Little Jonny Pancake

Little Jonny Pancake

By Lawrence T Vose

Little Jonny Fender lived with just his mom and would always want to help her cook. Each day he would watch his mom, Anita, at the stove cooking and wanted to help. She started by letting him help put the frosting on the cupcakes and dip the bread in the eggs and cinnamon to make french toast. Anita knew that Jon just wanted to help. So she would always let him do things that she thought would be safe for him to do. But Jon was not always satisfied with what she would allow. So he would get all upset and leave the kitchen. His mom tried so hard to explain to him how hot the stove gets and didn't want him to get burnt.

Little Jonny was only 5 and his mom refused to put him in harm's way. She didn't want near the stove while she was cooking. Jonny learned the hard way one morning when he ran up to his mom and asked if he could have a piece of bacon while she was cooking it. And before she could tell him to step back, a splatter of bacon grease flew out of the pan and hit Jon on the cheek. Little Jonny learned the hard way that morning.

Jon was as tough as any five year old could be. He would spend hours wrestling in the back yard with his friends. They put together a wrestling ring just like the professionals do on TV. They practiced all the signature moves of their favorite wrestlers. They were pretty good at it. After a few hours of wrestling, Jonny would maybe ride his bike or play soldier in the woods with his friends.

As Jon got older, he insisted on helping mom whenever she was at the stove. At the age of 12, she would then let Jonny flip the hamburgers and pancakes, Cut up the lettuce and tomatoes for salads. Mix the ingredients to make brownies or muffins.

And then one Saturday morning while his mom was sleeping in from a long hard week's work, Jonny decided to mix up some pancake mix on his own. He got out the right frying pan, coated it with butter, and after the pan was hot enough, he poured the batter in for his first pancake. It was a big one. When it came time to flip the pancake, Jon could just barely balance it on the spatula and gave it a quick hard flip so as not to break it. Well, little Jonny learned two valuable lessons that morning. Never cook without a shirt on and don't flip the pancake onto your chest. Jonny got the surprise of a lifetime with that hot pancake stuck to his chest from the gooey batter. He learned that morning that a pancake could be a dangerous weapon. By the time he pealed that pancake of his chest, he had a round burn that looked like a clock with hands on it. And it was around ten-thirty. The burn varied by the way he peeled it off his chest in pieces. Little Jonny sported the ten-thirty clock for a year before it began to fade. A morning he would never forget. When his mom came down the stairs that morning, she asked Jon why he had a cold wet towel on his chest. He lifted the towel and his mom put her hand to her mouth and said, "O... My goodness, Jon, it's ten-thirty?" As she looked closer she could see that it was a burn, "Jonny... What happened?" Jonny told her the story and when he was done she asked if he was OK and he said he was. She then had to turn and walk away very lowly laughing, "Ten Thirty, how the heck did he do that?"

Jon would still love to cook. As far as he was concerned the clock could have read midnight. He was not gonna stop chasing his love for cooking.

Days always pass and they lead to years passing. And when Jon graduated from high school he wanted to go to a culinary arts college and learn to be a chef. That was the dream of his entire life. But his mom did not have the money to send him to a college. They searched near and far, and the cheapest school was around 20 thousand dollars. Jon was pretty discouraged for the next 2 years working as a short-order cook at a small restaurant and an eating joint on wheels in Bound Brook New Jersey where they lived.

One day he read that there was a chef competition in Atlantic City. It was a competition between all the top chefs in the country. They had this event every year and Jonny had gone to it once. He wanted to be part of the competition so bad someday. But you have to have worked in one or more of the top-rated restaurants in the country for ten years to even apply for the contest.

But... This year they were going to have another competition for younger that needed help with college tuition to enter a culinary arts school. But they wanted ideas submitted for the contest. They would pick the best form of competition out of all the entries. So Jonny thought about it for a minute and knew exactly what he was gonna suggest. Ever since Jonny flipped that pancake on his chest, he has practiced flipping pancakes so it wouldn't happen again. He would take a single pancake and flip it once and catch it back in the spatula. Then try two spins and catch it then four and five spins and catch it on the spatula.

