Olympic Trip Day 9

Today was a very busy day. It began at midnight, where we were continuing our overnighter. At midnight we were still glazing our food items, then moving on to burning and plating them. We gently and securely packed up the vans with our plates and held the delicate garnishes on our laps; then departed our kitchen site at 3:45a.m. to travel the forty minutes on the highway to the competition site (our kitchen facilities were in a separate town and although this may sound impractical, it really is the best and most efficient way to get our food ready for the comp). We had the air conditioning on in the car to keep the food cold and to keep us awake, and carried on pointless conversations to stay alert. 

We arrived at the site and spent a long time in the line up of vans, trucks, and large buses to get to park near the loading zone, which is why we left so early. We finally got in and had two hours to set up our table. Luckily we had been permitted to set-up the display and menu cards and tablecloth the night before and had taken advantage of that opportunity, and all our food had already been plated, so it was just a matter of placing on last minute garnishes and placing the plates on the table. We had five people working on the table and three runners to bring stuff back and forth to the vans. 

At 7:00a.m. when the table displays had to be done we returned to clean up the kitchen then got a couple hours to nap before returning to the show to hear our critiques and see some of the show.