Kaiseki Chronicles #5

To tell you the truth, we’ve gone through some changes in the past couple of months at the small kaiseki place where I work. In August, one of the chefs quit in the middle of the month. For the rest of the month, we had a chef who came as a temporary help in the kitchen. It was kind of hilarious. He was undoubtedly a good-hearted, fun person, but obviously not a very meticulous type. Me and this helper chef did make “brave” decisions once in a while when the kitchen was terribly busy. (Don’t tell that to our head chef, please.) :P A new, younger chef joined us in September, and now the head chef is thinking about some nabe dishes for fall-winter season. BTW, I don’t think I wrote about this before, but I’m allergic to some (not all) perfumes. So far, I have identified 3 perfumes that cause me allergic reactions: Lolita Lempicka, Britney Spears Curious and Woman in rose. These give me headache, nausea, and strange sensation around molars that makes me feel as if the molars are coming loose. A tragedy happens when a customer at the counter table or one of the waitresses wore any of these perfumes. If it is a customer, it is not terribly unbearable, because the counter table is a little far from the kitchen and I only come close to the customer when I bring washed plates to the shelf near there. But when it is one of the waitresses who come right in front of me every time they bring in dirty dishes/glasses to the kitchen, it is devastating to me. This happened last week when we had one of the busiest nights, and I was almost dying in front of the electric dishwasher. I guess it was pretty surprising for the new chef. Last night, a big typhoon hit the southern part of Japan. It didn’t hit our prefecture directly but we had occasional heavy rainfall with strong wind. It was my day off so I was at home cooking my supper when my cell phone rang around 7: 20 pm. It was the head chef. He said that there came unexpectedly many customers when only the minimum number of staff were at work, so they needed help in the kitchen. I learned something: a raincoat does not help much when riding a bicycle in a typhoon-like storm. When I arrived at the kitchen, it was like a battlefield. I immediately forgot about my wet jeans and T-shirts, and they were almost dry when the last group of customers left around 11:00 pm. It was a tough night, but the chefs packed some food for me to take-home. I had a nice late-night supper with my favorite sake, so I guess I didn’t work for nothing. Categories: Kaiseki