Take a pinch of This, add A dash of that...

I start this post on a slight warning - You may have had to have been there, but........

At work Tuesday afternoon and my office looks out directly into the kitchen. It was mid afternoon and the chef that was on vegetables and potatoes that day pushes his passionately prepared ingredients up to the workspace that would become his creative zone for the next couple of hours.

.........Now before I go on, you need to know that kitchens are loud, hustle bustle places, fast and busy environments, and there is always, but always banter. Ohh we love the banter! ...Well these 2 lads have been at each other (in a nice way) all day, tit for tat, friendly jibes, poking fun, you get the picture.........

So, he swooshes his veg trolley into position, finely batonned carrots, equally trimmed florets of broccoli, evenly pared potatoes.... You get the picture. A morning’s work. On the top of the trolley was the "Piece de resistance" - A fine chiffonade of red cabbage, all meticulously sliced by hand, soaking in red wine ready to braise for dinner.

The trolley glides in, the chef moves towards the stove, and then... CRAAASSSHHHHH!! Red cabbage, red wine ALL on the floor. The tin slides off, and it's EVERYWHERE!! Light coloured floor, red cabbage, red wine, WHAT a mess!


Now, this is where chef# 2 comes back on to the scene. Chef #1, distraught, gutted at his finely chopped and lovingly prepared ingredients (Now being scooped into a bin) chuntering and cursing himself and as chef #2 walks past, and in true kitchen tradition,

When a man is down.....

Announces, at the top of his voice in a professional TV narrator guise to rival any foody television sort......

 "Take one part red wine, and two parts floor"

 As I say, you may have had to have been there.... I was, and I howled! It sums up the kitchen mentality, the "esprit de corps" which gets us through the busiest days and longest shifts, and it's still making me smile now!!