Oh man, it was only 3 or so weeks ago I heard that Fatted Calf was needing some help at the stall in Berkeley. I let them know I was available for whatever on June 25th. Well, okay, I was only available up until noon. Even so, I could throw concrete blocks for hours without breaking a sweat, I was ready!

We got within that week and it was clear I needed to be there to help out. Fine, that was what I offered and Jan wasn’t in a position to do every damn thing by herself. Which, in retrospect was a good thing.
She was coming in from Rodeo in to Richmond at 7:30am on Saturday morning, easy enough. This was my normal up time and I was ready. I piled in to her way cool rig and off we went to San Francisco, wheeeeze.
Just because she’s been to Fatted Calf kitchen a handful of times doesn’t mean we know where where we’re going! That was cool, so we took to the streets and in some time made it in.
The shared kitchen had some guys in there doing what they did, whatever that was. Jan knew just what to do and where the walk-in was. She talked to someone (he had a funny mustache thingy) and got the dock clear so we could back in the Fatted Calf badass black monster powered V8 Toyota pickup, The Wraith. I’m tellin’ ya, The Wraith was loaded and we were gone within 12 minutes.
Personally, I think it’s kinda funny she wasn’t confident, but when the checks came to balances, Jan bellied up. I say this because Jan and I worked together for probably 10 years or more. It wasn’t as though we hadn’t been down this road before. In any case, we were loaded and gone.
Gone, sure. But it took us about 18 minutes to find a freeway entrance. I’m sure there was one closer, but neither one of use had any idea of where we were. Funny, cause the freeway was directly over us the entire time.
Off we went, back over the Bay Bridge to Berkeley and pulled in just fine. Why was the Check Engine Light on? I dunno. I suppose it didn’t matter, we had half a tank of gas, who cares.
Personally I felt disoriented and had never been down this road before, but Jan had. She bounded in to action and got the stall set up quickly and had me place the truck just so, just so the coodinator wouldn’t freak on our lame ass butts for bringing such an elongated truck in.
It wasn’t long before we had the stall set up just so you wouldn’t even know Taylor was gone. Except the part where we missed an entire cooler filled with Sugo, Glace de Viande & Demi. Oh, wait the CASH BOX was in that cooler too. Here we were, Meat Green Horns and no Cash Box. No problem, Jan had hundreds in 20s and off to the bank she went to get it broked to 1s, 5s & 10s. Jan Rocks.
I have to say, I loved it. COME HERE YOU FRICKEN’ CUST0MER !!! I gots meat for you !!! Yeah well, I didn’t know exactly what ingredient went in to what sausage, but I can tell you this. I knew how to cook the sonofabitch and I made the customer happy.
Sam from Becks & Posh dropped by with Fred! That was so cool to finally meet Fred. And I have to say, Fred is HOT. Tall and very French, Sam knows what she’s doing, both with food and men. Nice shootin’! My friend Paul showed up to hang out for a bit and get something to eat. And thanks to him we have that fancy image up there.
Greg from Life’s a Picnic and his wife showed up. Thank you! Then Charlotte from Love & Cooking Blog showed up, man it was so nice to see everyone. Charlotte took a picture too, she ain’t sent it yet. I’m sure she’ll send it over when she gets a chance. There’s no bad seed in the Food Blogging community.
I had a great time and I would do it again. Because it was fun getting out there talking with people who were shy about cooking meat, they needed my guidance.
To sum it all up, I had a great time I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again at any occasion. Jan knows the score and I couldn’t have done so well without her.
We rock!