I remember a few months ago, someone told me how this Verizon FiOS door to door sales job was the best thing ever--you aren't stuck behind a desk for 8 hours a day, you *get* to stand at the daily meetings and are surrounded by young entrepreneurial type people in a nice carpeted and colorful room. Oh, and your work day consists of you moving door to door "socializing" and "explaining" some bullshit product (Don't get me wrong, I do love Verizon//FiOS) to people relaxing in their homes. Looking back on it, I think to myself... who the fuck likes to go door-to-door cold selling shit that people don't fucking want? In the rain in the fall and the snow during winter, barely making any cash and it's not like you are getting props from Verizon for doing this bitch work. In fact, the company's CEO that I worked for, got cut off by Verizon because of fail sales/management. Hahah. Dumbasses. Anyway,
Now, I get to stand around for hours in a professional kitchen surrounded by talented young cooks, preparing art for customers who come to a location SEEKING a high quality service product. Yeah. And I get to see/learn how a real business (a restaurant) is run.
So the last week... quick recap because I am fucking tired as hell.
11/11 FIRST DAY OF BUSINESS! I think?
Did a bunch of prep work for a few hours before service. I actually had no idea what was going to be happening around 5:30 in terms of how many tables/people we'd be getting but I just eagerly awaited those tickets to come in so I could make some salads. A pretty successful first day, I think. Got to plate each plate a few times and also a few of our colorful desserts. Really fun to use a damn blowtorch. Pyromaniac.
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Over the last 2 days, the food runners were starting their training in the kitchen. It's ridiculous how they are supposed to know what is in each dish (for the most part) and to be able to explain it a bit in case a diner wants to know the details. Also the procedures for placing food in front of each person... to always serve the dish to the left of the person with your left arm, to serve females first or something... I don't even know, but I don't know if I could handle that kind of shit. It's especially difficult if the runners aren't very culinarily minded... if they don't know what a Jus or Puree or Confit is, how are they supposed to remember/pronounce it? Heh. Most dishes require 3 - 4 re-explainations of each individual part for a new runner to understand it. Crazy. Either way, it impresses me when our Manager comes in to serve a dish to someone. Earlier in the evening, we had two veggie guests, but our entrees all are centered around a nice cut of protein, so Chef Bucco whipped up an amazing vegetarian entree from scratch and had our Manager in to deliver it. Chef Bucco explains it once and Mr. Ross (our manager) gets it, remembers all of it and walks confidently out of the kitchen a second later. I didn't even have a clue what was on that plate even though I was trying to listen. Crazy.
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I was really impressed as I was clocking out at 11:00 PM, how full the bar and the lounge area still was! The drinks and the wait staff must be amazing (well I know the waitstaff are full of pretty cool guys n gals) for so many people to be hangin' out on the first day. Hopefully it doesn't get too busy on Friday... because I haven't gotten used to all the orders comin' in yet. Mind boggling.
OLDER SHIT
11/6
On Friday of last week, we had a small little cocktail party (actually, I think there were about 150 people who showed up) of friends, family, local restaurateurs and food writers. We served 8 different plates of Hors Douvres which were all delicious (yes, I stole tons of tastes from each dish). This was my first taste of plating tons of dishes for many people... I didn't do so well in terms of speed... there were so many little elements to place correctly but I guess I may have spent too much time on the little unnecessary details.... people were gulping them in one bite anyway.
Picture of some of the Hor Dourves:
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I realized I needed much more space for the 7 spoons per plate I was putting out because I barely had any room to cut sushi grade fish, dip in seasoning, mix salad, spread spoons across, drop citrus/salad, shake fish, place on spoon without shaking it (otherwise seasonings dust right off and make the spoon look like shit)... yeah... definitely could have used some more elbow room. Either way, it looked awesome.
We got the weekend off!
11/9 Monday.
I got to see the process of each plate from start to finish and also to taste some of the delicious creations our Executive Chef, Anthony Bucco, and his Sous, Mark Farro had thought up during the last few weeks. After each dish was plated, we were supposed to taste it. Unfortunately, it's hard to be the first one to go and break apart such a nice piece of art... however, it is funny to be told to "Eat the fucking thing, you're wasting my time" after being hesitant to be the first to attack the plate.
Very educational (and delicious) day. I think I had a good amount of scallops, 21 day aged beef steak, lamb chops, and delicious fish. YuM.
In the evening, we "practiced" our plating/creation of dishes by simulating service for the waitstaff. I got rick-rolled because I failed on one of the two salads I am supposed to be able to prep. Ripping the top off of a salad to add more greens underneath to give it UMPH and putting the top back on is a messy process. Fail. The salad probably looked flat and lacked a good spread of color. Luckily, now I've learned how to not fuck the salad up.
11/10 Tuesday.
I got rolled today as well. Generally, each station would have a prep list ready to restock for the day's service. My stationmate and I didn't have too much work to do for a few hours so I was called off to clean Chanterelles. I now hate mushrooms. It took me 2 hours to clean 2 medium sized boxes of mushrooms. Peel the stems, brush the dirt off. How fucking hard is that? Apparently, really hard. I didn't know how much dirt to actually get off... what about that tiny speck in the gills of the shroom? I need a toothpick! So I probably took 1 hour and 15 minutes for the first box and I sped up my process with the 2nd box... but was still ridiculed to shit for being so slow... I haven't felt that dumb in quite some time. Way to go. Fuck you Chanterelles (You're still delicious though).
Today my stationmate, Ari and I, placed up our station in a more efficient manner (she's in charge of me because I'm a noob and she knows what she's doing) so we could speed plating/production up. I learned to chill all serving plates that are going to have cold items on them and to chill salad tossing bowls (yeah, really) that you're tossing salads in (no wai). Also, luckily Ari was around to let me know when to start prepping the salads and how plates go out with other orders... i.e. yeah, some table orders 2 salads which take 5 minutes to prep and also a gnocci dish which may take 8 - 9, you shouldn't start tossing the salad right away to let the lettuces wilt... you try to time everything so your greens don't absorb too much acid//oxidize etc as the plate that takes longer is being cooked. Yikes.
So later in the evening, we fired off a bunch of orders for friends and family. I personally think I did a much better job of not fucking up a salad and I think my stationmate Ari really saved my ass on timing and such.
I love watching the plating and finishing of each dish... no two plates ever look exactly the same in the culinary world... you could have a slightly different shape to a cut of protein, slightly different sized herbs, different shades of vegetables... all little things to think about before you cut and place it into a presentable mess of edible goodness.
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At the end of service, we broke down everything... all our Mise en place at the top thingies had to go into containers and stored into the bottom refridgeration units and labeled. Massive migration, but necessary.
Whew... tired, but lookin' forward to some mass production.
