First off I hope everyone is going to see the full lunar eclipse tonight. It only happens when there is a perfect alignment of the sun, moon and earth. I will post pictures tomorrow.
You know fear is a powerful motivator. In fact I think that the two strongest motivators that we have as human beings are fear and LOVE! I personally am motivated by love but in the past had been crippled by fear. Fear of success, of failure, not knowing, etc. Well those days are long gone. In fact I can’t think of something that would frighten me so much that LOVE would not be my guide. I thank all those that have stood by me and given me the opportunity to discover anew my purpose, my role in life, the reasons I am loved and the reason I am destined to become a great chef.
I arrived at work about forty minutes early. Immediately realized that I forgot my chef pants as I was putting on my whites. Damn. What am I going to do I thought. Chefs are going to be pissed. Then I remembered that when I got my pants another pair had come in that were without an owner as yet. I asked Exec Chef if due to my pulling a stupid I could buy the other pants. Without missing a beat he said of course and then my stupids were no more. Just another example of the universe conspiring to help me do the utmost I can every day. Hallelujah!
So today I felt good about everything I did. Notice I don’t say everything was perfect but instead that I feel good about it. Just last week I was wasting (though we saved it for stocks, etc.) approximately one third of the shallot because I could not figure out the proper technique to cut it. Moreover though gradually speeding up I was still last week ridiculously slow. Today as I brunoised my shallots I noticed that my speed had picked up and that my technique was getting better. I really enjoyed that. It is a simple pleasure. However one that if you want to work in a kitchen you must have; KNIFE SKILLS!
I also noticed today that my body was no longer resisting the wrist movement necessary to chop things properly. It is weird at my age trying to retrain things that are automatic to your body. Though today as I cut I began to feel that my body would at least understand the movements I am working at and will offer less resistance and truly make me better. I love getting better each day. I love the feeling it gives me. It makes me feel inspired. It makes me feel as if I am doing the right thing. It makes me feel as if I have found myself again and I am off and running with it.
I also learned today how to make a Choron Sauce. As I have explained before there are five mother sauces. Well today I learned how to build on one of them. Hollandaise is the base and you will remember that a while back I wrote about who Choron was. If you don’t recall it was here (http://newbieintheweeds.blogspot.com/2008/01/this-weeks-terms-learned.html). The Choron sauce is basically a hollandaise with tarragon, a little acid, salt and pepper and tomato paste. The trick however is that you can not scramble the egg yolks. You want to cook them but not scramble them. With the aid of J I was able to make my first one without breaking it and it tasted pretty good.
He explained to me that because of the nature of the sauce we had to do it in a very specific way and that because it is in the “danger zone” for bacteria it needs to be served within three and one half hours. Tomorrow I asked him if I could make it without him giving me pointers as that is the way I will best learn. However, I really appreciated the way that he taught me to do it and I let him know that. I LOVE BEING HERE!
Whisking! Ah whisking. Have any of you ever tried to whisk for an extended period of time. While emulsifying a sauce for example. It is hard on the wrist and takes quite a bit of effort. However J asked me who taught me how to whisk, my mother. In good humour of course. He then showed me a proper technique and explained that yes it will hurt for a while but eventually, just like everything else, time and experience will make it go away. You’ll get better and develop the proper muscles for it. I look forward to making my first Choron tomorrow without assistance.
At work we have two Chinese dishwashers. They speak very little English and I speak very little Mandarin. Though we have found a way to communicate with each other with our choppy Aringlish! Each and every day I teach them a few things and they teach me a few things. If we keep this up they’ll be speaking fluent English and I Mandarin. It really is just an added bonus of being at Reservation.
As I finished my jobs today I asked Chef if I could punch out and then watch the line for a while. He suggested that I do a couple other things but that he liked my addition at the end. It made me smile and laugh to myself. When finished what he had assigned I asked if I could punch out and watch. He said of course. I punched out and then did a few more things. I then got to watch the line but as it is Wednesday we were not over busy. As such I asked the Chef De Cuisine to explain to me the way that our restaurant works and what his experience had been.
J is approximately 28 and just celebrated a birthday. He is an affable chap who has the ability to see things very quickly (something I believe all chefs must). He knows how to delegate, when to pick someone up, when to knock them down. Again these are skills one must have if they hope to achieve any sense of greatness in the kitchen.
J explained to me that he started with Exec Chef years ago like me. With relatively no experience. He explained how he got to the line but not before he explained to me how our restaurant works.
Reservation is pretty close to the way a classical kitchen is run. Though the fact that there are two sister restaurants and we are a group causes some minor adjustments to it. Essentially it goes like this;
Executive Chef – Overall operational issues as relates to the kitchen, menu, staff, etc.
Head Chef – In conjunction with Exec Chef handles all those issues as well as manages day-to-day operations including staff, etc.
Chef De Cuisine (J) – Is both Exec and Head Chefs go to guy. He makes sure that all the kitchen is operating properly, including ordering, etc. He also is the one that makes the menus for one of our sister restaurants.
Then as I’ve explained before there is the Saucier, Entremetier, Garde Manger, etc. I think that it is ideal that I have come into this environment and am getting to see the way that restaurant of this caliber operates. I am already seeing differences from what I had supposed to the reality.
In short. Another incredible day. There is an old Buddhist proverb that states; “When the student is ready, the master appears.” Sure would appear that I was ready.
I hope you all enjoy the lunar eclipse. Have beautiful dreams and an inspired tomorrow.
A la prochaine!
SDM
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