All She Can Take

T W E N T Y - T H R E E

 "I'm still waiting on that Tangerine Beef people. What's the hold up?" Sid sighed and turned toward the hurried kitchen she had been leading for the past week. She was anxious to end the day and the only thing between her and the doorway was two tables. Though the constant movement was the same as other kitchens she'd been in, Ito's was different. This was an organized orchestra. Everyone playing their instruments and hitting their notes at the perfect time to make their patrons swoon. Except right now. Someone was fucking up. A line cook zoomed into sight holding two plates and put them on the counter in front of her.

"Thank you. It looks great but it would've looked better five minutes ago. What's going on?"

"Sorry, Sid. Mark is choking back there." The cook threw up his hands and returned to his station. Sid rose up on her tiptoes to look back at her prep station. Mark, a promising cook fresh out of school, was wiping sweat from his brow with a look on his face that Sid knew all too well. He was about to cry.

Sid weaved her way through the stations and back to him. He looked up and saw her approaching and she could see his chest heave with worry. She looked at his station. It was littered with chunks of beef, some with smooth slices through the flesh and others with jagged cuts like a chainsaw got loose. Sid held her hand out for his knife. He hesitantly handed it to her. She took his place and began slicing the beef.

"Are you breathing?" She asked tossing a glance over her shoulder.

"Yeah." He answered quickly. Sid stopped slicing and threw a look back at him. He exhaled and shook his head. "No."

"I can tell. You're sawing at these things like your cutting down an Evergreen. Just drop your knife through like this." She did a few more cuts and then handed the knife back to him. "You're getting too hung up on all that," She threw a hand back toward the busy kitchen, "Just focus on this. Just make this happen."

He nodded, drew in another breath, and then began dropping his knife through the beef in nice equal cuts. When he finished. He looked up at Sid with a reassuring smile and much less sweat on his brow.

"Thanks, Sid."

Sid smiled and watched as he continued to fillet the meat perfectly.

As she turned to make her way to the front of the kitchen another steaming dinner plate passed my her on its way to a table for some lucky patron. Her stomach growled. She checked the time on her phone and it let her know that another full shift had successfully gone by without her even taking a break to eat. She smiled. She was busy but it was a good busy. 

Being back in the kitchen brought her back to life and because she was actually doing something that didn't make her physically ill, she found that she was happy to wake up in the morning and head into work. The team was professional and they were hard workers led by a young suave Executive Chef, Nissan Bruck. He was intense in a purposeful way that kept Sid on her toes but also gave her the confidence to push herself a bit further. He didn't question her about her experience, even though she arrived on the first day ready to give her whole monologue about why she hadn't been in a kitchen since undergrad, he quickly cut her off.

"You want to be here?" He asked, staring down on her with his eyebrows pinched in what could have been confusion, concern, or annoyance. Maybe a combination of all three? How he'd perfected that intense look of a man twice his age in his thirty-eight years was beyond her but she found herself nodding and answering firmly.

"Yes. I want to be here."

He nodded, swept a hand through his curly brown hair, and directed her to follow him as they made their way to the kitchen. He burst through the double doors where everyone was already assembled and waiting calmly; no one yelling at delivery people, she noted. He introduced her, informed them they were to treat her as they would him and then left as quickly as he arrived. The team thankfully followed his instruction. Not making her earn their respect, but giving it to her freely. She'd never seen anything like it. So far, one week down and no incidents to speak of.