Lots of Mojitos

This morning I was in by 11:00a.m., and by 1:00p.m., I had made a quadruple batch of dark chocolate soufflé mousse, a quadruple batch of lime confit, eight times the batch of creamy mint and lime white chocolate ganache, five times the batch of dark rum crumble, picked a bag of mint for the crème brulée garnish, and had my station completely set up and ready to go – and I wasn’t stopping! We weren’t overly busy tonight – expecting forty diners, but we were expecting ninety diners on Saturday and we are closed tomorrow so everyone has the day off, so I was getting as much advance prep done as I could. Saturday would just be for topping up and last minute prep, as I would be busy scooping a lot of sorbet, rolling a lot of bread rolls, and traying a lot of petit fours. Plus some wedding tastings to prep for.

Today I also sliced some blue cheese parfait, rolled two trays of passionfruit jelly roll, and cut a tray of crème brulée, along with the usual petit four jobs, replenishing stock, cleaning and organizing, making bread (tomato basil, rosemary olive oil, honey spice), etc. I brought my two new bread flavors down to a chef de partie in the bar and my official bread taster, the only other female chef around. We both agreed that these were two winning flavors – you could really taste the flavors I put in them. The server working the pass asked what great flavors I had on today, and told me she really liked my cinnamon raisin ones even though she doesn’t like raisins and took four of them home. Glad to hear my inventive flavors are appreciated and my bread doesn’t go to waste! Just before service, chef called me into his office to show me the review from the wedding tasting last night. He showed me the comment about “they enjoyed the mousse, but thought the portion size was too big”. He had said to me last night that it was too large after six courses, but that I could probably eat it (I totally could). But the thing is, the pastry chef okayed it and it has been so long since I have worked a wedding and I never piped the mousse so they honestly can’t expect me to know – I just filled the glass! Oh well, better too much than too little.

Dessert of Today - Mojito of Lime Confit

Our first table was not in until 6:30p.m., so I was about to start slicing up fruit for fruit flowers for backup and prep for Saturday, the only job I had not gotten around to today, but the chef de partie on starters said it was a rule that no prep was done after 6:00p.m. I told him it was also a rule not to just stand around, but the sous chef had told me I needed to help the starter chef out tonight with starters and apps and veg and potatoes like I had been doing lately, because he is not good enough. I am not sure if that comment was a joke or not, but I didn’t do my fruit prep, even though it killed me to stand idle.

Other than that service went well. I did help out all around. I sold a lot of mojitos, and a few soufflés tonight as well. I could tell the new chef on mains was struggling a bit tonight, and I had agreed to show him how to use the robocoup after service to grate cheese much faster and more efficiently. I also stayed to help him clean up and pack things up. Normally I am used to being the last one in the kitchen at night, but lately he has been staying even later than me. I don’t really mind helping out, a simple thank you would be nice though.