Hit my 1000th flat top grill clean last night and my arm still hurts

I work the line at a breakfast joint in Phoenix and we scrub the flattop every night before close. Last night I counted and realized it was my 1000th time doing it since I started 14 months ago. Chef Matt laughed when I told him and said I probably scrubbed off a pound of metal by now. Anyone else ever count up the mundane stuff you do over and over?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah_webb3d ago

Ha, that's hilarious. I bet Chef Matt is right - you're probably down to the bone by now. Man, 1000 flat tops is a lot of elbow grease and probably a few gallons of your own sweat mixed in there too. Must feel weird to get that far and realize you've spent over a year of your life just scrubbing a piece of metal. At least you can flex on the new guys now though, like "yeah I've scraped more grills than you've flipped eggs." Your arm hurting is just the universe's way of reminding you that you're alive and working a real job. Keep up the count, you're building a weird but impressive stat.

terryallen3d ago

Man, that reminds me of this line cook I worked with back in the day who kept a tally of every omelet he ever folded. He had notebooks full of little tick marks, must've been thousands of them by the time he quit. Weirdest thing I ever saw but I guess we all need some way to measure the grind...