This Means WAR...or Barbari...

I started my new job on Monday...


Kitchen Manager... new job.. new shop.. new people... new business... I expected a challenge...


But where do I find myself???


I have engaged in a full out WAR... complete with many little variables        ( flies to swat ) ... and many little battles to engage in... many... many ... battles... and a huge WAR.


I'm not physically exhausted from this job although I am a working manager... but I'm telling you these people get me worn out... mentally. They give me brain damage..


I have had to keep my confidence level at a record high, and I mean HIGH.


And really... I do know my stuff... this is what I do... I have worked in bakeries and restaurants all of my life... At this point I can say 30 years... (ouch!) .. but yeah...


A challenge? Is not even the way to describe this... like I said before... this is WAR...


The bright light of the whole thing is my full-time baker... a culinary school grad geek that knows nothing of production baking but he knows all about the science of the works... He rocks... really... within the last three days we have taught each other more than either of us could ever read in a book.


His information fascinates me. In return I am starting to teach him production baking.


We were "rounding" small pieces of dough. I was doing two at a time, one in each hand. He was doing one at a time with one hand and then he said, "You might do it better if you only used one hand," ... uh huh...


Mine were fine... except I was doing 2 or 4 to his 1...


It's okay.. I just had to smile as I said, "The only purpose of this is getting the air out of the dough. They don't have to be freeking perfect... you need to learn how to work them with both hands... God gave you two hands, use both of them... Plus.. if you do ever work in a commercial bakery, I promise you that they will laugh at you if start in rounding dough with only one hand,"


I was also given a Mr. RoadBlock...


I was not informed that Mr. RoadBlock was going to be a part of my life... let alone such a big fat pain in my @$$...


Mr Roadblock is a very proud man from a Middle Eastern country that has great difficulty with English and no experience at all in a bakery.


So far he has smashed plastic bags on top of of rounded dough making them stick like glue, (we had to rework all of it)  He has reset our oven timers to burn up numerous items.


It has been like running after a toddler... you have to watch him constantly because you never know what stupid thing he'll do next.


That was an issue.. I know how to run this... yet he was trying to give instruction too... No, that's not gonna fly...  


He has cost us a lot of production time.


I suggested that perhaps Mr RoadBlock could be of more use elsewhere...


That sort of worked.


As of today...He is still there... here... but just sits in the corner and does not try to "help" anymore or shout out orders... and that is fine. 


Yep, works for me...


I can't help it but my heart does go out to him. He wants to taste his homeland in his beloved Barbari bread... but what we are making just isn't it.


He looks at me, touches my shoulder and I feel how desperate and homesick he is, "Can you make dis bread?" he asks, "Can you fix dis?"


Well? How can I make something that I'm not really sure what it's supposed to taste like?.. to be like?.. I have found different recipes... here again... guess what? There are different recipes for different regions...


"I WILL try," I told him...