The Beginning of the End

Tuesday was an uneventful day.  I began the day by riding with David to the storage unit to put all of the jars into storage because we would not be preserving anything else for a while and to get a newer dish rack for the kitchen.  Once we returned from the storage unit, David and I worked on assembling pickled okra that was going to be sold at the bottle shop.

Assembling the pickled okra took up the vast majority of my day.  I had to measure out ingredients for each individual jar, then stuff the okra into the jar until no more okra could possibly fit, then had it off to David who would fill the jars of okra with the brine.  We filled 77 8oz jars, 29 12oz jars, and 2 16oz jars.  That's almost 1000 ounces of pickled okra.

What made this pickling process different from any other that we had done before is that nothing needed to be cooked.  Typically the brine is cooked to dissolve sugars and combine flavors, but this brine was practically just salt water.  Because nothing was cooked, we had to process the jars for 30 minutes instead of the usual 12 minutes.

Pickled Okra

To give you an idea of how long pickling the okra actually took, family meal marks the 3/4 point in my day and after family meal had come and gone, we still had about 20 jars to finish.

Once we did finish with the pickled okra though, we had to process them.  David had to leave for the day, so he left the processing of the okra to me.  While waiting for the okra to process, I cut cherry tomatoes for Jackson and peeled garlic.

Before this internship, whenever I would have to peel garlic, I would just smash it with my knife because then the skin would come right off and I would be mincing the garlic anyways, so it didn't really matter that it was smashed.  However, we don't use smashed garlic in the kitchen, the garlic clove has to be whole.  This is frustrating and time consuming because the skin sticks to the garlic and comes off in small pieces.  This time, though, I was given a tip.  Put the cloves of garlic in a bowl of water for a little while and then peel them.  The water loosens the skin and prevents it from sticking to the garlic.  This tip made peeling garlic so much easier and faster.





Today, I immediately got to work on boxing up the pickled okra so that we could easily deliver them to the bottle shop later.  Once finished, I got to work on peeling even more garlic.  At about noon, we figured that someone would be at the bottle shop, so I made the short drive with all of the pickled okra and delivered them to the bottle shop.

When I got back to Restaurant Eugene, I ground up some blocks of parmesan that was to be used for dumplings and various other dishes and cubed up some bread to dry out for making breadcrumbs later in the week.  Next, Jackson got me working on washing and ribbing some kale that was in the walk-in.  Then, Jackson told me that he wanted me to help him prep for family meal.  He needed me to cut scallions, dice onions, and dice bell peppers.

When I finished with all of that, I asked David if there was anything that I could help with to which he replied, "This may be your lucky day" implying that there was nothing that needed to be done.  Because there was nothing that needed to be done, David told me to shuck all of the cobs of corn so that there was one less thing to do when someone needed corn.

I was almost finished shucking the corn when it was time for family meal.  For the past few days, there has been a family meal war between Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch to see who can put up the best family meal.  This is great for me because now I get amazing family meals every day (not to say that any previous family meals were not amazing).  Today, we were the ones putting up family meal and put together a pretty stellar meal, if I do say so myself.

Curry chicken (in the bowl), okra and vegetable stew, vegetable rice, naan with garlic butter, and a chocolate chip cookie cake.  While consuming family meal, I was convinced that the vegetable rice would be my favorite component, but then I tried the naan with the garlic butter.  Words fail.

After family meal, I scrambled around to find tasks to keep busy and ended up picking and chopping parsley, cutting lemons, and cutting cherry tomatoes for the rest of the evening.

While I was doing one of these tasks, David came up to me to tell me that he was leaving for the evening.  Normally, this wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but this time was that last time that we would see each other for the rest of my internship.  David will be gone for the rest of this week and all of next week to take care of some things.  I knew that David was going to be gone for the rest of my internship after today and wanted to thank him for everything, so last weekend I went out and bought a nice vegetable peeler to give him as a gift.  My choice of a vegetable peeler may sound odd to many of you, but it was a way to say thank you and also a replacement for a nice vegetable peeler that he let me use and I lost on my first day of work.  So that's the reasoning behind the vegetable peeler.

David was very appreciative of the gift as I am sure that he wasn't expecting a gift at all.  Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and David wished me luck with pretty much the entire rest of my life, school, my career, my choices, and whatever life has in store for me.

It was weird having to say goodbye to someone who has essentially been my mentor throughout my internship while I still have a week and a half left for my internship.  David graciously shared his physical space, knowledge, enlightening conversation, and tools (even after I lost one of them on my first day) with me for almost two and a half months, and now he's not going to be there to share those things with me anymore.  In one hand, it's sad to know that he won't be there to help me for the rest of my internship, but on the other, it's like I'm really on my own now and I have to rely on my own knowledge for the rest of my time at Restaurant Eugene.

David has been a great influence and an even greater friend during my time at Restaurant Eugene.  It just feels weird that the person that I spent the most time with and learned the most from is the first person that I have to say good bye to....and a week and a half early at that.

Till next time,

Ben

51 hours left

Family or Food

Thursday I was going to finally get started on finishing the pickled watermelon ring and the bread and butter pickles, but David asked me to help him finish shelling the last bit of edamame.  Even the last little bit of edamame still took a good while to shell, but once I was done, I was finally done with all of the edamame.

Next, I worked on the pickled watermelon rind.  I had already peeled and sliced the watermelon rind, so the toughest part of the process was already finished.  I gathered all the other ingredients and put them in a pot to bring to a boil while the watermelon rind simmered in fresh water.  Once the rind had become tender, it was added to the rest of the ingredients and brought to a simmer for about 15 minutes, then jarred and processed.

Now, I could get started on the bread and butter pickles.  I was excited to work on these because I had pickled just about everything except pickles and now I was getting my chance.  I drained the sliced cucumbers from the salt water and gathered the other ingredients.  This took some figuring out because the ingredients were in some odd measurements (like I had to make a gallon of sliced onions) but eventually I got everything together and into a pot to bring to a boil.  Next, as always, was to jar and process the pickles.

