I’ve been a busy cat lately. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Its ok (I can answer myself). So where were we? Well, I’m finished with the fish station. That was a piece of cake, and quite easy to do! I’m also confident that I can make a delicious Mediterranean broth for it. The lamb, however, is a little different. And by a little, I mean a lot. And by a lot, I mean a world of difference. I guess for starters, I can describe the dish.
By the recipe, we are simply serving 2 bones of a rack of lamb over some chick peas mixed with a tomato fondue, with some coriander and cumin seasoning. It’s actually quite delicious. Chef Xavier added a few components, including using some of the chick peas to make a puree mixed with tahini sauce, then layering it into a ring mold on the plate and filling the rest of the ring mold with the whole chick peas on top. We also take eggplants, peel and slice them, and wrap a mixture of onion and eggplant in the sliced eggplants and place that little molded eggplant next to the chick peas.
We have a white board for the two stations that do fish, and a white board for the two stations that do meat. For the fish, we put a star up on the board when an appetizer goes out. The star lets us know we should get our fish in the broth and cooking. Once we’re ready to fire the dish, we put it all together and bam bam bam, it’s all ready in a matter of minutes.
The lamb is a lot different since the meat needs to be finished to the proper temperature upon the star. Chef Xavier gave us minute amounts, though the time does not take into account different temperatures in the oven, and the opening and closing of the oven. So basically, it comes down to cooking all of the lamb to medium rare, maybe a couple of racks to medium, and when the order come sin, you make sure you have enough, and when its starred you finish cooking the meat to where it belongs.
Basically it’s all trial and error and keeping an eye and touch on things. Let me go out and say right now, my partner is a disaster. Yes, he is pretty good in the kitchen, but he’s an awful partner/teammate/team player. Awful. He doesn’t communicate, and tries to run the show, so when I am getting involved I need to try to catch up with his processes. Now, maybe that works for him and for other people, but I don’t work that way, as his partner. Further, he thinks his ways are the only ways and always right. For instance… I know for a fact that if you put a cold piece of meat in a 450 degree oven for 2 minutes, you are NOT going to heat, or worse, overheat (over cook) the center. It just won’t happen. I do know however, that if you put a plate in the oven for 5 minutes, it WILL get TOO hot, and the sauce you put on after will crust on the plate.
So when we have an order for a table consisting of at least one duck and one lamb, they should pretty much be brought up simultaneously, maybe a minute of time in between. So we have to communicate with not only each other but the duck station. My partner insists that he knows what’s going on and we should just get going. And I would point out, dude, we should ask the duck station and make sure we’re on the same page. He’ll go ahead and pop a plate in the oven and when I confirm that we have 5 minutes, he will leave it there and make a stink when I take it out for a few minutes.
I also explained that maybe I cannot tell a medium from a medium rare as well as he can by just touch alone, but I do know that a if we put a cold/room temperature medium-rare slab of meat in the oven, 3 minutes will not over cook it. But he insisted that 1-2 minutes is enough. I am sure those meats were going out to the customers cold in the middle. Not warm, but cold. He didn’t seem to care. In fact, as I explained my point and tried to convince him that he is not necessarily always right, I received “Oh my god, dude, you are the worst partner, I can’t even work with you anymore. I don’t know how you’re gonna work in a real kitchen.” With that said, I didn’t mind so much what he said because I realize his type. He’s bossy and swears that he is absolutely right every time. I didn’t take what he said to heart because I knew that I wasn’t necessarily wrong. I have been tolerant of his ways so far, and I will continue to do so. I don’t want to point fingers or throw someone under the bus, like he will to me in a heartbeat. But I guess since this is my blog, I can say whatever I please. He’s a jackass. He will indeed be a good chef, and probably a dick of a chef, but good. But I won’t be working with or for him.
I have worked up a confidence in what I do and my skills in the kitchen. His analysis really has no significance, especially to me.
So we had 4 days of the lamb station. I haven’t posted a single post on it til now, which will cover all 4 days.
My first day I struggled a bit for a couple of reasons. We didn’t have the communication that we needed. He would throw a rack in the oven, and not tell me, and get started on a setting up a plate. So when I turned around to help there was nothing for me to do, so I looked like a chicken with my head cut off. Fine.
By the end of day one, chef noticed this and told me to do a plate all by myself. Without my partner doing a thing. I was confident I could do it. The very first thing that went wrong was chef told me to go ahead and plate. However, the order wasn’t ready to go up because we needed to wait on the duck station. So I get started, obviously not realizing this. I warm up the meat, which was to be a medium piece. I felt the piece and it felt medium. However, it was cut from the rack earlier and some of the blood started to exude from the cut side. I know what a medium piece looks like, and I also thought I had a feel for it. So by touch, it felt medium. Without a doubt in my mind. By looks, however, it was a little red, not dripping blood but red from the blood that was extracted previously. I went by touch. Chef Xavier was like “what is that cooked to?” And I responded, “Medium, chef.” “How do you know its medium?” “By touch, chef.” And he touches it. Sure enough, he agrees, it feels medium. But we both agreed it looked medium rare. What was I to do? So I finish garnishing, and bring it up, just to be greeted by the head chef, Chef Candy, telling me, you didn’t communicate with level 6, and you’re way to early, you have to replate. So I struck out. I just looked absolutely foolish. I know my partner was smiling inside. Again, this is after my chef told me to go ahead and plate it all by myself, and I didn’t think to coordinate with level 6.
This is why I mentioned earlier the importance of coordinating with the duck station which I learned the hard way, and my partner seemed to be above.
The next 2 classes (which is a total span of 4 or 5 days) our chef was out sick. He therefore, missed my comeback, and the way I took charge of the lamb the second night and did a great job. The third night, we had another different chef, who want the lamb presented very differently than our chef, which was nice to get a touch of something different, knowing there are many ways to skin a cat.
So the last day on the lamb station is when my partner made those comments, despite the fact that we did a fine job during service. He also decided to not come in to class on Saturday, our first night of Pastry. I was running 10 minutes late, so that was difficult enough, but I texted him telling him I was running a little late. He didn’t bother getting back to me on the fact that he wasn’t even coming in. I realize he doesn’t like me. (I may have realized this long ago, which is part of the reason why I stopped hanging out with some of those cats). In fact it’s been months, and the one time I tried to hang out with them again, I realized I really hated it, so that was it. I also found out that the one girl of the group came to the same realization that hanging out with some of those people, particularly my partner, sucks.
I wonder who has been reading this blog? Apparently my grandma has been!!!! ;) I hope the people in my class haven’t found it yet. I’ve done some searches; it’s not the easiest thing to find, so I’m banking on that. Maybe they found it, and that’s why they dislike me.
I guess my next post will be on pastry. The chef is really nice but a hard ass. But really nice. And he helped me significantly my first night considering I was alone and late. I also picked up on his humor and adjusted accordingly, and also picked up on what it is he likes: cleanliness, order, methodical maneuvering and attention to the task on hand. So despite being late, AND not having a lot of my tools (which I loss since starting level 5), he warmed up a little to me.
Anyways, I’ve given up on my partner. I don’t care for him, and I will work as a good teammate because it is in my nature to do so, but I won’t let him get to me, and I won’t lose my cool like he lost his. That’s how we do. And I’m above his immaturity. Not a better person, but just above some of his antics.
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