Working With My Daughter the Caterer

For the past few years, I have been working with my daughter in her catering kitchen. I respect her for the hard work and long hours that she puts into her business. I used to work at a greenhouse and I also respected the people who worked there because the work was long and it was physical. When I first began to help my daughter, I helped to decorate her reception area and her tasting area. I along with a friend found the furniture and bought the additional accent pieces, and some of the pictures, and even added some wallpaper and borders for pizzazz. Then I would change the decorations for the seasons, I also did some of her press releases and writing.

Eventually, I graduated to running my daughter’s dishwasher. I kind of liked this job. It seemed easy and harmless enough, except when I would forget and open the door just before the rinse cycle. Usually the floor and I got drenched. My daughter, the chef was not amused. This didn’t happen all the time but enough of the time to get dirty looks from my daughter.

As time went on, I started cutting up vegetables and arranging them on trays. I learned how to cut up fruits. I loved working with the long serrated knife and cutting off the skins of the fruit, and cutting or slicing the fruit and arranging it on a platter. I actually became quite good at this job and my daughter would congratulate me and tell me how good and creative my platters looked. I also did a good job with the cheese platters.

Over time, I realized that despite cooking for a family of 11 for over 30 years, making food in my daughter’s catering kitchen was totally different. She is my boss, teaching me new tricks. She is the chef and knows how she wants things done. I help her but sometimes I hinder her. I have learned or tried to learn not to react and keep my mouth shut and at least make an attempt to follow her directions. Sometimes I fail but most of the time, I manage to get the job done. I know how to sharpen my knives but I can’t seem to keep my apron clean.

From time to time, I’ll be blogging about my helping my daughter. In the mean time - I know one thing – the chef is always right.