Bread and Butter Pickles

All of that took a good while, so before I knew it, it was time for family meal.  Today, family meal consisted of empanadas and a cucumber salad.

After family meal, Chef Hopkins brought me a jar of olives that he wanted me to juice for him.  I'm not exactly sure why he wanted the olive juice, but I think it was to use for an olive capsulation.  When I got to thinking about it, I didn't know how I was supposed to juice the olives.  After some consultation with Jason and Woody, we decided that I should puree the olives and press the puree through a chinois.

Once finished with the olives, Jason told me that he needed me to cut some corn off the cob for him.  He was going to show me how to use a special tool that they had for taking corn off the cob, but we decided that it was a little too dangerous.  Next, Jackson got me working on bagging and cryovacing halibut for service.

The last thing I did before I left was to organize and consolidate the walk-in.  I just had to make sure that everything was labeled and in the right size container.





Friday, David told me that I needed to sort through the edamame and pick out all the ones with spots (and here I was thinking that I was finally finished with the edamame).  Once finished with sorting the edamame, I cut about four loaves of bread to use for making breadcrumbs.

Then, I went to David to see if there was anything that I could do for him.  David told me that I could do the end of the week inventory for him.  The end of the week inventory consisted of me going through all the produce in the walk-in and weighing it to find out exactly how much of each ingredient we had.  Needless to say, this took a long time to complete.

As I was getting ready to get family meal, I overheard a conversation between Jason and Jackson where Jason was telling Jackson that there are two things that all chefs cook inconsistently, and those two things are toast without a toaster and rice.  i just thought that this little tidbit was both interesting and funny.

Family meal today consisted of enchiladas and a cucumber salad.  You may notice that the family meals from yesterday and today are very similar and in fact, they both used the exact same ingredients.  The reason for this is that Jackson (who is usually the one who makes family meal when we host it at Restaurant Eugene) wanted to one up the Holeman and Finch family meal from the day before.

After family meal, I sliced eggplant on the industrial slicer that was going to be used to make the eggplant gratin that would be served that night.  Next, I got was asked to assemble tarts for service.  Then I strained a chicken and lamb stock into better containers for storage.  Lastly, I organized the walk-in just like the day before before leaving for the evening.





Saturday I started making the breadcrumbs from the day before.  Now, we definitely had enough breadcrumbs for a good while.  Next, we got some deliveries from the farmers from the farmers market earlier that day, so I spent a good while making sure that everything made it into containers and into the walk-in.

Next, I began to make the pimento cheese fritters for the evening.  The pimento cheese fritters aren't normally on the menu anymore, but I had some family coming to dinner that night and they wanted to try the pimento cheese fritters because they're one of the things that I am involved in.  So, because I was already going to be making the fritters for my family, Jason decided that we should just put them on the tasting menu for the night.  After doing a few odd jobs around the kitchen, the fritters were ready to be breaded and finished.

By this time, we were just starting to get into the nights service, so I helped Chris with making croutons for his soup course.  I had to slice bread and butter it, then put the slices in the oven for a little while and finish them in a hotter oven to crisp them up.

Next, I halved an entire of sheet tray of cherry tomatoes for Jackson to sue during service.  Then, I cryovaced foie gras for Jackson and changed out the ice for all the seafood in the walk-in.

After I finished with all of those things, Emily (I'm not exactly sure what her title is, but she's like and assistant maitre'd) found me in the back of the kitchen and told me that my family wanted to know if I could come out and see them.  Ever since my family arrived that night, multiple people were telling me that my family was there and were asking me if I had a twin brother, it was pretty humorous.

I had to make sure that I was presentable before going out into the dining room in front of all the guests.  It was weird going out into the dining room because I could almost feel everyone looking at me, but it was nice to get to talk to my family for a little while.

Once I got back into the kitchen, I got to work on chopping some parsley for the line and lastly deboned some fish after Jason showed me how it was done.  Finally, I organized the walk-in (as usual) before leaving for the evening.

I was going to meet my family after dinner because we figured that we would be finished at about the same time, but they had just been served dessert when I was finished and there was no room to wait for them at Holeman and Finch, so I decided to go on home.

When I was walking to my car, the first thing I noticed was that the foie gras protestors were back.  This time though, they were more vocal and as I noticed that they were having some pretty intense arguments with Holeman and Finch and Restaurant Eugene customers.  I later found out that some of these arguments got pretty out of hand and the protesters were harassing our customers so we had to call the police.  I'm sure no one was arrested and they were just warned, but still, crazy stuff.

The Protesters (argument on the left side)

Till next time

Ben

67 hours left

Hometown VIPs

On Tuesday, I started working on making pickled watermelon rind again.  I couldn't get very far with it because the watermelon rind needed to be soaked in saltwater overnight, so I just prepped the watermelon rind and peeled it so that I could get right to it the next day.  While I was peeling the watermelon rind, though, I peeled parts of my fingers not once, but twice.  I couldn't believe that I had cut myself twice doing the same thing.  I was more upset with myself about cutting my self twice than I was about actually being injured.

Next, I cubed up four loaves of bread so that they could dry out to make breadcrumbs tomorrow.

After cubing up loaves of bread, David got me working on shelling edamame.  Was I supposed to stay uncool, please remind me?

I have shelled edamame before, but as a snack or appetizer, never to be used for something.  That's why it was interesting to learn that there are three layers of edamame shell, and I had to remove all of them.  Believe it or not, I shelled edamame for the rest of my shift and only made it about 1/4 of the way through all the edamame that needed to be shelled.  Luckily, I had shelled more than enough for the night, they just wanted it all shelled because it would have to be done at some point anyways.

Family meal today was....interesting.

