Friday, May 4, 2012

kitchen tales: phil's black box



when i began work at Taste of Belgium, 
i had this adorable head chef 
named David.

David has one of those smiles that knock you out from a mile away
clean, white teeth
friendly, giving attitude

and he moved!

and in his place
we got PHIL.

"phil-nemonal" i like to call him.
a good guy
a sweet guy
and a guy who is loving to cook.

"my old job had a lot of creativity," he said,
"and this one, not as much. i'm needing a creative challenge," he announced, this day.

"allyson," he said, "give me a challenge. any ingredient."

SQUASH.
i said.

"NO," chastened Phil. "It has to be something we already have."

"OOH," says Sarah, the cute girl chef in the kitchen, "let's put together a Black Box!"

a black box? i say, pray tell what could be one of those?
(it turns out, i am learning proper kitchen etiquette. it turns out, these are the most fantastic chefs to learn it with.)

a black box, i learn, is a combination of secret ingredients given to a chef as a challenge. the box contains certain elements: a protein, a spice, etc....and a chef is to open a box, explore it, and create a dish of the contents.

phil was obviously ecstatic.
he practically skipped out of the kitchen to await his box.

ten minutes later, i return the kitchen, just in time to see phil uncovering his ingredients.

cranberries.
mushrooms.
pumpkin spice.
chicken.
macaroni noodles

and something else, i forget, but it was entirely and totally weird. 

so phil has this black box, this challenge, and the night is just getting started, so away he goes. "easy," he says, "so easy."

at this point, we caught our pre-theatre rush and i had seven tables and was quite busy for quite awhile.

i ran into phil later.
I'M DONE! he sang, and he brought me a bowl with his creation:

bacon wrapped chicken with cranberry-pumpkin stuffing on a bed of macaroni and mushrooms.

"it tastes like thanksgiving!" i said, and i loved it and it was delicious and i still had 10 WW points to eat so i crammed a lot of it in my mouth.



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