NOBU Extra - Comida: 1000 ways to cook chicken wings

Comida, or family/staff meal, is an everyday responsibility that is rotated among the line cooks at both Nobu and Next Door. Comida assignments are in addition to regular service prep and line work, so it is no small task.

Comida menu:

• One to two proteins - chicken wings, whole chicken, flank steak, and pork shoulder were the most common
  
• One vegetable - sauteed, steamed or roasted veggie mix
• One carb - fried rice, french fries, roasted/mashed potatoes or pasta
• One salad with salad dressing

This needs to be enough to feed around 60 people - twice. Everything must be prepped, cooked and set up buffet-style for both the pre-service lunch break around 4pm and the after-service dinner at midnight.

Comida for the day is up to the cook assigned to it. In my days, the line was very multi-cultural, so comida was most regularly Filipino, Chinese, or Hispanic. I admit to being very spoiled at Nobu with comida. Most restaurants do not invest much time or money in feeding their staff. Not only did we have more than enough to eat everyday, we were free to make what we liked and since most of the line cooks were Filipino, I was able to eat the food I grew up on almost everyday.

Pastry would oftentimes provide us with dessert as well - cupcakes, chocolate cake, ice cream, banana cake or cookies. An excellent bonus the line cooks and waitstaff were deeply grateful for.

On extra special days, the Head Chef would make snacks for the line during service. Most of these were Filipino - ginataan, cassava cake, adobo, lugaw, siopao. I still remember Chef calling me from the line and asking me distribute the snacks among the cooks during a lull in service.

"Chef, this is fantastic. It reminds me of my Lola's."
"So you're saying I'm as old as your Lola?"
"No, Chef...Of course not, Chef...I would never, Chef...I was just saying, umm, thanks!...Po!"

::Stuff food in mouth, big smile, a wave and quickly back upstairs to the line::

Phew! Mmmm...