My first job when I left school was training in Hotel Management. I had to start off in the kitchens as an apprentice chef, at the top hotel in the area. After a few weeks I was in charge of grilling the steaks and cooking any deep fried food in the fryer next to the grilling station.
I used to have a dish with oil in that I briefly dragged the steaks through on each side before sprinkling with salt and pepper on both sides.
The grill in that place was incredible, the gas jets looked like an F18 engine using reheat
Somehow the jets seemed to be sunk about 3 feet below floor level and gave out so much heat at the waist level grill that a 2 inch thick steak was perfectly cooked in just over a minute per side for a rare steak and even those who didnt appreciate how good a steak can be had theirs cremated to their satisfaction in 3 or 4 minutes per side.
I didnt stay in the job long as the pay was crap and I had to work 11 x 4 hour shifts a week from 10am to 2pm and 6pm to 10pm. I had 3 of those shifts off per week which never ran together so it may be the monday morning one, the tuesday evening one then maybe the friday morning one, all for £5 per week
The only consolation was that I used to start and finish each shift with a meal made with the best fillet steak you could get and have never eaten so well since
