Dish of the Day Garnish

Today, coming in late (though I did show up around 12:00 p.m., and didn’t wait until 1:00), I was put in charge of dessert station again, and doing lots of prep. My first task was preparing the mashed potatoes for the day. Next I had to peel, devein, wash, and package about fifty prawns – they were staring back at me and it wasn’t the most fun job. Then chef asked me what my favorite potato dish was. I said that was a tough question, but finally said one of the first and tastiest that came to my head – German potato dumplings. Honestly, they eat potatoes far too often here and I am growing sick of them, so I wanted something different. He then said, “Great! You can make them for the dish of the day tomorrow. Do you have a recipe?” I said not off the top of my head, but I could wing it. I had only made them once before, in Germany, taught by a great German home cook. So I mimicked what I remembered from that the best I could. So I spent most of the afternoon preparing those, which will be the garnish for a chicken special tomorrow. The chef was questioning a few things I did again, but I don't blame him for checking in to make sure I didn't ruin the dish, and waste a great deal of time and product. But I told him this is how I was taught but my boyfriend's German grandmother. I was surprised and pleased they were leaving me with my own creation to come up with again, but I guess the soup went over well.

My German potato dumpling (Kartoffelkloesse) dough.

The afternoon was quiet, with me doing general prep, then all of a sudden around 5:00, when I thought I would be sent for my supper break, chef told me he needed chicken quickly. I didn’t know what he meant, we have several different forms of chicken on the menu. He said chicken fingers. Sure, I know how to make chicken fingers, but I do not know how this particular operation makes their chicken fingers, and working with restaurant food, everything must be consistent! I didn’t know where the chicken he wanted me to use was, what to use for breading, what to do with them, etc. They were becoming annoyed at my questions, yet even more annoyed at my mistakes since I didn’t know what I was doing. All I wanted was a quick demo or a detailed explanation. Then I could execute it. And they apparently needed them in a rush, yet I hadn’t been busy all afternoon, and in the end chef told me just to freeze them. Next, he got me to organize the dry storage room, which I was actually happy to do. I like organizing, and I liked being alone in a quiet room for a little while to quiet my thoughts.

Afterwards, apparently we were expecting a big rush of people not too long before closing, so we were prepping salads and plates and things to get dishes out as quickly as possible. I was told to have my dessert station ready, which it had been all day. I was also told by chef that I needed to go quickly (I always try to work quickly, without rushing so much as to be sloppy), and never stand around, either work or clean. I don’t stand around, but sometimes I seem like I do if I am waiting for explanation or instruction, or am watching someone demo something for me. How am I supposed to learn how to make dishes if I never watch them be plated or presented??? Also, I totally agree with the clean as you go philosophy. But here is what I do not get at all – how can you get mad at me for not cleaning something small, when an order comes in and I have to stop to fill that order? Then get mad that the order isn’t going fast enough because I had to stop to refill the whip cream canister. So should I have cleaned my station first before preparing this dessert, and have the dessert take even longer??? It’s frustrating, as is getting blamed for things I didn’t do. Such as having the raw chicken next to plates for fish and chips. I set up my station, then someone put the fish and chip plates there. But I still get the brunt of it.

We did get waves of crazy busy service, then nothing. I tried to work as quickly as possible, and still clean as I went. We stayed open a half hour late, and finished up cleaning around 10:00p.m.