My first week at Saison in a nutshell:

• Perfection, perfection, perfection. Nothing can ever be TOO perfect.
• When picking leaves, flower petals, herbs, etc.: any blemishes, folds, rips, or uneven edges… THROW IT AWAY. Waste is not an issue when it comes to perfection.
• There is a fine line between speed and accuracy. To work at Saison, you have to meet that line or else all sorts of hell will be unleashed.
• Always keep flowers refrigerated and moist with “fish paper” misted with water (still don’t know why it’s called fish paper.. they just look like super fine paper towels).
• Forceps are your best friend.
• If there’s anything worse than shucking peas… it’s double-shucking them. First remove them from the large, chalky outer shell, blanch and shock them, then remove the individual peas from their skins. Just to get a pint of shelled peas, I need to double shuck a whole quart of them. Best. Job. Ever.
• Juicing rhubarb: load juicer slowly. If you feed the juicer too fast, the pulp from the fibrous stalk will collect on one side of the spinning blade and cause intense shaking (and not a very good sound either). It’s kinda like when your washing machine is not balanced and it bounces off the walls during the spin cycle. Same concept.
• Stinging nettles cannot be eaten raw. Leaves should be picked off and thoroughly rinsed in water and then cooked. Picking nettles should be done with gloves and is also considered a legal form of torture (according to me at least).
• When your schedule says 8:30 am – 8 pm, don’t expect to be going home before 10.
• Topping eggs.. another legal form of torture.
• 65.5 hours in 5 days… only 434.5 to go.