Edwin is to Partner as Shit is to fan

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.

Saturday Night Live!

First and foremost, we tweaked the dish a tiny bit tonight. We gave it another element, and we changed the aioli from an egg based aioli to a traditional potato based aioli. I didn’t know this either, but a garlic aioli was once just garlic, potato and olive oil, and salt and pepper, of course. Nothing more. Ours had a touch of saffron in it, which I think enhanced the color and presentation but barely affected the flavor.

Anyhow, we also added a base of braised fennel under the bass, to give it height, texture, and just another element to the dish. Quite frankly, I think it was great with the fennel, and a great idea on the part of the chef.

We took fennel, sliced it to about ½” and gave it a light salt and peppering. We then browned both sides in a sauté pan and placed it over a bed of sweated onions. We barely covered it with chicken stock, placed a piece of parchment paper over it, and baked it in the oven until it was tender.

When that was ready, that became the base of our fish dish. We then proceeded as we normally did, with the fish on top, the onions and red peppers on top, some of the poaching liquid, and topped it with the crouton with aioli. This time, we made a little herb mound on top, using the fennel tops, which is a beautiful almost dill looking herby green, and chervil and chives. The dish this time looked a lot more impressive than either of the times before. In fact I was bringing up two plates and Chef Xavier calls over to me “Edwin!” I look, thinking I just mucked something up. “Looks great,” while he threw up the international ok symbol (index and thumb together in a circle with remaining 3 fingers up in the air… yeah that one). That was nice.

SO, Saturday night is when it gets busy. In fact the level 6 fish team wasn’t quite a team. It was one guy doing it all by himself, and he was rocking it! We needed to wait a minute or two for him on sending out some dishes, but considering he was by himself, it was pretty impressive. We helped him out in any way we could, but he was pretty set.

Scott and I have been a little shaky on our teamwork until this class. He would tell me to relax a few times because the truth of the matter is I was pretty nervous and things were intense, considering this was my first time in the restaurant kitchen. He has been working in restaurants for a year or so by now, and has a lot more experience. He was right. Our dish doesn’t take long to make, so we had some time before we had to bring out our dish. And the fact of the matter is the bass is really simple. Once the accompaniments are prepared, which is before service time, the rest is simple. Put everything in a sautoir, and then cook the bass for a few minutes.

So the orders start coming in, and I just relaxed. Took it one by one, or 4 by 4, whatever the orders were, and we were smooth sailing. We would plate as a team, prepare the fish as a team (as in lay out the next amount of bass that we might need for the next order). I would place a slice of fennel on the plate, he would lay the fish, veggies and sauce, I would prepare the herbs and so forth.

At first he was the big shot because he’s been in this position, but as we got into our groove and realized this was a piece of cake, we were on the same level playing field. It was a team effort no matter how you look at it. If I went to get dinner, he manned the fish, and vice versa.

About 25-30 dishes later, we got our last order, and we started cleaning up. Out of no where, the order board is clean and down for the night, the executive chef screams out ONE BASS!! I’m thinking, are you serious? And he’s like, “really, one bass, I forgot to call it out.” And sure enough, I prepared one final bass. Thankfully we didn’t throw anything away. Scott gathered some of the things we put away and I took care of the dish. We worked well together.

Now, Chef Xavier. First off, he’s a brilliant chef. On top of his shit, and has a keen eye for details. He took note that there were peppercorns mixed in with our capers. I noticed something looked odd, but he was like, what is this? Why are there green peppercorns in the capers (FYI, they were mixed together in the jar, but labeled as just capers). He’s all over that shit like a Vietnamese whore at a rodeo. (I just used that analogy to respond to one of my bosses. I hope he enjoyed it).

However, last night, the executive chef was yelling some orders to the meat station where Chef Xavier was helping out, and Chef Xavier was screaming back “NO WAY, you ordered only two, we have no more and we can’t make anymore.” Another French Chef was there, working the appetizers, and was like, whoa chez, relax, and said some stuff in French, probably about being in front of the students.

Chef Xavier works 7 days a week, and is one of the few Chefs that still works at a restaurant. He is pretty much the shit. He’s also very nice to us, and respects us, and treats us as cooks not kids. He keeps an eye out for us, and doesn’t let us fall under the bus. We’ll see how this station progresses. After just another class or two, we move right along to the next station. It’s really brief, and kind of scary. But its fun! And it’s not too bad. The 5 hours go by really quickly. Amazingly fast.

