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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I haven't had time to post the last couple of days. I've been really busy with school and work.
Yuo! Work!  I spent Saturday working another Wolfgang Puck event. This time I got to work all evening, 9 1/2 hours. Once again it was a lot of fun, but I was just exhausted when I finished. Tons of stuff to do and many compliments from the chefs supervising my work. The best was the look of disbelief I got when one chef asked me to make a bechamel sauce and I told him I knew how. I could tell he didn't believe me so I explained the process to him, just make a white roux, add milk, and finish with a little nutmeg. It's not complicated, but it does take a little time and I'd never made it in mass quantity before. He wanted a gallon and a half and he wanted 5 lbs of cheddar grated into it for some mac and cheese. He kept watching me, too, I knew he was just waiting for me to screw up but I got it exactly the way he wanted it and he was very pleased. Hopefully the folks who ate the mac and cheese were just as happy on Sunday (it was for brunch the next day).
Another chef wanted some fried smashed potatoes and told me they were perfect. If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it. Boil some red potatoes, let them cool, then smash them. They should be flattened a bit, but remain nearly whole (if they break into a couple of pieces, it's ok). Then deep fry them to a nice golden brown and season with salt and whatever else you might like. These are way better than french fries.
Of course the plating line was intense. 6 lines, 850 entrees in 20 minutes. I was saucing the entrees for the sous chef. He kept yelling at the guy across from me that he was too sloppy, too slow, or using too much or too little sauce, but he kept telling me that I was perfect and getting exactly what he was looking for, except for a couple in the beginning while I was getting used to what I was doing. It wasn't hard, it was just fast.
A couple of the chefs that work there fulltime are graduates from my school. They started by working the events and were good enough to be offered jobs. I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind working there when I graduate. Everyoe really seems to like their job so it seems like it could be a good place to work. Hopefully, they'll think I'm good enough if that's what I decide. Besides, it'll look really good on a resume to say I worked for Wolfgang Puck.
Sunday was busy, too. Not working, just studying. I had to prepare a 5-10 minute Powerpoint presentation on a chef's biography. I did my research on the web, downloaded some pics and will present 21 slides on Chef Robert Carter of Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC. For those of you who live in that area, his restaraunt sounds really good. Southern cooking with a flare. It doesn't seem to be overpriced either so you might want to check it out. I like the way he takes simple dishes such as grits, and finds a way to make them memorable.
Well, the weekly exam is tonight, so it's back to the books for me.
Think good thoughts,
e
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*super hugs for our little vowel!*
It's so cool you're getting compliments from the bosses (and just to not make you get a big head heh heh, but my step-parents also know how to make bechamel sauce, coz they made their own lasagna years and years ago before I moved out of the house, and it tasted great, but they didn't make a gallon and a half of the stuff... *giggle* Guess you have some reason to puff up your chest after all! ).
Are those big-name chefs really as nasty and evil and bitchy n stuff as they're portrayed in movies and such? Or as swishy? 
Take care, and write more for us please, I love your little tales!
*hugs you again*
-L
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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Ah Lenny, you know I've always got a "little tale" for you. ;-D So far the chefs I've worked for have been pretty cool. But I've seen a little of what happens if you screw up. The sous chef was overheard yelling at someone (an employee, not a student) and it was obvious he was quite upset. But I've also heard him giving out lots of compliments to his employees as well. They all treat the students really well and understand that we have very limited experience so it would prolly take a major screw up to get yelled at like he yelled at whoever that was. The only time I've realy seen him get irritated at us students is during the plating of the entrees. Things have to move very quickly and he can't really have any tolerance for even small screw ups because they can slow things down.
Of the chefs that I've seen, some have been a little egotistical, but no one's really been too bad. I only suspected that one of them I saw working Satuday night might be a little "swishy." That was out of about 8 or 9 chefs (3 were women).
{{HUGS}}}
Think good thoughts,
e
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