Sunday, January 9, 2010

Well, I guess I have two days to catch up on...

Saturday I worked 9am-4pm at Iggie's. I was up early, had a good breakfast (I usually work with Mary and she really doesn't take any breaks. She once told me her "body gets sick when I don't work". Interesting for an islander.) I got to Iggie's and there was Mary, upset because Jeff, the new kitchen manager, was suppose to put in a requisition for supplies the night before, but hadn't, so she had to do it when she got there. She settled down, then put me in charge of setting up the pantry. Pretty much a repeat of last Saturday. Chopping lettuce for salads and sandwiches, cutting up cucumbers and tomatoes, making sure there was enough bacon for BLTs, and sanitizing the station. At least there wasn't a sink full of chicken parts! (That was yet to come, lol) There were ribs in the sink, however, so I was asked to season those (rub in salt, pepper and minced garlic). After I did that, Mary grilled them, then roasted them. Then I sliced about ten pounds of roast beef on the slicer (too tick, April, tinner!-too thick), so I changed the setting on the machine. Once the beef was sliced, I put them into baggies in 6 oz portions to use in French dips. Mary found even more roast beef and had me slice that (after I just cleaned the machine, kind of a pain) that I left loose in a pan. She's going to use it for Phillie Cheesesteak on Sunday. Then suddenly, it was time for lunch. In between my salad making, sandwich making and serving desserts, I got to work with my chicken parts. Wings, tenders and chicken breasts. I put the wrong marinade on the wings so had to drain them and wash them all and start again. Oh, well....a learning experience. During lunch, Jeff came up to me after I had made a Cesar salad and told me to use less dressing and to not put the croutons in with the greens while I mixed the salad so the croutons wouldn't get soggy. OK...(but have you seen the croutons? They're rock hard!) Oh, well again, I'm here to learn and mostly do what I am told. He and Mary apparently had words also, she does not like him. Such drama! On the surface everyone seems to get along, but when you spend more time with the people here, no one seems to like anyone. It's difficult not to be affected by all that. I also wrapped fish for the fish and chips, and almost had to bread oysters, but I ran out of time so the evening shift will do it. I ran out of Cambros used for food storage so for a while I was prepping all this food with no way to store it either in the walk-in or the freezer. Mary had me do some transfer of food to get the bigger Cambros (plastic containers with lids). I was ready to leave at 4, a kind of discouraging day being around all this negativity.

I went back to my room, took a shower, then went to see 007 for a nice stiff drink. When I first sat down, it was crowded but soon thinned. A guy next to me starting talking to me. Wasn't sure what he was interested in at first, but turns out he just wanted someone to talk to. His name was Aaron. He had made reservations at Bolongo and was planning on bringing his girlfriend with him. He was going to propose marriage to her. At the last minute, she told him she couldn't come with him, that she was seeing someone else (he had dated her for three years and thought they were serious about each other). He came out anyway, bringing his brother with him as well as two cousins. His brother was sleeping and Aaron was waiting for him to wake up. It just goes to show you that you can always find someone worse off than yourself. I don't have much to complain about!

For some reason, I had trouble falling asleep so read for a while. I don't have to get up early Sunday morning!

Sunday when I woke, the sky was clear and the sun shown brightly. After breakfast (I treated myself to Mango pancakes). There was a small lizard sitting on a rock by my table so I snapped a picture. Hopefully you can see the little guy sitting on the light colored rock! After I finished breakfast, I sat by the pool and read one of the books Jordan sent out to me called "Culinary Artistry". It's a good book so far. It talks about whether cooking is a vocation, a craft or a form of art. It was recommended by one of the chefs at school and it is one Ryan and Janee use to build their menus. I talked to Jordan at 1pm, then it was time to go to work.

Once I got to the Lobster Grille, Janee told me I would start off at the Lobster Grille, but would have to go work Pantry at Iggie's as they were short handed. Apparently, Arthur, one of the nicest and most polite guys I've ever met, just walked out of work the other night and never came back. Don't know what's up with that and probably never will. So I started off my evening by wrapping pieces of bacon around large scallops, then putting three scallops on a bamboo skewer. I also made Mango Salsa (small dice a 1/2 small red onion, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 red pepper, 2 cups mango and then add 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro, salt, pepper and honey to taste). While gathering my supplies, I noticed the peeled potatoes in the walk-in had not been put on to boil. I realized that only Janee, Ryan, Judy and myself were scheduled to work tonight. That never happens! Usually Drew or Jesse boil the potatoes and make mashed potatoes. So I pulled them out and put the potatoes on the stove to boil. That's not something Ryan or Janee do any more, it's left to us peons, lol. While I was waiting for potatoes, I sliced chicken breasts into three pieces to make the Coconut Crusted Chicken Tenders, then breaded them first in flour, then dipped them in beaten eggs, then covered them in a 2:1 mixture of sweetened coconut and Panko. Once that was done, I started making arancini. Ryan makes a lobster risotto (which by the way, has no lobster, just lobster base) which we then wrap around a very small piece of smoked Gouda cheese which then is rolled into a round ball, breaded in the usual manner, then stored until they are ready to be deep fried for an appetizer order. They serve it with Basil Aioli. One of my favorites! While all this was going on, Janee was checking the schedule and saw that Jeff (the new kitchen manager) had today off. I think she was a little perturbed that he was not helping out his own staff, so Janee was keeping me busy for longer than she had originally said she would (I was suppose to go down to Iggie's at 5pm). Fine with me! I asked her in the afternoon if I could spend time making sauces with either her or Ryan. She thought that was a great idea. I also told her I had been making the Hollandaise Sauce on days, so she let me make the Bernaisse Sauce tonight. They use it to top the fillet mignon. It turned out well, that made both of us happy! Dinner orders started coming in at 6pm and Judy was cleaning out the walk-in (and I have to tell you I was VERY impressed when she was done!! I've never seen the walk-in look that good!), so Janee had me start working at Judy's station (Pantry). I made the Bolongo salad, the Lobster Grapefruit salad, the Wedge salad, the Lobster-Shrimp Cocktail and served a few desserts. Very cool! It got later and later, so Janee told me to forget about going to Iggie's. John, the General Manager at Iggie's, stopped by and said it was "dead" down at Iggie's so it all worked out. I cleaned up after everyone (Ryan especially is a very messy cook!), then Janee let me go early. Can't complain about that. I also asked Janee if they did anything special for Valentine's Day and she said yes they did. I asked if she would let me come up with a dessert special for Valentine's Day and she said yes! So now I need to come up with something new. Yeah!! Now I just have to come up with an idea, lol. Something chocolaty I think.....

Back to my room for a shower and some dinner (I had the arancini), a drink at the bar, then back to my room. Tomorrow I am back at Iggie's 9am to 4pm. Time for bed.