Goodbye Level 4

All in all, I must say, the 8 of us in level 4 have pulled off something that, as Chef Rob explained it, could only have been done by dedicated students. And I think we are just that. The 8 of us there have one agenda when we’re in class, and that is to produce a quality product. Chef Rob has explained to our next chef that we are a great class of 8 that works like a class of 16. Chef Janet said many times how sad she was to see us go, and we have to visit frequently. Chef Janet was definitely awesome. She showed us some amazing things that we never imagined doing (making our own bacon and pastrami and ham!!!) Chef Rob also showed us some incredible things and opened our eyes to new techniques and possibilities.

By the way, I believe I mentioned the slow cooked wrapped chicken that Chef Dave Arnold showed us. Well I took some home and fried it up for some friends who were in the house, and they were amazed. I explained I didn’t make it, but it was still fantastic. I didn’t deep fry it, but I did sauté it. And I made a rookie mistake. I got the oil nice and hot, but I failed to dry the skin properly before putting it in. It made for a little more of a mess (splattering), but it also allowed the skin to stick a little to the pan. It wasn’t a terrible thing, the food still came out great, but I should have known better. I realized it as soon as I put it in the pan. I must say, it’s been a while since I did some real cooking, so I need to really think a bit more before I jump right into it. So as a reminder, when deep frying or sautéing, the purpose of the oil is for flavor, color and to prevent sticking. If you do not remove the excess moisture, then you counteract this initiative and there will be more splattering and sticking to the pan.

Anyhow, to be perfectly honest, after we finished buffet, it felt like level 4 was over. And unfortunately that was after the first two weeks of level 4. Family meal was… just rushing to make some food and then not really giving a shit about the rest of class. Most of the time we busted our asses for no reason because people either didn’t need food, or we had our buffets and no one ate the family meal. And then when we got to production, we were never really rushing (except for getting the fish and chicken to the restaurant), but we were doing fun projects like curing meats and the like. Chef Janet was great because she let us focus on the aspects that were important, like the filleting of the fish and the butchering of the chicken, while she maintained the stocks and worked on other projects. And then when we were ready, she let us run the show.

So on our last day of level 4, the buffet guys did an entirely dessert themed buffet. They must have made about 10 or 12 different desserts, ranging from individual cheesecakes, to crème brule, chocolate tarts, bread pudding, ice cream sandwiches, and the list goes on. It was pretty amazing. That meant they weren’t making real food, so the family meal and production group had to step in. We put out our deli meats, a smoked sturgeon and a cheese fondue station for the pastrami. The family meal guys put together a “breakfast for dinner” station. They used some of our molasses bacon that we made. We didn’t let them touch the maple brown sugar bacon. I must say, the molasses bacon was absolutely delicious. I will try the maple bacon this weekend, but I am trying to eat a little better so maybe just a touch.

By the way, the pastrami was phenomenal! The ham and turkey breast were also amazing! Its indescribable, to be honest. Have you been to Katz's delicatessen? Well our meats could have been showcased there. It was quite an accomplishment. I went to party later that evening with the deli meats, and between about 5 people, we finished over 2.5 lbs of pastrami and turkey breast. They were impressed and I was pleased that we were able to make such an impressive product.

But the family meal team was making bacon egg and cheeses on bagels, they prepared lox and set out cream cheese for bagels, they were making omelettes, eggs benedict with a fresh hollandaise, etc. etc. It was pretty great. Oh they also put together a delicious corned beef hash and some tasty home fries. They did a fantastic job.

Oh, how can I forget? One of our classmates, Grace, is a great cellist. Her roommate is a musician as well. So Grace asked her to come in and play violin, and she did just that. It was AMAZING. It was such a classy affair, though we were in a kitchen and many of us were wearing our kitchen whites. Chef Rob was so proud of this class. We consistently raised the bar and produced some quality work. Chef Rob made a reputation for himself as a kick ass level 4 instructor, but he would never fail to mention that it couldn’t have been done with the 8 of us.

On to the kitchen of l'ecole.