Busy In The Restaurant

Today was an interesting day. I figured if I was working in the restaurant, I would be put on pastry, but I was put to work with the head chef on starters and another cook on mains, whoever needed more help (even though pastry cook needed help too). That meant I had to wait to be told what to do, since I had no idea what needed doing. 

On starters I made citrus cream, segmented limes (which I was told were atrocious, and I’m not denying it. Segmenting fruit shouldn’t be that tricky but there is so much precision involved and no one had ever actually taught me how), made coriander lime dressing, made crêpes, made brioche and melba toast. Then I was sent over to mains, where I made mint yogurt spheres, picked and chopped herbs, made zucchini strands, concasséd tomatoes, finely diced a bunch of peppers for ratatouille, cut pork belly, and vacpaced stuff.

I made crêpes for the new crab crêpe starter dish

Once I was finished that, I decided to set up the pastry section for service, since I had nothing else to do and figured I would be doing pastry orders. I was right, and then I helped the pastry cook finish some last-minute jobs – as we had eighty diners in tonight and would need a lot of everything ready to go. We also had a wedding tasting for five people to prepare for as well; three warm brownies, and three Bailey’s cheesecakes. 

For some reason I was feeling, well, clumsy today. I did drop a plate when plating appetizers, but other than that, I just felt like I was going slower than I should, but trying to make sure all the plates were right as head chef was watching me like a hawk. He did say I was standing around too much at first, but the thing is they had all the other stations under control, and I just felt in the way. They stand around when they have a break. I was waiting for my pastry orders to come, and once they did, I felt more myself and in my zone. I was left alone at the end of the night, and finished service on a high note.