Craziest 9 Days of My Life

So, the Masters. For those of you who follow my Facebook, you will know that, last Sunday, I left Atlanta to come to Augusta, GA to work the Masters tournament. I am here to document this past week, just for your entertainment.

So apparently, before the staff left for Augusta, there was a meeting where we all found out about our individual duties, housemates, and random other facts and rules about the trip. I, for whatever reason, was not invited to attend this meeting. All I knew was what Woolery (we call him Woody) told me: that I was doing breakfast and lunch service, taking a break, and then coming back to plate desserts after dinner service had ended. That was all the information I had.

So Sunday morning comes around and Daniel leaves me at the restaurant to catch a ride with the rest of the staff. We left late, and arrived in Augusta in the late morning. We immediately headed down to the tent to start setting up our equipment. It was a long day. We are literally working in a circus tent that is air conditioned, and has two fans. We have three fridges, two freezers, three induction burners, a dishwashing station, two long prep stations, a dry storage area, shelves for glassware and plates, and a few tables for the front of house people to prep their stuff.

The rest of the week is a blur, and I will not bore you with all of the details about my daily struggles. However, my primary duties ended up including: arriving at the tent by 5:30 AM, plating all of the breakfast platters and helping my server counterpart set up the buffet, making ~60 sandwiches daily, wrapping them to Chef Hopkins' specifications, and then helping the same server set up the lunch buffet. While I'm attempting to prep and make sandwiches (this takes A LOT longer than you would expect, as I have to wrap them each in crazy butcher paper and sticker them...it's just silly), I have to constantly run back and forth to the clubhouse to refill platters for John (the server) because he is not allowed to leave the dining room. That part was my least favorite of my entire week. Being constantly interrupted whilst trying to prepare food is, like, the worst thing ever.

After my first shift of the day, I was understandably exhausted. Typically I would leave around 3 PM, head home, have a drink, and go to sleep for as long as possible. I usually ended up getting about 2-3 additional hours of sleep every day, which I needed. I would have died without those naps. Three out of the nine days, however, I had to come back and wash linens. For some reason, we did not receive any more deliveries for the entire week, so I played laundry maid. I was not a huge fan of this duty, but I was also the only person with any time off during the day (NOT true, there were plenty of other FOH people who could have done the laundry, but whatever), so I was more than willing to help.

So tomorrow is my last day of having to wake up before it's appropriate to plate pastries and muffins for the overly-wealthy; and instead of prepping sandwiches like I usually would, I will be spending my time packing up the kitchen until the rest of the guys get there to help me. I cannot wait to get home.

My body is not well. My feet throb, my knees creak, my elbows crack, my wrists are weak, my head constantly hurts from dehydration, I've lost at least five pounds, I haven't slept enough for 7 nights, but emotionally, I'm on a freaking cloud. This has been, by far, the hardest week of work I have ever experienced. I have been used, abused, battered, and bruised (Ferngully reference, anyone?), but I feel like I accomplished more than I ever have before (in a work environment). I have a newly-discovered confidence in myself and my capabilities in a kitchen that I don't think I could have achieved from just a week of restaurant work. Being put in the shit, literally, with a lack of necessary supplies, a hot (outdoor) kitchen, and an astronomical level of responsibility has proved me to be quite the extern. I believe in myself and my life decisions more than ever after this week. I can now say, with confidence, that I am good at what I do.

I didn't take many pictures this week because of how busy I was, but here are a few that I did take. Enjoy!

Our Smoker

Look at that beauty. 

Driving home, dead tired.

Idk, they were interviewing a famous golfer? 

Mmmmm more meat.

My coworker, Miles, double fisting Mountain Dew.

Ben and Miles cheersing with their Dews. 

Pulling pork for the Sunday BBQ

Being silly and delirious in the kitchen.

Basically, I'm going to miss working so closely with these guys. We've had a great time through our heat exhaustion, delirium, and long shifts. I didn't think it was possible to work this hard for this long and enjoy myself for every minute. I give these guys all the credit. They are truly awesome.