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.

Asian buffet pics

Picture from our 2nd buffet

The little Family Meal that could (but didn’t).

Every Saturday is a level 4 buffet for us. Two people were in this buffet group, plus the chef. Despite the fact that Buffet is preparing a beautiful spread that could, essentially, feed the whole school, family meal must still prepare food for the classes that don’t make it down, and the people in the restaurant who do not have a chance to eat the buffet food.

In short, we also had 2 people plus the chef, and we busted our asses off for a few hours to get family meal done, when practically NONE of it was eaten. We did get it to the classes in levels 1 and 2, but I think they still came down to eat at the buffet.

Anyhow, we made Pollock (baked and fried), quinoa, string beans, and few other things which we reheated form a previous family meal (though they were very fresh).

Anyhow, with there just being two people in family meal, we pretty much had to get cracking. Steve tackled the Quinoa, and while that cooked, he worked on some veggies. I had prepared the baked and fried fish. Chef Karen cut the filets, and I deep fried about 75 pieces and prepared about 20 baked. The fried ones were simply dipped in an egg mixture and then coated with panko bread crumbs, and fried til golden. Of course they were tasty, though I must be honest… I didn’t even have a piece. They were thick cuts, so after they were fried, we needed to bake them for about 10 minutes until they were completely cooked. Salmon can be left slightly pink, but certain other fish shouldn’t be raw (Pollock is, a white fish).

The baked one took a bit more effort. I prepared a bread crumb topping with fresh chopped chives, basil, and parsley, tomatoes, S&P and olive oil. Chopping herbs is pretty time consuming. Not difficult, just time consuming. But after the mixture turned to a gritty green wet looking sand concoction, I brushed some mayo on the Pollock and pressed some of the green bread crumb mixture on top.

What was weird was I was going step by step in the recipe, but each subsequent step contradicted the previous step. For instance, the first step is to mix all the ingredients that I listed for the bread crumb mixture together. So after I chopped everything and combined I moved on to step two. Step two was to take the chives and mix them into the mayo?! They just told me to mix all the herbs into the bread crumbs?! I figured either way it was the same thing, but it didn’t make sense. Then, the very next step says sprinkle some tomatoes onto the fish?! It already told me to mix the tomatoes with the bread crumbs as well?! I figured everything was fine, but I mentioned it to the chef. I told her I was confident it was all the same and it will be fine, but I wanted to let her know. She agreed that it was fine, but she said she noticed these inconsistencies and forgot to mention them. I should have read the recipe before hand.

Family meal is great because the recipes are relatively simple. We don’t have time for an extravagant showing. We just whip together relatively basic things, in large quantities and very quickly. When I say basic, I don’t mean S&P only. The other day we had lavender chicken, Israeli couscous, lamb meatballs, etc. But the chicken was just lots of chicken and all the herbs and spices thrown together. We didn’t remove the rib bones, or manchonner the legs and wings.

It’s also a little boring, but it’s extremely productive, particularly when everyone eats and we overhear, “wow that was a tasty family meal today.”

Well, this is our last week of it before we move on to production.