I have survived my first Passover event at the hotel I work at. 10 days straight, no days off, and the same stations every day. Matza brie and Matza pancakes in the morning, and Matza Pizza in the afternoons. A few extra prep items the rest of the day, and clean up.
I didn’t know what kind of job it would be making 600 matza pizzas a day, but I did it. When I broke down the hours, it was only 10.5 hours a day, not so bad, considering other people put in 12-14 hours a day.
It was a great experience, and one I look forward to next year.
I had a great thing happen today. The Executive Chef of the Hotel, who has something like 70 chefs and cooks under him came up to me today and personally complemented me. Not only that, I was told that I impressed him. I really don’t know what I did, besides show up, play nice with people, and came forward as a strong team leader. The Pastry Chef chatted with me and said that making it through this event means something. It one of the largest passover events in the United States.
I feel like I earned some kind of stripes. And I am thoroughly exhausted, but happy. And tomorrow, I am off!

I am currently employed at Arizona’s top resort. We are host to a large Passover Event. I am working 11-12 hour days in a Kosher Kitchen, with Rabbi Supervisors watching and making sure we are doing everything according to the rules.
There is so much activity and so many cooks in just the one kitchen. The walk-ins are always full, and there’s always something to do. Start time is 6 a.m. and I’m an evening cook.
This is for only ten days, and already I’m exhausted. I’ll live through it. I’m learning new things about organization, and dancing around the cluster. Multi-tasking comes in very handy in an environment like this.
I’m watching one or two of the ex-terns have melt-downs. I don’t know how one of them will survive. At least a couple of the chefs who don’t know my work are seeing what I am capable of.
I get to spend time at the fryer, time on the knife, and time with an imported Culinary Team. Even though I am tired, I am loving this! I’ve never really had an experience quite like it!
For a Kitchen Shaman part of this experience is being the calm in the storm, setting the pace, guiding the confused. I bring a balance to the chaos, that even though it is supposedly orderly, at this point it feels just like random chaos.
As a Kitchen Shaman, I continue to walk between the worlds of that chaos and the world of ability. I choose to be able to stand as the eye.