Ok, February only has 28 days this year, but let's just say it's going to be a month when next week starts again. I feel that it definitely went by fast!
True, that I missed one week's worth of work due to an injury but I'm happy to be back in the game, back at work, learning from the Chefs. When I came back to work, they all made fun of me about my vacances (holiday) but I kept on telling them how I really was bed-ridden and couldn't move. They still told me I had some repos (rest) and to them repos = vacances. To be honest, I still felt that perhaps they thought I had exaggerated the consequences of my fall when (I kid you not), 3 days ago, the Chef de Partie of the Fish station fell down the stairs and hit his head! The HR department immediately came the next day and inspected the stairs - at least they are taking this issue seriously!
Surprisingly going back to work and working until 11 pm after resting didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. I felt that I tried harder and tried to work faster to prove to them that I was still capable of doing the work. We also got 2 new people in the kitchen, including 1 girl who graduated from Ferrandi 3 years ago. At least another female but in the garniture/poisson station.
The other new chef is supposedly the demi-chef de partie, a very nice Japanese guy (yay another Asian in the kitchen) who worked in Japan, New York and now Paris. He's nice, quiet, patient and a very fast learner so I'm sure he's going to be my new boss soon.
Thursdays and Fridays are our lunch services so I go in at 9 am to prepare the ingredients and dishes for the lunch service at 12.30pm; let me tell you - it was hectic! It wasn't hectic because there was 60 covers, actually there was about 30 covers - the usual...but by 2.45 pm (the end of lunch service), a group of 16 people came in at once....and they all ordered the same thing - which we were not expecting so we had to our langoustine caviar dish a la minute which probably to the average person seems normal but this dish has langoustine cream molded onto the dish and the edges are cleaned off with vinegar and water (you CANNOT have any water marks or fingerprints on the white dish or else it's sent back) which is then cooled in the fridge - and this takes time...but no time for that - it was all go go go! Everything sent at the same time and looking the EXACT same...no room for error! I loved it though, everyone was moving around, sending dishes, the chef announcing and asking when the dish is going to be ready at 15? at 17? A real treat to see everyone in action.
The restaurant even had ordered 6 beef ribs chop that came in one gigantic piece. The supplier imitates the process of raising wagyu - beef predisposed to marbling and fattier than your average steak but the best taste ever! They cooked it in its own fat with thym and garlic cloves. The craziest thing was that the 16 people had ordered 16 steaks!? Luckily I got to try a tiny piece that was not served and it was to die for! I must say I am very impressed with the generosity of the dishes- it's not something the size of your thumb that comes onto your plate, it's actually portions!
Now it's the weekend, time to rest, eat (and blog about it) and gain strength for the next week ahead!
True, that I missed one week's worth of work due to an injury but I'm happy to be back in the game, back at work, learning from the Chefs. When I came back to work, they all made fun of me about my vacances (holiday) but I kept on telling them how I really was bed-ridden and couldn't move. They still told me I had some repos (rest) and to them repos = vacances. To be honest, I still felt that perhaps they thought I had exaggerated the consequences of my fall when (I kid you not), 3 days ago, the Chef de Partie of the Fish station fell down the stairs and hit his head! The HR department immediately came the next day and inspected the stairs - at least they are taking this issue seriously!
Surprisingly going back to work and working until 11 pm after resting didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would. I felt that I tried harder and tried to work faster to prove to them that I was still capable of doing the work. We also got 2 new people in the kitchen, including 1 girl who graduated from Ferrandi 3 years ago. At least another female but in the garniture/poisson station.
The other new chef is supposedly the demi-chef de partie, a very nice Japanese guy (yay another Asian in the kitchen) who worked in Japan, New York and now Paris. He's nice, quiet, patient and a very fast learner so I'm sure he's going to be my new boss soon.
Thursdays and Fridays are our lunch services so I go in at 9 am to prepare the ingredients and dishes for the lunch service at 12.30pm; let me tell you - it was hectic! It wasn't hectic because there was 60 covers, actually there was about 30 covers - the usual...but by 2.45 pm (the end of lunch service), a group of 16 people came in at once....and they all ordered the same thing - which we were not expecting so we had to our langoustine caviar dish a la minute which probably to the average person seems normal but this dish has langoustine cream molded onto the dish and the edges are cleaned off with vinegar and water (you CANNOT have any water marks or fingerprints on the white dish or else it's sent back) which is then cooled in the fridge - and this takes time...but no time for that - it was all go go go! Everything sent at the same time and looking the EXACT same...no room for error! I loved it though, everyone was moving around, sending dishes, the chef announcing and asking when the dish is going to be ready at 15? at 17? A real treat to see everyone in action.
The restaurant even had ordered 6 beef ribs chop that came in one gigantic piece. The supplier imitates the process of raising wagyu - beef predisposed to marbling and fattier than your average steak but the best taste ever! They cooked it in its own fat with thym and garlic cloves. The craziest thing was that the 16 people had ordered 16 steaks!? Luckily I got to try a tiny piece that was not served and it was to die for! I must say I am very impressed with the generosity of the dishes- it's not something the size of your thumb that comes onto your plate, it's actually portions!
Now it's the weekend, time to rest, eat (and blog about it) and gain strength for the next week ahead!
This is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis page can easily be turned into a script :)
xxx Ouri R.