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.