A La Carte

A La Carte

Well, all is going well so far in a la carte. It is our fine dining restaurant that hosts two services. At lunch time there is a preparation and service of a few types of service including banquet, guiridon (table side), tray service, etc. Then at night it is a la carte and that is what I am doing now. I'm in the kitchen on the main course section and it is quite fun. It was only our first day yesterday so it was mostly moderatly controlled chaos, but still. It is more like a real establishment than the other restaurants on campus, though CDV was too actually. I think I might bring my camera today and take some pictures, maybe, or maybe later in the week when we are a bit better? We'll see.

Prep

So what did I do yesterday. I did mise en place for other sections actually. I made vegetable spaghetti, I prepped some tomatoes, peeled veggies, yah, not very exciting. I did, however, get to puree the sweet potatoes and make a creamed sweet potatoe puree thing, so I got to enjoy the yummyness that is sweet potatoes before they were doused in butter and cream. I also ate sooo much asperagus. It's in season now, so the school uses it liberally.

Service

During service I was on the hot section cooking the fish, quail, and sweet bread. Steffi, my other main course team mate was on the order sheet and prepping plates for delivery as well as setting up the sides and stuff. Then our last team member, Calum, was on the grill station cooking the steaks. Now, to be honest, when I see a steak and am told it is medium well and there is some red bloodyness seeping out of the pores, and I touch it and it feels like a medium rare, it makes me wonder. I used to be a really big steak fan and am still uptight about steak being cooked right. It was the first day, and the chef didn't really explain how to cook to the correct doneness. I think he was getting the hang of it by the end; I'll just be straight about what I'm saying here: I was actually jelous because I wanted to cook the steaks! I donno why, but I really wanted to be able to be responsible for a good steak that someone would close thier eyes to and take that extra long second to enjoy. I understand the experience, though I'm vegan.

Today is another day in the kitchen. I should probably leave soon, get a coffee maybe to help me get through the 2 hour class before hand. I ended up staying up much later than planned last night. Steffi and I jumped into the pool after shift yesterday and then went to CDV for a drink and just chilled and chatted with friends. It was a really nice night actually.