A Dessert-Worthy Father's Day

Today I was back to working in the bar – just in time for the busiest day of the week, Sunday. But not only was today Sunday, it was Father’s Day Sunday. I got there by 11:00a.m., found out what was done on the pastry section from the cook who had been there all week. Pastry was left in very good shape – there was plenty of everything, as we are always sure to do lots of prep on Saturdays to prepare for the busy Sundays. So I finished setting up the station, and had a few tasks I had in mind that I could complete – filling ramekins with apple filling, making brownie mix, slicing strawberries, etc. The problem was, I was having trouble getting to them. At first, the appetizer and main course stations needed help with a few things – making mashed potatoes, prepping salad, etc. My little arm can only turn the potato ricer so fast, and it was a huge batch of mash! But after, it was the number of dessert orders.

I have never seen this many dessert orders come in! Some days I have worked in the bar and only had a total of about three dessert orders all day. Other times, I get dessert orders but only at specific times – such as the lunch and supper rushes. And usually it will be single orders, not orders with two to three desserts. Today, however, was completely different. I was getting a lot of dessert orders, approximately fifty in total at final count. And many of these dessert orders were for eight to ten desserts! Having fifteen dessert orders for three different tables hanging in front of you can be quite daunting – as you want to get them out as fast as possible, have them all ready for one table at the same time, and not keep the other table waiting. I am still not used to working busy restaurant service shifts, so having a waiter shout, “one brownie, one tarte, one bread and butter with vanilla ice cream instead of rum and raisin, two kids ice cream sundaes, one all vanilla, one kids ice cream sundae with chocolate and vanilla” can be scary. But I managed to pull all the orders off – didn’t mess up any or have them sent back. Didn’t forget about any, or run out of product. Occasionally the other cooks would ask me if I needed help, and I could have used it, but wanted to be able to say I did this myself, wanted the practice. Plus, they offered help, but were swamped themselves and really didn’t have time to bail me out. Usually on a typical day, I would be popping over to the hot line to help them out, which I did do today as well – frying items and making sandwiches and such, but not nearly as often as usual. 

I was quite proud of myself today – I seemed to have more confidence and be moving much faster than usual. I never thought I couldn’t do it, but today really made me feel proud and accomplished. The chef on main courses said I did really well today and he was quite impressed. I went steady from 11:00a.m. to 10:00p.m., hardly stopping for anything, cleaning up when service was almost closed (though I was still getting the odd dessert order forty minutes after closing time). I made sure the place was scrubbed and shining before I left. This is the kind of rush that keeps me going, This is the kind of busy day that makes me thrive and love this industry – eleven hour days at work that feel like one hour has passed.
I thought today was not going to be a great day – that’s what it looked like from the start. It was raining, I was working with the sous chef as the expeditor (we usually don’t even have an expeditor and only a maximum of two people on the line, not four). But he did not really have the time, nor any reason to get on my case today – I was doing dessert orders as given, left and right! I was speaking up for myself too – accusing him when I saw him take my ice cream spoon from off my station to use for pesto! The one thing I did not like was when he told me to keep the order dockets for desserts on my station – instead of filing them with the completed orders. I have never been told to do this before, and he said it was, “In case there is a problem with one of the orders, so I don’t have to dig through them all.” Implying if there was going to be an issue with an order, it would be one I had filled. 

Other than that though, the day went along really well, one of my favorite days at work so far, as I was feeling much more relaxed and at ease. Even on busy days, you still find a bit of time to fool around in the kitchen. Here is a funny example from today: the phone rang, one of the cook’s answered, hung up, then told the other cook a chef upstairs wanted to see him (it was someone completely different on the phone). Now this cook had just finished making himself a quick sandwich as there was a slight lull in orders and we really hadn’t breaked all day. He often makes sandwiches, and tasty hot ones – like sausage and garlic mayo and whatnot. He makes triple decker sandwiches and cuts them into four triangles, and eats as he goes. He had only gotten the chance to eat one triangle, then ran upstairs to see what the chef wanted. As soon as he was gone, the three of us left in the kitchen each snatched up one triangle and quickly shoved it in our mouths. Then he came back, was confused because the other chef had no idea what he was talking about, and saw his sandwich was gone. They tried to blame it on me, innocently standing at the deep fryer frying their onions for them. But all in all, it was a funny joke, and just one example of how we in the kitchen are just a family that can joke with each other.

One of the seven different desserts I got many requests for today -
Warm Apple Crumble with vanilla ice cream.