We had a salad, roasted chicken, and a pasta salad.  It wasn't that it was bad food, because the food was pretty good.  But it wasn't until Woody asked if I was enjoying my ketchup chicken and blueberry pasta that I realized how odd the meal actually was.  However, the ketchup was homemade, and I avoided getting the blueberries because I though they were olives, so it wasn't so bad.

After not possibly being able to shell any more edamame, I organized the walk-in before I left for the evening.  However, I opened the door to leave the walk-in to see all the line cooks and prep cooks standing there.  Then Jason looked at me and said, "A table of 12 just requested pimento cheese fritters. Do we have any?"  After telling him that we don't have any fritters (remember, they were removed as the amuse boushe a few days ago), Jason asked if I could make some really quick.  I told him that I could do that and everyone offered to help me out.  Woody and Jackson started shaping the fritters and breading them while I began to make the breadcrumbs.  After a short while, we had finished all the pimento cheese fritters for the table and I was able to leave.

Turns out that Chef Hopkins was taking some friends to dinner and he was the one that requested the pimento cheese fritters.





Today, David got me working on slicing cucumbers which we would use to make the bread and butter pickles.  Finally, I have pickled just about everything except pickles and now I was finally getting to make the bread and butter pickles.

As I was slicing the cucumbers (which also needed to soak in saltwater overnight) Jason came up to me with a menu and told me that a corporation had bought out the restaurant for lunch and dinner and he needed me to make pimento cheese fritters and BLTs for the dinner that night.  I was pretty excited because they wanted me to make the appetizers for the buy out, this was a big deal given who had bought out the restaurant for the evening.  Who bought out the restaurant you ask?  I'll give you a hint....

The Coca - Cola Board of Directors.  Yeah, pretty big deal.

The minute I finished slicing the cucumbers for the pickles, I got right to work on making the pimento cheese fritters.  I wanted to make sure that I got them done fairly early because then I could have the rest of the time to focus on making the BLTs.  Once I had shaped the fritters and they were firming up in the walk-in, I made some more bread crumbs with the bread from the day before.

As I was making the breadcrumbs, Woody called me to the line to help them plate the entree for the lunch portion of the buy out.

My job was to take three slices of (very hot) roasted chicken and fan them out on the bean salad.  Above is what the plates looked like after my job was finished.  The entree would be finished and garnished by Chef Hopkins after I placed them on the pass.

The dessert portion of the lunch buy out was a peach clafloutis with vanilla ice cream.  The best part about buy outs like this is that we always make more food than we need, so we get to snack on the leftovers in the kitchen.  That means leftover roasted chicken (which we would later use to make a chicken salad for family meal) and peach clafloutis.

These things were like personal peach cobblers and they were amazing.

Next I got to work on making the BLTs.  I had made the BLTs before, but every time at least one aspect had already been done for me.  This time, though, I had to do everything.  I had to slice the bacon, bake the bacon, slice the tomatoes, slice the bread, toast the bread, pick the basil (because we didn't have any lettuce), and lastly assemble the sandwich.  The only thing I didn't make for this sandwich was the mayo, but it was homemade as well.

When I finished with the BLTs and took them to the line, the dinner part of the buy out was about to get started and a man (Muhtar Kent) came into the kitchen and thanked us in advance for the wonderful meal.  After the man left, Chef Hopkins informed us that that was the CEO of Coca-Cola.  "Just like President Obama, they don't allow him to drive.  They took his license and credit cards.  He's that important.  He could sell his stock for hundreds of millions of dollars." Chef informed us.

After doing a few more odd jobs, it was past time for me to leave.  As I left the restaurant, I couldn't help but notice multiple identical black mercedes' driving around the restaurant.  Very important people indeed.

Till next time,

Ben

93 hours left

You Just Made a Sandwich

When I arrived to work on Saturday, there were four women that I had never seen before on the line with Chef Hopkins.  Then I remembered that I spent two hours organizing the walk-in for guests, so these ladies must be the guests.  Turns out that they were having a private cooking lesson with Chef Hopkins.

Since I there wasn't anything that I needed to be working on, I started making more mustard.  We had 2/3 of the mustard seeds left and I was planning on making mustard for a while and finishing off at least another 1/3 of what we had left.  That was until Jason and Woody told me that they needed me to make 800 pieces of bacon and that making the mustard wasn't necessary as long as there was enough for the weekend (which there was since we still had about 20 L of finished mustard still left).

For the bacon, I had to use the industrial slicer and slice it about five times as thick as we normally do.  Then, I layered them on silpats on half sheet pans and put them in a 320 degree oven for 12 minutes to start.  After 12 minutes, the bacon was not fully cooked and we needed it to be crispy, so I kept adding time until i got the bacon to the desired doneness which ended up being 45 minutes of cooking time.  Then I would slice more bacon and start it all over again.  I thought that making all this bacon would take me the entire rest of the day (which it turns out it would), but I still had time to do other things while the bacon was cooking.

One of the things that I was able to do while the bacon was cooking was to cryovac portioned halibut and foie gras for Jackson.  While I was cryovacing the foie, Ryan asked me, "Did you hear that we have protestors coming tonight?"  I had not heard about this, so Ryan explained that a group of people were coming to protest outside the restaurant because we serve foie gras.  Some people have too much time on their hands.

Once I finished with cryovacing things for Jackson, Jason asked me to make more breadcrumbs (another task that takes a long time to do).  While cubing the bread that I was to use for the breadcrumbs, I mentioned to Ryan that all I'll be doing today is making mustard, bacon, and breadcrumbs to which he replied, "You just made a sandwich!"

Now it was time for family meal.  Today, family meal consisted of home made flour and corn tortillas, taco meat with cheese and onions, sauteed spinach, and fettucini with a light cheese sauce.

The rest of my time was spent making bacon and small tasks that people needed done for service like, crushing ice, picking micro basil, cutting cherry tomatoes in half, and quartering beets.

