Alone On Pastry

This morning I got into work early and ready to go. I would be on pastry alone today – doing all the prep and the service, and I wanted to make sure I got everything done on time. If they were trusting me alone in pastry, I wanted to show I could handle it. We had only been expecting sixteen diners tonight, but that number almost doubled to thirty, which was still a fairly quiet night. I began with scaling the ingredients for the bread again, since that needed to be done and if I ran behind it would be all ready to go. I was waiting for breakfast service to finish in the big kitchen anyway. I also assembled some more delice desserts, and cut the chocolate topping for it. 

In mid-morning I got called to a staff photo, which has never happened before. All available staff from the kitchen, service, front desk, spa, accommodations, and gardens assembled outside the lodge for a photo for a magazine. That took up some of my time, but I was still in good shape overall.

Petit Fours from today (left to right) - lime white chocolate ganache, lollipops,
nougat, raspberry marshmallow, blueberry fanancier, canelles. 

Next I multitasked by making lime ganache, chocolate mousse, and fruit flowers at the same time. I then decided to make/cut the petit fours, as they need to be done every day. I cut up raspberry marshmallows, white chocolate lime ganache, nougat, and lollipops, and made canelles and blueberry fananciers. The problem was, I could not find the special silicone mold for the fananciers anywhere. It wasn’t right next to the canelle mold in pastry like it should be. Finally, the head chef managed to hunt it down for me. I made thirty-one more banana tarte tatins, as more bananas came in, although that was an optional task on my list. Then I finished my breads – parmesan, bacon, and onion, and the cranberry buns for the starter section, which I was reminded about twice, after I already had them done! I assembled some more fruit flowers, just to make sure I had enough, cleaned up, and set up for service. Service was slow and I still had a little time, so I also cut up some more cheese for the cheese board, and made the prep list for tomorrow. 

I felt I got a lot done today, and I enjoyed working alone in the quiet pastry section. The head chef checked in with me a few times, but other than that, no one really bothered me or questioned what I was doing – they trusted me to do my thing! During service, I even plated some of the starters and did the potatoes and veg. Early on in service, the head chef asked me to go downstairs and help out on pastry in the bar, as they got hit with a few orders – one with a group of twenty that had come in, which wouldn’t have been so bad but there were ten orders for kids’ ice cream and they were all different (one all chocolate, one two scoops vanilla and once scoop chocolate, etc.). Chef popped down during this and got mad at how messy the station was and how I should know better and should have gotten them to clean it down first. I’m sorry, but you asked me to help get orders out because it was busy, I don’t like to boss people around and tell them they are working too messily when they are evidently a little overwhelmed. 

Head chef told me to take a little rest and come in an hour later tomorrow, as there wasn’t a lot to do on pastry. I guess I deserve it from being so productive today!

On my way home from work I met the executive chef outside the bar, and he chatted with me about the things we needed to do in order to obtain all the necessary paperwork to complete my internship portfolio. He also told me I had to come in to breakfast some morning on him – as hard work deserves to be rewarded.