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from the pages of
October 2005
The Tour de Kitchen
by Michael Ballon
The nation and indeed the whole world recently celebrated Lance
Armstrong's record seventh consecutive victory in the Tour de France.
The month long bike race is considered by many to be the single most
difficult and challenging athletic event in the world, requiring
extensive training and extraordinary effort. Repeated days of gruelingly
steep climbs through the Alps, and tight packs of racers in which
accidents are frequent, are just some of the difficulties the racers
must overcome.
For professional chefs in the Berkshires, as well as other highly
seasonal resort areas, the summer is a similar marathon event .In this
case, the race lasts two months, a month longer than the Tour De France.
Extensive conditioning is required for this as well. Lifting heavy stock
pots and bring able to stand on one's feet for repeated 10 hour shifts
requires one to be in good shape. When people see me work out at the
local gym in the quiet months of the winter, I explain that I'm in
training for the summer season.
Just as the bike racers must avoid running into each other causing
accidents when they are in a tight pack, a team of cooks in a small
kitchen must be careful not to bump into each other with sharp knives or
hot pans. A busy kitchen is a whirl of activity, with cooks twisting and
turning between stoves and grills and mixers, and the floors are
frequently slippery or wet.
The Tour de France racers faced some difficult days battling
record heat in France, which topped over 100 degrees at one point, but
they were never standing next to a 500 degree grill, on a 95 degree day.
There is a lot of truth in the old adage,. "If you can't take the heat,
get out of the kitchen." This has been an exceptionally hot summer in the
Berkshires, and a 9 or 10 hour shift in 90 degree plus heat saps the
energy out of anyone. Its almost impossible to drink water fast enough
to replace the sweat.
In addition to the heat, this summer we were plagued by violent
thunderstorms, which caused electrical outages. Even when the stoves are
gas, and not effected by the outage, when the ventilation and exhaust
fans stop, a kitchen becomes a dangerously hot and smoky place. If the
kitchen gets hot enough, emergency fire suppression systems
automatically activate, causing major problems. Thus when the lights go
out, the kitchen stops. This happened twice this summer at Castle
Street, once on a Friday night at 7:30, with a restaurant full of
hungry people.
There are many ways to measure business, including number of dinners
served, and gross sales. But another way to measure business is to count
the tons of potatoes peeled for mashed potatoes, bushels of basil pureed
into pesto, and hundreds of salmon filleted. At the beginning of a busy
weekend, the refrigerators are so packed with food there is scarcely
room for everything, and by the end of Sunday night, they are empty.
Tonnage in, and tonnage out.
It's true that there are still a lot of people in the Berkshires for
another month or two enjoying foliage, but the Tour de Kitchen really
ends at Labor Day, when Tanglewood ends. After a little rest, its time
to being training for next year.
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