BUSTED!!

Let me preface this post by saying “DO THE RIGHT THING.” Let me follow this preface by saying, no one in my class, including myself, are bad people, with the intentions of cheating or sneaking around the school and doing things we shouldn’t be doing. With that said, let me get into my story.

On Saturday, I think I mentioned I came in at 2:00 in the afternoon to assist the buffet group. I wasn’t asked, I wasn’t told, I volunteered. Should I receive special treatment or mention for this. Nope. A simple thank you is great, and I received just that. It was my pleasure to help them out. I actually just rolled out some pasta, mondered some tomatoes for an impromptu stuffed tomato dish chef decided on and did a few other random things for the chef that allowed him to focus more of his time on the buffet. I was just happy to help.

Steve on the other hand, was in the school at around 8:00AM for a management class he is taking, so I don’t know what that entails, but he was there MAD early, and then he even assisted the buffet group by setting up the “hanging rig” for their class as well.

Yes, this will be long winded, as always. So you probably read my post on the little family meal that could, but didn’t. We did indeed bust our asses all night and did what we needed to do; in addition to the help we gave the buffet group throughout the day. We cleaned up our area so that it was spotless, and we still had 20 minutes left in the class. Steve let out an innocent sigh of exhaustion followed by the courtesy explanation for the sigh, “I’m exhausted.” The family meal chef took that cue and said, you know what guys, you should just go. You did a great job today (it was only Steve and I, Carlos was out sick) and we’re done, you should just go. We looked at each other and basically told her, well Chef Rob said we shouldn’t go early especially without his permission. She said, very matter of factly, oh, don’t worry, just go, I insist. (I may be changing some of the exact words, but I assure you the meaning was very clear and my recollection and retelling of the story does not change the tone or intent of how it was delivered to us).

We were indeed tired. And of course everyone else was, but we were done. We were clean, we’ve accomplished our goal, and we were twiddling our thumbs. So we took her cue, and we left.

We did the wrong thing.

We justified it to ourselves, particularly with the family meal chef’s blessings, and the assistance we gave to the buffet team.

Sure enough as we were leaving class on Tuesday night, he gave us a little scolding. “Guys, about leaving early on Saturday, that wasn’t cool.” We explained to him that Chef Karen insisted that we leave. We told her that we shouldn’t and that he would probably disapprove, but she insisted. He said, he understands, and he’s sure that it won’t happen again, by either party. So we’re under the assumption that he will have a talk with Chef Karen, since he already had a talk with us. We were both a bit upset about it (Steve and I) because we knew it was “wrong,” but we were reassured that we should leave, and in fact, we really were very helpful and it was almost justified. Steve had spent 15 hours in the school that day, and I spent 10 hours there when I only needed to be there for 5. I am NOT justifying it. I’m just stating that perhaps Chef could have kept it to himself and justified it as well. But I guess it’s important to be consistent and fair (though, fairness in this situation could have had other factors playing in the game).

Anywho, our “punishment” for being dismissed early was we had to stay with a fish fumet that he was making for his buffet until it was fully cooked and cooled, which was no problem. A small price to pay for our foul. Unfortunately, there are deeper implications that I hope do not play out. For instance the term “trustworthy” comes to mind, as well as “sneaky” and “disloyal.” He gave me such a great review and I hope he doesn’t renege his sentiment and lower my grade or overall review because of it. Time will tell.

Well, just what you want after a long story not made short, a little review of Tuesday night’s class. Chef Karen forgot, or chose not, to order the meat for Tuesday’s class on Saturday, to prep and marinate so we can just cook it on Tuesday (we did leave a little earlier, therefore we did have the time). So when we got in, we had to prepare (QUICKLY) about 40-50 whole hanger steaks, briefly marinate them, grill them, finish in the oven, prepare chayote’s, arroz con frijoles, spaghetti squash, which definitely did not get out in time, and the salad and fruit salad.

We BARELY managed, and the Chayotes were taking longer than normal, so we almost didn’t even make it with those. Anyhow, we busted our asses off, with the help of two make-up students, and we got a DELICIOUS hanger steak, rice and chayote meal out. It was actually really delicious. I can’t imagine what it would be like if we had the steaks marinating since Saturday.

FYI, Chayotes, for my step mom reading this blog, I know she knows, but they are these vibrant green, almost pear looking, squashes. They are about the size and shape of mangoes and have a little bit of a creasing/wrinkling on the bottom. They, I assume, are a Hispanic/Latin American food, and were REALLY simple to prepare, and actually very tasty. I see them every time I’m in the grocery store but never think twice about them. We coated them in oil, salt and pepper (just a light coating), placed them cut side up, threw a little water in the pan to encourage steaming, and covered with foil. Then we popped them into a 350-375 oven for what should have been no more than an hour, and they came out tender and slightly browned on the top. It had a mild yet delicately sweet flavor. More bland than sweet, but you can taste the natural sugars. We placed in the center a spoonful of tomato fondue that we made, and it was very good. Surprisingly good.

The highlight was the Spanish style rice that Chef Wanda (who I believe is Puerto Rican) whipped together while we were cleaning up the steaks.

It worked out well. Everything came together and we pulled through, right in time for family meal. I loved it, and everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food. Just two more family meals, and then production time. We are planning on making deli meats, including pastrami, honey ham, turkey breast, etc., in addition to the sausages that we can whip together in a night. I must say, all of the sausages that the production teams have whipped together have been great. We’ll see how it goes.