Jess: If You Can't Stand the Heat...

I have had a few really good questions in the past week. First, if you notice, Brenda has a plant sitting on her table at her birthday party. That was another birthday gift from me, a bonsai money tree thought to bring good luck in business. Only needs to be watered about once a week.

I definitely want to discuss some recent comments about my “harshness.” Most people don’t understand that working in this industry, especially in the kitchen, is kind of like a mixture between a tackle football game and babysitting. I used to not be so blunt to my team, and tiptoed around egos being super polite and sweet. I learned the hard way that it is very easy to get taken advantage of. I had chefs/cooks that would drink on the job, break all the rules, and walk all over me, eventually hurting the brand. Once I started to put my foot down and set standards with corresponding disciplinary actions, the nonsense stopped. I don’t do it for a power trip, I don’t do it because it makes me feel good to yell at grown men -- I do it because a no-nonsense kitchen is a pivotal part in making a spectacular restaurant. Hope that clears things up a bit.

I would like to start by apologizing for the amount of cussing that occurs this episode. I do like to promote creative vocabulary in place of vulgar language. Maybe that’s the journalism major in me. However, you will be thankful for this during the drinking game later in this blog.

Internships: I am a strong believer that internships should not be easy. You will notice that I am super hard on my intern Eric. I think being thrown into this industry and forced to work from the bottom up will definitely give any of the interns I work with an upper hand when it comes to working in the real world. If they can survive the eight-week program I put them through, then working for a major restaurant group will be a cake walk. I often have letters from interns thanking me for their experience, but it helps advance their career once they are employed. Plus, dangling a recommendation letter from Harry Morton over their heads is great motivation to impress me. 

L.A. Food & Wine! Woop woop! Finally the world gets to meet Colin Fukunaga! It was a billion degrees and I had gotten there at 9 a.m. just to be safe. The rest of the team got there around 4 p.m. Needless to say I was sweaty and tired. Loved that secret AC tunnel I found in the drink tent! Thanks goodness I brought a change of clothes. I wish I would have cared a little more about my makeup like Kat. She wasn’t  kidding when she said those pictures live forever! Whoopsie! Fukuburger really did have the longest line in our section at L.A. Food & Wine. I had a really emotional meeting with the team after all was said and done, thanking them for their hard work. All in all my team pulled it off, and I could not have been happier for Colin. I didn’t get to see the girls too much because they were doing their own thing, but I remember (besides Fukuburger) my favorite other dish was by Jet Tila.

Moving on. People make mistakes. I know I do. Kat flubbed the details of the Fonuts Eater article. She mans up to the problem and says its policy to correct any errors. The fact Waylynn doesn’t care enough for her to do that is scary to me. In her mind, maybe the damage had been done, but when that correction would have been made, the damage would have been undone. I am curious as to why she didn’t want Kat to fix the error. The most we can do is admit when we’re wrong and correct the behavior as efficiently as possible. I believe Kat was trying to do that. Live and learn. Nthing you can do but not let it happen again.

Chris Crary! I don’t even know how to process that.

On to that drinking game I mentioned -- might as well make this fun for the boyfriends sitting through this with yo.

OK, set the DVR and re-watch Episode 2 with playing the following drinking game:

Kat: any time she talks to a guy

Brenda: every time she talks about Kat

Waylynn : every time she says the “f” word (hint; listen for the bleep)

Nina: every time she says “prosciutto”

Jess: every time I have a cup in my hand

Bonus Drink: every time one of us complains about the heat