Back of the House!

so the first day of my first rotation began. Each rotation is three weeks. So i was placed at the cafe. I was a little disappointed i was placed there becuase i figured it would be like working in any old joint or starbucks. Thankfully, its really not so bad. My chef put me at the saute station which is basically just the pasta station. there are three pastas on the menu: alfredo, mariniara, and grilled veggie penne. I wouldn't call what i do real cooking because the sauces are sort of alread made. I just need to reduce the cream and add cheese and seasonings to make alfredo, saute some garlic and heat up the marinara sauce, and caramelize the veggies for the veggie pasta. I thought i might need ten pans at most. Boy was I wrong. I must have went through 20. The cafe opens for dinner at 6:30pm and oddly enough, it got busy in my station right away. I must have gotten five different orders for pastas in a matter on seconds. I messed up a lot, i felt a bit like Lucy in that famous epissode where she boxes chocolates like in an assembly line. Because there were a lot of steps i needed to complete for each order. heat sauce, re-boil pasta (thankfully they are already part boiled and portioned), season the sauce, toast the barlic bread, heat up the plate (hot food must always be served on a hot plate), plate the pasta, add the garnish (cheese and parsley) and slice the garlic bread on a bias and place it on the side. To-go orders are a hell of a lot easier (no plate heating). At first, my chef asked me if i was ok at the station alone and i was like "o yea, i can handel it!". I wanted to seem all macho because i was already happy he put me, a girl, the cafe's most active part of the kitchen. But i just couldn't handel it alone, i got like ten orders in a matter on minutes, so another girl jumped in to help me. It was cool then, i think we worked together nicely. Which brings me to another thing, the people are not all from the class i was in before because the rotations are all mixed up. So i met some really nice people and most seem cool and collected. I had dinner with this one girl that said, "for so pretty, you should be on T.V." and "wow, your such a tiny person, but you have such a big ass personality". To be honest, i dont take complements well, and i haven't gotten one in a while, so i sorta shrugged it off and said, "are you kidding, i am in my ugly phase right now, i haven't done my eye brows, i am not wearing any makeup, my hair is greased up under the chefs cap we wear. But as i drove home, i thought, "why didn't i just say thank you". I dont think i am pretty, but i am glad i made an impression on someone, that she thought i had a true soul and personality. maybe i should give myself more credit, i could sure use the confidence boost because the lack of it can bring me down. So tomorrow, i am going to bust out those pastas and i'll now know how to handel seven or eight orders better, and i am going to thank that girl and say "thanks, you very pretty too!".