As I left restaurant Eugene for the evening, I saw the protestors.  I didn't see them for very long as I was driving by, but I would have gotten a picture if I could.  They were holding signs that said things like "Stop Animal Cruelty" and "Restaurant Eugene is not Green".  For those of you that don't know, the big issue with foie gras is that the ducks are force-fed in order to make the liver fattier and that is what they were protesting.  That being said, Restaurant Eugene is probably one of the most green restaurants in all of Atlanta.  Absolutely nothing is wasted and whatever is thrown away is sorted into recyclables and into compost bins before being thrown away.  I like animals as much as the next person, but those ducks were bred to be used for foie gras just like cows are bred for milk and beef and just like how chickens are bred for eggs and chicken.  Like I said earlier, some people have too much time.

I know that I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but I have been very busy and often forget to take pictures of things as I am doing them.  However, I did take one other picture today......

BACON!!!

Till next time,

Ben

111 hours left

Creative Blog Post Title

Well, it's official.  My last day of work for my internship at Restaurant Eugene will be August 6th (3 weeks from now).  It feels like this internship has been flying by, but it's not over yet, so on to what I did on Friday.

When I finally made it to work, I got to work on the Persian Pickled Peaches that I was supposed to have done on tuesday but didn't have enough of the ingredients that I needed.  But now, the white wine vinegar was supposed to come in that morning and I just had to mince the ginger, which was the first thing I did upon arrival.

When I was about half way through mincing the amount of ginger that I needed, the vinegar arrived.  Now I finally had everything I needed to pickle the peaches.  First step was to soak the ginger in the vinegar and toast the coriander seeds.  After that, all I had to do was combine everything together, bring the pot to a boil, and let it boil for 5 minutes.

While waiting for the peaches to boil, I went on a scavenger hunt for jars and lids to put the peaches in.  Eventually, and after a phone call to David, I found enough jars and lids for the peaches (as it would turn out, I would only need about 1/3 of the jars that I found).

As I was jarring the peaches, we had some drama in the kitchen.  I won't go into details, but I will say that Chef Hopkins was furious.  I will also say that Chef wasn't mad at anyone that works at Restaurant Eugene, but rather at something that happened.  For at least the next half hour, Chef was going around the kitchen informing everyone about how to handle that situation in the future.

Even though Chef was angry, he still had his sense of humor.  At one point he said, "I need to hang out in the walk-in for a bit to cool off."  Ryan told Chef, "I just finished making some lemonade if you would like some, Chef."  To which Chef replied, "Ooh, lemonade.  It'd better be good or else i might just pop!"

My next task was to work on the squash au gratin for service that evening.  I had to very thinly slice squash and layer them at least 8 layers (I had enough for 10 layers) tall on a half sheet pan with cream and salt.  Once I was finished, I put it in the oven for 20 minutes and then into the walk-in until needed.

As I was working on the au gratin, Jackson asked me to cryovac some fish that he had portioned with olive oil for him.  I have done this many times before, so this didn't take me very long.

Since I arrived to work at noon (two hours later than I am scheduled) I decided that I would stay two hours later than I was supposed to, and after finishing the au gratin, I had about 30 minutes left before I was supposed to leave, so Woody told me to organize the walk-in really well because we have guests coming in the next day.

After straightening everything up and moving things around to make more space for more than the half hour that I was supposed to do so, I asked Woody if he wanted to check it before I left.  Since Woody was working on the line, he didn't have time to look over everything in the walk-in, so he asked James to  take a look at it.  Turns out that James was a lot more strict than I was expecting and kept finding things in the walk-in that needed to be consolidated, or straitened, or separated, or labeled.  But it's all good cause before I left for the night, Aaron gave me a leftover s'more beignet right out of the fryer.  If anyone ever goes to Restaurant Eugene, the s'more beignets are, in my opinion, the best dessert on the menu.

Till next time,

Ben

121 hours left

Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the Tamis

When I arrived to work on Wednesday, David got me started on picking basil and parsley for a pesto that he would be making later.  This didn't take very long, so I started getting everything together for the Persian Pickled Peaches.  All I needed to find were the white wine vinegar and the ginger (neither of which we had enough of) and as I was looking for these ingredients, I notice that I had met another one of my goals.  I had made it onto the schedule.

Up until this point, my name had never been on the schedule.  I just figured that since my schedule never really changed, that it didn't need to be on the schedule, but now I'm on the schedule, so it's all good.

A little while later, Woody found me and got me working on making the Bloody Mary Mix that they sell at the H & F Bottle Shop.  After ricing a bunch of canned tomatoes (10 large cans), I started gathering all the other ingredients that I would need and found out, yet again, that we did not have everything for the recipe, so I would have to finish making the Bloody Mary Mix tomorrow.  I decided that I would mise (measure and store) everything that I did have out so that I could just throw everything together and bottle it tomorrow.

Ricing the tomatoes (easily the longest and most tiring part of the process)

Now that I had finished with the Bloody Mary Mix for the day, I decided to continue making breadcrumbs.  When I was about half way finished with the breadcrumbs, it was time for family meal.

Family meal consisted of some mexican rice, pulled pork, and sliced bread to make a sandwich with.

After family meal I got some disappointing news.  The pimento cheese fritters will no longer be the amuse boushe.  I was a little bummed to learn this because the pimento cheese fritters were my thing.  I was always the one to make them and I had gotten pretty good at it.  At the same time, though, making the fritters did take a long time, so it was also a bit of a relief that I wasn't going to have to make them anymore.

By the time I finished making breadcrumbs for the day, it was almost time to leave for the day, so I worked on a few odd jobs like slicing prosciutto and cryovacing some lamb bones before heading home for the evening.





First thing I did when I got to work today was get started on the Bloody Mary Mix.  All that I really had left to do was measure out the horseradish and combine everything together.  Once combined, I couldn't help but think that the Bloody Mary Mix smelled and tasted exactly like a really thin cocktail sauce.

