[Sca-cooks] Hell froze over or I went to heaven

[iasmin at comcast.net]

I can't decide which it is. I always used to say that I'd get the opportunity to cook in a great kitchen when hell froze over or when I'd died and gone to heaven. After a bunch of site-finding problems with our local, tri-barony 12th night, we finally found a site very late at a school about an hour from my house in south-eastern Michigan (Note to those who've been here: it's downriver and much easier to access than previous sites. Oaken people are very close now by comparison.). I didn't have high hopes about the kitchen there, to be honest. We've been blessed with decent home economics rooms, but no access to kitchens. I counted myself doubly blessed one time when I got to use the proofing oven for the last really big feast I did.

Well folks, I'm doing the 12night feast this coming January and I've just seen the kitchen I'll be working in. Hell froze over. That, or I've gone to heaven. Or maybe Fate is playing a really sick joke on me.

I have:

-- A full hot and cold line. Steam tables with rooms for... hmm...maybe 12 different hot dishes? It could even be more. I lost count at 8 because I was so stunned and distracted that I tripped into the rest of the people on the tour. (Note: this was the first thing I saw, so everything after this point colored my view of coolness.)

-- At the end of the hot-cold line, a huge pass-thru window around a small corner, out of sight of the main feast hall. 

-- At least 3 separate 8 foot steel counters, empty or devoid of clutter.

-- 6 sinks with their own counter space, drains and areas out of the main prep areas, but very close.

-- 3 main convection ovens and a proofer (I think some people call it a warmer or holding oven). Enough room to fit...probably 10+ full sheet trays in each? I think I got a picture of the inside.

-- A deep fryer! 

-- 2 roughly 8x8 walk-in coolers with digital temperature controls plus 2 upright coolers and an ice maker. 

-- A planning center, office. Kind of like a central command conference room. Again, devoid of clutter.

-- All the pots and pans I could ever hope to want. Plus trolley carts.

-- Direct, rear access to the kitchen and ample staff parking. PLUS, day-prior access for unloading and storage of materials so that we can start right away for the feast.

-- Two different sets of bathrooms, one directly in the feast hall and one directly outside the hall.

-- At least one site staffer who *wants* to help with the feast as opposed to hiding in an office.

And everything is operational. I do believe I'm going to cry now. 

To my joy-addled brain, I can only think of two drawbacks at the moment. First, there are only 4 stovetop burners. Second, the tables in the feast hall are all-in-one picnic tables, with benches and tops attached (and a small few extra without benches for wheelchair access) that only fit 6 people. 

Iasmin the Verklempt
Head Cook, 12th Night
Roaring Wastes, Cynnabar, & Northwoods
Middle Kingdom