Hot dog supper

One of the challenges at the Inn is being able to work under many individuals with widely divergent personalities. For example, if one cooks with Br. Fred, there is virtually nothing to do. Br. Fred will get up at 5 am and prepare everything, all the way down to counting out the forks and napkins for the takeout meals (side doors). When I have been assistant to Fred, my contribution has been opening a few cans of some vegetable and heating them on the stove.
At the other end of the continuum is Br. Xavier. Xavier is a master at taking food someone else has cooked and transforming it into a new dish--a soup, stew or sandwich. Usually he cooks alone and commandeers a local volunteer to fetch and carry for him. However, yesterday I was assigned to him as assistant cook. I wasn't concerned as he had let me know earlier in the week that we were having hot dogs. I had seen hundreds of hot dog rolls arrive on Monday with the bread, and he had moved them to the cooler and marked them with his name, so we were set. I figured I would just have to open a few cans of beans, heat them up, and we would be ready. WRONG!!!!
On Wednesday Xavier let me know he had a doctor's appointment Thursday morning, and I should take some cooked potatoes left over from another day and make potato salad. No problem, I thought. I searched the cooler for the potatoes. I found pans of green beans, peas, applesauce, lasagna, even ham and pineapple. After some searching and asking, I located them in a different refrigerator. I set to work cutting up the 20 pounds of potatoes and adding celery, onion, boiled eggs, mayonnaise and a little mustard. After two hours, I was finished. It tasted great. By that time, Xavier had returned. We were cooking for 300 people, and I knew we needed more side dishes. Xavier turned the green beans into a cold string bean salad, and I made a huge tossed salad. With the applesauce, we had 2 hot dogs and 2 buns for each guest, plus two side dishes. I have learned that one must have backup dishes in case the food doesn't stretch as far as expected. Xavier pointed out more boiled potatoes and the peas.
Around 3 pm I began opening all the packs of hot dogs and we made 20 take out platters. By 4:30 I had everything ready to begin serving the food. At that point, Xavier disappeared. I had expected him to continue cooking the dogs, and I would make the switch of the various sides as they ran out. Instead, I was suddenly cooking, removing the cooked dogs, adding new ones to the tilt skillet, washing used pots, bringing in more drinks, and bringing the new food to the servers. At one point the water level of the tilt skillet got too low and I had to bring a faucet into the skillet and refill it. I threw in the dogs and lowered the lid. Too late, I realized I had not flipped the faucet out of the skillet and by lowering the lid I had bent the entire pipe. Other cooks had done the same thing earlier in the year, and I had conscientiously avoided doing the damage. Now I had to confess that I had broken the faucet.
The meal finally ended. We had fed 299 people. The backup dishes were needed and we didn't have much in the way of leftovers. I was exhausted and upset that I had damaged the equipment. The event made me appreciate what the cooks do 365 days at the end, and made me happy that I was not a cook. I hope future schedules leave me off cooking detail for the time that remains.