Then he practiced over and over flipping pancakes in the air and stacking and them as high as he could until the pile would tip over. And no one could eat until they tumbled. The problem was, that he was so good at it the pile wouldn't fall over until there were around twenty pancakes stacked. And for two people that was about 16 too many.

So he sent in his entry form to the casino's director of the contest and waited. The contest was in three months. 2 Weeks later Tommy got a letter in the mail from The casino in Atlantic City. He was so so excited to read the letter. It said that they accepted the pancake stacking challenge as the contest. And that the contest had been upped to the winner. The winner would now be receiving 30 thousand dollars.

The casino started advertising the competition immediately so that all the interesting entries could sharpen their skills at flipping pancakes. So Jonny boy had 8 weeks to practice his skills. His mom had to go to the store for him because he would not take time himself from practicing to go and get the pancake mix. Jonny went through 27 boxes of mix. Jonny's mom actually wanted to go and get the mix because they were donated by the store owner that knew Jons mom quite well and wanted to help. Jon would sometimes throw already cooked pancakes back in the pan and keep flipping them till they fell apart from the abuse.

And then, it was time. The day of the pancake-flipping contest was here. Jon put on his no-slip kitchen shoes, his black pants, and his best white shirt and away they went. Jon's mom insisted on taking him there in her car so she could let him mentally prepare during the ride. She told him to rest his head back and think about the contest. She told him to flip pancakes in his head all the way there. She warned him of the excitement that will be in the air and to not let it distract him. And to not associate himself with the competition. Not to evaluate them, not to talk to them, just concentrate on being the best competitor there. Concentrate on winning. Know your the best out of all of them and prove it. Don't think about money or tuition. Put yourself in a zone. Go to a place in your mind where it is so quiet that you can't hear anything.

Jon was grateful for the advice and had to ask her how she knew all of this. Because everything she just told him sounded like she knew a lot about what she was talking about. And she told him about when she was a cheerleader in college for the football team. She had told Jonny about being a cheerleader when he was a kid. She told him about how she was almost excused from the team because she missed the baton several times when throwing it high up. And her coach had told her everything she had just told him. Jonny's mom said that it worked. She never missed another toss.

Jonny was impressed with the advice she had just given him and laid his head back for the one hour drive. When they arrived at the casino and got out of the car, Jons mom said to Jonny, do your best son, that is all that is expected of you, and I love you, and I am very proud of you no matter the outcome today. Jonny told his mom. I'm gonna catch the baton today, just as you did. I am here to win and that's it. Nothing more nothing less. I am here to win.

Jonny had already signed up for the competition. In order to compete, you had to have been working in a kitchen cooking for the public for at least two years and the owner had to submit an affidavit stating this. They did call Jonny's employer to verify that Jonny has worked there so all Jonny had to do was check-in at the reception desk.

Jon asked the lady how many contestants were entered and she told him 360. He was surprised and asked how long the tournament was expected to last and the lady said they were expecting it to last 5 days before the finals.

They put 20 very nice Viking cookstoves in the middle of a huge arena for the tournament. They selected the order of competition alphabetically so Jonny Fender was in the fourth round of the competition. The first round was at noontime and it was almost time to begin. Jon scanned the floor to see how they set up each station. Six men would deliver the pancake mix to each competitor. Three silver pitchers would be kept full of the mix. And a jug of cooking oil to prevent sticking. The first thing each person would do is pour the batter into a huge 20-inch frying pan. Each pancake had to be a minimum of 5 inches but not more than 6. Each station had a measuring stick on the table so you can check the size. The stick was 6 inches long with a mark on it at 5. When the pancake was cooked you have to take it out of the pan and flip it onto a silver plate. You can't touch the pancakes with your hands and you cant move them around or adjust them with the spatula. Once you flip it on the plate that's where it stays.

The goal is... To see how many you can flip onto the stack before the stack tips over and one pancake touches the table on the outside of the plate. As soon as ten competitors stacks fall over, they are eliminated and the remaining ten move on. And if you flip a pancake and it misses the pile, you are done. Each round will last until only ten contestants remain.

It's time... The first round of competitors are up. The casino director spoke first and congratulated all the contestants for being selected for the competition. He very excitedly announced the 30 thousand dollar scholarship prize and handed the mic over to the tournament spokesman. Who explained the rules to the crowd and the elimination procedure. Each round, 10 of the contestants would be eliminated.

