Monday, July 23, 2007

Work! That's what I call it. I have never worked so hard in many years. (few will argue that one) It was day 1 of the huge, not big, huge EAA Venture 2007 in Oshkosh, WI.

It is by far the largest gathering of airplanes I have even seen, and I've been to Ohare and London Heathrow airports.

The Johnsonville Brat barbeque is the worlds largest and yes, I was the one of two cooks operating it, today. (and tomorrow, and every day this week)

I thought I might be a team of 8 or 10 to cook the brats, but nooooo. 6 hours of cooking and no breaks. Bob, my cooking partner, and I grilled 1200 brats today. That's my new record. We also grilled about 100-200 cheesy brats in addition.

The Johnsonville rep and truck driver was there the first hour to lift the lid (huge hydraulics) and fire it up. He gave me a few minutes of instructions and said...."go for it".

This grill is impressive. It has 4 grills on it each of which are about 6' wide by 3' deep. We only used one of them today. One grill, 1200 brats.

The grill uses propane and there is a huge tank located behind the grills. It has a huge fridge to keep the brats cold and holds about 1000 brats.

It has 4 sinks, three of which are used to sanitize the utensils, and one for washing your hands.

It has at least 2 large steam tables to keep the brats warm after they're cooked.

I was happy to receive an official Johnsonville apron and tee shirt from the driver. (I'll remember his name tomorrow)

The cooks stand on a stainless steel deck that extends the length of the trailer, 40 feet. It has a smaller observation deck so that the curious can gander at this masterpiece.

On top of all that, a fantastic airshow happens each day at 3pm and the roar of the engines is quite deafening. Pics of planes will appear later this week.

I'm absolutely beat, bedtime for bonzo! After the CMA awards.