I haven’t written in a while. I figured I should write. Here’s a story about a busy Friday night. First all, I will give you a quick setting. I was brought in by the owners as a consultant to help replace a chef they were unhappy with. So the next busy weekend, we were flipping out the food at a good rate. We were all moving fast. At a peak, one of the waitresses tells me she has cold mashed potatoes. I visualized that they were steaming when I plated them. It puzzled me but I re-plated the food without question and took special note of the temperature of the mashed potatoes. As I observed, I caught the girl sticking her finger in the side of the mashed potatoes! I said, “you did NOT just do that!” She said the potatoes were cold. I said, “no, they are not” as I walk around the line. She said, “no, they are cold,” again. I picked up the mashed potatoes with my bare hands and told her to hold out her hand. She held it out and I put the mashers right in her hand. The look on her face was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. It was like she tried to pretend they were cold for a second and then the look turn to anxiety. She rushed to the sink to get rid of the hot potatoes. I told her that there were two points. NEVER touch the food and trust me when I am tell you something is “OK” to serve. It was definitely a point I was making to the whole staff. You can’t teach this stuff in books! At the end of the night, I talked with her and told her what I was trying to make a point of so there wouldn’t be any hard feelings. I think the staff knew straight from that point that I don’t mess around. Don’t worry, the guests got brand new, hot mashed potatoes and food in a timely fashion but it was definitely a joke around the place for weeks to come.