What do cooking and being in a Douglas Adams novel have in common?

Don't forget your towel.

Seriously, your dry, clean towel is probably one of the more important tools you have at your disposal as a cook. With it, you can wipe your hands or your knives, you can steady pots, you can take sheetpans out of the oven.  So yeah, don't forget your towel.

I've found that habits adopted at work in the kitchen seem to carry over into your personal life.  That thing with the towel for example.  I typically wear mine tucked into the pocket of my jeans so it hangs down, and recently, while at a friend's house helping with dinner, I reached down to wipe my hands and lo and behold, no towel.  It may seem silly, since I've only been doing this a few days, but it already has become habit. 

So, I guess an update on progress is in order.  I worked a Friday prep shift, then Saturday and Sunday breakfast.  Friday was fun and enlightening, and I found I learned a lot.  Saturday was pretty slow, with three of us in the kitchen.  I think we did a total of 14 covers between 8 and 1.  Sunday on the other hand...woah.  It started out relatively slow, then grew to a steady pace.  Just when we thought everything was going well, we discovered an issue with our POS system, resulting in an order being delayed.  Just as we were recovering from that, we got a table of 12.  With only two of us in the kitchen, and me working toast and plating, I didn't think we'd be able to manage, but Chef Mullet taught me how to keep cool under pressure and stay organized.  We sent out all orders for that table in no time.  Still, only 59 covers.

Monday, well Monday was a day for us to play.  We are still working on the menu, and today we got in our first order of "real food".  Experimenting with sauces and fritters and soups, it was just really fun, and very informative.  I can't wait until my next shift.  However, first, two days of rest.....