anything goes in an italian kitchen

Well it has been about a month since my last post so i guess it is time to update again....

When in Rome.....it has been quite the last couple of weeks here. Finally feel settled and in somewhat of a routine. I am working 6 days a week and usually from 12 to midnight most days. Its tiring but i get to do a lot of things in the kitchen so it has been a really good experience so far. My day usualy starts off by preping and cleaning. Preparing sauces, pastas, bread, portioning fish and meats for dinner service and cold dishes. Then when dinner service starts, which is around 7:00, i do a lot of the antipasti and apertivi but as we get further into dinner service i help prepare some of our hot dishes as well as start to help with dessert. It can be quite chaotic in the kitchen at times when you get 20 tickets coming in at once and everybody is scrambling around to get dishes out on time. It has been really good to see it though, because it is showing me how to be organized and keep everything in line. The restaurant i work at actually has three parts to it, it has a bar area, it has the osteria and finaly the ristorante. Now you might be wondering what the difference is between the osteria and ristorante and an osteria is a little less formal, your local hangout place while the ristorante is the more upscale, fancy type place with a couple different tasting menus and only a few tables. When all three are busy, like last night, the kitchen is a pretty exciting place with a lot going on. Last night we had probably 140 tickets which probably meant we had about 60 to 70 covers. Last night was pretty busy for us but that is about the norm for most nights and we are open every day of the week.
The biggest difficulty so far has been the language which can be very frustrating. It is getting better but italian is a tough language to learn. I am hopeing that another month and i will be able to at least carry on a normal conversation with someone.
The other exciting news is that i tried slicing part of my thumb off last week. Slicing some guanciale, knife slipped and sliced into my thumb. Its doing fine, so no worries, but definitely something i want to try to avoid. Although i am sure i will have a nice scar from this one.
Definitely missing the states a bit but still really enjoying my time here. Thankfully next weekend i get saturday and sunday off, so i am going to go visit one of my friends in Porto Ercole which is a little town on the coast just north of Rome. It will be a weekend of relaxing and sitting on the beach! Very much looking forward to that. Hope everyone is doing well back home and another update probably after my weekend getaway.