Long day...
Wednesday, January 24 - San Francisco
Today, my shift was very long, from 12 to 10 pm, but the time flew by. As I was walking to work, I was following a guy with long blond dreadlocks, baggy clothes and sandals and I wondered where he was heading. Well, as I followed him into the Millennium kitchen I quickly realized that it was the sous chef for the restaurant. He introduced himself as Jason and then went quickly to work in the kitchen as he gradually transformed his gear from hippie-like to top chef. Well, the dreads still stayed but were piled up on top of his head in a massive heap. He started so many things around me that I couldn't keep track, moving from baking bread, to making a beautiful chipotle spiced chocolate sauce (it was a delicious and beautiful as it sounds!) for the special wine pairing menu that evening, and a number of other dishes. On a regular basis, Chef Eric works with local wine suppliers and does a wine pairing menu. He works with them to find out what wines they want to showcase and comes up with a menu to match each dish. I had wanted to see one of these in action and when he said I was working one with them I was thrilled. Matching food with meats and seafood is one thing but with vegetarian/vegan food is unique and a real art I believe. They also worked with a local wild mushroom supplier so that they could showcase these mushrooms in Eric's food and with the wines. Eric's a big fan of using a variety of local and wild mushrooms and you'll see a lot of them in his daily menu of dishes, from appetizers and salads to main courses. This dinner was called the Coturri (the winery) Wine and Mushroom Dinner and Chefs Eric and Jason were working all day in the kitchen downstairs with me to prepare for it. So, it was quite exciting but intimidating to be working with two great chefs beside me all day preparing the meal from scratch and asking each other how to enhance or improve on a dish or sauce. I was in the tight space of the kitchen (the kitchen is large but the burner and oven area is tight and packed with every burner and oven space in full use which is usually the case in restaurants) working on a number of recipes for another kitchen prep chef, working on the mix for the Seared Indian Spiced Potato Cake, Pineapple Pickle, a cabbage and thai mint salad, and other misc. and clean up duties in the kitchen. I was mostly in a high state of observation of the two head chefs, looking into pots to see sauces developing, smelling and tasting different elements as they were created, and seeing the interaction between the two chefs in making these dishes with what seemed like little effort.
At around 5 pm, the chef asked that the working area be cleared for service, filled with cutting boards, knives and the key ingredients always at hand like salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, spoons, etc. I didn't realize that they were going to use the downstairs kitchen to service this special dining room off to the side of the restaurant they have for special events like this. The other kitchen is in full service for the main public dining room and it was a very busy night. So, I cleared up everything, prepared the plates we would use for service, etc. For each service, I had to use the large dumb waiter they have from the main kitchen to this kitchen to bring down plates that were freshly washed. It was interesting to use this old pulley device to bring down things or bring things up. So, for each course, I helped in the plating, which is always a beautiful thing working with two masters at play. One of the courses was a beautiful truffled "faux" gras terrine, with toasted crostini and fig chutney. The faux gras was actually a mushroom pate and I had to go and coat each with special sugar before the sous chef came to torch each one with a blow torch and then I had to sprinkle pepper on each one. This dish was absolutely fabulous and delicious. It was paired with a Sonoma Mountain Zinfandel and we got to try most of the wines, though I just sipped to keep my focus and wits about me in the kitchen. I couldn't afford to make any big mistakes with these pros around. The other courses included a wilted spinach salad with grilled shimeji mushrooms, crisp scarlet runner beans and a blood orange vinaigrette, paired with a Carignane. Next a Lotus Leaf Treasure of sticky rice filled with sweet and spicy adzuki beans and sweet brown rice, hedgehog mushrooms and ginger sauce, paired with a Charbono. Next, the Truffled Faux Gras Terrine. Next the Dos Posoles, which was quite the creation of red posole (like a stew) with grilled porcini vs. white posole with black chanterelle (one side of the plate had one and the other side of the plate had the other), accompanied by the wonderful chipotle spiced chocolate-espresso sauce. This was paired with a Syrah. Last but not least was the Candy Cap Ice Cream Sundae with double chocolate brownie, vanilla bean anglaise, spiced blood orange sauce, paired witha Sangiovese. Wow, what a meal! I went up to hear some of the lectures during the dinner and head Chef Eric talk about why he paired certain dishes with certain wines, which was interesting. Also, at the end of the dinner, the mushroom supplier went up and I heard the end of his Q& A where he said that wild mushrooms are sustainable and you don't have to worry about picking them if you know what you're doing. He also said he was very concerned about the things in our environment that are affecting us. For example, large corporations, I believe it is Nestle, are coming to small towns like Mount Shasta and buying a 100 year lease to their water supply and shipping it all over the world. He is very worried and anxious about the fact that major corporations are buying things that are vital to our existence and with not the public good in mind. He said that these kind of things don't make the news and we need to be on the alert and vigilent about this. I found this interesting that he should be talking about the relationship with food and the environment, and making the connection for people. That was part of my studies at the Natural Gourmet, the relationship and interaction between food, the environment and our health, and we've seem to have lost sight of that somewhere along the line unfortunately. Well, until my next shift...
