I’ve been trying to not be afraid to try, because that is how you learn, but with this comes mistakes. It seems like I don’t learn unless I make mistakes, basically the first time I do anything I fuck it up. But people don’t hate me because I don’t make the same mistakes twice. Apparently I’m not equipped with common sense. I’ve blocked out most of the dumb little things that I’ve done since I started working at Boneta. They’ve turned into things that are just sensory memory now, like I’ll inherently do it right from now on. But there are a few things that leave the chef and sous chef looking at me in disbelief. So here’s one. That’s all you get, but I do about three a day.

Last week just after the rush the sous handed me a fine mesh basket of rinsed capers to deep fry. I was so excited to help that I said, “Sure thing!” and dumped the capers out of the fine mesh into the fryer basket. He came running over and pulled the basket up and all of the little capers fell right though the fryer basket into the deep fryer and were floating around with all the tempura and fry bits. I stood there frozen feeling so stupid. We skimmed them all out on to a tray, but they were riddled with fryer bits. As we both stared down at the tray, he said, “I usually keep them in the fine mesh and dip them in.”
Sigh, “Yeah”, I replied.

This is just one of many, I can’t believe how many mistakes I make. New kitchen, new environment, a lot on my mind. I have so much to learn. I need to learn how to think and focus.

If you’re a close friend of mine, you probably know that one of my favorite cocktails is a negroni. It is equal parts gin, campari and red vermouth with a twist of orange. I never had one the entire time I was in Saskatoon, and I’ve been in Van for 2 weeks and I finally made it out for after work drinks. Some people who I used to work with at Chow stopped by Boneta. We went to the Pour House and found Flett behind the bar. He used to bar manage at Chow, he made me my drink just as I remember it from the old days. Ben first got me onto negronis at Feenie’s when he was making the cocktail list. He used to make them at home all the time. A well made cocktail is really something.

I also found Robbie finally and took a picture of his hardcore kitchen tattoo. I love it, a candle burning at both ends.

A little friendly competition in the kitchen can turn work into a game. At Feenie’ we used to have to slice 2, 16 L buckets of onions for french onion soup, or “fronion” as we called it. Sometimes it would be one lonely cook chopping for an hour, staring at the wall dreaming of better things. Other times, the two entremat cooks would set up boards across the prep table from each other and have a race. They would each have a bucket of onions and someone would time them. On “GO!” they would start chopping madly. It was fun to watch and the prep would get done in 10 minutes and then next time they would try and beat that time. Nothing would get the kitchen going more than a fronion race.
“GO!”
“I got 5 bucks on Skippy!”
“Don’t cut yourself!”
“Oh Skippy, Gorgeous is killing you!”
And then the inevitable, “Well you won but your onions look like shit, his onions look thin as glass, so he wins by default.”

Next thing you know the cooks are all lining up to do fronion prep, and going home every night and sharpening their knives so that they can challenge someone across the table, and have onions thin as glass. It was beautiful, and no put us up to it, we thought of that one all on our own.

Movember is when guys grow mustaches for the month of November to raise money for prostate cancer. I’m amazed at how many men that I know have participated this year. At Boneta there are so many mustaches. I’m devastated that I haven’t yet gotten a picture of Jeremie’s, which is a black handlebar mustache, it’s truly amazing. I hope to have a picture by the end of the week. To donate money to this worthy cause you can go to
http://ca.movember.com/mospace/members/search/q/boneta

There is a team Boneta, that has been set up by the one and only Scott Dicks. I’m oddly at ease with his mustache, it kind of reminds me of Tom Selleck. Support Movember!!!

The team is good. The greens pictured above are beautiful and delicious tatsoi, the cups are a dashi custard that is so good; they are the sable fish garnish. I’m loving matsutake, cauliflower mushrooms, and black trumpet mushrooms right now. But washing the black trumpets seriously sucks. It’s crazy how all of the mushrooms come from the real forest, with pine needles and dirt and bugs and everything. The gnocchi with brown butter are amazing. It’s the best gnocchi recipe I’ve seen yet, so consistent. I’ve been doing entremat all week, but tomorrow I’m learning garde-manger and then the weekend on the pass with Jeremie. So for the next two months I will be entremat 2 days, GM 1 day and on the pass 2 days. Paul taught me the pastry plating today, his desserts are very good. He has one with pumpkin, grapefruit and white beer sabayon; with caramelized cardamom ice cream. He likes to put my mise en place in funny spots when I’m not looking hence the fig in the kale in the first shot. He has a very artistic side.

I’ve never had this much nothing…, I’m just dead inside right now. I’ll feel better soon.

I moved, and now I’m crashing on my friend Ian’s couch just like the first time I moved to Van. I’m just getting settled and learning entremat at Boneta. I love it. The team is amazing. Everyone in the kitchen and front of the house has grown mustaches for the month of November, it’s good. I still really need to work on my speed in prep and my timing during service. I still think the food is beautiful. Also it is so good to be at a place with such high standards. I don’t see the point of doing it any other way no matter what kind of food you are cooking.

I have been flip flopping back and forth on what to do with myself. I love Saskatoon so much but there is no job here that suits me. I want to go to San Francisco but I need to work somewhere to save money before I go. I wasn’t sure what to do. I love my house and my family and friends so much here. Suddenly, Boneta called and asked if I could come and work for a bit. I agreed immediately over the phone. I new in my heart that it is what I wanted. It will be the perfect job to work to save up money. The only problem is leaving my house, waterbed, grandma, family and amazing friends.