No Soufflés???

Today I got into work to a prep list left by the chef who covered pastry for me yesterday. He would be off the next two days, so I couldn’t even ask him any questions, but he did leave me his phone number. He had some things rearranged, but the station was still in order. I was also impressed by how much he got done for me yesterday – he made chocolate orange mousse for tastings, made two trays of vanilla and lime crème brulée, made more caramel and lime sauce, made more passionfruit emulsion, cut more passionfruit, organized the pastry freezer, made breads for croutons, defrosted some items for me, made chocolate soufflé mousse, and made passionfruit cream. He must have been in early and really moved all day long – that or he is just faster than me as he is used to doing this and probably doesn’t have to look up the recipes like I do. Although I did prep the bread and scoop the sorbet for him the day before.

I did some of the jobs he left me on my list – make and slice chocolate toffee, make milk chocolate slice, bring up fruit, make delice biscuit, make fananciers and cannelles, scoop pineapple sorbet for today, bake and tray petit fours, make bread rolls (tomato basil, sesame flax, mustard parmesan). In the midafternoon, the sous chef came to tell me the wedding tasting for tomorrow was cancelled. That’s when I realized there was also a tasting tonight. No one had told me about it. And I checked the notice board Monday and it wasn’t there, so it must have been a last minute thing. I just assumed the chef had made the chocolate mousse and apple berry mix for me a day early. Luckily, it was the same desserts for both tastings. So I quickly prepped the desserts and the bread rolls, the sorbets, and the petit fours for tonight’s tasting. No problem. 

I had some extra time so I prepped the breads for tomorrow and Saturday (we have ninety booked for Saturday) and scooped the sorbet for tomorrow. I wanted to do a prep job during service, as we only had nineteen booked and four chefs working. Also the sous chef was back, and in a fairly good mood, but I didn’t want him picking on me. He did point out a few things, even though I probably did more work on his station than him – I plated most of the appetizers, took care of the majority of veg and potatoes, and plated a lot of starters – while he checked out his phone. But I really didn’t have much to do, and certainly no small jobs. 

Hot Chocolate Mousse Soufflé dessert with vanilla ice cream.
M ay not look like much but very tasty and quite popular!

Service went well, I sold a lot of crème brulées but strangely no chocolate mousse soufflés. After I asked the chef to make more mousse for backup since we had been selling a lot. Oh well, now I am ahead!