits of contemporary cuisine he has managed to squeeze through the cracks usually ends up on the food that isn’t actually on the menu. The people that have allergies or aversions get the better custom and contemporary food that Marco actually cares about.

  Filet Mignon end up in a separate cast iron pan, getting a nice brown sear in a neutral oil. Summer squash and zucchini get grabbed from the prepped ingredients in Marco’s station and set on the cutting board, awaiting their turn to be seared and turned into something delicious.

  Marco looks toward Wilbur on expo and sees the stack of tickets that they’ve already completed, he sighs looking forward to the end of service and going home to his empty apartment and sleep. He looks across the galley style kitchen toward fish and pasta stations, making eye contact with Corey and Amber. Their long years of cooking together at Et Tu allows them to silently communicate about fire times and how long everything would take to cook.

  Amber, deciding that Garde Mange was far enough along with the canape and cold courses, starts to sweat out shallots and garlic in a pan. In season Sungold cherry tomato pieces are added to the lightly browned alliums in the pan, slowing roasting and cooking down to become more flavorful and delicious. She once again glances over to the cold station in our small kitchen and see that they have sent out not only the canape, a small first bite to excite the senses but also the raw course, a Hamachi crudo topped with microgreens and verjus marinated kumquats.

  Amber tends her sauce pans for a couple more minutes allowing the guests in the dining room to enjoy the first bite and the cold course and making sure that the pastry station has had a chance to warm up the first of three bread courses, the parker house roll, that goes with her pasta.

  Confit duck leg, picked from the bone and cartilage is added to one of sauce pans and lightly warmed. Slow roasted Japanese eggplant is added to the second pan, the one for the vegetarian guest.

  Fresh pappardelle is dropped in heavily salted water, Amber stirs and flips her tomato sauce for a couple of minutes, allowing all the flavors to marry before the pasta is finished boiling and added to the sauce pan with the eggplant pieces, Amber adds a couple of pads of butter to the sauce along with a splash of pasta water. The starch and butter come together with the cooked down tomatoes, alliums, and pasta to make a delightfully shiny emulsion.

  “Perfect” Marco thinks as he takes a glance at Amber’s work. He watches as the tall blonde woman brings all of her food to the pass to plate and garnish, fresh parmesan is grated over the top, chive oil is drizzled over, and microgreens are the final finishing touch.

  “Hands please!” Shouts Wilbur from the pass and a service team of three workers comes hustling into the kitchen to grab the vegetarian pasta and the gluten free version as well. They inspect the dish one last time, make sure everyone has the correct dish and that all allergies and aversions are properly accounted for and head out into the dining room to deliver the food.

  Amber, having finished her courses for the night starts to breakdown her station, moving ingredients into new and clean containers and setting herself up for tomorrow. She checks the dates of all the product making sure to throw out anything old or add it to the pile of ingredients for Family Meal tomorrow. She walks across the kitchen after the servers have left to drop things off in dish pit and grab scrub buckets for the rest of the hot line workers.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Marco sees Corey start to heat up pans and grab utensils that he will need for his course normally a branzino with sweet potato scales and mixed herb foam. He quickly puts a couple of long pieces of sweet potato into a hot pan, each of the sides scored with thin lines that will be gorgeous when seared. “Ah, he is going for a sweet potato napoleon,” Marco thinks as he tends his own pans. Marco slides Corey a container of whipped and stabilized mascarpone flavored with local honey, chive, and caramelized onion that will make a good base for his vegetarian replacement dish. Knowing that they have worked together at Et Tu for 6 years together now, Marco focuses on his own course.

  “VENIRE,” a voice booms into Marco’s head. “What the hell was that?” Marco shakes his head to clear out the mysterious voice and continues to sear and baste the filets. Marco tosses in a couple of pads of butter into the steak pan and does the same to the mushroom and miso glaze.

  Corey starts to sear his branzino filets very carefully, being extra careful not to break the skin where the sweet potato circles will sit to act as scales and texture. He sees Amber most of the way through scrubbing her station and knows he has about three minutes before he is expected up at the pass to start plating his final course of the night. He goes over in his head all the ingredients and products to make sure he won’t forget anything and risk the wrath of Wilbur, the sous chef.

  Marco, Corey and Amber started at Et Tu about six years ago with the dream of one day working their way through the kitchen and into leadership positions. Allowing them bragging rights as they run one of the most popular restaurants in their city, however, one of those spots is occupied by Wilbur, the owner's nephew and a nepo hire. So, while Marco is Executive Chef and in charge, the owners are very resistant to change and modernizing the menu.

  Wilbur is a decently talented cook and nice person but stands between the trio and their dream, alongside Wilbur’s habit of yelling and making a fool of himself in front of Chefs many times his experience, he is not a liked member of the Et Tu kitchen crew. Corey grabs all of his pans and sauces and starts his short walk to the pass, making sure to let Amber know he was moving behind her with hot pans.

  Marco watches out of the corner of his eye, shaking his head slightly at the weird voice that seemingly boomed through his head a couple of minutes ago. Sighing, Marco watches Corey slowly place small round pieces of puffed sweet potato in a scale pattern on the skin side of the branzino filet, giving the dish texture, not only on the palate but also visually. The green foam is slowly and gently scooped from the bowl it was made in and carefully draped over the size of the fish.

  He watches Corey do a similar plating for the vegetarian guest, starting with a small circle of the mascarpone mixture, he carefully stacks and arranges the sweet potato pieces in an elegant circle and fills the middle with the mixed herb foam and micro greens. Marco nods to himself, proud as usual of his friend and coworker.

  “ADIUVA NOS,” another skull rattling voice makes Marco stagger and some of the butter pops from steak pan and adds yet another burn to the many covering Marco’s hands and forearms. Marco grabs the steak and portabella out of their pans and places them onto specially prepared resting racks to wait until the fifth course of the tasting.

  Marco swipes his dark brown hair off his forehead, damp from the heat of the ten-burner range and the general heat of the kitchen. He washes his hands and finishes all the preparations for the fifth course.

  “Just another day in this restaurant. Tired and boring.” Marco thinks to himself as he goes through the motions of plating his course of the menu. Pommes fondant are placed, seared side up in a small puddle of beef jus, giving the filet something to rest against and provide a little bit of height for the final savory course of the menu, zucchini pieces are arranged artfully around the filet and provide a solid foundation for a stuffed squash blossom and microgreens to finish off the dish.

  “Finally done with this week.” Marco sighs and starts to flip this station and start the process of scrubbing down the kitchen. He reaches toward his cast iron pan and he hears another booming voice, “NISI REGNUM” that sends him to his knees, still clutching the cast iron in his left hand and a handful of kitchen knives in his right.

  Marco’s vision goes blurry and for some reason he thinks he can see grayish grass through the terracotta-colored tile of his restaurant. The last things he feels before his vision goes dark is a blunt thump to the head and grains of salt digging into his forehead.