Monday, September 15, 2008
Party Mix Help Dean Robb Torture Sean Norton
Posted by Carrington Fox on Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 5:36 AM
I Just had my first face-to-face conversation with Dean Robb at Miro District Food & Drink today. Nice guy, fast talker, quirky sense of humor. While describing the process for making the fresh ricotta that accompanies the grilled peach appetizer, he segued into a story about kitchen pranks he used to play on the staff at Bottega in Birmingham.
When a new kid showed up to work, Robb would haze the rookie by asking him to fetch an obscure utensil, such as a polenta stretcher. The polenta stretcher is very expensive, Robb would say, and only restaurant don Frank Stitt has access to it, so go tell Frank you need the polenta stretcher (or some equally fictional and moronic utensil). Now go, and don’t come back without it!
In these parts, that’s what we call sending someone on a snipe hunt.
Since arriving in Nashville as executive chef of Miro and sister restaurant Watermark, Robb has inflicted this humor on the staffs at both tony eateries, no doubt punking Watermark chef Sean Norton in the process. I’m glad I’m not the one asking Norton for the dough repair kit while he's putting the finishing touches on an order of antelope with spiced berries, but it all sounds kind of fun.
So here’s your chance to taunt Iron Fork chef Sean Norton and the rest of the crew at Watermark and Miro. What apocryphal kitchen utensils can chef Robb send them to find? I’m thinking about a garlic de-veiner, a grit fork or a Rube Goldberg contraption like the one pictured above, but I can’t wait to hear what Mr. Pink comes up with.
Comments (11)
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Give them a big pot with a lid and ask them to go to the restaurant next door and borrow some steam for the cappuccino machine. Works every time.
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When camping, we always sent the rookies from camp site to camp site asking for a "left-handed smoke shifter" to get the smoke out of our eyes while we cooked.
I'd think they'd probably have one of those at Sweetgrass Smokerie. If it's open.
Complete the following sentences.
1. "No fine restaurant should be without its own..."
A) oyster chisel.
B) asparagus engorger.
C) fettuccine detangler.
D) taco pump.
2. "In a pinch, a bottle cap and a rubber band can be substituted for the..."
A) parsley fluffer.
B) pork baller.
C) solar-paneled shortening softener.
D) turkey speculum.
3. "If the knife has not been recently sharpened, instead use a sterilized..."
A) pizza strainer.
B) Baked Alaska periscope.
C) ravioli fastener.
D) grape sifter.
4. "Under no circumstance, while the parts are moving, get your fingers anywhere near the rotating blades of the..."
A) OatMaster 2000.
B) Toast Buster.
C) quinoa shucker.
D) okra peeler.
5. "Use a saline solution to properly cleanse the..."
A) zucchini prophylaxis.
B) Jello-O sonar.
C) lemon rotator cuff.
D) souse baster.
My favorite trick for the "always looking to score free food" staff member is the mayonnaise brulee. Speaks for itself.
Pink, I think I answered most of those questions on the CCP exam. OatMaster 2000 indeed.
How any restaurant can operate without crepe tongs is beyond comprehension.
You mean "alive and cooking." (Cue the Sad Trombone.)
Apart from some wild stories from a friend who worked many, many years ago at the old 12th & Porter, I never knew what hotbeds of depravity restaurant kitchens were until I read Kitchen Confidential. Bourdain makes your average kitchen crew sound like a cross between a pirate band and the Sons of Anarchy.
I once sent my sister off in search of the egg sifter when she asked me how to separate eggs, but I refuse to accept responsibility for her predisposition to long-term therapy. I later modifed that to an egg shifter when asked the same by a guitar player friend.
