Tedious Tomatoe Task

“Alli. I have a great job for you” The sous chef said with a grimace.

Six pints of small orange cherry tomatoes looked me in the face on top of my cutting board. My mission before leaving the restaurant was to score the top of each tomato by taking a pearing knife and slightly cutting into the tomato’s skin, as to not puncture anymore of the tomatoes.

Another cook assisted me in this process. The next process, not so much.

After scoring the tomatoes, my partner in scoring was sent home. I, on the other hand, was told to finish the tomatoes by myself. I took the tomatoes to the pasta cooker (a device that looks like a fryer but has water in the bottom instead of oil). I placed them into the two-handled pasta container and dropped them into the hot water. This point was key. If I left the tomatoes on too long they would be orange mush later. If I pulled them before they were done, the tomatoes would be unable to peel (this was the point of scoring them).

One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. And so on until I hit the number seven. The sous chef, keeping an eye on me, say I pulled them out and placed them in an ice bath, shocking and stopping the tomatoes from cooking.

I then hauled them over to my station and with a tweezer and began to slowly and tediously take the skins off of the tomatoes. By scoring them in the beginning, it gave my tweezers the edge to grab off the skin of the tomatoes without breaking the tomatoes. There were a few casualties but overall the job went well. It only took me about 40 minutes with the help from a fello chef.

But after this job, I will never look at cherry tomatoes the same way again.