GreenGal Catering, and "The Punching of the Pasta"

I don't want this blog to become a fount of negativity, so today I'm going to let everyone know about a great catering company called GreenGal Events and Catering, based in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

GreenGal takes a very eco- friendly approach to the catering business, starting with buying and serving locally grown produce, locally caught and harvested fish and shellfish, local free range poultry and eggs, and locally raised beef and pork.

The next step in GreenGal's ecological initiative is reducing landfill waste by up to 80% by recycling everything, and I mean everything. Paper and brown waste is composted. Cardboard, glass, metal, and plastics are recycled. Green waste is fed to cows, and everything else is fed to pigs. SOOOOEY!

They even use corn- based plastic disposable containers, at a greater cost to the company,
that biodegrade in a significantly shorter time than their paper and thermoplastic counterparts.

And the food is second to none. The chef, who I've known for twenty years, cut his teeth at RI foodie hotspots like XO and New Rivers, and knows the value of "art in simplicity."

You can learn more and see the menu at greengalcatering.com.

And now, "The Punching of the Pasta."

I once worked in a pub that was owned by a rather petulant man. He was obsessed with numbers, and would fly off the handle pretty easily if he saw what he thought was waste, or someone made a mistake. (i.e. overcooked burger, onions on a no onion order, etc.)

Well, one night, shortly before the kitchen closed, an order for a pasta alfredo came in. The young budding culinarian working with me made a beautiful, velvety alfredo sauce, which he summarily ruined by not adequately draining the pasta before tossing it and putting it in the dish. The result looked like penne pasta floating in a bowl of milk. Bad line cook!

The dish made it's way to the table and back to the kitchen in record time. When the young lady who served this dish asked the owner to comp the meal, he insisted on seeing the dish in question. They both returned to the kitchen at this point, and the owner started giving the, "You should know better than to serve a dish that looks like this." speech to the waitress. Not the cook who screwed the pooch in the first place, but to the nineteen year old waitress who wouldn't know a good alfredo if it bit her back.

While the "big guy" was lecturing the waitress, he was picking up the pasta with a fork to demonstrate the lack of body in the sauce, and as he did so, it was clear from the young lady's facial expressions and body language, that she couldn't care less.

Well, the demonstration escalated from picking up the pasta with the fork, to forcefully poking the pasta with the fork, and at some point he lost his grip on the fork, and continued to PUNCH THE PASTA WITH HIS BARE HAND, BREAKING THE PLATE, AND SPATTERING HIS FACE AND SHIRT IN SHITTY ALFREDO SAUCE. I had to turn away to avoid falling apart laughing.

I guess the moral of the story is two- fold. First, don't make shitty alfredo sauce. And second, and more importantly, ACT LIKE AN ADULT, FOR GOD'S SAKE.

I understand being frustrated and angry, it is an inevitability in this world. But pitching a fit when things don't go your way is what toddlers do. And even when toddlers do it, it get's really old, really quickly!

Don't forget to comment, and leave me your personal recollections of boss supplied lunacy. Love, Peace, And bacon grease!