Remembering my first day at work

Time goes by, things change, we change.

2010 was a year of challenges, of success, and really few failures. Really!

I'll share the best moments of 2010, which represented the greatest challenge for me and my team working at Puro Corazon.

I have to start telling you that my first day as Executive Chef couldn't more challenging. I got in the kitchen on 07/12/09, 8:00 am.

The first person I met was the General Manager. After a talk with the other staff and managers, i was taken to my workplace: the kitchen.

If I could say one word describing what i was thinking at that moment...um probably would be censored. But the second word I'd choose is shocked.

Shocked because of course, I was educated in a very strict Culinary School in Cuernavaca, and then in Paris.... where I learnt from my teachers and also the Executive Chef Phillippe Daigneaux from the Hilton Arc de Triomphe Hotel, and the Executive Chef Damian Delgado from the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, needless to say the hygiene, organisation, training and quality was present at all times. Come on, its France, home to the best culinary creations, chefs and restaurants.

So of course I was shocked when I first took a look to the kitchen.

If I can be proud of one thing (And im proud of many...) that I achieved at Puro Corazon's kitchen is organisation.

After cleaning up the kitchen, the fridges, freezers, throwing sabotaged things away (like flour with salt, coffee with pepper, etc), and giving an ultimatum to my new kitchen brigade, I was almost ready to work.

And I say almost, because it took me more than 3 weeks to clean up the kitchen , considering my bosses didn't want to close the restaurant ANY day. (yes we were open 8.00 - 20.00, 7/7).

However, I didnt have time for taking a break, why? it was 7th December. The upcoming Christmas Dinners for the next two weeks were almost fully booked everyday, sometimes having breakfasts, complete meals, dinners and coffee breaks at once.

And considering my brigade was of 9 and I didn't have a Sous Chef, or someone helping me with the recipes (Because the pseudo-chef who worked there before me, took all the recipes with her, after deleting all the files from the computer.)

So my main concerns were:

1.- Order and organisation: the staff was singing out loud to country music all time! No control of any kind about storage, cleaning, orders, purchasing, etc processes! No organigram, who was the boss, whos the steward?

2.- Hygiene: both waiters and cooks were messy, dirty, careless....

3.- Purchases: i didn't know any suppliers, only a few list of emergency suppliers , bad quality at a high cost...

4.-Recipes: even though I know about mexican food, we needed to have a cardex or standard recipe for all our items, and someone would need to do it

5.- Accounting: how much I was spending, in what, why, and how would we pay it?

This was my main concern during my first month at work, however everything worked out good, we served to large parties, the senators, politicians, syndicates, etc.. and we finished the year exhausted.

How was your first day/month? Please share!