Once the lunch line closes, everyone has a fog of mental serenity mixed with exhaustion. There’s usually a fight for who gets a seat on the lobby’s couch during the 15-minute break we get for lunch. But when we get back into the kitchen, it’s prep time for tomorrow’s meal, and well, things can get a little silly.

What happens after lunch…

We have the luxury of time, which means we don’t hear Chef yelling, “It’s GO TIME. I need this now, people.” So there are a lot of photo ops. (I don’t know how else to describe pregnant Hank being man handled by Vaughn.)

Another afternoon chore is to prep produce, and to keep ourselves amused, I turn it into a competition. Cue the Broccoli Battles.

The players? Team Shika/Anjul

versus

Team Vaughn/Sara (me)

Vaughn and I thought we had this in the bag, but these crafty ladies kicked our asses.

TIP OF THE DAY: I made awesome cornbread today. I scratched what our textbook said, and relied on a recipe from Chef Michael Ferraro, of Macbar and Delicatessan in New York City. You can find it on Men’s Health‘s food blog, Guy Gourmet. Enjoy!