Sunday, December 5, 2010

Oh no it's burning!

So I know I normally blog about just food but what happened at work this week is just to good to pass up.

My week was going pretty slow. We had a really slow week and desserts especially weren't selling so I was in a pretty boring place while waiting for bread to rise (especially since it takes forever now that it is cold!) I had cleaned my kitchen thoroughly and multiple times so I decided to head over to the other kitchen and offer my assistance.

Upon my arrival, one of our Sous Chef was cleaning and finishing up a few things so he could go home. I offered to help since I had to be there and he didn't. So I was tasked with the assignment of blending our salsa verde (It's amazing by the way, I could just eat a jar of it anytime!) Now it's made from tomatillos which require cooking to be delicious so I was blending it just out of the oven, scalding hot if not hotter.

We use an immersion blender to blend most of our stuff since it's huge and impressively strong. I have a hard time holding it and always have to set whatever I am blending on the floor because the blender is about 3 feet tall.



So I had set the salsa on the floor and began blending. It blended quickly and I was ready to move on to the next step. This is when the chain of events began that unraveled it all.

We add piquillo peppers to our salsa verde which makes it technically salsa roja but it also makes it more expensive. I now needed to add them. Since I didn't really plan ahead I left the salsa with the blender in it on the floor and ran to get peppers from my kitchen next door where they are stored.

I made it back quickly and found the can opener and tried to open the can. Now since the last time I opened a can (since it's not often) someone has bent our can opener. My success at opening this can was not going well. I might add that while trying to open this can about 7 people in the restaurant had decided to go out and smoke. So they went out and I continued with my can. I finally was at a loss when our other Sous Chef came back and said he would demonstrate how he opened his cans. He grabbed a spoon and stuck it in the can to pop it open While he did this he was leaning over the salsa and blender sitting on the floor and the blender was kinda like putting a spoon in a small cup we all know it too heavy for the cup.

The spoon can opener was a little more involved and the blender cord was slightly bumped and tipped over the salsa. We quickly gasped (the Sous Chef and I) and watched the salsa run but it did not just hit the floor, no it hit my feet. Which is not normally a problem but I had put on my crocs about an hour earlier because my kitchen shoes kill my feet after twelve hours.

So here was the salsa pouring into my crocs and as mentioned above it's straight out of the oven. I quickly jumped out of the salsa puddle saying ouch over and over again and kicked my shoes off. I thought that would solve the problem but I was wrong. My socks were coated and the burning continued. I quickly removed my socks only to see very sad red toes.

It was at this moment as I was standing bare foot in the middle of our kitchen with a large puddle of green salsa next to me that everyone decided to come back in from smoking. It was a interesting moment to say the least. The Sous Chef and I tried to explain but it was hard and complicated and didn't go well.

We stared at the salsa not knowing how to conquer such a disaster. Luckily for us our dishwasher handled it and washed my shoes for me.

Soon the only reminder of that moment was my squeaky crocs, my sad, cold, bare feet and one tiny little burn blister on my toe.