Sous Chef and the Saladarie

Huh? You ask, what is this post about? Well, while I have been laid up these last three weeks my expert sous chef has been preparing meals, making salads and soups as is her will. I watch these goings on with some particular interest as the chef of the house and presumably the keeper of the kitchen. The division of labor is blurry at times admittedly so...as the sous chef Kelly takes all aspects of food preparation quite seriously. I do too but with somewhat less vigor I think. I have learned, over time, that she needs this creative outlet herself so that I don't get the idea that somehow I am the ONLY cook on the premises. Nooooo. So at this time she is making clam chowder, a soup, her recipe or her mother's and I am but a witness. This is definitely a sous chef job even in a professional kitchen, making delicious, nutritious soups and porridge's. I, as a chef person apparently do not posses that set of skills as she has been the only one to ever make soup under this roof that I can recall. The sous chef also has other assignments taken as her charge, ie: salad making and salad dressings. All hers...I do not meddle in greenery eaten fresh, I will cook it. The dressings are always hers as well and are uniformly delicious and properly applies to said salads. In France this division of labor is heightened as we possess no less than 2 kitchens under one roof. Thus we have her kitchen and his. I refer to her kitchen as a saladarie, a place where salads and associated foods are prepared, while my rustic, wood beamed place of cuisine is the True Kitchen. I make some of the things that she uses in the saladarie, that is true. I bake bread, roast chicken, make stocks that ultimately find their purpose under her careful eyes. Rarely does she venture into my kitchen except to be sure I've cleared all the pots and pans and dirty dishes to the saladarie where the kitchen cleanup chores are completed by the dishwasher (don't ask). I do the cleaning of all my pots and pans and put them away. Silverware is transported to the saladarie along with all dishes from the adjoining dining room and prep area. You see this is a serious undertaking this food preparation stuff and we both are quite involved much to the chagrin, sometimes, of the other. Such goes Life in France and Life in Suisun this day. The chowder smells great!