Jonny was ready. He had a strategy and wasn't sure if anyone would use the same. Let the competition begin. Said the announcer. The first twenty were at the stoves and the starter fired his pistola. These guys were pretty good Jonny was thinking. He watched the first 5 stacks fall over after only 10 or so in the pile. Some of the competitors may be good cooks, but they were not very good at the flipping part. Some of them slid the pancake off the spatula but the better contestants flipped them. One flip through the air and land right on top of the pile. This is how Jonny does it.

When Jonnys round started, he was nervous but it only took him one pan full to remember what his mom told him. Go into a zone. Where you don't hear anything. Think only about what you are doing. The next thing Jonny knew was the bell rang and Jonny was one of the remaining ten. It was 5 PM and Jon would be in one more round at 9 PM. Jon's second round went the same as the first. He went to that quiet place until he heard the bell and advanced to the next round. Jonny and his mom drove home that night with confidence that Jon was a force to be reconned with.

The next morning Jon and his mom repeated the same procedure. It was day two. This day became a repeat of day one and the next thing they know it is day three, day four, and now day five. Little Jonny Fender is now on the local news as The Pancake Man. He is the boy from the hood that has proved he can win.

When they arrive at the casino the next day, there is a welcoming comity of casino advertisers that are promoting the competition and the casino. The cameras are on the final six contestants that will battle today in the final rounds of the 'Pancake Flipping Contest'. Two casino representatives held up the big $30,000 check while the cameras are flashing. A reporter asks Tommy if he has picked a college to attend if he wins and Jonny replies, "Well... Let's win first and I will figure that out after."

The competition began at noontime again and Jonny won his first round of the finals. There were only three left. The next round went on for thirty minutes before one of the stacks fell. And it wasn't Jonny's. But Jon was watching the man he would face in the very last round of this tournament. This guy and Jon were using the same tactics, to offset each pancake to make a wider base that could stand taller without tipping. They were both stacking off to one side with this cake and of to the other side with the next cake. So a six-inch pancake stack was about ten inches oblong.

The entertainment factor came into play for the final round. News coverage for the casino. The check was placed between the final two and the stoves used were changed out from a chrome color to gold. The pans were gold and the batter pitchers were also. It was quite the exhibition. But Jon was worried that both of them using the same strategy may cause Jon to lose. Jon did not want to lose. He made it this far and losing is not an option. He thought hard and found what he was looking for. The Pistola fired for the last time and the two of them were cooking up a storm. They were on fire. And just them Jons competition looked over for one second and his mouth dropped. He knew at that very moment he was in big big trouble and it was too late to do what Jon had thought up to do. This time Jon was not going side to side with his stacking. He was stacking in a circle and instead of a hard to tip pile that was oblong and about ten inches. Jon was stacking in a circle. Just barely overlapping each pancake. Jon had 30 pancakes stacked and the pile was not even close to tipping over, And it was shorter than the other guys.

The final round went on for twenty more minutes before Jon's opponents stack hit the deck. The crowd went wild for Jon but the casino manager had been watching and told Jon to keep on stacking and he would get Guinness to put it in the records. The crowd was cheering louder and louder as Jonny kept stacking. Cooking, flipping, and stacking. Pretty soon Jonny was flipping the pancakes four feet in the air. Jonny's stack never fell over. Jonny went to flip a pancake six feet in the air to the top of the pile and it slowly rolled off the top and to the deck.

Little Jonny Fender flipped and stacked 310 pancakes that day in Atlantic City. He was the local "Jonny Pancake." He was the town hero for a while. Everybody knew who he was from watching the news. Jonny's mom was ten feet tall. Proud of her young man that bugged her every day since he was a little boy to help her cook. And Jon was very proud of himself during those days. But those days are gone.

Jonny attended the culinary college of his choice and graduated with honors and now is the lead chef in one of New York Cities premier restaurants.

He is married now and has a little boy of his own. When his son, Jonny Jr. was in the kitchen one day, and at the age of five, Jon asked his little Jonny jr. if he wanted to help cook like daddy does, and mix the batter for some delicious brownies. Little Jonny Jr. said.... Nope... I wanna be an astronaut.