Day 15 : Feeding 2,000 People a Day – Cooking Sausage, Peppers & Grits for the Community
Hello and welcome to Day 15 of Culinary School.
Today was kitchen internship day, which basically means: big pots, big quantities, and zero chance of keeping your apron clean.
We were cooking for the homeless and the community in need — a few hundred meals to start, eventually part of the 2,000 they send out every single day. It's organised chaos in the best way possible.
Sausages, Peppers, and… a Paddle?
I got put on sausage duty, onions, peppers, chicken, the works.I thought, aye, easy enough. Grab a spatula, get it sizzling.
Then the chef handed me a paddle. Like, an actual wooden paddle.
I looked at him and said,
“What is this for? Steering the stew downstream?”
He laughed. I didn’t. Until five minutes later when I realised that thing was absolutely necessary.
More sausage went in.Then more onions.Then more peppers.Then chicken.Then more sausage again. By the end, I was stirring a pot the size of a small hot tub, sweat dripping, steam everywhere, feeling like the world’s least-coordinated pirate.
That paddle wasn’t a joke.
Feed the City
Once the sausages were cooked down, we loaded everything into hotel trays to chill overnight.Tomorrow, volunteers portion it all out, box it, and send it across Austin.
Then we made grits, massive, creamy vats of the stuff. As a Scot, it feels weird calling anything that close to porridge “southern,” but fair play, Texans know what they’re doing with butter.
After lunch, we helped package five or six hundred meals, ready to ship out.Seeing tray after tray lined up, ready to feed actual people, was a bit mental. It's a proper operation. Efficient, fast, and full of people who give a damn.
What a Day
There’s nothing glamorous about stirring sausage with a paddle or scooping grits into trays,— but it’s bloody satisfying.Everyone’s joking, moving, shouting orders, trying not to burn anything. It's chaos, but the good kind. The kind where you end up smiling at the end because it worked.
And aye, next time someone hands me a paddle in the kitchen, I’ll say thank you and get to work.
Cheers
Andy
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Day 15 : Feeding 2,000 People a Day – Cooking Sausage, Peppers & Grits for the Community
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I’m on a mission to help people rediscover real food, the kind that nourishes, connects, and sparks joy.
Feed people. Feed connection. Feed joy.
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