I have never understood the appeal of Bloody Mary's.  I mean, who said, "Hey, lets combine some tomato soup, lime juice, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, sherry, pepper, salt, celery seed, and horseradish together and then add some vodka and stick a celery stalk in it.  Oh, yeah, and we'll drink it in the morning."?  That doesn't not sound tasty to me at all.

Once I jarred all the Bloody Mary Mix, I had to wait for David to get back from the store with the tops for the jars before I could process them.

While I was waiting for the jar lids, I decided to use the last of the bread that I had cubed at the beginning of the week to finish making breadcrumbs.

This may not look like much, but it's actually 6 loaves of bread that I made into breadcrumbs

Eventually I got the lids for the jars from David and was able to process all the jars of Bloody Mary Mix.  Later in the day, I got to take the jars of Bloody Mary Mix to the bottle shop where they would be labeled and sold.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal or anything, but David was too busy to deliver the mix, so he let me take his truck.  It was kinda cool to leave the restaurant and deliver something because I have never done that before and David runs errands like that all the time.

Next task for the day was to help david move some jars of various pickled items (bread & butter pickles, green tomatoes, watermelon rind, and peaches) over to Holeman and Finch who use them as functional decorations.  If you have ever been to Holeman and Finch, you may or may not have noticed that they usually have mason jars of pickles and other pickled items lining the tops of the windows and in some glass cases as you walk in.  Well, now the majority of the items that line the tops of the windows were made by yours truly.  So next time you're there, check them out.  Some of them even have my handwriting on the labels.  Cool huh?

After helping David, Woody asked me to make yellow mustard for Holeman and Finch (which is served with their burgers) because the person that started the process the day before was off today.  I gladly started working on making the mustard and had no idea what I was getting into...

PlayFoam anyone?

I started with these mustard seeds that had been soaking for 36 hours (that's why they're expanding out of the top).  I put one scoop of the seeds into a blender with two scoops of a water and vinegar mixture and blended them until smooth.  Then I took the mustard and forced it through the tamis to filter out the seeds and make the final product more smooth.

This is a very small amount of mustard being forced through the tamis

After forcing the mustard through the tamis, I added the spices which give the mustard it's flavor and yellow color.

Final mustard

This doesn't sound like it would take very long, but I assure you it is a time consuming and very messy project (especially forcing everything through the tamis).  After I was finished with making the mustard (which took about half of my day) it took me another 15 minutes just to clean up the mess that I had made.  All in all, I made 12 quarts of yellow mustard and still have 7/8 of the mustard seeds left to make more yellow mustard tomorrow.

Somewhere in all of this Bloody Mary and yellow mustard making, I ate family meal.

Family meal consisted of sauteed spinach and potatoes with baked chicken.

Till next time,

Ben

130 hours left

Breadcrumbling

Todays post will be short because
A) I forgot (and remembered upon my arrival to work) my notebook which I use to jot notes about the day so that I can remember them for this blog,
2) I also forgot my camera, so there will be no pictures, and
III) I only did about 5 things for the entire day.

This week is going to be tough for me.  Not because I'm working later than I'm supposed to or because I'm doing more difficult and therefore more stressful things in the kitchen, but because it is VBS week at my church.

I've been helping with VBS at my church for at least the past 5 years (most likely more) and I have been with the same group of kids for the past 3 years.  Every Summer I look forward to spending the week with these amazing kids and this year is the last year that they will be young enough to attend VBS, so it was going to be my last year with them as well.  As much as I want to spend the whole week with these kids, I've got a grown-up job that I need to go to, so I reluctantly told the people that I could only be at VBS for one day (Monday, one of my days off) this year.

Monday I went to my only day of VBS and had a blast (off).  It probably wasn't a good idea for me to go to VBS at all because now I want to spend the whole week at VBS more than ever.  So, I started thinking of ways that I could work VBS and still go to work at Restaurant Eugene.  I came up with the plan to ask Jason if I could come into work at noon and stay as late as needed until Friday.  I figured that they may allow this since Ryan had moved from the garde manger station to day prep, so we had an extra person in the mornings.

I never proposed my plan to Jason.  When I got to work this morning, I was talking with David and told him that I was a little bummed because I wasn't at VBS and explained everything to him but did not tell him about my idea of coming in late.  He was sympathetic and everything but told me that Keron was no longer working with us at Restaurant Eugene (and no, he was not fired nor did he quit), so we were now behind the 8 ball in the mornings.  I don't know if David was implying that they needed me to be there in the mornings, but that's the way I took it, so I decided that I shouldn't even ask about coming in late for the rest of the week.

Last week, Jason told me that at the beginning of this week he wanted me to work on making Persian Pickled Peaches, so that was the first thing I got to work on this morning.  I had to peel and slice a case of peaches before I knew how much of the other ingredients I would need for the recipe, so that's what I did.  After getting all the peaches ready, I figured out how much of everything else I would need and that's where I ran into a couple of problems.

I calculated that I would need about 4 gallons of white wine vinegar (which we didn't have) and a cup of minced ginger (which we also didn't have).  I told Jason and Woody that we didn't have everything that I needed for the recipe and they told me that they would order the ingredients and we would have them by tomorrow, so my project was put on hold for the day.  I measured out the ingredients that we did have and stored them in the walk-in so that I would be all ready to go in the morning.

Nest on the list were breadcrumbs and a lot of them.  Jason pointed out 6 loaves of bread that he wanted me to make into breadcrumbs.  To put this into perspective, one loaf of bread can make enough breadcrumbs to last 3 or 4 days.  To also put this in perspective, it takes about 2 or 3 hours to turn one loaf of bread into breadcrumbs.  Needless to say, I was making breadcrumbs for most of the day and still have more bread to make into breadcrumbs for tomorrow.

