Every kitchen staff delegates duties. But what does the executive chef do? The sous-chef? What does it take to be a wine steward or sommelier? Today, we launch our Kitchen Roster series with a profile of Gabriel Glasier, the executive chef of the Redbud Cafe in Cameron Park.

Stillness doesn't exist right now in the kitchen of Cameron Park's Redbud Cafe. Oysters need shucking. A table is waiting for pork chops. And can someone get those pizzas going?

Executive chef Gabriel Glasier is conducting this culinary cacophony, getting his sous-chefs in sync and composing palate-tempting art.

One minute, the 31-year-old Glasier is chopping fresh basil and sprinkling it on a pizza. The next, he's serving a plate of "4 Mushroom Bolognaise" to a customer. Then he pops over to answer a call for help tapping a beer keg.

All around the Sacramento region, Glasier and other kitchen overlords scout, invent, assemble, juggle, woo and orchestrate to build a clientele whom they must keep blissfully unaware of the strain it took to pull it all off. Much of their work actually happens outside the pressure-cooker environment of the kitchen.

"There's not as much cooking (involved) as you might think," says Glasier, who speaks like he's perpetually caffeinated. "The No. 1 responsibility is to make money, and the other part is to teach the concepts with the food and make sure things come out exactly the same every time."

Part of the job entails scouting area farms to source produce. ("I just found some stone fruit from this incredible producer in Placerville," Glasier raves). Once found, there's the more mundane tasks of ordering, purchasing and tracking inventory.

He isn't beyond grunt work, though, and is known to work the occasional dishwashing shift. Take that, Mario Batali.

"You fill in where you have to," says Glasier. "And don't ask people to do something that you wouldn't do."

Glasier, a 1995 graduate of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs, trained at San Francisco's California Culinary Academy. Back then, he was on the other end of an executive chef's orders, breaking down cardoons and whole lambs – often for a salary of zilch – at such Bay Area restaurants as Via Centro and Chez Panisse.

Glasier moved back to the Sacramento area six years ago, cooking at Riverside Clubhouse and Bistro 33. Today, he co-owns Redbud Cafe with his mother, Deanna, who opened the eatery in 2005. It's a family affair. Gabriel's wife, Jeneca, is the pastry chef, hostess and operations manager.

"Cooking is his passion," says Deanna Glasier. "When he was young, he would always try different foods, and his palate was fairly well-developed. (As an executive chef) his mind's going in a million different directions, but he's learning how to manage it."

Being a full-time chef is tempting for Glasier, but the pay of an executive chef is a sweeter deal. Salaries vary widely, but an executive chef typically earned between $52,714 and $77,000 in California last year, according to the food industry tracker People Report. Among sous-chefs, salaries ranged from $35,389 to $65,200.

"There's a favorite saying I heard that, 'Every chef would like to be a cook, if it wasn't for the money,' " Glasier says.

Glasier gets jazzed from the creative side of his job, especially assembling and envisioning menus. Right now, he's stoked on a Scottish salmon dish that's served with soba noodles and pickled Japanese vegetables. Glasier also has crafted a chicken half that's brined in cherry juice before grilling.

He also cooks up some very long work days – up to 14 hours, six days a week. And it's not the kind of job that Glasier can turn off like a burner on a stove. Menu planning sometimes happens in the middle of the night.

"I'm waking up at 3 a.m. with some grandiose idea and get on my computer," Glasier says, then calls out an order for a medium-rare burger. "I literally dream of food."

Amid a dinner rush, that dream is a steaming reality in the form of order tickets in front of him and two sous-chefs rushing between the sauté station, the broiler and the pantry. The trick is: Don't let the flow of food get too wacky.

"(Gabriel) can't just add six new sauté items to the menu without knowing how it will affect the station," says Joe DeJohn, Redbud Cafe's wine director, while watching the action in the kitchen. "That's part of the chess you play."

Glasier revels in his executive chef duties but hopes to get more hands-on with cooking some day. He loves working with prix-fixe menus and also dreams of opening another restaurant and going mano a mano with such area institutions as The Waterboy and 55 Degrees.

"It would be fun to go downtown and play with the big boys," says Glasier.

Here on Coach Lane in Cameron Park, the dinner shift is just about done. All that's left is some sweeping, cleaning and a little prep work for the next day. And then the rush will start all over again.

"Right now I actually feel pretty good," says Glasier, with slightly glazed eyes after another 13-hour day. "It's blazing fast work, but you get used to it.

"It's more of that sense of accomplishment when you get through a big push. I live for that kind of stuff."

Call Bee food and wine writer Chris Macias, (916) 321-1253.