Productive In The Bar

Today I was working in the bar as there were only two others scheduled and the restaurant upstairs only had thirteen people booked for tonight. I was there early I guess, because no one was around, so I set up the pastry section, beginning by making more strawberry compote and defrosting apple mix. I was going to put together the welcome baskets, but there were none. Next I asked the mains cook if I should do prep for him or for the starter section. We were expecting a quiet day, much quieter than the past few days, and we didn’t have a lot of prep to do. He showed me how to fillet plaice, but we both agreed he would be faster and more efficient at it, so I moved on to jobs on the starter prep list.

I made garlic mayonnaise, Marie Rose sauce, and balsamic dressing. I made two large trays of garlic potatoes, a huge batch of chicken sandwich mix, a bagful of bound prawns, a big bucket of veg of the day, and sliced three hams, all the while doing dessert orders. That was pretty much it for the starter section, so then I supreme fifty chicken breasts for the mains section. In the evening I began cutting up ribs, but could not finish the batch as not all of them had defrosted fully yet. I also filled ramekins with apple crumble mix. I was cleaning the back kitchen down so we could get home early once service ended, when the head chef asked me to come upstairs and help – though I know they weren’t busy, to be fair, neither were we. So I did some dessert orders, then was sent back down to help clean up the bar so the two bar cooks could get home, then went back upstairs to finish pastry orders and get instructions from the pastry chef, who I could be covering for the next two days while he is off. I don’t really care where I am – just tell me where I am working and please try not to switch me around so much! I finished up there, and cleaned up, and it was still fairly early. So I offered to help the mains cook in the restaurant vacpac some things again. He didn’t have too much, and seemed very appreciative. People notice and remember you doing these little favors for them, and I only had to stay ten minutes later to do it.

Ensuring I have all photos I need for my internship portfolio -
I had not yet photographed the chicken main course from the restaurant

No one was in a really bad mood today, but no one was particularly cheery either, and because we weren’t overly busy and I was doing mostly mindless prep jobs, the day did drag on a bit, though I do feel I got a lot done.