Hand Cream Needed

Since I spend more time with my hands in the water than a rubber ducky in a bathtub, hand cream is a must have, especially with the hard water that can be found in parts of York Region. The backs of my hands get so dry from all the repeated hand washing, dish washing, toweling dry and all the other cookery duties that I no longer leave the house without hand cream in my pocket. There's even a tube of Nivea that I keep at work so that I always have access to hand lotion.

Problem with all the hand creaming is that you can easily transfer it to the food. I'm in a pickle. Without hand cream I am in discomfort. My hands get so itchy and visibly dry to the point that I can't work with them. Hand cream can get onto the food. What to do? I can start wearing gloves when I run the dishes but the dishes are only part of the problem. I am washing my hands constantly after touching doors (including oven door and fridge door), garbage cans, the floor (to pick up something I dropped), the broom and so on. I am not a germophobe but the thought of my grubby hands touching food that someone else will eat is unacceptable to me. I've seen others with different standards of hygiene but I cringe at the thought. Some days I think to myself "I am never eating out again, regardless of the restaurant." But then the love of food and the spiffy-ness of a clean dining room and clean kitchen staff gets me to reconsider.

Let's talk dinner service though. Tonight's dinner service was nice, steady, with a good spread between pizza, salads and pastas. No one station got clobbered and the kitchen was given to me around 8 pm when Chef left. Sous Chef is gone for the week so I was it. I had one table after Chef left. It ordered meat loaf and mash, something I had only plated once before but I remembered everything. I grilled the meatloaf and put it in the oven. I got my relish ready as well as the side, remembered to get my garnishes in the oven so they heat up and it all went a-ok. It was one of the boys and myself for closing and we got out of there only three minutes after the schedule said we needed to. We completed nearly everything, swept, mopped, took out the garbage, closed the dish pit (with the exception of two almost clean pots we forgot in the big sink!)

Tomorrow will be what I call "the shit storm of all time." If today was nice and steady instead of boring and slow, which Thursdays have been so far, tomorrow we're getting hit. I'm ready in the sense that I know the menu, but I am not ready for an eight-top to come in and order everything off my station. Fingers crossed.