Chef for a few days

Out of all of the things I dreamt I'd be doing as an adult, I never thought that running a kitchen would be one of them. No, your right, I don't run the kitchen, yet. But for a few days last week, I was one of 2 people in charge while my boss took off for a few days. She let me know well in advance that she'd be gone, and took special effort to make sure I was comfortable with the menu she planned for those days. We did as much prep as possible before she left. It was a crazy week last week. Her leaving just happened to coincide with the drama at work upstarted by hurricane Irene. Since Bennington's water supply was cut off along with route 9 on Woodford MT., the whole town was on conservation. This meant not using the dishwasher much, using paper plates, and unfortunately, boiling water too. Even though the water was not stated as contaminated, the big boss was concerned that it might be. Lots of boiling ensued.

On Wednesday, we had a particularly exciting event. Someone got word from a Green Mt. Express driver that town water was being shut off in 20 minutes. (The time of this news was 5 minutes before we were to serve lunch). 5 women came running into the kitchen in panic, shouting, "They're shutting the water off in 20 minutes! Fill every container you can find with water to flush toilets." As an adult day facility, BPI has its many bathrooms in use constantly, so flushing toilets was a must.

Serving lunch was set aside, as we joined the panic to hog water. 15 minutes later we were told that the information was bad. Our water was not being shut off. Thus, we didn't need to fill all the containers. Annoyed and stressed, we looked around at the trash cans, buckets, tupperware's, and many other containers around us now full of water. So much for conserving!

This also happened to be the day before Maggie planned to leave, so I was absorbing as much as I could of everything she told me, feeling more and more bogged down by the cares of the week. I went home that night and typed out a detailed list of everything I had to do the next day, by time and importance.

Thanks to a lot of prayer and good planning on Maggie's part and mine, Su (the other kitchen help) and I managed quite well. We also had Rich to help us, so that was good too. Things went very smoothly, and we didn't hear any complaints. ;)

For only working at BPI a little less than 2 months, I've gained a great deal of knowledge about what food service does, and how a dietitian would serve in that role. I'm working in a different capacity, but am still learning a great deal. The work can be stressful at times, but all in all, it is enjoyable, and I love the people I work with. Its a great place, and a great organization. Its a good feeling to be serving people and the community in general. I'm happy I stuck with nutrition, as this is just the beginning of what I hope will be an exciting career. :)