300 Independent Living Residents and guests at Western Home rely
on us to provide a wonderful Thanksgiving buffet and we always come
thru. Starting Tuesday morning prior to Thanksgiving we cook Turkeys
for our Thanksgiving feast. With only a double stack
convection and 2 still ovens we must begin the process well in
advance. So everything was ready to go in the oven Thursday
morning....UNTIL
Lead cook Chuck Weber opens the walk in cooler to a warm breeze!
Yes, our walk in cooler went down sometime Wednesday. Even though it
was temping at 39 on Wednesday night, Thursday morning it was at 55.
The internal temp of all the food was also at
55 so we had NO TURKEY, NO HAM, NO PEELED POTATOES! Potatoes, no
problem, start peeling. Ham, we were able to round up enough from our
Assisted Living Communities to get us through. Turkey though, that's a
tough one. We had prepared 18 birds that week
for our IL residents. From our Assisted Living we were able to get 4
that were most likely going to be extra. So that left us with the
simple task of getting 14 more birds and cooking them in under 2
hours....
Called our local grocery store to see if they had any extra turkeys
they could sell me from their buffet...Nope. He said all they could do
was get me some fresh turkeys. Got to the store and found a chef
working there that used to work at Western Home.
He was able to get me 4 fully cooked, partially thawed, turkeys. That
should buy me a little time. I grabbed 8 fresh birds and 2 foil wrapped
frozen breasts and flew back to Western Home.
Back at the shop we fired up the grill, the fryer, the flat top,
the steamer, the convection ovens, & the still ovens. For the next
70 minutes we were cooking turkey with every piece of cooking equipment
we have except for the microwave, and it was GOOD!
The best pieces were the ones that were started in the deep fryer and
then finished on grill outside. Great teamwork today at Western Home
and as stressful as the situation was, it was a blast. Thank you Teresa
Gronowski, Norman Grant, Kristi Ponder, Loula
Malone, and all the other employees that made this another successful
Thanksgiving meal with many happy residents.
Randy Husted, CDM, CFPP
General Manager of Dining Services
Western Home Communities