David gave me the tasks of processing the pickles that he made today and putting away a delivery which I would do to take breaks from making breadcrumbs.  One of the ingredients we got in the delivery was a whole box (imagine a box the size of 2 1/2 shoeboxes) of thyme.  I managed to get all of the thyme into one of our cambros and was going to the walk-in to put it away when Jason came out of the walk-in and asked, "what's that?" referring to the cambro.  I couldn't resist.  I quickly and nonchalantly answered, "All the thyme in the world." Jason couldn't help but laugh.

After a few more hours of making breadcrumbs, I got to a good stopping point for the breadcrumbs for the evening, so I asked if there was anything that needed to be done.  Woody had some baby golden beets that needed to be peeled and a chicken stock to be strained, so that's what I worked on.  Once I finished with those things, Ryan had a pork jus reduction that needed to be strained, so I did that for him as well.  After I finished with that, though, it was past time for me to leave, so after checking to see if there was anything else that needed to be done, I went home for the evening.

Till next time,

Ben

147 hours left

Long Days

Thursday was a fairly easy day. The big project for the day was making the cherry tomato jam. I helped David with gathering all the ingredients for the jam, but he had to leave to get some jars for us to put the jam in, so he left me to finish with the jam. The recipe called for the cherry tomatoes to be cut in half and added to the rest of the ingredients, but David thought that this would take too long and the only reason for cutting the tomatoes was to allow the liquid to mix with everything else, so David told me crush the tomatoes instead of cutting them.

Macerated cherry tomatoes

While waiting for the cherry tomatoes to cook, I got started on the pimento cheese fritters by shaping them and leaving them in the walk-in to firm up. While waiting for the cherry tomatoes to cook and for the fritters to firm up, I peeled, sliced, and fried the shallots for the nights service.

Remember a few posts back when I talked about setting goals for myself during this internship (ex. watching a service, participating in a service, getting to go to the upper office, having my own agenda for the day)? Well, today I achieved another one of my goals.

In the kitchen there is a telephone. This telephone serves as communication between the kitchen and the upper office so that we don't have to keep going up and down the stairs to tell each other things. I never answer the phone because there is no reason that they would be calling for me and because there are usually people like Jason, David, or Woody that could better answer questions in the kitchen at the time. However, today was the day that I got to answer the phone.

The phone had been ringing for a while and Aaron, Keron, and I were the only ones in the kitchen. In this situation, Aaron would be the one to answer the phone, but he was working on a project, so he told me to answer the phone for him.

It wasn't a very important call, just a call from upstairs asking if we needed anything, but the fact remains that I had successfully answered the kitchen phone. Good day.

Along with the completion of one of my goals, I had a revelation about the breadcrumbs process. I discovered that if the cubed pieces of bread are allowed to dry for a few days and then processed, they are much MUCH easier to sift through the tamis than fresh bread crumbs. In fact, the dry breadcrumbs practically fall through the tamis with little prompting. From now on, I will try my best to let the cubed bread dry out before making the breadcrumbs.

Now it was time for family meal which consisted of roasted chicken, roasted squash, and spicy mac 'n cheese!

After family meal, about all I had time for was to finish the pimento cheese fritters and do all the odd jobs that people asked of me for service.



Friday we had about 40 pounds of green tomatoes that David wanted to pickle, so I immediately got to work on prepping the green tomatoes. After finishing the tomatoes and working out how much of everything else that we would need, I came to the realization that we did not have a pot large enough to cook all of the green tomatoes at the same time, so we decided to do it in two batches. Next, I got to work on gathering and measuring the spices needed and slicing the bell peppers for the pickled green tomatoes.

Once we got the green tomatoes on the stove to cook, I got working on making the pimento cheese fritters for service. However, we did not have much pimento cheese left in the walk-in, so after I got through what pimento cheese we did have, I went to the bakery to get more.

On my way to the bakery, I received all the messages that I couldn't get since I don't get service in the kitchen. One of the messages was my dad who told me that my car was ready to be picked up from the collision center (due to damage from the tree that fell) but, since I had the rental car, I would have to pick it up and if I didn't go get it that day, I would have to wait until Monday to get my car back.

Once I got the pimento cheese and got back to Restaurant Eugene, I talked with Jason, told him everything that was going on, and asked if I could take a couple of hours off to go pick up my car. Jason told me that I could absolutely go get my car, so off I went.

Finally got my car back almost good as new

I got back with just enough time to finish forming the pimento cheese balls before family meal

Today's family meal was full of yummy dishes. There was crispy fried chicken, roasted homefries with home made catsup, baked grits, and some amazing zucchini bread. I have found that family meals where the pastry chefs contribute something are more often that not some of the best meals that we've had, and this meal was no exception to that rule.

After family meal, I processed the cherry tomato jam from the day before and the mulberry jam from a few days earlier.

Cherry tomato jam

Mulberry jam

After finishing those jams, I started to jar and process the pickled green tomatoes. while waiting for the pickled green tomatoes, I decided to finish breading the pimento cheese fritters. Then I cut loaves of bread so that they could begin to dry out before making breadcrumbs.

I had decided that since I spent about an hour and a half going to get my car, that I would stay until 7:30 instead of my usual time to leave which is 6:00. So, I asked if there was anything I could do for the line. Everyone was pretty busy, so they had little things that I could do for them and whenever I would finish something, someone else would come to me with something that I could help them with.

It ended up being a pretty busy night since I didn't even have a chance to leave until after 9:00. Once I did leave though, I contemplated just heading over to Holeman and Finch for a 10:00 burger since it was so late and I was already there. Even the valet guys for the restaurants said, "You're getting out of here pretty late tonight" as I was walking to my car.



Saturday I knew that we would be getting some deliveries from the farmers market, so I started to organize the walk-in so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed when the deliveries came in. After finishing in the walk-in, I started to chop parsley and got through two blocks of butter before the deliveries arrived.

Getting everything into the walk-in took a good while, but once I finished, Woody got me working on assembling tarts. I had assembled these tarts before, but everything was already made for the first time I made them, this time I had to do everything.

