I was now in Kitsalano at an open kitchen concept pub restaurant and in my mind this was one of the first gastro pub concepts in the Vancouver area.
Fiascos (late changed to Mark's then Mark's Fiasco), sounds like a disaster already doesn't it? I won't lie there may have been times when it definitely fit that moniker but ovrall it was a great experience. The restaurant was attached to the Mark James Clothing Store a very high end clothing store selling Hugo Boss, Armani and the likes which garnered a high end clientele (more about that later).
I was brought in as the sous chef as the company was expanding to its 4th location, The Whistler Brewhouse in Whistler BC and the location I went to was losing its sous chef and pizza chef. This is where I learned the art and technique of pizza making and cooking in a wood oven. I was excited and nervous about this as it was quite a departure from the controlled environment of a gas guage that you can simply turn up or down.
My second shift happened to be Tuesday's $6.99 price pizza night. Geez Louise! we prepped up 200 pizza doughs on top of what we already had and must have sold around 280 of them. Sink or swim time and I treaded water. I eventually came to know everything I could about making pizza dough, throwing the rolled dough and baking the pizza in the wood oven. I was a master at pizzas and had a great teacher, Mr Grumpy aka Todd aka Toddler. I was so very happy when I finally knew how to throw the dough 20 feet in the air and catch it, how to recognize the right temperature of the wood oven by the glow of the embers. I hated Tuesdays with a passion but loved learning pizzas.
I eventually moved on to the other side of the open kitchen to the grill and pasta side. We made the pasta fresh from scratch and the quality was night and day difference from what I was used to. I got to be apart of the seasoning and development of the stuffed pastas such as the Goat Cheese Ravioli and the Salmon Tortellini. I loved being apart of creating the flavor profiles, being apart of making a menu truly from scratch, I now realized that this was where my passion truly was. I was given free range by my best friend the head chef, to create specials and help with developing new menu items and recipes.
To me working at Fiascos was the golden age of my cooking career; I was a salaried employee making the best money I had at this point. I truly felt that I was at the top of my game and I felt at this point I had the skills to prove it.
The end of summer finally came and the true test had finally come, the Vancouver Molson Indy Party. The annual event that we hosted for the drivers, their wives, sponsors and all people related to the Indy race. This was heald on the Friday before the Indy race and it was a whos who of the Indy scene back in the 1990's. All the racers including Greg Moore, Dario Fanchitti and his wife movie star Ashley Judd, Trevor linden from the Vancouver Canucks, Jason Preistley and Luke Perry from that ever popular Beverly hills 90210 show, Daved Bennefield the all star linebacker for the BC Lions, members from the newly franchised Vancouver Grizzlies, everyone who was someone in Vancouver were there.
We had gotten a special event liscence and permission to close up the street infront of the restaurant to help accomodate the 1200 guests that would essentially be there all at once. We closed for the day to the public and every one of us spent 8 to 10 hours prepping just to turn around and work the night serving up the creations. Every year was a different theme from Vegas then to a Variety show, a southern BBQ and then New Orelans Mardi Gras when I was there. It was intense prepping but we got it done and executed beautifully. Schucking 500 pounds of oysters, fileting 400 pounds of salmon, prepping up 3000 canapes or just making 300 pizza doughs, Craziness!
Afterwards when all was said and done the staff had a make shift cleaning party; the sales reps left us extra beverages to sip and the left over food kept us going while we cleaned up. So much fun and hard work and great experience,
I had many opprotunities meet the whos who of the entertainment world when working there. the clothing store brought in alot of famous people. Some of whom I met: Arnold Schwartzenegger when he was filming "the 6th day" ; Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson during the height of his WWE career; the wierdest of celebrity hang out buddies, Andy Dick and Cuba Gooding Jr who were hanging out together. and many more. I actually started taking a camera to work and leaving it in my work bag so i could snap some pics of course the one time i remember I have it the batteries are dead!
This photo I took of my buddy Irv who is blowing up a stack of Dr. Pepper shooters on Christmas Eve.
All the fun and cool things aside I had a chance to once again make soups and sauces from scratch as well. The creativity that was flowing within me was strong and my yearning to learn as much as I could was on point with absorbing all I could; eventually though it was time to move on. I felt ready to take on the world, and soon I would after a brief stint as a cook for a friend who was running his first kitchen. Al needed help getting through the busy summer season at a top tourist destination. So I hleped Al out and at the end of the summer, and after 12 years in various cook jobs I took on my first chef role at the Silvertone Pub in Vancouver.
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