Hey everybody, how's it going? Nice to meet you all. Here's my story:
I worked my way through high school and college serving fast food, waiting tables and bar tending. I spent the next 7 years at an ego-less, thankless, endless, boring, dead-end copy editing job. During that time I began moonlighting catering gigs and fell in love with it so much I switched careers. After 11 years of catering every kind of event you can think of the company was hit hard by the economic downturn and forced to let several of us go in late 2009.
A month ago I FINALLY found a job! I was hired for a prep cook position at an upstart independently owned restaurant and two days later the night shift lead cook walked out. The owner threw me on the line in the middle of service and two days later I find myself suddenly 2nd in command of a busy commercial kitchen. AND I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M DOING LOL! Somehow I'm performing well enough to convince the owner I'm worthy of the position but I am really struggling and stressed out on the inside.
Even with my many years experience in the industry the other side of the line is a whole new world to me. Expediting during service is the hardest thing I've ever done. It takes tremendous focus and concentration as it literally scrambles your brain non-stop for 2-3 hours at a time. I'm hoping to meet some nice experienced line cooks on this forum willing to share techniques, offer suggestions, lend advice, etc. as to advance my skill set and salvage my peace of mind.
Y'all take care and don't work too hard. ~mama 