Making the filling for the tart, pimento cheese and rendered bacon

Finished tart filling

Earlier this week a cotton candy machine was delivered to Restaurant Eugene. I was told that the cotton candy machine was going to be used for a baseball and beer dinner that Holeman and Finch would be hosting over the weekend. So, as I was working on the tarts, James called me over to the back workbench to try some of the bacon cotton candy that he was making for the dinner.

It was pretty cool. I didn't think it tasted a whole lot like bacon, but it definitely smelled like bacon so it worked pretty well. Very cool application of unique culinary tools.

For the past week, Ryan has moved from the garde manger station to one of the day prep stations (what I do), so we've been helping each other with tasks that were delegated to us.  He has been a huge help because now I'm not the only one working to fit everything in the walk-in and I'm not the only one that people can go to when they need something for the line.

I started making the pimento cheese fritters for the day and got 100 of them formed before letting them chill in the walk-in and moving on to something else.

By that time, it was already time for family meal

Family meal was supposed to include tortilla chips and taco shells so that we could make tacos and nachos, but by the time I go there, they were all gone, so I just mixed together some of the taco meat, rice, and the zesty taco sauce for my family meal.

Woody had been working on making tomato water for most of the day and by the time I was finished with my family meal, it was time for the tomato water to be strained, so I strained it for him.

For those of you that haven't worked in a kitchen or anything like that, it can get pretty crazy and fast paced and with people carrying and moving things around all the time, it can be hazardous to walk around.  Because of this, it is customary to announce when you are going to walk behind someone by saying, "Behind" or if you need to get something above or below someone by saying, "Above you" or "Below you".  Announcing where you are going and if you're carrying something hot just lets people know to be careful and helps to keep the kitchen a safer place.

Saying these things have been weird for me.  If I'm just going to get something, I'll forget to announce if I'm behind someone or something like that.  And if I do tell them that I am behind them, I usually don't talk very loud because I'm not a loud person by nature.  That being said, I ALWAYS will announce where I am and where I'm going if I am carrying something hot or large.

Now, for a project I was working on, I needed a pan that just so happened to be below Chef Hopkins.  I felt like, "He's the chef, so, being the intern, I shouldn't make him stop what he's doing just so I can get something I want" so I waited for him to move and made my move to get the pan I wanted.  Chef bumped into be and I immediately apologized.  Chef Hopkins then loudly said, "Underneath" for me.  Chef then went on to tell me that we talk "like we're talking to grandma, loud"  We both laughed and I told him that I would do better next time, which I did.

Now that I had my pan, I got working on cleaning chanterelles for Jason.  Cleaning the chanterelles took a long time because the ones I had to clean were pretty small and I had to clean half a sheet pan of them. But I eventually got through them and moved on to blanching green beans for Jason.

After I finished blanching the green beans, it was pretty evident that Jackson had a lot of stuff that he needed to get done, so Ryan and I offered to help him with whatever he needed.  All in all, I halved some okra, fetched caviar and portioned fish, sliced potatoes for a potato salad, crushed ice, as well as many other tasks before there was a chance for me to leave for the evening.

It was a very busy and hectic, yet very fun and informative day of work.

Till next time,

Ben

155 hours left

peachtree road farmers market

Saturday morning, before I had to go to work, I decided to check out the Peachtree Road Farmers Market (which Chef Hopkins and his wife helped found) upon Jason and Woody's recommendation. I was not disappointed.

I arrived at the Cathedral of St. Philip, which is a magnificent building in its self, and followed the masses of people until I found the farmers market in the back parking lot of the church.

At first glance, the farmers market looked rather small, but after taking a few laps around the market, there were easily about 50 venders out there.

This market offered everything. They had multiple vegetable stands, H&F Bread Co., multiple creameries, a honey vendor, treats for your dog, crafts for kids, live music, tamalis, chef demos, and even a guy making crepes to order...

... and a traveling wood burning pizza oven

I wanted to try a little something from everywhere, but unfortunately I only had two dollars with me, so I started looking around for how to maximize my $2. While walking around and checking prices, I found Jason who invited me to walk with him and talk to vendors.

Jason had a few vendors that he needed to talk to (Sun Dog Farms, Atlanta Fresh), but we took our time and he pointed out interesting things about different vendors. For example, Jason mentioned that the guy who opened The Spotted Trotter used to be a sous chef at Restaurant Eugene.

Jason would talk with the vendors and tell them that if they have any extra stuff left over after the market, to drop by the restaurant and we'll take what we can.

Eventually, Jason had to go get some things and I had to get ready to go to work, so we went our separate ways. Before leaving the market, though, I spent my $2 (or rather $1.50) on a cookie from The Cookie Studio. The Cookie Studio had all kinds of interesting cookies like the Breakfast Cookie which includes oatmeal, granola, cocoanut, pecans, and other tasty breakfast items, but I decided to go for the Key Lime Sugar Cookie.

Needless to say, this was an excellent cookie. It was soft, but not crumbly and contained just the right amount of lime.

I will definitely be coming back to this farmers market....and with more money

Now, on to work.

I arrived to work to find a note for me on the dry erase board that's on the door of the walk-in that read, "Ben, please make breadcrumbs. Woody"

I was ready to get started on making breadcrumbs, but Jason wanted me to get to work on cleaning morel and chanterelle mushrooms for service. I knew that cleaning the chanterelles would take a long time, but what I didn't know was that cleaning morels would take even longer. To clean the morels, I had to soak them in water and drain them multiple times to wash all the dirt from the crevices.

By the time I was finished with the mushrooms, some of the vendors from the market had already come and gone, so there was plenty of produce for me to put in the walk-in. After a while, I couldn't fit any more stuff in the walk-in, so I made sure that everything that needed to be refrigerated was in the walk-in and the rest I left out on the back work bench.

Next, I started making the pimento cheese fritters to the night. After I finished forming the fritters and was waiting for them to firm up before breading them, Ryan came over to help me get the rest of the produce into the walk-in. Ryan had some extra time because Chris was going to be working on his station and Ryan was there to make sure that he didn't get overwhelmed.

