Christian

My weekdays are pretty much 100% dedicated to work so the day isn’t too crazy just me rambling about cooking. 

12:00am I’m finishing up my prep list, doing some finishing cleaning touches for  my station, gathering mise and tools for prep tomorrow. It sucks to to spend an extra 15 minutes gathering items for the next day but I realize how much time it saves overall not looking for things so I do it anyway. 

12:15 Change and am out the door. I bike home back to west philly using an indego bike—my main mode of transpo since moving to philly. I take the route down market which is usually really calm. I always like to look out the water as I bike. I really like how the schukyll looks at night as I cross that bridge—almost Parisian? 

12:30 Back home and change, shower and get ready for bed. I’ve been rewatching one of my fav anime Fullmetal Alchemist and it’s been a ritual to watch a couple eps before I get to bed. 

2:00 I sleep

10:30 Wake up and go on instagram. Been really good at not using my phone immediately after waking up but I’ve been slipping lately. I watch a vid of this japanese father presenting a banana to his child and his reaction is the cutest thing i’ve seen in a while. I save it.

11:00 I go for a walk to clear my head and prepare myself for the day. It’s been a weird mental health year for me—the first year noticing and taking action against the anxiety that I haven’t been able to name for the majority of my life. I’ve made a habit to make sure to get out and walk to ground myself instead of rot in bed to overthink everything. 

11:30 Get back home and change and get ready for my day

11:45 I leave for work across the bridge again. I realize how hungry I am because I forgot to grab staff meal the day before so I park the bike and grab some food.

12:00 I’m grumpily eating a bulgogi cheesesteak for breakfast. I wanted to get a breakfast burrito with the bulgogi but they made a cheesesteak instead. Cheesesteak is pretty good in a different context but I feel like the bulgogi is too sweet. 

12:45 I get to work thinking about the banana video and smile.

1:00 I’m at work and start prepping. A big thing about working in a kitchen is starting things early and multitasking— something I’ve always been bad at. I start by getting some projects on the range working while I gather and organize my day. Chef has been on me about focusing on getting set up first and everything else will follow suit so I get salt butter and my tools and go at it. I think about how much I’ve grown over the past year working and have a moment of pride before getting overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to do today. 

3:00 I have a couple projects done and now it’s crunch time. 3:00 means 2 hours before people start coming in so everything has to be nice by then. I like to think of it as getting a ball up the hill so at 4:45 I can just focus on flowing without thinking of what I need. 

4:30 i grab some staff meal (chicken and rice) and stress eat before service starts. 

5:00 service starts it’s fine. I always get anxious around now regardless of how prepped I am. 

6:30 first turn is slowing down and I start thinkign about what I need to do for the next turn. In between seatings means a reset — basically reprepping and cleaning everything so you can start fresh. I always have to fight the desire to sit down and slow down. 

7:30 second turn starts I am ready to start cooking again. 

10:00 service is slowing down, we get an all in and I break down my station. I have to do some prep for tomorrow before I can clean.

11:30 I finish cleaning and set up a little earlier than usual. I’m able to check everything I need and get what I need for the next day. The boulder is down the mountain ready for tomorrow 

12:00 I’m back home and sleep

Christian is an avid indego bike customer and cook who lives in West Philly. He sometimes posts silly pictures and does pop ups @christian_abaaaad