Saturday, February 19, 2011

First Days of Work

My adventure at Top of the Hub began on Wednesday. I was there for just a few short hours getting the gist of the kitchen and the station I would be on mostly, Pantry. I learned some general things and then they let me go home.

The next day was my first real day of work. I arrived at the bright and early time of 2:45pm. I helped set up my station, mostly cutting vegetables with some light grilling of chicken and frying potato chips. Basically my Pantry station is plating all salads, some cold appetizers, and finishing and plating desserts. Pretty easy once you figure out what goes on what and how to read the tickets. I spent the night doing just that and got the hang of it very quickly. It was a Thursday so it was a pretty slow night, especially with 3 people on the station (2 plus the trainee... ME). Anyway, we finished service at 10, cleaned up and went home.

I had off Friday and spent the day just hanging.

Then I woke up and went to work today at 12 assigned to Brunch and having no idea what that meant. Turns out it was pretty easy. I had a long list of prep for Brunch tomorrow. Anything from poaching 100 eggs to making little frittata's to just chopping vegetables. Since I was being taught what to do I was there a full 8 hours but I can imagine once I get going I'll knock it out quick and have more time to help. By the way, as my first "test" according to the Sous Chef I had to peel and sm dice 5 pounds of parsnips (white carrots basically). Boy was that a pain.

Anyway, so far work has been fine. Hopefully I can master the Pantry station quickly and then ask to move to the Saute or Grill station. I will be doing a Banquet with the Banquet crew this week so I'll be sure to update on that.

After my shift on Pantry tomorrow, I have off until Friday so there won't be too much blogging unless I do something really cool.

Keep on cooking!

Chef Werblin

Saturday, February 12, 2011

I'm Back!

Ok so after the stress of the last lets say 12 weeks, I'm leaving for extern tomorrow at Top of the Hub Restaurant in Boston. The restaurant is at the top of the Prudential Tower in the Prudential Center on the 62nd floor with an incredible view. I start Wednesday at noon so I'll be sure to update.

As for the classes you missed out on, I'll give a quick overview of each to try and play catch-up.

Skills 3 - The production version of Skills 1 and 2 serving students with practicing fundamental cooking techniques, Saute, Grill, Braise, Stew, Poach and so on. Horrible chef, ok class since we were mixed with new people from Skills 1/2 (our class from here on out). 4 groups of 4 - 2 do one dish, 2 do the other and then switch the next day.

Cuisines of the Americas - 7 Regions: New England, Midwest, South, Caribbean, Northwest, Mexico and South American. More intense. 6 teams, 5 dishes, soup and salad team. About 80 plates for service. Ok chef, fun class to cook in.

Cuisines of Asia - Same deal as before, 6 teams, 5 dishes. Regions: China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and India. Fun class, amazing chef, interesting change. Cooking fundamentals were the same but with new equipment and ingredients. Killed and filet'd a live eel.

Quantity Food Production - The most intense of the kitchens, 7 days of breakfast and 7 days of lunch. Typical class is 15-16, my class was 8 people. Smallest lunch class ever in that class. Breakfast was easy and fun putting out about 150 covers a day. Egg station was exhilarating and tough. Lunch was a pain, so much work and so hard to keep under control. 300-450 plates per day with LOADS of work. We managed to get through but it was very challenging. I thought Chef was a great teacher but I refuse to acknowledge that Chef as a good person because of political issues. Good class though. Stressful.

Lastly, Garde Manger - the "art of cold food preparation." Fun, easy, laid back and awesome Chef. Did 3 days of prep for a Cocktail Reception making 4-5 hor d'ourves per team (4 teams). Sausage Day, Forcemeat day with terrines, and pates. Then 2 days of prep and service for Plated Appetizers. Finally, 3 days of prep and service for Grand Buffet. A large reception for people before extern to present their Garde Manger work to other students.

Thats it. I leave tomorrow. As soon as I start I'll be sure to update. I'll be living with relatives so that's nice.

Stay Hungry.

Chef Werblin