Somehow, we found a place for everything in the walk-in and then it was time for family meal

Today, family meal consisted of the usual salad, some roasted squash, and meatballs. Everything was delicious as usual.

After I finished family meal, I got right back to work on finishing the fritters because I wanted to make sure that I got those finished before service started for the night. Next I was asked to chop some parsley for the line for service.

As I was chopping the parsley, Judith came around the corner, saw me and said, "Stay right there." and left. A short while later she came back with this...

... an official Restaurant Eugene hat. Judith told me that the night before, she came downstairs with a hat for me, but I had already gone home, so they gave the hat to someone else. But, I've got my hat no, so it's all good.

Now I finally had time to address the task issued to me via the dry erase board, breadcrumbs. I sliced up some loaves of bread, processed them, and began scraping them through the tamis. After I had made a good amount of bread crumbs, it was almost time to leave for the evening, but I still had time to do a couple more things for everyone, so I peeled some garlic and cut up some lemons for Gavin.

Till next time,

Ben

195 hours left (officially over half way finished)

fasa

When I showed up to work today, David got me working on trimming, peeling, and slicing watermelon rinds that we would be pickling later.

My dad always talks about pickled watermelon rind, but I've never tried them before, so I was interested to see how they tasted once we finished.

While I was working on the pickled watermelon rinds, David was working on making mulberry jam with some frozen mulberries that he found in the bakery freezer. I never knew, or rather never thought, that mulberries were an actual fruit. But now that we were using them for something, I couldn't get the "Pop Goes the Weasel" nursery rhyme out of my head.

David had to leave to get more jars for us to put the jam and the pickled watermelon rind in, so he left me to attend to the jam and finish slicing the watermelon rind while he was gone.

Note: this is not all of the watermelon rind

It didn't take long to finish the watermelon rind and get the brine together (which had to boil and simmer for 15 minutes before adding the rind). While I was waiting for the brine to boil, I was able to peel, slice, and fry the shallots that we would need for the night's service.

While I was doing all of these things, Chef Hopkins was in the kitchen working on some things of his own when he went up to the chalkboard and wrote, "Fat Acid Salt Aromatics" (FASA) and drew a box around them. Chef Hopkins then preceded to tell me, and anyone else that crossed his path, that those four things are the four elements that every cook should be thinking about before sending food out to a customer. We buy the best ingredients that we can and those four elements should work together to highlight the ingredients. For example, we could take thin slices of carrots add some orange juice (acid), a nice sea salt (salt), and some basil (aromatic) and make an excellent salad. Without the acid, salt, or aromatic, the dish would be bland.

As I was going to get something, I passed by Chef Hopkins who asked, "Ben, what all do you have going on today?" I answered him with, "Well, I have to finish off these pickled watermelon rinds. I'm keeping an eye on this mulberry jam for David and will probably help him with it once he gets back. Then I have to make the pimento cheese fritters, then bread and finish the pimento cheese fritters. Oh, and I have to make breadcrumbs." "Good. Busy day. Breadcrumbs are important. Fasa."

A short while later David showed up with the new jars right as the pickled watermelon rinds were ready to be jarred. So, I jarred the pickled rinds and processed them.

Now that I was finished with the watermelon rind, I could get to the things that I had on my agenda for the day, like making breadcrumbs.

I found some breadcrumbs that someone had cryovaced a few days ago in the walk-in and decided to use them first. Because they breadcrumbs had been vacuum packed, they were pressed into a solid block, so I had to use a food processor to cut them down to a manageable size again. Much to my surprise and delight, these breadcrumbs had already been put through the tamis (I know, I know. I spelled it wrong in previous posts), so they were much easier to force back through the tamis and took no time at all.

Now that I had breadcrumbs, I started on shaping the pimento cheese fritters. Not much to report here other than wile I was working on the fritters, Chef came back to my station to use the cryovac and mentioned that the last time he used that machine, he was cryovacing the same thing (5 different potatoes in 5 different fats with 5 different herbs) and I was working on the pimento cheese fritters. Talk about deja vu.

While waiting on the fritters to firm up so that I could bread them, I peeled some potatoes for david who would be using them to make his German potato salad for the line to use for service. While doing this, Woody asked me to cube butter and cut lemons for the line after I was finished with the potatoes and pimento cheese fritters.

Before I knew it it was time for family meal.

This has got to be one of the best family meals that I have had this summer. Breakfast for dinner. It consisted of grits with bacon and chicken crackling (small pieces of fried chicken fat) and an egg casserole with mushrooms, green beans, onions, and all sorts of other delicious veggies.

After family meal, it was back to the fritters. It didn't take long to finish the fritters (even after having to move to 2 different stations) and I was finished with breading and reshaping them in less than an hour. On to cubing butter and cutting lemons.

I had to cube the butter and cut the lemons on the line because Jackson needed my previous station to break down fish and James was at my usual station breaking down lamb. This wouldn't be a problem except that they had the heating coils on to keep the food hot and I was trying to cut butter. But this just meant that I needed to work fast and in batches which isn't too difficult.

While I was cutting the lemons, Judith (one of the restaurant office ladies) noticed that I didn't have a Restaurant Eugene hat on. She asked me if they had given me a hat and I told her that they hadn't. Judith looked at Woody and said, "I think he deserves a hat." Woody said, "Yeah, a souvenir." So, hopefully I'll be getting an official Restaurant Eugene hat sometime in the near future.

Before I left, Jason asked me what time I was scheduled to come in tomorrow. I told him that I am supposed to come in at noon. Jason told me that I should go to the farmers market that Chef Hopkins and his wife (Gina, who also works in the restaurant office) helped found. I told him that I would try to make it there before work, so maybe I'll have some cool farmers market stuff to talk about in my next post.

Till next time,

Ben

203 hours left