Today was my first Saturday of work and it was awesome. I want to go ahead and inform you all there there will not be as many pictures in this post because I was too busy doing stuff all day (and I didn't want people to think I was weird for taking pictures of everything that I did).
On Saturdays I am scheduled to work from noon until 8pm. I chose these hours because I would be able to be there and observe a service (usually when I leave at 6pm, they are just about to start the service for the night).
However, today, a group of bankers had bought out the entire restaurant for a party/gathering/meeting, so everything we did today was in preparation for the party. The first thing I did when I got into work today was make pasta dough. I have made pasta dough before, so it was pretty easy. However, Woody gave me some tips to be able to know when the pasta dough was finished. First tip was that the dough becomes glossy or slightly shiny and the second tip was that the dough should spring back to form when pressed out, both of these visual cues let you know that the gluten had developed in the dough.
The dough has to rest before we can roll it out, so we put the dough in the cryovac, vacuumed all the air out, and put the dough in the walk-in for a while.
While we were waiting for the the dough to rest, we got some deliveries of produce and since David is off on Saturdays, the task of sorting and storing fell to me. We got some purslane, wood sorrel, dandelion greens (yes, dandelion), wood nettles, tarragon with blossoms, licorice mint blossoms, and horseradish leaves from Indian Ridge Farms, which is a self sustainable farm in Georgia that uses many native american methods of farming. We also got some garlic, cabbage, and cucumbers from Burge Organic, and magenta spreen, mustard, cress, sorrel, edible mum, and onions from another farm.
A few posts ago I mentioned garlic scapes. Many people were not familiar with garlic scapes and asked me what they were. Well, this should help everyone out...
Once I finished receiving all the new produce, the dough had rested long enough and Woody and I took the short half a block walk up to the H&F Bakery where they have a sheeter! All the previous times that I have made pasta, I have had to use a pasta machine, which can really be a pain. Having a sheeter, though, made rolling out the dough actually enjoyable. It was so cool. I didn't have to worry about cranking anything, or feeding the dough through, I just pressed a lever and away it went. Next thing you know, i had 15 sheets of pasta ready to go.
Now that the pasta was taken care of, Jackson (one of the line cooks) told me he had a job for me. He wanted me to slice cherry tomatoes for the BLT appetizer that he was making for service. Little known fact: cutting a tomato with a regular knife can actually dull the blade, so it's best (and easier) to use a serrated knife. Even though I was using a serrated knife, the skin of the little tomatoes were still pretty tough to slice through and I couldn't put too much pressure on the tomatoes for fear of them bursting or having squished tomato slices. After a while I got the hang of it and could consistently get three slices from a medium cherry tomato. I can now add "super thin tomato slicer" to my list of skills.
Glorious finished BLT sandwich appetizer...
Family meal today was macaroni noodles with an excellent tomato sauce (which had meatballs, but they were all gone by the time I got there) and roasted squash.
Like I mentioned earlier, a group of bankers had bough out the restaurant for the evening. Apparently these bankers were very important people because, according to everyone in the kitchen, "these guys have more security than Jimmy Carter" (who ate at Restaurant Eugene a week before I started). We only had one security guy in the kitchen (I would later see four of them standing outside as I left for the day), but he had the little earpiece and tiny microphone that he would occasionally whisper things into and everything. Along with the security detail, the bankers had a bomb squad complete with k-9 unit come through and check the restaurant and kitchen. I must say, the dog was very professional, he didn't beg for scraps or anything while he was searching the kitchen for bombs.
Next I got to cut the twine off of beef tenderloin that Woody was searing. What a great job. The smell was absolutely heavenly, there were juices running off of the pieces of meat that were making me salivate, and it looked....well....
After that we were pretty much ready for service, so there was cleaning anything and waiting around for service to start. It was pretty awesome to watch the four line cooks work so quickly and efficiently to get the appetizers out to the guests. There was nothing that I could do, so I just observed. Next there was some more waiting around for the all the guests to arrive and be seated. It was at this point that I was asked to help them assemble one of the dishes for service. My job was to place a small about of a cucumber salad on top of one of the dishes and set it on the counter for pick up. It was a small job, but the fact remains, I was on the line for a dinner service. This was one of my personal goals for the internship and I had already achieved it in a little over a week. Who knows how far I'll advance before my internship is over?
I have Sunday and Monday off from work to recoup and relax. But, after working in the kitchen for a week, there are still some things that I need to do for work on my days off. So, mission for my days off: 1) Buy a knife case so that it's easier to carry my knives. B) Get very comfortable shoe inserts so that my feet and back aren't killing me after work every day. And III) Buy a short sleeve chef coat because I want to be able to stand the heat in the kitchen so that I don't have to get out.
Till next time,
Ben
343 hours left
No comments:
Post a Comment