Musings

One thing that people do not realize is, in this industry, we don't get "normal" weekends. For example, this week I have Monday and Thursday off. Very rarely do you see a cook with a Saturday or Sunday off. These are typically the two busiest days of the week for us, so its generally all hands on deck. I've had people irritated with me because I cant go out on a Saturday night, but I usually have to work at 6:30am for a breakfast shift on Sundays. Ah well, c'est la vie.

As promised...

Picture thread!!!

So, here we have our prime rib, which we do for some functions, as well as Saturday and Sunday nights for the general public.

The prime is rubbed with mustard, then dusted with rosemary and black pepper.  We cook it to a rare, and then can continue the cooking to order.  This is served with Yorkshire Puddings, mixed veg and mashed potatoes.

So, what do you do when you've got too much prime left over from the weekend?  You make BBQ steak pizza! (above) This has our BBQ sauce instead of marinara, prime rib chunks and red onion all smothered with a cheddar mozzarella cheese blend.  Or, you make steak and cheese sandwiches.  :)

Yes folks, you are reading that right.  It was 115 degrees F on the line the other day.












Okay...the following are pics from the preparation of our pulled pork,  you'll see the pork shoulders (also called pork butt), the trimming of such, and the pork after it's been rubbed with our secret dry rub.  Figured it would be easier to just give you the heads up in one block of text rather than posting beside each pic. :)

How do you make a healthy food very unhealthy?  Simple, you add bacon, cheese and a mayo based sauce, the following are pics from the making of our broccoli salad.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my photo tour of the foods we make, I promise I will post more pictures soon, including a video of our chef lighting one of the BBQs for a function we had.  He really likes fire :)

Well here I am, enjoying a day off, getting a chance to relax and think back on the last few months. Its been a long strange trip, that's for sure.

I'm normally a very quiet and shy person, but when I'm in the kitchen I find I'm more outgoing and slightly more extroverted. Generally I work the fryers, make salads, plate and expedite. I'm learning to be more organized and how to multitask more efficiently. It can be very high stress, but I'm finding that I'm not buckling under the pressure like I would have in the past.

Being the only woman in the kitchen is definitely an interesting experience. I've found that women in this profession have to be dirtier, louder and more outgoing than our male counterparts or we just can't survive. We also have to work harder.

The past week or so, we had about six events we had to do in addition to our usual league nights. It means a bit more stress, but I find it to be a welcome break from doing the same thing every day. Once in a while during tournaments, I get to step out of the kitchen for an afternoon and work the grill outside to provide burgers and hotdogs for participants at the turn. Its a nice break, but its always nice to get back into my whites and work in the kitchen again.

Well folks, I have finally hit the wall. My culinary friends will know the wall of which I speak. The wall where you start to question why you do this job, why you keep going back to the sweltering kitchen day after day. And then you get the chance to look out into the dining room, or perhaps you see some patrons walking past the kitchen, and it hits you: people love your food. You are satisfying them on a primal level, giving them sustinence and pleasure. This is why we do what we do.

An Update...

I'm still here!  I haven't died in the sweltering heat of the kitchen, I promise.  I deeply apologize for the lack of updates over the last little while, the hours have been killing me.  Generally on my days off, all I want to do is sleep, and on the days I work, I get home and want to sleep.  I keep getting told that I'm going to adjust and get used to it, but really, it's been two months, why aren't I used to it yet?

I'm still finding that I'm learning new things every day, and I promise to post pictures soon.  I'm finally feeling like I can hold my own at my station, (fryer and salads/plating/expediting).  The guys I work with have been so very helpful in teaching me and guiding me as I learn how to become a productive member of the culinary world.

I apologize for the amount of time between this and my last post, it's been rather difficult to adjust to the crazy hours I've been working.

So we've got a few events under our belts now, and are moving quickly towards being open full time.  So far, it's been a retirement party, and the opening social for our ladies' league.  Both seem to have gone off without much grief, and the food was well received.  Tonight is the opener for the mens' league, and tomorrow is fish fry Friday. 

I've been working rather interesting hours, and it's amazing to have gone from a job where you're glued to a computer and having to work exactly 8 hrs a day, to one where you're running around like mad and working anywhere from 8-12 hr days.  I've not seen a day longer than 12 yet, but have been told by friends in the industry to expect them. 

I'm slowly but surely getting into the swing of things, and having a blast the whole time.  The folk I work with are amazing and very patient, but have the same passion for great food.  It's been fun to play with ingredients and see where the flavours can go, as well as learning new techniques on old favourites that I hadn't before considered. 

I hope to be able to update with more regularity as my schedule stabilizes and I get more used to the physical aspects of this career path. 

What do cooking and being in a Douglas Adams novel have in common?

Don't forget your towel.

Seriously, your dry, clean towel is probably one of the more important tools you have at your disposal as a cook. With it, you can wipe your hands or your knives, you can steady pots, you can take sheetpans out of the oven.  So yeah, don't forget your towel.

I've found that habits adopted at work in the kitchen seem to carry over into your personal life.  That thing with the towel for example.  I typically wear mine tucked into the pocket of my jeans so it hangs down, and recently, while at a friend's house helping with dinner, I reached down to wipe my hands and lo and behold, no towel.  It may seem silly, since I've only been doing this a few days, but it already has become habit. 

So, I guess an update on progress is in order.  I worked a Friday prep shift, then Saturday and Sunday breakfast.  Friday was fun and enlightening, and I found I learned a lot.  Saturday was pretty slow, with three of us in the kitchen.  I think we did a total of 14 covers between 8 and 1.  Sunday on the other hand...woah.  It started out relatively slow, then grew to a steady pace.  Just when we thought everything was going well, we discovered an issue with our POS system, resulting in an order being delayed.  Just as we were recovering from that, we got a table of 12.  With only two of us in the kitchen, and me working toast and plating, I didn't think we'd be able to manage, but Chef Mullet taught me how to keep cool under pressure and stay organized.  We sent out all orders for that table in no time.  Still, only 59 covers.

Monday, well Monday was a day for us to play.  We are still working on the menu, and today we got in our first order of "real food".  Experimenting with sauces and fritters and soups, it was just really fun, and very informative.  I can't wait until my next shift.  However, first, two days of rest.....