Family

Sunday was a very busy day for Milo’s Grill. The VFW were having their annual district meeting and had hired the Grill to cater this event. I planned the menu, did the shopping and spent all of Saturday peeling potatoes and prepping most of the items. At $8.00 per person, the profit margin was going to be slim at best. With buying wholesale, I was able to keep the costs down and still have that impressive wow factor I was looking for. We had a ham carving station and a rolling tableside pasta station, something the VFW had never seen in their history before. Along with over one hundred pounds of freshly fried chicken, there was country style green beans, orange honey glazed carrots, coleslaw and real ‘mashed tators’ with heavy cream, butter and sour cream added. I managed to pull together the flavor profiles that would make my Chef Instructor’s proud to claim me as their student. I could have set this up as a serve yourself buffet style, but that was not the look nor the service I wanted to give. The food cost was met with a little left over, but labor would eat that up with no profit realized. My family came to the rescue. My parents, wife and little sister with her husband and kids in tow jumped right in and helped pull this off. They helped with the preparation and serving of everything. We as a family met and exceeded all expectations and had fun doing it. These family members drove 80 miles roundtrip to work all day free (ok, for chicken too) and I for one am extremely grateful.