I honestly think I've taken more showers in the past month than I've taken in the entirety of the year 2010. Not that I was ever a dirty person or anything; I mean, I showered regularly and kept myself up to the accepted standards of a functioning adult. With the combination of pumping iron at the gym (that's right, I said it), NYC's million days of 100% humidity and spending endless hours in a stressful inferno while wearing a head-to-toe white canvas sac, I seem to be spending most of my waking hours planning my schedule around showers. I've also noticed that, since starting school, I've been sweating much more in my personal life than usual. For example, at school it's so hot and frantic that you just kind of have to accept the fact that your back is dripping and your neckerchief is stuck to your moist skin (kind of like hot yoga, an activity I once enjoyed). My body is so used to expelling water as fast as I can drink it, I have found that simply stepping outside on a warm morning will send my pores on high alert and my brow gearing up to perspire at a rate worthy of the Hoover Dam. It's mildly embarrassing, considering that I never used to be a huge sweater (not the cardigan type). Steve insists that, contrary to popular belief, fit people actually sweat more during physical activity than unfit people, but I counter that notion with the evidence that I am neither fit nor often engaged in physical activity when the water works begin. Any who…
We had a lot of prep to do on Monday night, because we depleted most of our resources with the busy dinner service on Friday and didn't want to make too much food for Monday, lest it spoil over the weekend. We had to make smoked potato cream, brew up some more Sauce Tomate, clean lots of greens for the salads and make another pan of potato brandade to cut into cakes. I choose to work on the latter and boiled potatoes, poached the cured cod and sauté a few heads of garlic to prepare. Chef trucked one of the huge industrial Kitchen Aid mixers from pastry into the main kitchen for me, and we began by combining everything, with a little salt and pepper, and mixing it on high. Once it was all mixed, we each took a taste. "Chef, I believe it needs a little more garlic." Good job, Jackie, way to be proactive. Prove that you understand the complexity of tastes yet aren't afraid of offering your humble suggestion. Keep it up. "No," he quickly replied. Hmm…better luck next time. I decided to quit while I was ahead, so I took the mixture, spread it out into a sheet pan and started cutting out little round molds. They were breaded, pan fried and kept warm for service.
My partner and I switched to the cod dish, after two days of handling the shrimp. I was a little nervous to be on the cod station, considering the hole my teammates had dug themselves into last week. The fillet is cooked in three stages, as opposed to the shrimp's single pan sauté, and can quickly become overwhelming if you don't stay on top of your orders and keep yourself a step ahead of The Expediter. As the orders started pouring in, we got into a good rhythm of me on the fire and my partner tossing the salad and plating the sauce. We were searing, baking, basting, re-heating, pouring and tossing like a well-oiled machine, and at times were so prepared we even had a few minutes to relax and stare off into space (or maybe that was just me). Before I knew it, The Expediter called out, "Last table," meaning that we were done for the night. I couldn't believe my ears – it was already 10pm! We sent out the last plate and started to clean our station. As I digested how the night had gone, I suddenly felt really bad that I had monopolized the majority of the cooking, while my partner was left with the plating. He didn't mind, and was actually happy with our teamwork but vowed that the tables would be turned on Wednesday.
We've really started to find our success in Poissonnier, but unfortunately will be trading up to Saucier very soon. I've never been that great on a grill, so I best learn me some steak ASAP because one of Saucier's main, and most popular, dishes is a thin grilled steak. While some consider Poissonnier to be the hardest, I think blindly grilling a steak to a customer's particular request is way harder than searing a cod fillet. Then again, I used to think I could never cook in a restaurant and I seem to be doing just fine.
Oh, you are too funny.
ReplyDelete