First Breakfast In The Lodge

This morning I was scheduled to help out with breakfast at 8:00a.m. I arrived, knowing I was working with the cook who, well, let’s just say he sees things as having two ways of being completed: his way and the wrong way. I don’t particularly enjoy working with him, at all. He is the one who told me I was melting chocolate wrong, then proceeded to completely ruin the chocolate. I thought I would be helping him with breakfast service, with 160 people to feed and both orders and buffet to look after, but first thing he sent me downstairs to put an arriving order away. I met the deliverer, and he went through the order with me as he is required to, though he wasn’t particularly fast about it. I then proceeded to properly decant and store away the order, but the problem was a lot of it belonged in the refrigerator, which was very full and quite messy. So putting away the order also required organizing some of the fridge. I finished this, and went back upstairs, only to hear the cook say, “It’s 8:30! It took you half an hour to put away one order!”
           
            Next he got me to make a batch of shortbread, just like I do at the castle. But he told me to melt the butter, instead of just soften it. Sure, this may be the faster way to do things, but anyone who bakes at all, even at home, knows that butter must be at room temperature in order to be properly creamed with the sugar in many recipes, such as most cookies, cakes, and some muffins. Softening in the microwave is cautioned against as well, but it is better than completely melting the butter. I didn’t dare waste the time to search for a sieve and sift the icing sugar and flour as normal. I made the dough, then tried to roll it out, but it was much too soft, likely from the melted butter in the batter. Instead of wasting time fussing with it, I stuck the bowl in the fridge and went to see what I could do in the meantime. The cook got angry with me and said, “No, you can’t put the dough in the fridge. You do what I tell you to do. I told you to roll it out. And never put anything into that fridge.” Yeah, okay, I understand I am an intern, but you do not have chef status and haven’t worked here that long, and don’t have that much more experience than me, and you aren’t from around here either. I came in to help you out. And I wouldn’t purposely try to make trouble for you, so you could be a little nicer to me. He went to show me how to roll out the dough, but then told me to go get something, so I missed the actual rolling part, but then he left me to it anyway. I quickly rolled them the best I could. Then moved on to my next task.

            He first told me to tray up bacon, and when I was halfway through, he said “No good” (a phrase I was really starting to hate hearing) because I had put parchment paper on the pan, as we always did at school for cooking bacon. He ripped the paper off, so I had to retray all the bacon. So I “wasted” time putting an order away, but redoing all the bacon was okay?? Next I was told to seal sausages. I have done this before, but had been warned that this cook does it differently. Two pans, lots of oil, high heat, no tongs. However, today he told me to use little oil, low heat, and tongs. I finished cooking them in the oven, and when I went to probe them, he said “No, don’t probe them.” We will recook them for breakfast service, so it doesn’t matter if they are fully cooked now. Um, no, that’s not how food safety works buddy. We have sheets we have to fill out showing we cooked things properly. Another reason I don’t necessarily trust or listen to this guy all the time. I suppose he is a good worker in the sense he is reliable and gets the job done, but he does not necessarily follow proper procedures or show a passion or interest in his work.

            He got me to make some granola parfaits, and I did them as I was shown by the breakfast chef in the castle, but then he told me that was wrong. I tried to explain that’s how the castle does them, but he told me I was wrong and that’s not how the book says to make them. He told me to clean up, then said, “No, there are still 25 minutes of service left!” Then he had me clean the entire kitchen while he went downstairs. He told me to come down when I was done, but I knew I was switching over to pastry (thank goodness). Breakfast shift was only three hours for me, but it did not pass quickly.

            Switching over to pastry was relieving. The breakfast cook came up a few times – one to try to summon me down to help him (he must have thought I took that long cleaning) but I told him I was on pastry now. Another time he spilled pancake batter all over where I was working. Another time he asked if I was busy, then when I said yes, I was in the middle of something, told me to come with him for a minute anyway. He brought me to the freezer and said, “I just saw your shortbread, and they are shit. We can’t use them. They’re sheet. See this one? No, not that one, that’s two skinny. See this one? That’s a good one. Yours are shit.” At my face of indifference he said, “Tomorrow morning I will defrost them when I come in, and you can remix them and reroll them at 8:00.” Well, maybe they’re shit because you told me to make them incorrectly! I asked the pastry cook later how he makes shortbread, and he agreed with me, and said the breakfast chef is just a hothead and full of himself.

            I felt very productive in pastry today. I was left with a list of tasks to complete, all of which were explained and demonstrated to me. I made chocolate mousse, cut crème brulée, made an emulsion, made hot brie pastries, and made lime confit. I finished all of this in plenty of time, which meant I worked fairly quickly, so I was given more work to do. A ‘half-hour job’ I was given took me less than ten minutes. So I also made four types of bread, and got the entire section set up for tonight’s service. All the while I would ask the pastry cook questions and watch what he was doing, learning more and more. The chef in the bar asked me to put together the seven welcome baskets when I got the chance, which is a job for the cooks in the bar and I was slightly annoyed as I was working upstairs today. But after I finished my first list of jobs, I went to do it, and ended up having to hunt down containers in the messy office downstairs, then scooping twenty-four portions of three balls of ice cream because we hadn’t ordered enough mini tubs for the family break packages.

            One more thing about today. As the pastry cook was explaining some things to me, he would make little side comments about one of the other interns from the same country as me who was here, but left not too long ago. He would say how she didn’t do these things properly or didn’t listen to him. I can remember that intern complaining about this cook to me. But I have had no issues with him. Basically, he told me he was nice to her at first, but she thought she knew more than him, and as an intern, tried to tell him what to do or how to do his job on her first day, so then he didn’t like her. 
Apparently he asked her to vacpac some soup for him, and she looked at it and said, “What’s that? It’s disgusting!” before even tasting it. Cooks, especially those in training, should never just blatantly call anything disgusting, particularly before even trying it. The starter cook then walked in on our conversation and called her a rather bad name, and said she has an attitude problem and wasn’t very nice. I explained she had been rude to me at home, and he replied with, “Yeah but look now. You were better your first day than she ever was, and she’s graduated from school already. But she couldn’t even stick it out here. Now who’s laughing?” I was glad I was not the only one who found her rather unpleasant.

Treats at the artisan pop-up: jam and cookies

       After work I went to a small pop-up market in the village (actually in one of the old buildings on the estate), where they were selling jams, baked goods, knitted items, glass works, and woodworks. We also took home a pizza and death by chocolate cake. 

Back To The Restaurant

Today I got into work knowing I would be working upstairs in the restaurant, but not knowing which section. I was slightly nervous, as I have only worked in the restaurant three times, and it has been a good two months since my last shift there. I mostly get scheduled in the bar or at the castle. Since two of the chefs were working in the bar today (it is a busy Sunday, as usual), and they also needed to train the new guy to work orders on the starter and pastry section (the job I had kind of taken over in the past month), they needed an extra hand upstairs. Chef told me I would need to handle all the dessert orders tonight. I was happy he said desserts, as pastry is definitely my favorite for many reasons, and also because I already knew how to plate most of the desserts. But I was still slightly nervous, knowing we were expecting to do around eighty covers tonight and it had been awhile since I had done any desserts there. 

Chef went on to say that today I would be working with the cooks on mains and starters to do prep work, as they needed more help, but for service I would need to know and complete pastry. He then asked me how long I was staying here (my internship goes until October 1st) and said I would be expected to know everything about the pastry section by the end of the week. No pressure. See, one of the cooks upstairs is leaving (why do so many people leave this place?), so they need another cook to cover. I am not taking over his main course section (thank goodness) but rather the cooks are kind of rotating around as they do and I will be on pastry. I wouldn’t say pastry is the easiest, but definitely the simplest section for me to take over. I am wondering if this decision has anything to do with my chat with chef the other day, where I told him pastry is where my heart lies, and although I am enjoying learning the savory side of things, pastry still remains my favorite and likely what I will turn my career into. So anyways, basically they want me to be fully trained on the pastry section as soon as possible, and take that over, just as I had with the starter section in the bar so quickly. I am happy with this decision, happy to be on desserts, and I know I won’t be ‘stuck’ here because the restaurant is not open every day, so I should still have the opportunity to do weddings and such. I am flattered they chose me for this section, and expect me to be able to take it over in such a short amount of time. It tells me that they really have confidence in my abilities and think I am a good worker, flexible, and reliable. It would be kind of nice if they asked if I was ok with these decisions, but in this industry (especially as an intern) you just kind of take what they throw at you. As one of the other cooks said when I told him I was being placed on breakfast shifts in the lodge as something different this week, “You seem to be the one they use the most around here.” And he didn’t mean it in a bad way either, he meant it as a compliment how I am so flexible and able to take on many different roles.

One of the new dishes I learned today - the cheese plate

So first thing I familiarized myself with the tastings we had tonight – in addition to the eighty diners, we had two groups come in for tastings for their wedding menu for upcoming weddings. One was a group of two (just the bride and groom) and the other was a group of six (the bride and groom along with both sets of parents). One had two different desserts and one had three different desserts. Luckily, I have worked enough weddings that I was familiar with all the desserts, and I just had to get them ready (we keep supplies on hand in the freezer in individual portions for tastings). I helped the breakfast crew clean up so we could get into the kitchen faster, then went to work with the chef on mains. First he had me prep for the tasting main courses, tasks I also already knew how to do, then prep for some of his main courses, like make duck parmentier. Then he had me attempt to tourne courgettes, which basically means carve them into football shapes. We used to do this with potatoes in culinary school to make seven-sided pommes chateau. I could never get the hang of it. I can remember four of us going through a fifty pound bag of potatoes, and out of them, chef would say three of them were perfectly tourned and the rest could be used for mash. Needless to say, I wasn’t very good at tourning courgettes either, but the cook was very patient with me and told me to keep practicing, when really I was just making more work for him.

When he ran out of jobs for me to do (he wasn’t as busy as chef thought), and after giving me a sample of my weakness – pork belly, I helped out the starter cook by making a marinade for rabbit legs. It was one of the strangest recipes I have ever followed (handful black peppercorns, handful juniper berries, one bay leaf per leg, four garlic bulbs, half bag rosemary, half bag thyme, rock salt). I could not find any rosemary or thyme, and was told there was no produce order coming in today. Then the cook told me I had to go to the herb garden to pick it, something I knew existed but had never used before. I liked going out to nature to pick my own herbs, but during the process, something odd happened. I was almost done, when my finger brushed against something that looked like a mint leaf, but felt like thorns. When I went back inside, it began to sting and look red with white blisters. I washed it off, but it kept burning, and still burns now. I think it was a nettle.

Next, I decided to go work with the pastry cook, since I didn’t really have any other jobs to do and I wanted to learn as much about this section as I could as quickly as possible. He had me do some jobs I was already familiar with – make fruit flowers, cut passionfruit, cut cheese, etc., but also make some chocolate mousse and caramel, and showed me how to set up the station for service as well. He also gave me samples of some of the petit fours he had made, and I love it when I get to sample things. After insisting I go for a supper break, he showed me how to get ready for service.

Service was slow for me at first, as of course desserts are the last orders to come in, so I helped plate some of the appetizers (oriental salad with smoked chicken and orange dressing today) and the starters. Then he showed me how to plate each dessert order, and I filled the rest of the orders while he helped on other sections. Service went quite smoothly, and at 10:15p.m., when all main courses had been sent out and we were just waiting on several tables for dessert, we began cleaning. But the head chef told me to go home, knowing I am on breakfast shift tomorrow morning. I said I could finish the pastry orders, but he insisted, saying I needed my rest!

Cleaning Out Of Boredom

This morning I got to work early again, and first thing first – I put away the produce order into the walk-in. I was told to do this in a very specific order by a very particular cook, not that I didn’t already know where everything belongs. While I was in the process, I also organized the entire fridge. Then I prepared some champ potatoes for tonight’s service.

Next I was put to work with the breakfast chef, who needed help because he needed to prepare for forty afternoon tea ceremonies the following day, and there wasn’t a lot of wedding prep left to do anyway. First I made the chocolate-dipped éclairs, something I have made several times before. But this time I was slightly frustrated by what the cook was telling me. First of all, the cream wasn’t whipped stiff enough to not ooze out of the éclair shells. Second of all, he told me the chocolate was not melted long enough, when indeed, it was shiny and smooth and liquidy enough. He heated it in the microwave for longer, then longer again, then ended up with a solid chocolate lump – the result when chocolate overheats. I didn’t want to argue with him, but I knew this would happen. This is basic chocolate-melting procedure. Then I had to start with new chocolate again.

chocolate-dipped éclairs

Next I gathered the remaining items for afternoon tea, and prepped the ingredients for the finger sandwiches, which would be made fresh tomorrow. This didn’t take very long, and then I was told to scrub down the kitchen. This is something I used to do when I worked in a commercial bakery – basically just spray every stainless steel surface with sanitizer and wipe it clean. There are quite a lot of stainless steel surfaces in industrial kitchens – walls, counter tops, fridges, ovens, stoves, hot boxes, etc. Then I busied myself with other cleaning jobs – cleaning out the fridges, and relabelling items which did not have labels or did not have correct labelling, checking all to see if they were still good. I busied myself with other cleaning jobs – the freezer, the dry storage room, the middle kitchen, etc. Basically at this point there was nothing left to do, but no more work to do at the marquee either, so I was doing what chefs do during down time and cleaning every visible surface. Boring and tiresome, yes, but completely necessary!

One of the cooks brought back some items from the marquee to vacpac, label, and freeze, so I did that and cleaned up. Then one of the servers asked me for gluten free cookies, as the arrival reception was serving shortbreads and they didn’t have a gluten-free option. So I prepared them, then headed over to the marquee for service. Service went slowly, because there was a long wait between each course before the plates were cleared. We were literally only waiting on the bride to finish for a good fifteen minutes between the main course and dessert, while every other guest was anxiously waiting for dessert.

Tonight’s menu was as follows:
Canapés: Shortbread Cookies, tea and coffee
Starter: Salad of Tomato and Mozzarella, basil pesto, balsamic dressing
Bread: Wheat bread, white rolls, multigrain rolls, bacon onion rolls, raisin walnut rolls, tomato fennel rolls
Soup:  Cream of Celeriac with Smoked Bacon, Truffle Oil
Sorbet: Green Apple and Pear
Main Course Option #1 – Chicken: Local Breast of Roast Chicken, Champ Potatoes, Wild Herb Stuffing, Chasseur Sauce
Main Course Option #2 – Fish: Grilled Salmon, salad of fennel marinated in lemon, baby spinach, vierge dressing
Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.
Dessert: Warm Apple and Berry Crumble, Vanilla Ice Cream
Petit Fours: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles
Evening Buffet: Bacon Butties, wedding cake

Where Am I Needed?

Today I worked at a wedding for 219 guests. I arrived early as usual, only to find my coworkers hadn’t arrived yet, so I familiarized myself with the function sheets. There were no canapés required for the arrival reception at either today or tomorrow’s wedding, and no pavlovas for dessert either. So that alone cut back on a lot of prep work. First thing I was taken over to the marquee to work there. I arranged the dessert plated with doilies, plated the steaks, and picked parsley. Then chef told me to go back to the castle for lunch, which was really good – a masala vegetable mixture with spiced couscous. I checked if anyone needed help here, but they said no, so I headed back over to the marquee. I prepared some salad, then was taken back to the castle to make a big batch of crumble mixture for tomorrow’s dessert. At the castle, we discovered we already had enough crumble mixture, so they asked me to make some pesto while they figured out what else I could do, then, as predicted (and as I wanted), the breakfast chef asked me to make a batch of scones and a batch of shortbread for him.

So I went to work alone on my pastries again, by now I am getting much better and more efficient at making the shortbread and scones that we always seem to be running out of. It was just a bit frustrating that there was not much work at all to do – sounds like a dream, but really it gets quite boring and I hate feeling like I am not needed. After I finished making the pastries, I gave the pastry kitchen a good cleaning before heading back to the marquee for the wedding service.

Tonight’s menu was as follows:
Canapés: Shortbread Cookies, tea and coffee
Starter: Confit Duck and Wild Mushroom Terrine, spiced pear chutney, balsamic and sherry reduction 
Vegetarian: Salad of Tomato and Mozzarella, basil pesto, balsamic dressing
Bread: Wheat bread, raisin rolls, sesame seeded rolls, white rolls, caraway rolls, red pepper rolls
Soup:  Cream of Potato and Leek, Truffle Oil
Sorbet: Champagne
Main Course Option #1 – Beef: Sirloin Steak cooked medium-well, celeriac purée, fondant potato, braised shallot, rich red wine jus
Main Course Option #2 – Fish: Grilled Salmon, salad of fennel marinated in lemon, baby spinach, vierge dressing
Main Course Option #3 – Vegetarian: Cashel and Blue Cheese Tart with Mediterranean vegetables
Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.
Dessert: Dark Chocolate and Orange Mousse, praline ice cream
Petit Fours: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles
Evening Buffet: Fish and Chip Cones, wedding cake

Upon returning to the lodge to gather my stuff, I met one of the chefs who is known for his creative specials. I had sent him the photos of my dessert specials, since he was off those days. He showed me today’s dessert special that he made: strawberry panna cotta with vanilla ice cream and white chocolate strawberry. He even let me have one to sample, which was a nice treat, even after having a chocolate mousse at the wedding.

Strawberry panna cotta

Called In For Starters

Today I was supposed to work at the castle doing prep work for upcoming weddings, but last night I was asked to come into the bar to work instead. Turns out this was because the restaurant upstairs would be very busy, expecting eighty people tonight, so they needed more cooks upstairs and needed me to cover the starter section in the bar again. I wasn’t really happy about this because I was looking forward to having a shorter day and being back at the castle, but these things happen.

I got there early, and set up the starter section. Having been off the past two days, I was unsure what kind of shape the section was in, what needed to be done, and where everything was stored. I hate this, and the chef who was on this section tends to do things differently than the others, and I feel like I spent more time searching around than doing actual prep work. I checked the prep list and did small jobs between orders, as well as restocking items, and labelling and cleaning. There is a new cook who started this week, who is eventually going to be the new starter cook (since the cooks working there now, myself included, are only temporary). So he worked with me all day, and I got to give him jobs from my prep list, showing him how to do them since he is new, and I even showed him a few dishes to make when it got really busy and I needed a hand on the starter section. 

Overall the day wasn’t too bad, with a few blips but also a few joking times. It got busy a few times, and there was one period in the evening when I needed a hand, but other than that I handled it well today. The issue was, the people around to help me were not trained on this section, so although they did help pump orders out faster, I did have to explain things to them. I had to stay late to help the cooks from the restaurant vacpac a few things, so I didn’t leave until 10:30p.m. I complemented the main course cook on his dish of the day yesterday, and he replied saying he hadn't realized I was in to eat, and chef hadn't either, and they said they would have taken care of me, and given me some extras.

Staff dinner - chicken 'pies' with puff pastry, chicken in cream sauce, and chips.

And Yet Another Visitor Gone

Hot chocolate stick

This morning the four of us (me, my boyfriend, my brother, and his girlfriend) were treated to a lovely breakfast at the bed and breakfast. My brother and his girlfriend got the full typical breakfast of the region – which includes, two sausages, two pieces of bacon rashers, two slices of potato breads, a portabello mushroom, a grilled tomato, and two eggs of choice. My boyfriend and I helped ourselves to the continental fresh fruit, cereal selection, yogurt, nuts, and milk and juices. We also had a bread basket with toast, homemade wheaten bread, and jams. It was very lovely and very filling. 
At 11:30 we headed to our horseback riding lesson at the equestrian center. It was raining on and off, heavy at times and kind of windy and cool, but we still wanted to ride outside. While we were waiting, we chatted with the receptionist, who was heading on vacation soon to one of the same areas my brother and his girlfriend had just been. The hour long ride through the wetlands and forest was very enjoyable, if not a little wet, but we were mostly covered by trees. Afterwards, we headed to the village chocolate shop, and purchased chocolate sticks to warm up. The b&b owners gladly heated up some milk for us and provided mugs, and we dunked the sticks in and enjoyed the chocolaty treat. 

My supper - dish of the day

Next we headed to the games room on the estate to play pool, ping pong, jumbo connect 4, cards, and the highlight – jumbo jenga. The tower was taller than me and almost came crashing down onto me, and we have a great video of that. Then we headed to an early supper at the bar where I often work. It was very different being on the other side of the kitchen, but very enjoyable, and nice to see how well our dishes come out. I had the dish of the day, which was pan-fried fillet of salmon with seafood risotto and a creamy broth. My brother had the burger and gaufrette potatoes, and his girlfriend and my boyfriend both had the goat’s cheese tart. We were a little rushed at the end, getting my brother and his girlfriend packed and on a taxi to catch the bus, but they caught it and it all worked out in the end, and we all enjoyed our meal.

And Yet Another Visitor

pancakes

eggs benedict

Today my brother and his girlfriend, who have been travelling around for the past month, came to visit me. My boyfriend and I met them at the bus station in town, then we headed to the local bakery/café/deli/restaurant for brunch. My brother had a big stack of pancakes with maple syrup, his girlfriend had eggs benedict, and my boyfriend and I shared a vegetarian breakfast plate. We also bought a chocolate fudge cake log to bring home and enjoy later. 

vegetarian

spicy pizza

salad

 Next we headed to the bed and breakfast, freshened up, then I gave them a tour of the estate and the inside of the castle. We walked around a bunch and took photos, and of course caught up on lots of stories. After stopping back at the b&b, we picked out a wine for supper, then headed to my house for a bit and played some cards. I took them to the pizzeria for supper of course. We sat in the front room by the fire. My brother had a smokey barbecue pizza, his girlfriend had a hot and spicy pizza, my boyfriend had the vegetarian heaven pizza, and I had a salad and spicy potato wedges with garlic mayo. For dessert we shared a traybake selection, which is like a few desserts cut into really small pieces, which was just what we needed as we relaxed by the fire and digested our food.

potato wedges and garlic mayo

We headed back to the b&b and were able to skype my parents and brother back home for a bit, then chatted more before heading to bed fairly early, to catch up on some sleep.

chocolate fudge cake

selection of sweets

Cheesecake Special

Today was much like yesterday. I was not expecting it to be much like yesterday, since it is a Monday, which tend to be very quiet, especially compared to Sundays. But this Monday was almost as busy as yesterday – we did 273 covers. There were a lot, a lot of starter orders, making me glad I was not on that section today, though of course I did need to help out with orders. Still, there were quite a few dessert orders in as well. 

First thing I put together more welcome baskets. Then I asked chef if I could do another dessert of the day. He said yes, so I found some Bailey’s cheesecake in the freezer and took that out. I quickly ran my idea of plating and garnish by him, and he said it sounded good but to show him the plate first. I made a quick nut brittle using chopped walnuts and the caramel sauce I had left over from the apple pie dessert. Then I found some praline in the fridge – think peanut butter but with hazelnuts and sweeter. We also had chocolate sauce, chocolate ice cream, chocolate flakes, and crumble. Chef did not really like my first plate because of the mix of round and square, though he did like my idea, so he told me to use a rectangular plate. The only issue I have with that, is these are big plates meant for starters or main courses, and it is more difficult to fill them with desserts. He really did like my next plate, and it became the dessert of the day. Again several servers commented on how nice the plate looked, and how good the dessert looked. The special was written on the chalkboard, and the servers were told to really sell it, which they did. So much so, that I made one up for them at the end of the night – which they devoured saying how good it was! I am really enjoying making up these dessert specials, as I like to get creative and do different things, and pastry is where my true interest lie. 

My dessert of the day - Bailey's Cheesecake dusted with cocoa powder, extreme chocolate ice cream, caramel nut brittle, praline and chocolate sauce.

Chef wanted to use the whipped cream canister again – this time for a sesame cream for the main course, which meant I had to whip up a bunch of cream and keep it in a piping bag again, but eventually the cream unstiffens. The bomb is just so much more convenient. Luckily, the dish of the day ran out just before I ran out of cream.

Other than that, I kept busy with pastry stuff, helping the starter cook out with orders, especially sandwiches, which there were a lot of today (especially toasted, which requires extra time), and other prep jobs. I started preparing the vegetables for salad mix (halved cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, and peeled, seeded, and sliced cucumber), and then chef offered to help me for a bit before he had to go put in orders. I got taken away from the task often to do orders and such, so he ended up finishing it for me later and doing most of the work. I also quartered and sautéed three boxes of button mushrooms, and wrapped and labelled and organized and cleaned closer to the end of the evening. Again, orders came in large bursts, with quiet breaks in between.

Apple Pie and Apple Crumbles

This morning we buckled down and prepared for another crazy busy Sunday. I was assigned as the pastry cook, plus the runner – running for anything needed and helping on the starter section as needed. We had one cook on starters, one cook on mains, and chef on the pass expediting. It was necessary to have the four of us cooking on Sunday, as we did 284 covers. 

First thing I put together the welcome baskets – a family break for four, a family break for five, a family break for six, and a romantic getaway for two. Next, chef got me to peel a hundred asparagus for the dish of the day, just like for weddings. Actually, I didn’t mind peeling only one hundred at all, and I am quite fast at it now. I assured the pastry section was all set up. 

Today we put on the same dessert of the day, as we had some left, and also took another box out of the freezer. After my ‘stupid’ plating yesterday (it was the second one on the blog), chef asked to see the first plate before it went out. I went with something very similar to my second plating from yesterday (the first picture on the blog), and received a lot of praise from chef this time. He said, “Now THAT looks AMAZING!” “That is MUCH better.” That’s great, that is definitely a dessert I would pay big money for.” “This is my favorite dessert of the day yet.” The servers said it looked great too, and chef continues to say how my plating was consistent and nice. The special sold out quickly – by mid-afternoon. 

Playing with (or tasting) the sugar cone samples we got. This one has whipped cream, strawberry coulis, toasted almonds, and chocolate sauce.

Other than that, it was a fairly busy day, but I was not going flat out because I was only on the pastry section. I did receive quite a few orders though, especially for apple crumbles, which does not strike me as a summer dessert, as all our other desserts are ice cream and we also had apple pie on today. I stayed in my little pastry corner, doing prep work for me and other stations as needed. The others said I was pretty quiet today. Again, I got deserted (no pun intended) at the end of the day, waiting for the last dessert order.

One funny event of the day: at one point, after a quiet break, chef said to me, “Ok, get ready for the next big push.” So I was taking something from my fridge and knocked over the entire tray, dropping four containers on the floor, which then opened. This causes a puddle of peaches and berry compote on the floor. Good thing I had prepared plenty of back-up! Chef did not at all look impressed, but the other cook began giggling, as we do when one of us does something funny, and I quickly had it cleaned up.

Plating Desserts of the Day

Today, like old times, I mostly looked after the dessert station and a little bit of prep work, and only took care of a few orders on the starter section. I began with preparing the cream for my dessert of the day again – this time putting it into a piping bag instead of using the cream canister, as I would need that for scones and many desserts later. And just in time too, as I quickly got three orders for scones and cream. Then I began working on my next dessert of the day – we were going to serve the lemon tart again until it ran out, then switch over to an apple pie dessert. I made a caramel sauce for it, as chef liked the idea, and it turned out quite nicely. After making sure pastry was all set to go and putting together a family break and girls’ getaway welcome package, I began some prep work for the starter section – cutting up salmon, preparing prawns and crab claws, etc. 

Overall today was not very busy, and orders came in large bursts, and then it would be quiet again. There were more dessert orders than other days of the week, but still not overly busy. It made the afternoon pass more slowly. The head chef said he was going to quiz me on their handbook of procedures, which he must have given me two months ago and had said he would quiz me then, but really he ended up doing more explaining than quizzing. We tried to trace back some chicken we had cooked and cooled here back to the delivery record. Easier when it isn’t the end of a month and all the records had already been filed away. I baked up some scones. Then I began all the cleaning and organizing work – vacpacing items, condensing and cleaning the fridge, labelling, etc. Then I was cleaning down the entire back area of the kitchen, which we do not use at night once we have finished most of the prep work, and one of the cooks got me to wash a bunch of salad even though I was already busy, prep is not supposed to be done after 6:00p.m. according to chef’s orders, I had already cleaned the area, and we already had plenty of salad washed and salad spoils quite quickly. I’m getting kind of tired of doing this cook’s odd prep jobs. 

One of my apple pie platings. Can you guess which one I plated first?

In the evening my dessert of the day lemon tart sold out, and it was time to put the apple pie on. Chef had left the plating design up to me, but had left me with some ideas and wanted to see how it went. It involved a slice of apple pie, a sugar cone, caramel sauce, lime cream, rum and raisin ice cream, crumble, mint leaves, and toasted almonds. I went with one design, and after sending two out, chef told me he didn’t like it at all, that my design was overdone, it was too spaced out, it was too 90’s style, and that aspects of it were retarded and stupid. So for my next plate I went more with his suggestion, and although he had already left, I can say that I did not like the second design as much. Oh well, to each their own. I find this chef to be very picky with his plating and stuff, and changes it all the time but personally I don’t care for a lot of his ideas myself. At 9:00p.m., we shut the gas off and stopped taking orders. However, this means people who just ordered mains can still order desserts when they finish, so I was still doing orders as the others were cleaning. One of the waiters even asked me to make him a sandwich, then told me it was spot on later. So the other two cooks left when they finished cleaning, and I had to wait alone and ask the servers if there were any more dessert orders. My final order came in at 10:10p.m. I didn’t mind this, but I would have waited for the others and helped them, but I was deserted in the kitchen. As I was waiting for the order to come in, I had nothing else to do because all cleaning was done and I could not prep anything at that hour, so I took the trolley where we had thrown all our dirty stuff, and helped organize it for the dishwasher. Technically we are supposed to throw out all our garbage and put our tea towels in the hamper, scrape food into the compost, and only put dishes on the trolley, but we are all guilty of just piling everything up in a hurry, myself included, so I helped out the single dishwasher who was there tonight while I waited. 

Another one of my apple pie platings. Can you guess which one chef really didn't like?

Pretty Perfect Pastry

This morning chef gave me my first job as setting up the pastry section. He also ordered everyone else to leave me alone and not give me any jobs until this station was perfect. Probably partly to do with the fact that it wasn’t set up well yesterday, and also partly because the ice cream freezer had been defrosted again last night and needed to be cleaned and refilled. So I went to work – gathering all the required dishes for the pastry section, and organizing the fridge. I filled ramekins with apple crumble mix then made another big batch of mix. I prepared more strawberry compote. I reorganized and relabelled the contents of the fridge. Then I decided to get a dessert of the day special going. There is always a dish of the day, and most often a starter of the day, but not always a dessert of the day, which there should be. I found lemon tart in the freezer, and decided to go with that and raspberry sorbet. The cook on mains helped me make a lime syrup to add to the whipped cream canister along with some cream to make a lime cream. So then I had to get this ready, but what was really annoying was the cream canister now contained the lime cream instead of plain whipped cream. They told me it wouldn’t be a big deal, since I probably would not get that many scone orders, but they were forgetting that I also need plain whipped cream for all of the ice cream desserts – the sundae, the banana split, the peach melba, and the chocolate berry coupe. So I had to whip up a bunch of cream and have it ready in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. The dessert was plated with some lime supremes and microgreens and a bit of crumble as well.

Dessert of the Day - Lemon tart with lime supreme, lime cream, microgreens, crumble, and raspberry sorbet.

There were a lot of us on in the kitchen today, and although we wanted to ensure we had plenty of prep done to last us through the weekend, we had quite a bit done already and weren’t feeling any panic. The only issue was we had someone brand new start today, who of course wasn’t familiar with anything, so had to be shown what to do. I worked away at my own small prep list, which included some more pastry tasks as well as handling all the orders for pastry, and making five liters of garlic whack (I mean mayo), coriander and lime yogurt sauce, horseradish crème fraiche, and garlic butter. I also kept being told by the cook on starters to handle some of his orders for him, even though it wasn’t that busy. This is slightly annoying when I am trying to get things done (for his station) and he keeps handing me off his jobs so he can do something less important, like sit in the office. 

The head chef was very nice to me again today, I think he is pretty impressed with me, and that’s why he picks on me less now. He will still be nit-picky about certain things I do, but in a nicer, “I’m only trying to show you how to do it with finesse” kind of way. Speaking of pretty impressed, he doesn’t like the use of the word pretty. “What kind of shape is the pastry section in for the weekend?” he asked me. “Pretty good.” I replied. “Pretty good. I don’t like that answer.” “Well, I’m not going to say perfect, because I am working on the crumble mix now. If I told you perfect, then I would just be lying to you and no one likes a liar.” Later on he was making fancy sandwiches with a new type of bread, and I watched him and asked questions as I was between orders, and asked if I could try some, and he said, “Of course you can!” He got very frustrated at one of the dishwashers, due to a language barrier, and had to get someone else to come in to translate. The dishwashers just aren’t doing all their jobs to his satisfaction lately. At the end of the day, I heard the mains cook ask how he thought the new cook had done, and chef replied with, “I don’t know yet. It’s hard to tell after one day. I have to see someone under pressure. Like Rebecca. She handles it well, she just starts singing through service.”

I was handling the starter section orders in the evening today. It wasn’t too bad at all. The only issue I had was when the other starter cook told me to start wrapping things up around 8:30p.m., as he did not expect any more orders to come in. I didn’t think this was a good idea considering we are open until 9:00p.m. and a bunch of dessert orders could still come in as well. A few more orders did come in after that, and I told him he could do them, since he said I could put everything away and I didn’t want to dig it out again. But I wasn’t doing them, I said. He passed enough of his orders off on me today. The waiter on the pass was cheering me on. But still, he didn’t do the orders and I ended up having to do them!

Which Section Am I On?

When I got to work this morning, one of the cooks was already well into setting up the starter section. I was wondering if I would be working the line, or doing prep for that section. He put me to work straight away filleting salmon. Actually, first he told me that I had labelled something improperly. See, the other day I ‘filled’ bottles with garlic mayo, which we the kitchen staff enjoy calling garlic whack. I labelled the bottles garlic whack to be funny. Well, they admitted they did get a kick out of it, but apparently the health inspector questioned them on what garlic whack was. Whoops, haha, but I am glad I wasn’t working the day she came in – apparently she is a real stickler. Anyways, I apologized and they said, no we got a good laugh out of it, and one of them winked at me and said they wouldn’t mind finding the odd bottle of garlic whack in the fridge again. Then I had to prepare the mash, the egg salad mixture, and a big batch of tartar sauce. Next was prepping the prawns and chicken sandwich mixture. All the while I had to handle dessert orders, and explain things to some other kitchen staff – as we had cooks from the restaurant helping us out, who aren’t so familiar with the bar. It felt weird for me, the new intern, to be telling them what to do and how to do it, but it made me feel good. Of course I had to vacpac everything I had completed as well, and when I went to vacpac something for the chef, who had been waiting to use the machine, instead of thanking me for the favor, he told me I apparently did it wrong. You’re welcome!

Dish of the Day: Crispy beef strips on a bed of bok choy with spicy stir-fried noodles and veg

So I spent the majority of the morning and afternoon doing prep work for the starter section. The cook on starters even got mad at me for doing some prep work for pastry, because someone else was supposed to be on that, but they weren’t and weren’t very good at it. I was running out of some things for my dessert orders. The head chef was nice to me today, he even sharpened my knife for me on his stone. And it wasn’t just because he was in a good mood either, he got after the cook on mains for handing off his jobs (he had asked me to vacpac some meats for him, which I don’t mind, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t busy at the time) when it wasn’t even busy, and mad at the other cook for doing prep work late at night and leaving the place a mess. When I finished washing a bunch of salad greens, the cook on starters told me to take a quick supper break, and then I would take over the starter section. Meanwhile, he was battering a bunch of fish to fry. 

I find it difficult switching back and forth from a station. I would almost rather just be in charge of that station all of the time. Because everyone has slightly different ways of organizing things and doing things (some ways are definitely better than others), and that messes me up. I have a certain way of organizing my station, where I know exactly where everything is. So when others are on my station, they may put things in different spots. Also they may do things differently than I do. I do find it kind of funny, but also frustrating, that the cook that has been working on starters as well, arrives early and sets things up, but doesn’t take much pride in doing the prep work – taking shortcuts and whatnot. Yet, will get after me for doing things my way.

Starter Special: Cajun chicken burger with pesto mozzarella, tomato mayo, and skinny fries

So I took over the starter section, which wasn’t very busy at first, but it really picked up. It wasn’t that there was a ridiculous amount of orders coming in, but as the waiter on the pass said, he had never seen so many orders with both starters and mains on them. I find these orders the most confusing of all. It is easy for me to complete a bunch of starter orders, or complete a bunch of main orders, but mix them up and then I have to keep pumping out starters while the cook on mains will collaborate with me to get the mains out as well. But the cook on mains kept looking over at me, either making sure I was fine (which I mostly was, although at a few points the other cook came over to help me when it got really busy to speed things up), or commenting on how well I was doing. At the end of the day, he really praised me by saying, “You’re getting better every day!” He said he is always leery of interns, usually they are just put in the back doing crappy prep work, but are supposed to be given the chance to work the line. That makes him, nervous, as they usually aren’t very good. Most of them don’t have any previous experience (me included) so this is understandable. But he told me, “When you’re on the line, I can actually relax. I know it will be handled well.” He told the head chef how well I did, and he said, “That’s good to hear. So after you finish your next year of school, you’re coming back here to work full time?” He even stayed to help me clean up my station, when usually he leaves early.

Nachos, Wine, and Exploring

Nachos

Wine

For lunch today, we decided to eat in at the pizzeria, hoping to take advantage of some of the lunch specials. First we stopped at the store to pick out a wine as the pizza place is bring your own and supposedly offers free corkage at lunchtime. We chose a Jacob’s Creek Shiraz Rosé (for both price and color appeal) with fresh raspberry and cherry flavors and a hint of spice. I don’t drink much, but I did like the taste and mouthfeel of this wine. It was fairly sweet and easy to drink. I cannot wait for my wine theory and analysis course next year so I can learn more about drink pairings. I’m not sure the wine was the best match for pizza fare, but oh well. Although I thought the pizzeria had lunchtime specials such as soups and sandwiches, there were none today. So we decided to try the homemade nachos with guacamole and bruschetta dip for something different, along with a garlic mushroom supreme pizza to share. Both of which were good, as expected. 

Old oven

In the evening, once the weather decided to stop raining on and off, we ventured out for a long walk. We began on the estate, a small path through the forest where we found an old bunker, with an old oven still distinguishable inside. We walked on to a field and many paths meant for horseback riding, we found many horse jumps, a horse pounds, and even a horseshoe. There were nice views of the lake outside the castle, and the countryside. It was very fun exploring. Back to work tomorrow!

Pizza Particulars

Another day off already, and I spent it relaxing. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through the wetlands, forest, up to the Old Gothic Lodge, and down the country road. Then chilling out and watching a movie. Today I will talk about supper.

First time eat-in

I have mentioned the wood oven pizza place in town before. I ate there twice with my parents and my boyfriend and I have ordered pizzas from there several times now. Every time, we get the twelve inch Vegetarian Heaven pizza, as he is a vegetarian and there are only so many options, this one by far being the best. Every time we have gotten the pizza, it has been slightly different each time. Not that we are complaining, every time it has been tasty and full of vegetables. Just different. As someone who is studying culinary and working in several food establishments, I am beginning to learn that consistency is very important. Especially when you have a set menu that feeds regular customers – dishes need to be presented in the same way every time. The seafood platter in the bar must have the seafood in the same order every time. 

First time take-out

The first vegetarian pizza I had with my parents appeared to have contained every vegetable stated on the menu – sliced red onions, mixed green and red bell peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms, black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and mixed herbs, as well as mozzarella cheese and rich tomato sauce. The first pizza we ordered was good, but not quite as crispy with lots of sauce. The second one was greasier. The next one was really good. And the last one was the first time we had gotten the sweetcorn on it.

Fun Day In The Bar

Today I was scheduled back in the bar again. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and I was a little out of practice having been over at the more laid-back weddings for two weeks. I arrived early, as usual, and immediately got the four family break welcome baskets of goodies ready. There were no chefs in today, as it was a fairly quiet, not too busy day. There were no head servers in either, and not a whole lot of prep to do. It was just the two usual cooks, me, and someone who normally works in the restaurant upstairs helping us out. I asked what I would be doing, and the cook in charge told me I would be on starters again, doing prep in my free time. And on my next days at work, he would show me more about how to cook proteins on the main course section.
So I went to work setting up the starter section, then the pastry section. I got some things ready such as the mashed potatoes, then did prep work between orders. In the middle of the afternoon, I was placing all the sauces that had been made in squeeze bottles. I don’t mind this job, the trouble is, I am not very skilled at it. There is a running joke in the kitchen that I make a mess every time I try to fill a bottle with garlic mayo. Actually, it’s not a joke, it’s true. I don’t know what it is about that stuff, but it’s messy. And delicious. I swear, I don’t do it just to eat more garlic mayo. It’s just such a tricky job. Usually if I make the sauces, I just put them into bottles straight away. But these sauces were vacpaced in bags. There are three techniques to do this – squeeze it from the bag, pour it into a piping bag and pipe it into the bottle, or pour it into a pitcher and pour it into the bottle. I have tried each of these techniques, and found none of them to be foolproof. So I was doing this, and being messy, and looked up to see the cook laughing and taking a picture of me. Haha. Then I asked him if there was an easier way, and he said, to use a piping bag. He showed me, and made a bigger mess than I did, cutting the hole too large, spilling it on the counter, and getting me to hold the bottle – so it was a two person job? Pouring mayonnaise from a pitcher also doesn’t work because there are no funnels. I thought I could handle the balsamic dressing, as it is more liquidy, but then they purposely distracted me to try to get me too spill that too. Anyways, I officially got banned from that job. I wasn’t trying to, but it’s for the best. As the cook said, “You lost seven liters on the counter, and put seven cups in your mouth.”
So, needless to say, it was a more laid-back, and fun kind of day, with plenty of friendly joking around in the kitchen. It wasn’t very busy, and I was handling both the starter and dessert section. We had two desserts of the day – a Bailey’s cheesecake and a warm chocolate brownie. 

Bailey's Cheesecake dessert of the day. 

I was praised several times today. They were glad I was back helping them out – because I get stuff done (standard procedures, but still, some people need to be told to do them) in advance and efficiently and take pride in my work. I am also willing to learn and can handle some pressure. It is important to have workers like this in the bar, more crucial than at more casual castle weddings. 

Rain, Movie, and Cheese

Today was a lazy day. It was pouring rain all day, and after working big weddings all week and going to the pubs last night, I was content to stay in bed late and rest. After lunch I took my boyfriend on a tour of the castle, where afternoon ceremonies were taking place. Next we watched The Titanic, then went out to supper.

The Coffeeloft

We went to the Coffeeshop, which is a little café above the village store. The top floor of the shop is a cozy space with several tables, chairs, a couch, a fireplace, bookshelves, and lots of décor, most of it regional or culinary-related. They also have wi-fi. Their online menu and the menu on the table says they offer all kinds of drinks – hot chocolates and coffees with different-flavored syrups, iced coffee, cappuccinos, lattés, different types of teas, smoothies, milkshakes, and even wine. The menu has an all-day breakfast, your typical full hot breakfast fare, several types of sandwiches, a few other quick hot items, homemade pizzas from scratch, and an assortment of plated desserts and baked goods, as well as ice cream. It seems like a pretty big menu for such a small shop, and fairly reasonably priced for a shop whose items are mostly overpriced. 
First we asked for the Goats Cheese Sandwich, but were told they were out of goat’s cheese. So since there was a Bacon Brie Melt on the menu, I asked if we could just sub brie for the goat’s cheese. We were then told they didn’t have any of the cranberry relish either, and then the sandwich just really didn’t seem like it would be much. Finally, we settled on trying their homemade pizzas, even though we really like the other wood-oven pizza place in town. We ordered a Billy Goat’s pizza with brie cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and rocket, as well as some crispy breaded mushrooms with garlic mayo.

Billy Goat's Pizza

Overall the food was acceptable for a small shop, fresh, hot and tasty, but I would like to try their other offerings if they ever do have all the product in, and I wonder what else they would have been missing from the menu. The one young shop attendant there at the time did not seem very knowledgeable about the store or menu. 

Crispy Breaded Mushrooms

250 Prawns, Pavlovas, and Asparagus Salads

Today I went in to work early – anticipating a busy day. We were expecting 250 guests at the wedding tonight, and the usual canapé cook was off tonight, so I was expecting to be either placed on canapés or on pavlovas, since it was another big batch and the dessert cook is tired of them. Instead, I was put on both. A tall order, but I was actually very energetic this morning and ready to move. As soon as I got there, the other cook had to leave, so she left me a list of things to be done and I got to it.

First thing was prepping the canapés for today – spiced chicken kebabs, vegetable spring rolls, and tempura of prawn – 170 each. The issue was I had never battered the prawns before. The breakfast chef tried to show me how to do it – telling me I had to work fast and dump them all in at once. I know from my experience frying things in the bar that this doesn’t work and just causes the prawns to stick together in a battered mess and not cook evenly. Also he was rushing me and I got tempura batter all over the kitchen, which he then got upset about. 

Next I moved on to putting a fruit order away, traying up petit fours, and cutting the remainder of the fruit for the pavlovas, along with whipping more cream to pipe on them. Then I began decorating all the pavloavs with the fruit – pausing only a few times to set up a few things for the canapés for the arrival reception in between. Then it was cooking, plating, and serving the canapés, along with the miniature scones. I am getting pretty fast and efficient at decorating the pavlovas by now. Then over to the marquee for the wedding service, which went quite smoothly again.

The couple wanted their impressive wedding cake and cupcakes to be cut by the kitchen staff and served with the petit fours, so of course I got to sample a bunch of the end pieces of the two cutting tiers – one chocolate and one white with a rich frosting. The head chef said to me, “You know that’s bad for you, right?” And I replied with, “I don’t care, I have a sweet tooth.” Then he said I could take all the end pieces home with me!

Cutting up the wedding cake - a chocolate tier and a vanilla tier

Canapés: Spiced Chicken Kebabs, Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet chili sauce, Tempura of Prawn, Scones with Jam and Cream
Starter: Salad of Asparagus and Smoked Chicken, pickled girolles, hazelnut dressing, garden herbs
Bread: Wheat bread, raisin rolls, sesame seeded rolls, white rolls, caraway rolls, red pepper rolls
Soup:  Vegetable Broth
Sorbet: Apricot Lime
Main Course Option #1 – Beef: Rib-Eye Steak cooked medium-rare, carrot and coriander purée, crushed potatoes with garlic and spinach, braised shallot, rich red wine jus
Main Course Option #2 – Chicken: Roasted Breast of Chicken, Champ, Wild Herb Stuffing, Chasseur Sauce
Main Course Option #3 – Vegetarian: Cashel and Blue Cheese Tart with Mediterranean vegetables
Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.
Dessert: Pavloavs with Fresh Fruit, Chantilly Cream, Strawberry Purée
Petit Fours: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles, wedding cake and cupcakes
Evening Buffet: Bacon Butties, Cocktail Sausages, Chicken Goujons, Vegetable Spring Rolls, wedding cake and cupcakes