Today, my shift was very long, from 12 to 10 pm, but the time flew by. As I was walking to work, I was following a guy with long blond dreadlocks, baggy clothes and sandals and I wondered where he was heading. Well, as I followed him into the Millennium kitchen I quickly realized that it was the sous chef for the restaurant. He introduced himself as Jason and then went quickly to work in the kitchen as he gradually transformed his gear from hippie-like to top chef. Well, the dreads still stayed but were piled up on top of his head in a massive heap. He started so many things around me that I couldn't keep track, moving from baking bread, to making a beautiful chipotle spiced chocolate sauce (it was a delicious and beautiful as it sounds!) for the special wine pairing menu that evening, and a number of other dishes. On a regular basis, Chef Eric works with local wine suppliers and does a wine pairing menu. He works with them to find out what wines they want to showcase and comes up with a menu to match each dish. I had wanted to see one of these in action and when he said I was working one with them I was thrilled. Matching food with meats and seafood is one thing but with vegetarian/vegan food is unique and a real art I believe. They also worked with a local wild mushroom supplier so that they could showcase these mushrooms in Eric's food and with the wines. Eric's a big fan of using a variety of local and wild mushrooms and you'll see a lot of them in his daily menu of dishes, from appetizers and salads to main courses. This dinner was called the Coturri (the winery) Wine and Mushroom Dinner and Chefs Eric and Jason were working all day in the kitchen downstairs with me to prepare for it. So, it was quite exciting but intimidating to be working with two great chefs beside me all day preparing the meal from scratch and asking each other how to enhance or improve on a dish or sauce. I was in the tight space of the kitchen (the kitchen is large but the burner and oven area is tight and packed with every burner and oven space in full use which is usually the case in restaurants) working on a number of recipes for another kitchen prep chef, working on the mix for the Seared Indian Spiced Potato Cake, Pineapple Pickle, a cabbage and thai mint salad, and other misc. and clean up duties in the kitchen. I was mostly in a high state of observation of the two head chefs, looking into pots to see sauces developing, smelling and tasting different elements as they were created, and seeing the interaction between the two chefs in making these dishes with what seemed like little effort.
At around 5 pm, the chef asked that the working area be cleared for service, filled with cutting boards, knives and the key ingredients always at hand like salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil, spoons, etc. I didn't realize that they were going to use the downstairs kitchen to service this special dining room off to the side of the restaurant they have for special events like this. The other kitchen is in full service for the main public dining room and it was a very busy night. So, I cleared up everything, prepared the plates we would use for service, etc. For each service, I had to use the large dumb waiter they have from the main kitchen to this kitchen to bring down plates that were freshly washed. It was interesting to use this old pulley device to bring down things or bring things up. So, for each course, I helped in the plating, which is always a beautiful thing working with two masters at play. One of the courses was a beautiful truffled "faux" gras terrine, with toasted crostini and fig chutney. The faux gras was actually a mushroom pate and I had to go and coat each with special sugar before the sous chef came to torch each one with a blow torch and then I had to sprinkle pepper on each one. This dish was absolutely fabulous and delicious. It was paired with a Sonoma Mountain Zinfandel and we got to try most of the wines, though I just sipped to keep my focus and wits about me in the kitchen. I couldn't afford to make any big mistakes with these pros around. The other courses included a wilted spinach salad with grilled shimeji mushrooms, crisp scarlet runner beans and a blood orange vinaigrette, paired with a Carignane. Next a Lotus Leaf Treasure of sticky rice filled with sweet and spicy adzuki beans and sweet brown rice, hedgehog mushrooms and ginger sauce, paired with a Charbono. Next, the Truffled Faux Gras Terrine. Next the Dos Posoles, which was quite the creation of red posole (like a stew) with grilled porcini vs. white posole with black chanterelle (one side of the plate had one and the other side of the plate had the other), accompanied by the wonderful chipotle spiced chocolate-espresso sauce. This was paired with a Syrah. Last but not least was the Candy Cap Ice Cream Sundae with double chocolate brownie, vanilla bean anglaise, spiced blood orange sauce, paired witha Sangiovese. Wow, what a meal! I went up to hear some of the lectures during the dinner and head Chef Eric talk about why he paired certain dishes with certain wines, which was interesting. Also, at the end of the dinner, the mushroom supplier went up and I heard the end of his Q& A where he said that wild mushrooms are sustainable and you don't have to worry about picking them if you know what you're doing. He also said he was very concerned about the things in our environment that are affecting us. For example, large corporations, I believe it is Nestle, are coming to small towns like Mount Shasta and buying a 100 year lease to their water supply and shipping it all over the world. He is very worried and anxious about the fact that major corporations are buying things that are vital to our existence and with not the public good in mind. He said that these kind of things don't make the news and we need to be on the alert and vigilent about this. I found this interesting that he should be talking about the relationship with food and the environment, and making the connection for people. That was part of my studies at the Natural Gourmet, the relationship and interaction between food, the environment and our health, and we've seem to have lost sight of that somewhere along the line unfortunately. Well, until my next shift...
posted by Caroline at 12:12 AM
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