Worked for chef Marco Canora forever ago on Martha’s Vineyard at La Cucina (Tuscan style, a real education). When we were closed on Mondays he would tinker with “sauce work” -work ethic in spades. “Family meal” or staff dinners were awesome: good fish or meat, major salad, and pasta always pushing the limits of al dente. We nicknamed Heineken “IBK” (international beer of kitchens) since it was the ubiquitous choice for the old guard of the catering trade. I was an FPC (fkin plate carrier, or waiter… that phrase came from Chanticleer owner, not him). Couple good quotes from him on grubstreetNY. 

Monday
Crunchy heel of palome bread with butter, like I do every day. We were rolling a rabbit ballantine, which gets prosciutto di Parma, so there was a bunch of sliced 18-month-old prosciutto. I had to take three slices of that and put it on bread. That was kind of irresistible.

Tuesday
You know, in this whole thing, what I’m forgetting that we have to do a shout-out for? We have staff beer here, and it’s bottles of Miller High Life. I swear, man, I love that beer. The bartenders will put it on ice at the beginning of service, and then at the end of service, I have the coldest Miller High Life, the coldest beer ever in the history of man…

Wednesday
Herb-roasted chicken for family meal. I really am a huge believer in family meal, and if my guys put up shit for family meal, they hear about it from me. I’ve always held it very high on the importance scale to put up something really tasty and thoughtful for family meal. I don’t tolerate crap for family meal. They’ll hear it the same way if they mess up something for the dining room. It’s their one opportunity to, as a cook, show their creativity, feed all their colleagues, and show everyone how great they are. If you’re not excited about the opportunity to show people how good you are, then you should not be in this business.