2025 Another trip around the sun!
Okay – another trip around the sun and I’m still happy after all these years.
Apparently, May is the month I feel the need to share (journal) my continued adventure. We have acclimated nicely to San Antonio.
Since my last post a year ago, I accepted a job at a rehabilitation hospital as a “cook.” The manager wanted a peer leader but that turned out to be very difficult. I LOVED the job!! I created a daily menu and cooked for the staff and guests. I was able to get creative and had free reign (mostly). I was able to very gently guide the other cooks to do more cooking from scratch, season their food, care about food safety and be proud of their work. I say gently because when I tried to instruct, I was immediately shot down with “you aint my boss.” I received no back up or support from my manager, so I had to lead by example… and I did.
I was able to ‘lead’ that department to improve patient satisfaction of the food by more than 50% (from 18% satisfied to 85% if I remember correctly). I was able to show the other ‘cooks’ how to take a 1.5 hour service down to a half hour through preparation and organization. I was also able to increase café participation from 20 meals a day to over 50 simply by improving the menu and cooking from scratch. The soups I made went from selling about a quart a day to up to 3 gallons. Yeah, they liked my food. I was also asked to do Prime Rib twice with all the fixings and chicken and portabella mushroom vegetarian option. I made 2 for staff appreciation and 4 for Christmas… they were happy.
Side note: In my first 3 months, my manager and the CEO nominated me for Employee of the Quarter for 200+ hospitals. We never heard if I, or anyone else, won that quarter.
They were happy! I was happy too. Except for one thing. As part of my responsibilities, I was expected to prepare, cook and serve staff café, then break down and do all the dishes for the next two hours. Or, if I was pulling weekend duty serving patient dinner, I not only had to do my own dishes, but also help with the patient dishes as well. That and clean the cooking line, mop the floors, take out the trash and then polish the stainless-steel surfaces. Basically, half my time was spent as a steward. Not what I signed on for.
When I was hired, the “dietary aids” did most of the dishes and other stewarding, but my manager made a management decision to require the aids to do less and the cooks to do more. I expressed my concern to no avail. I was expected to do more than the other cooks AND do the stewarding. I told her I wasn’t happy, and I don’t think she cared.
SO BE IT! I made a change.
I accepted a leadership position at a very popular steakhouse. I worked through the Valentines Day rush with no issues. My issue with this place was food safety. They had systemic issues that even as the head cook, would not be able to correct. I won’t “out” the restaurant here, but I could not be part of that kitchen.
So I quit.
We worked on our Amazon side hustle but it’s still not generating sustainable income. It is creating about the same income as Carrie would make if she got a job, but not enough to replace my income.
So I found something else.
I landed a dream job where I can lead a team to serve elderly and infirmed residents healthy and tasty meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is also staff service as well. I was being considered for Food and Beverage Director, but my experience and passion in the kitchen inspired them to make some changes and they offered me the Kitchen Manager position they just created for me. (grin)
From the 2 interviews (on the same day), I learned that there are two full commercial kitchens and one small service kitchen. There are 11 cooks and 20 servers. I don’t know how many stewards. The property is 33 acres and includes homes, duplexes, apartments and assisted living. I’m not sure how many residents there are for sure but I estimate that more than 350 meals are served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or 1,000 meals a day. If I understand the role of Kitchen Manager correctly, I will be responsible for every one of those meals.
I don’t want to assume too much so at 9:00 on Monday (Cinco de Mayo), I report to the “clubhouse” to meet with the Executive Director and start my new journey. Maybe you won’t have to wait a whole year for an update.
Oh – look for more (and regular) videos on my cooking YouTube show. I’m recommitting myself to that show and creating content regularly for it.
Bonus:
Image Caption Thursday: May 1
A new pork dish for us. This is bite sized pork loin (from the shoulder end), velveted and seared. The sauce is coconut milk, Penang curry paste, baby corn and shiitake mushrooms. Garnished with green onion and black and white sesame seeds. Over a bed of steamed jasmine rice. It was delightful! This was a celebration dinner because I passed my criminal background check (duh) as well as my TB test (duh2) and was told to report to my new obsession on Monday! #CincoDeMayo
