July - All in the Family

Ninety five degrees in a commercial kitchen is a good and and tolerable temperature. A hundred to a hundred five is not unusual yet acceptable because you get used to it and because you come to work hydrated and you drink V-8 juice ( salt and potassium and vitamin K) and continue to drink watered down cranberry juice with soda( carbonated water) with slices of lemon and lime as you go These provide needed electrolytes.
         You can die in your kitchen if you do not get it right when it spikes to 110 or 120 degrees. At that point you need a icewater cold wet towel around your neck , and on your head and you have to duck into the walkin cooler now and then to drop your body temperature.You need salt tablets before that point. I understand that these days they make ice pack vests you can wear. Your blood pressure is rising. You are dizzy. You are at risk of a stroke.
        You have to keep your body temperature down and at the same time you have to get the food out to your customers in an orderly and timely manner, and the food has to be good or your guests will not be satified and you will lose business and then you will go out of business and your life and family's life will go to hell.
        All those years.
        It was a pleasure today to assemble a cold platter of smoked chicken, red grapes, watermelon, and cheese to feed me and my daughter on the patio . 90 degrees - no problem . No restaurant- no problem. Just the 2 of us.
        A green tea elixer for Nati- my 15 yr old daughter. A glass of Pinot Noir for me.  A breeze off the lake thru soft white pines, birch, black walnut and basswood trees like a prayer. What an evening. Soft thunder, far off, like drums from Johnny boy.I think of my boys and girls and grandsons.
        Make a dipping sauce for the smoked chicken of 3 parts ketchup to 1 part mustard and tabasco to taste.