On my own

Yesterday, David told me that he would be taking today off so that he could do an event. David also said that I should think about coming into work an hour or so earlier that usual so that I could finish the pickled peaches. He said there are less people, it's cooler in the kitchen, and there's more room to work earlier in the mornings, so it would be a great time for me to finish breaking down the peaches and to complete the pickling and jarring process. Also, since he would not be there in the morning, Keron (the saucier) usually gets to work at 8am so he could answer any of my questions. I thought that this would be a great idea (plus, if I get there an hour early, I get to leave an hour early). I told Jason (one of the executive sous chefs) that I was planning to come in and leave an hour early just to make sure that it was okay. He said that it would be fine and that he would see me tomorrow.

I arrived to work this morning at 9am (a full hour before I normally report to work). No one was in the kitchen. David was gone for the day, Keron wasn't there for some reason, it was also Jason's day off, and Woody (the next in command under Jason) wasn't scheduled to report to work until 1:30pm. I was all alone. I didn't see another person in the kitchen until Jorje (the dishwasher) showed up at 10am.

Luckily I knew exactly what I need to do to finish the pickled peaches. I already had the pickling brine put together, I knew where the peaches were, and I had the recipe. So, first things first, I had to sterilize the jars caps that I would be putting the pickled peaches in.

Then, I had to finish pealing and pitting the peaches that I didn't get to the day before. Next, I had to bring the brine to a boil and let it cook for 20 minutes.

By the time I had done all of this, Aaron (one of the pastry chefs) had showed up. I felt like I should be doing something while waiting for the pickling brine to boil, and with no one that I usually help to go to, I asked Aaron if I could help him with anything. He said that there wasn't really much that I could do, but I could measure out the mis en place for a pate a choux that he would be making. At this point, Woody had shown up for work (apparently the schedule that had him coming in at 1:30 was wrong) and my brine had begun to boil.

The brine smelled amazing. It smelled slightly similar to a concoction that my mom puts on the stove around Christmas time for aromatics. Every time Woody would walk by the pot of brine, he would say, "Mmm. That smells great!"

20 minutes later and I was ready to actually start pickling peaches. I was to put the peaches in the brine and let them cook for 10 minutes.

Then, I had to jar the peaches and fill them with the brine.

After jarring all the peaches and cleaning up my station, I had to process the jars of pickled peaches in a steam oven at 212 degrees for 10 minutes. However, because the jars were so large, I could only fit a few jars in the seam oven at a time, and it took about 40 minutes.
Finished pickled peaches

Now that I had finally finished pickling peaches, Woody gave me a sack of sugar snap peas and said that he needed 100 of them cut for service tonight, but he wanted them cut a certain way. Like this...

While this may look like the sugar snap peas are just cut in half, they're not. Sugar snap peas have a thread that run down one of the sides and I had to cut along that thread so that the peas would stay in the pod without one of the sides. The problem, however, was not cutting the pods so that the peas stayed in the pod, but rather finding pods with big enough peas to use.

I was about half way through with the sugar snap peas when it was time for family meal (pictured at the top of the post). I quickly fixed myself a plate of cauliflower, grilled spicy chicken and bread with the benedictine spread. That's right folks, I made something that was used for family meal. It actually worked perfectly with the meal because the spicy grilled chicken was really spicy, and the benedictine spread (made with cucumbers and cream cheese) was refreshing enough to cancel the heat from the chicken.

I was rushing to finish cutting the sugar snap peas because it was getting close to 5pm (when I was supposed to leave work) and one of the chefs from Holeman & Finch needed my workbench to prep for tonight's service. I ended up finishing with the peas before 5pm, but Gavin (one of the line cooks) had asked me to organize the walk-in to make it easier for everyone during service. I got to work on consolidating produce and moving items around for easier access and for more space. Lastly I had to sweep and scrub the floor of the walk-in to make sure that it was clean.

As I was scrubbing the floor of the walk-in, Chef Hopkins walked in, grabbed one of the goblets that we keep chilled to serve ice cream in, and started pouring himself a chalice of milk.

Before taking his first sip, he looked at me and asked, "Do you like milk?" All I could think to say was, "Ummm, yes." What an odd way to start a conversation. Chef Hopkins then followed that question with, "Have you ever done anything with dairy?" This I knew how to answer. I told him that was was in a dairy processing class two semesters ago that worked with milks, cheeses, and ice creams, and that I actually work at the '55 Exchange (Chemson's ice cream shop) where I have made my own flavor. I thought that all this information might impress the chef, but then he asked, "Do you have anything to do with Clemson Bleu Cheese? It's really good bleu cheese." Unfortunately I had to tell him that I don't make the cheese and went back to scrubbing the floor as he left with his goblet of milk.

After finishing organizing and scrubbing the walk-in, I was free to leave. It was 6pm. I showed up to work an hour early, no one else showed up until I am usually scheduled to get there, and I stayed an hour later. It really wasn't that bad though. I had fun, learned a lot of stuff today, and wasn't as worn out as I usually am at that time in my day.

Till next time,

Ben

351 hours left