costs

more and more issues started to come up from within the kitchens i was working at. problems with hours, workers, communication, product, waste. it was a stressful month and no one was really doing anything about it. watching a kitchen struggle is a very sad sight, its not a hard thing to do, but it does involve a lot of dedication and effort. seeing things as they were was good for me though. i know what to do in certain situations now and i know how to implement the changes necessary in order to keep things running smoothly. i know i don't have the most experience out of everyone. but one things for sure, im smart. and kitchen smart at that. all i need is to see something and i have no problem replicating that task. so the more people i work with the more ill learn faster and take on. i knew i got all i could out of lyons group right now. and how their kitchens were run and the pace at which i was learning dropped off. i knew it was time to change things up a bit. you cant be afraid in this business. you need the confidence to put everything you have on the line to see what you can get back. and i did just that. i left lyons group sat morn the 29th of oct. i started applying to new jobs on sunday, and by monday morning heard back from 3 of the 10, and by thursday heard back from 9. im now deciding what career i want to focus on and where just exactly i want to settle. i know what it is exactly that i want so now im picking which kitchen fits that the best. finally november  

grind

august. what a fucking month, on top of mass ave tavern and back bay social club. i picked up more hours at the lansdowne pub. ive never seen busy like this before in my life. going from an avg of 4 tickets an hour to almost 120 per hour just before a game is intense. its not for the weak thats for sure, but if you push yourself, then youre going to gain so much from it. sometimes you really do just have to kick your own ass. this lasted through till the very beginning of oct. sept pretty much disappeared on me and i dont remember much of anything else besides work and drinking. i know i moved into my new apt here in somerville. but even that took almost an entire month to settle into. even now im still without quite a few things cause ive just had no means of transportation since my car died on me. even though its now fixed, i have been busy sorting a lot out. weeks seem to fly by and now all of a sudden its october.

always at it

July. things were steady for the most part. i liked my two days off work 5 and got home by 11 every night and was able to hang out and drink with friends and then two weeks later that just changed abruptly. 94 mass ave came closed and was about to reopen as mass ave tavern and i was being moved from harvard gardens. my one option to keep working was to join my new chef art, in opening mass ave tavern and joining his crew at back bay social club. being forced into these types of situations is extremely tough sometimes and can def weigh a lot on you. stress in this business isnt always slow to creep up on you. it just hits you like a ton of bricks and you're pushed to either break or keep rolling with the punches. i already had a pretty clear mind about how things work and understood that this is just how some things work out so i moved right along with it. they were short on staff at both restaurants. so to help out i dedicated my time to both and worked mornings at back bay and evenings at mass ave. and so began my 80 hour work weeks. i worked straight through each day with no days off for 4 and a half weeks into mid august. im not gonna say it was easy, but i sure as hell made it look like it. but after that youre body is just shit. mind too. you cant think for feel much of or for anything and you become very edgy. you don't sleep all much much and when you do its not that well. its a very lonely lifestyle to say the least. i know ive lost contact with a lot of friends and its sad to see people exit my life, but it just cant be helped in some cases. im not getting younger and this is my career and life now and if that means making new friends then so be it. ive only seen my family a small handful of times and that takes a lot of getting use to still. i miss them all but thats how it has to be for now. if youre reading this, and doing what you love, then keep doing it. i plan to keep this up cause ultimately no one else is gonna give you want you want unless you bust your ass for it. anyways. mid august and i still want more. 

Welcome

well now you have a brief introduction as to where i'm coming from. with this and the next few posts ill get you caught up to speed on what i've done, been through and how i managed. so you know now that i graduated just this past may. which isn't long ago at all. it was may 20th. and on may 21st i moved to boston with just a few things and crashed at a friends place and started looking for work. 4 days later i landed my first job with Lyons Group at Harvard Gardens. a whole in the wall sorta nice place across from MGH. nothing too special. after a week of being there, my head chef was removed from his position and in came nick and justin, two great guys also from within the group but from 94 mass ave. i worked with justin mostly and learned a lot from him in just a short period of time. he set the tone and pace for a newer more revised set of fundamentals when working on a line. it wasn't long before i started picking up more hours at 94 mass ave and doing brunch there. all of this puts us at mid june