I’ve been unable to blog since it has been linked to the website for fear my crybaby stories will be misunderstood by the public. I always like to imagine it is just other cooks reading this as I write, but reality these days is that it is probably mostly diners trying to figure out our hours. If that is who you are look away. This is where I write about the trials and tribulations that I encounter in my life as a cook, and now as a cook who owns and runs a restaurant.
It was a confusing landing, and the fear and loathing is strong here. I definitely feel like a Bambi that has been wobbling around this last month trying to find my footing. I came from big cities back to here and I am trying to make a menu for this time and place, but I have my big city peers in mind as the menu comes together. For the opening I’m also trying to keep it simple and stick to things that I’ve done before, because there is no time or money to test new dishes in the early chaos. There are also the seasons to consider. I told myself that now that I’m in Saskatoon none of my big city peers would even notice what I am doing here, but still posting the menu on the website was one of the single strongest points of anxiety I would ever feel. Since it has been posted I haven’t had time to update it although it has changed a lot over the first month as we work. I imagined everyone I’ve every worked with judging the years old, boring, standard dishes and all the customers here wondering about the limited, obscure menu. Even if none of this was happening the amount that it was happening in my head was incredible. Now that we’ve landed we will spend everyday figuring it out, learning and making it better.
I’ve been really pleased with the beautiful garlic I have been able to get around here. It is fragrant, sticky and potent. I was able to buy a large enough quantity to carry me through until next years harvest.
We have a gardener from Happy Bug Farms that is growing us herbs in the back of our restaurant, he also picks up our compost and gives us treats. He even gave me my own worm compost that I call “vermhat” I feed the worms vegetables and they make dirt.
That is what our friend Lucas said when he first started working at Lumiere, and that is what we say now. I had all of these grandiose thoughts about being “chef at market” and wearing heels and having it together to go pick up produce at the farmers market. Instead I run in frantically like a crazy person and on my days off I have resorted to wearing runners and the equivalent of a snuggie out to do my banking because I’m so tired and my feet are so sore. I’m getting used to the long days again and I like the variety of the work. I do some office work, some serving, some bar tending, some prep, some service, and some dish everyday. The first two weeks were good, we will hire more people and then try and balance things out.
The dishwasher finally works and Kyle’s mom Jody came to town and helped us do all of our dishes. We are going to use as many of the vintage dishes as possible, many of them are quite beautiful. We are slowly moving things in and figuring out where to put them. The ice machine has been installed. The same forager that brought me the crab apples, picked me a bunch of nice juniper berries that I will use in curing bacon and fish.
Our first time firing up the equipment last week resulted in a huge grease deposit under the flat top catching fire. We thought that it was just a little old grease and that it would burn off. As we waited the kitchen filled with smoke. We finally realized that we had to put it out so we grabbed an old fire extinguisher and Kyle went in to put it out. When the smoke cleared there was burnt grease oozing from every orifice of the just cleaned oven/flat top. Once we cleared out the grease it was good to go! Sorry there are no good flame shots the fire was on the inside.
It’s 8:00am and the refrigerator repair man just woke me up to tell me that the electrician didn’t wire the compressor for the bar fridge using the right wire. So after finally getting the electrician in after a week of calling, the process will have to start again. I call, he says maybe this afternoon, he doesn’t show up, I call the next day, he takes me semi seriously and says he’ll be there tomorrow. It has been like this for the last 2 months, with all the trades people. Our dishwasher still isn’t working right it’s not hot enough and there is water leaking everywhere. Many people have come in to try and fix it and hobart cannot be reached, it just goes on to an automated system that puts you on hold forever. I got so sick of trying to order parts that I took the broken parts to a welder and begged them to try and fix them, they did and now they still leak. These are only a little bit of our problems, we have a lot more problems.