8 Days a Week (file under Ain't got nothin' but love babe)

So my friends, I have completed the first stint at The Club. 8 days on and now two glorious days off. Not that I plan on changing my schedule all that much as I have so much to do.

So what has been accomplished in the last week?

I have created no less than ten distinct health in a glass.

I have created 16 specials. 8 pasta and 8 Pizza.

I have cracked two cases of eggs.

I have cooked another four cases of eggs.

I have made approximately ten omelettes.

30 orders of Eggs Benedict, Benjamin or Florentine.

20 trays of Bacon.

About 100 sausages.

108 Muffins.

24 cookies.

I have prepared approximately 20 pastas; my specials, Roasted Vegetable Linguini and kids pasta in either red or butter sauces.

I have made approximately 30 burgers.

3 steaks.

2 Frenched Veal Chops.

15 Asian style soups.

6 Crab cakes.

3 beef ragouts.

Countless orders of French fries, sweet potato fries and onion rings.

6 Asian stir fry.

I am sure that there is more and I am racking my brain trying to figure it out. But you get the idea.

I have also rollerbladed 144 Kilometers and written nine blogs posts.

Not bad for the first week if I do say so myself.

So now the question begs. What do I do with two days off? Well I am going to start putting together my recipe book, start working on the summer menu. Run some errands for my loving, talented, intelligent and beautiful fiancé. And somewhere I might actually find some time to relax a bit.

I know that there are at least three more blog posts that will be coming in the next two days so hold on to your hats.

Aristotle once said; “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Four Course Dinner Party for Forty (file under differences between current and past reality)

This year I have been a piece in the puzzle of joyful occasions for approximately six or seven thousand people. When I do my yearly roundup in middle January I can give you a more specific number but for the purposes of this post I believe that number will suffice.

At Reservation the function or banquet team had delivering happiness down to a science. L and I worked tirelessly to ensure that we made food look and taste good. We knew without thinking because of the number of functions that we worked how to do things and make the show run smoothly. I have to admit, I kind of miss the well oiled machine that was our function team. We could do functions at Reservation for twenty five as well as we did for six hundred or even double that.

So on Friday night at Without Reservation on top of our regular service we had a four course meal for forty, which incidentally, was going at the height of service, which made it rather interesting.

Simple set up, salad, soup, mains and desert. Salad was either a Caesar or house salad. Soup was a tomato herb. Main choices were steak, chicken or salmon and desert was crème brûlée. Chef and I have had experience doing parties like this and have it down to a second nature.

In order to smoothly run a function there are certain things that must be done in order to ensure that the food is good, the service is good and that it goes well. From our end Chef and I and the brigade knew what we were doing and how to do it. The Front of House well that is a whole different matter.

At Reservation it was a well oiled machine. Everyone knew their respective roles and how to fulfill to the best of our abilities. I feel that at Without Reservation the Front of House staff does not necessarily have much experience with doing parties such as this. And it showed.

To my eye, orders did not go smoothly. The count initially was wrong which adversely affects our ability to put out the right amount of proteins in a timely fashion. Naturally Chef and I were able to deal with it but it is my observation. So rather than having a coherent order sheet we had to three separate times try to figure out the front of house notations and in fact walk them through giving us the information in a meaningful way so that we could do our job. It worked out fine though and just took us a few shakes of the tree to get it right with the front of house. THIS IS NOT CRITICISM, it is OBSERVATION and more over is something that Chef and I will be able to correct going forward based on our experience.

The food we put out looked good, tasted great and was well received by the customer. He and his team will be back which is always a nice feeling. Compliments were sent from the client to the kitchen and I felt pretty good about what we accomplished.

Samuel Johnson once said; “Art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects; and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM