A Sweet Start To A Day

This morning I was scheduled for a short, quiet, easy day of prep at the castle before two weddings on Friday and Saturday, so I decided to go in for breakfast again at 7:00a.m. I love going in for breakfast because the breakfast cook is so friendly, he chats amicably, asking me questions and telling me about himself. He also makes sure to explain what he is doing as he is going along so I can learn from him. I actually arrived before him this morning, and he greeted me with “Hello. Eager as ever to get to work I see!” People who have been in the industry for several years tend to lose some of their passion and energy towards food. They tell me I will too, but for the time being, I am young and energetic.

Breakfast was very quiet this morning, but that simply gave us a chance to work on more treats for afternoon tea. I made granola yogurt parfaits and potato bread, then helped with miniature lemon meringue tarts and chocolate éclairs. He insisted I fix myself a breakfast – so I settled on scrambled eggs, which they put in a ring mold here after cooking and wrap smoked salmon around it for a beautiful presentation, along with all the sides. He had some leftover meringue from the tarts, so he decided to use it up by baking meringue cookies for staff lunch, and making up some chocolate mousse to put in the middle of them. Of course he let me sample the components.

The raspberry jam and chocolate mousse filled meringue sandwich cookies using 'leftovers'. Delicious!

At 9:00a.m., I began wedding prep, which involves seemingly tedious, monotonous and annoying tasks that are necessary in order to be able to put together the dishes at the time of the wedding reception. The two wedding menus we were prepping for were very similar to past weddings – standard canapés, beef and fish main courses, soups, starters, desserts, etc. The tasks that comprised the majority of my time today included slicing two boxes of plum tomatoes for a chicken salad starter, picking basil and making pesto, prepping the fillings for smoked chicken and smoked salmon canapés, and picking crab for crab cakes. I thought picking the crab was a bit ridiculous. We order in flaked crab meat in small frozen bags. Then we have to thaw it and pick through it by hand, each flake at a time, as there are a few tiny bones the same color as the meat. The problem is, this takes forever, is hard on the back and neck, and I hardly find any bones to make it worthwhile. I mean, it’s like canned salmon – there will be a few bones left in it, but they are soft edible bones (full of calcium) that you probably won’t even notice eating. I hardly think it’s worth the time and money for my employer to hire me to do this. Also, it puts the crab at higher risk of contamination, as it spends a longer time in the ambient room temperature food danger zone and is extensively handled by food workers’ fingers. If we are really that concerned about having no bones, we should order a different crab product that does not contain bones. That’s my rant for today.

Staff lunch at the castle was nice as always – chicken curry with rice and fries and fruit salad, yogurt, and cherry tomatoes and baked beans from breakfast. And of course, the chocolate and jam filled meringue cookies, as well as a chocolate biscuit cake. Supper back at the lodge, upon finishing prep around 5:00p.m., was burgers and fries.