Cricket in the Wholesome Kitchen????....

On the most beautiful & sunniest Sydney days, especially Sundays, working in a 5 Star Hotel are usually very quiet. Fortunately for an apprentice the guests would go to the beach.

Why?

Because we were invariably recovering from hangovers & lack of sleep…

What happens when you have 8 Apprentices, aged between 21 & 16 rostered on because they are the cheapest labour. No qualified Chefs well except the Sous Chef but he has ducked off for a secret rendezvous with his new girlfriend. And only one or two customers walking in?

Mmm not sure if I should reveal this but..…

In most Hotels the corridors of the kitchen are invariably long because they need space for a large production of food. So the work benches are really long as well.

This was a very disciplined kitchen with a German Head Chef & European Sous Chefs & we had to wear those ridiculous tall paper hats!

As the saying goes when the cats are away the mice will play..

There were 4 male & 4 female apprentices & we were all quite competitive. Ranging from 4^th year Apprentice down to 1^st year Apprentice. It’s Summer & the cricket is always in full swing so we would have a cricket match on these quiet days! This particular day there were way too many bread rolls made, which was usually the case. And there are always too many rolls of industrial strength cling wrap as well.

Voila our bat & a ball….

We spent many Sunday’s playing cricket along that corridor. The baker making the bread rolls could never know what we did with his rolls. Some of the guys would even try to bounce the bread roll of the stockpots & let it fly off to somewhere else. Or be funny & knock one of our hats off.

Then there was the time one of the guys was so proud of himself as he attempted to belt the bread roll for a 6. He belted it hard alright & smashed it into the corner of the tiled wall just as the Sous Chef came walking around the corner. Ooh it just missed his head by millimetres & man it would have really hurt if he hit him! I don’t think I have ever seen 7 apprentices scamper so fast & all of a sudden be delicately plating up food or chopping a julienne of carrot…

Yes the 8^th apprentice was in BIG trouble, HUGE…

That was the end of that cricket tournament for the season!

Chow

^Julie-Ann

^{http://www.thewholesomefoodcoach.com.au/}