Going Nuts

I keep meaning to mention some of the things I had to do when I was at the fancy-pantsiest of the fancy-pantsed restaurants here at the hotel last month...

We weighed out everything to the gram, including things like the graham cracker crust of a cheesecake, not exactly the realm of exact science. When applying egg wash to brioche, we used a laser-guided airbrush gun (no, really). But perhaps most obsessively, as Chef did not care for the commercially slivered nuts, some poor soul had to julienne the almonds and pistachios by hand.

That would be me.

By the pound.

Now, you may think to yourself "hmm, a pistachio really is too small to be julienned by hand," and you would be correct, but I had to do it anyway.

The trick is to have a really, really sharp knife and the ability to take yourself mentally to a happy place so you’re not really aware that you’re in hour three of turning nuts into neat and orderly pieces the width of a matchstick.

So the next time you eat at some fancy-pantsed fine dining establishment, before you gobble down your dish, take a moment to look at the humble nuts used as garnish, and appreciate the teeny tiny knife cuts better suited for a dollhouse. Then raise your glass to the poor student probably locked up in the kitchen who provided that extra added touch to your meal.