Inspiration Cafe

Location: Inspiration Cafe

Date: Sunday, May 26, 2013; 4:00-7:00 pm

I arrived at the location right on time and the person who opened the door was someone whom I had met at the ‘Green Festival’ last weekend and had in fact accompanied him for his Hybrid car test drive.  We chatted about his experience with the car and would have done so for more time, but the cooking had already started and I was required.  The other people in attendance were Noel and Tash, whom I knew, and a married couple as well as our Volunteer leader Mark.  This is one place where you have to contribute a lot towards cooking and I could see that Noel was chopping a lot of cabbage for coleslaw.  I asked Mark for my duties and he requested that I peel potatoes.  Well, you've got to start somewhere!

Somewhere under the water are the peeled potatoes

As I started with the peeling, it was quite apparent that I was no good at it.  Either that or the peeler was bad, as stated by Dave, who was volunteering with his wife.  He joined me in peeling and while I changed to a peeler that was better, he was still way ahead of me in terms of potatoes peeled.  The task did give us time to converse and I learned that both, he and his wife were retired teachers who used to live and work in the suburbs, but had now moved back into the city.  They volunteer with Inspiration Café a lot and come every week, outside of the Chicago Cares project as well.  Between the two of us we peeled all the potatoes and they went into the boiling liquid, while Mark made a dressing for the potato as well as the coleslaw salad.  Soon the potatoes were done, and I worked with Tash in mixing each of the salads, following which we moved them into the refrigerator. 

And now they are a salad

Tonight’s menu was burgers, and Mark wanted us to cook them just before the service at 6 pm.  This gave us some time to chat, and Noel told Tash and me about her leadership training with Chicago Cares.  She is going to be leading my favorite program, ‘Paint The Town Red’, and I cannot think of a better person for that job than her.  Around 5:40 pm, Mark asked us to come back to the kitchen to prep for dinner.  While Tash took over the dining room duties with Dave and his wife, Mark and Noel worked on the plating station.  That meant that I was in charge of flipping burgers.  It was quite simple and all I had to do was take frozen burgers and place them on the griddle and cook.  Mark told me not to press the burgers since that releases the juices and makes them dry.  This was against my instinct to pat the burgers, but I stayed disciplined.  I have seen enough cooking shows to know that to get the best and juiciest burgers one needs to steam them under a cover, but that was not going to happen here where speed was of the essence. 

Cheeseburgers

There were 14 burgers at a time on the griddle and once I was done with one batch, Mark told me to make cheeseburgers next, which meant putting a slice of cheese on top of the burgers as they cooked.  The cheese was frozen as well and removing the slices without breaking them was a challenge.  But things were progressing well and soon we started serving.  Behind me, Mark was assembling the burger as per order while Noel was adding salad to the plate.  While I thought I was done at 6, the cheeseburgers were flying off the serving station, which meant that I had to make some more of those.  One of our guests was a vegetarian and wanted a grilled cheese sandwich instead, at which I took a pan, added oil and tried my best not to burn the sandwich…well the second time at least.  One of the staff members came and added some onions to the griddle since he wanted them caramelized for his cheeseburger.  Hey, the man knows his sandwich!

And the one who made them!

Soon we were done and even the dessert, which was brownies and ice cream, had been served.  I sat down in the kitchen with others and tasted the salad, which was excellent.  Many guests stopped by to offer their praises.  Mark had been a wonderful leader and I had enjoyed working with him and told him that I looked forward to returning.  Before we left, my friend from ‘The Green Festival’ told Noel, Tash and I that we could start our own group to volunteer over here outside of Chicago Cares.  I told Noel to take the initiative, now that she was a trained leader, and I would follow.  We chatted for some time and then I left.  Every parent tells their kids to get a college degree so that they do not end up in a fast food restaurant, flipping burgers for a living.  I had gotten all the degrees I could get, but had done the exact same job this afternoon.  While I had been proud to do so as a volunteer, even otherwise I do not see any shame in this profession.  It is a honest way to make a living and there is something noble about feeding people - whether it is at Inspiration Café or at some gourmet restaurant.  Though I know where I am going to have more fun.