Don't Rain on My Souffle

We all know that the restaurant-hospitality-food service industry is hard. The hours are long, the pay is worse, and you can kiss any sense of a normal non-liver-crushing life good-bye. But what we gain is a passion for the work we do and the sense of belonging to craft of people who day in and day out work their asses off to make something amazing. Each day turns into a month- into a year- building your career a little at a time. Honing your piping skills, how to manage a staff of six or even better how not to burn yourself out, practicing new techniques using hydrocolloids, how to make a fool proof schedule, perfecting how to ice a cake, is your food cost in line? - These all take time and inch-by-inch you see your improvement. Its slow, its tedious, its annoying.

Its almost as annoying as making a soufflé. Perfect little pockets created with the help of a French meringue, slowly building to complete a towering pastry structure; airy, slightly tanned, and extremely fragile.

What makes these classic pain-in-the-butt-to-make desserts such a marvel act of genius is the fact that the ingredient list is short, but the technique is incredibly involved. Finding the right consistency of your soufflé custard, to then be lightened with a French meringue, to only be carefully spooned into a butter and sugared ramekin (do not butter the bottom, I REPEAT, do not butter the bottom!!) gently laid in a water bath in a perfectly even oven, and to then patiently wait for it to rise, slightly caramelize, and build that great height every one is talking about. (In this case, size does matter folks.)

There was a time when I didn’t appreciate the simplicity, yet complicated nature of soufflés. I thought they were old fashioned and over done. But, where I went wrong was to think they were not delicious. Nothing is more rewarding then the slightly caramelized crust on the top that has just the right amount of texture that makes me swoon! Spice up your creation by adding a surprise at the bottom of the ramekin- lemon curd, chocolate truffle, bitter orange marmalade, or hazelnut praline crunch.

But what gets my egg white induced temper rising is when people feel the need to toss, smash, and mishandle my soufflé, or me for that matter. You spent all this time heating your milk, going to culinary school, weighing out your cornstarch, moving across the country to work for some of the best chefs in the country, whisking it on the stove, coming in on your days off to help out for free, cooling it down, working longer hours because they don’t want to hire more cooks, whipping your egg whites, attending demos and classes to learn so you can better their menu, slowly adding the sugar to create a shiny, stable meringue, saying “yes chef” when you wanted to scream “no chef”, carefully running your thumb on the lip of your ramekin to make sure there is no sticking so that your height it as its optimum, you stay at a job because you’re loyal and not because its good for you, and at last, a towering soufflé is ready to be brought to the table.

That’s right jerk; don’t run in to me, don’t mishandle my plate, and do not even think about making it wait in the window. You may think my temper is short- but you know what? The life span of a soufflé is shorter.

You will commonly hear pastry cooks SCREAMING for runners when a soufflé is about to depart from the mother ship; oven door slightly cracked, towels in hand, bee-line to pass is clear and open, ready for take off- and for good reason. You worked so hard to get it to this point, why wouldn’t you want it to make it all the way to the table. Unfortunately, you can’t take it yourself so you have to hand it off to a server to deliver it safe and sound. The same thing goes for yourself- you want to be delivered safe and sound. When someone tells you that you aren’t worth it, your dessert sucks, or you are going to fail; they are deflating your soufflé that you have been building all this time.

So what do you do?

It is notoriously know that self-motivation is what gets you far. But, yes. You are kicked down enough times it gets harder and harder to get back up and be ready for the next blow. That is when incentive kicks in. Working for someone you really admire, paid vacation, the ability to travel with your job, or just feeling good about your craft when you work at your station. I’ll admit- my soufflé- its’ deflated. I had been doing all the right things- or so I thought. Went to culinary school, worked in some of the best kitchens, worked under amazing chefs and respected the individuals I worked for. But over time, I realized that in my inability to scream when my soufflé is ready to come out of the oven, I have allowed individuals to dictate when I got to the table. So when that server bumps my plate- I need to bump back. When the food runner doesn’t want to pace quickly to the line- I need to speak up- louder. If someone doesn’t see that my hard work and dedication is worth it to them, or someone wants to be a soufflé smasher just because they have to power to do so, then I need to be prepared to move on and not allow myself to collapse.

“SOUFFLE READY!!!!!”

-youngest