Enough of this being sick stuff, I'm pretty confidant that I'm all better now. I've got my appetite back and the smell of food doesn't sicken me. Now I can get back to enjoying my work.
First things first today, finish with the kabocha squash. I had finished slicing, peeling, and coring the squash yesterday, but we still had to preserve them in jars and that is exactly what David was in the middle of doing when I arrived for work today.
David is a quiet man for the most part, aside from passing remarks to fellow employees. Also, because of his experience in the industry, he is a hard man to impress. This is kinda disheartening because he does not dole out complements very often and it's nice to hear if you're doing something well.
As David was showing me what I needed to do with the slices of kabocha (clean up rough edges and layer them on top of one another in the jar), he said, "Good job on the squash yesterday. That's a job that most chefs don't like to do. It's very tedious work." I was ecstatic. David had recognized that I really am trying to do the best possible job that I can. It was validating. David then went on to tell me that the slices of kabocha need to be perfect because they would come right out of the jar and onto the plate, so they need to be able to pass the critical eye of the customers. He wants perfection? I'll give him perfection.
Right after I finished my first jar, David came by to check on how I was doing. I asked David if the jar was up to his standards, and he said that it was uber-perfect and that it looked liek a game of Jenga. David then went on to tell me, "I appreciate you precision, but they don't have to be that perfect. Don't lose your religion over it."
Finished preserved kabocha squash.
While working on the rest of the kabocha, Woody asked me if I had ever heard of botarga. I told him that I hadn't and he went on to tell me what it's the roe of fish that is cured (ours had been cured for 2 months on salt), then compressed in cheese cloth to extract all the moisture. What is left is a solid block that we would later use to grate on top of pasta and things like that.
We had some leftover brine after we had finished preserving the kabocha, so David decided that we would use the rest of the brine to preserve some yellow flay, which look a lot like bean sprouts. So, for the next couple of hours, I sliced off the ends of approximately 700 pieces of yellow flay. David added a few cloves of garlic and a few spicy peppers to the jars and after I stuffed them with the yellow flay, they were ready to be preserved.
Next, we got a shipment of mushrooms, so I had to unpack them, label them and find a place to store them in the walk-in. It wasn't a difficult job, but I was glad to do something other that lean over a cutting board for a while. The only difficult part was when I had to identify what type of mushrooms were in each box, but with a little help from Woody, it was smooth sailing.
David had created a potato plate for tonight's service (I never got to see the finished plate though), so I had to wash the dirt off all of the potatoes that would be used in the dish. David taught me a little trick though. He told me to fill a bowl with water, add a cup of vinegar, and let the potatoes soak in it for a while. It doesn't get every speck of dirt off, but it did get the majority of the dirt off, so I was thankful.
While I was working on the potatoes, David was making herb dumplings out of pesto, parmesan, and breadcrumbs, but he wasn't going to be able to finish before he had to leave for the day, so he passed the task off to me. It was pretty fun because I got to use a pastry bag to fill all these little silicone molds for the dumplings.
While the dumplings were in the oven, I went ahead and got my family meal (pictured above). There was the usual salad, a spicy macaroni and corn salad, amazing fried fish, and baked chicken with a walnut and olive crust. Now, I really don't like olives. I feel like the taste is too overpowering. But I decided that if anything was going to make me like olives, then that anything would come from this kitchen. I still don't like olives. Other than the olives, though, the meal was excellent as usual.
Back to the dumplings. I took the first batch out of the oven and they seemed a little under done when I tried to free them from the mold (The one that I tried to free from the mold broke). So I put them back in the oven for a couple more minutes, leaving the broken one for me to try. I mean, we can't serve a broken dumpling, so might as well taste it.
These dumplings were pretty amazing. they tasted like pesto, but had pockets of melted parmesan cheese in them that catch your taste buds by surprise. Excellent, excellent dumplings.
While waiting for the dumplings to finish in the oven, Aaron (our pastry chef) informed me that one of his good friends is a professor at Clemson. Small world. Turns out that his friend teaches neurobiology and stuff like that, so there is no chance that I could have had him, but it's still pretty cool.
The minute I finished with the dumplings, Jackson (one of the line cooks) gave me a bunch of leaves (three types to be exact) and told me that he needed the stems picked off of them, needs them washed, spun dry, and then needs them on the line. This would be my task for the rest of the evening. It doesn't sound like much work, but I assure you, going through each and every leaf and picking their stem off is quite time consuming.
I don't really know what I will be doing tomorrow, but I'm sure it will involve some receiving and storing of produce since Woody likes to go to the markets early saturday morning to order fresh and new ingredients.
Until next time,
Ben
326 hours left
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