Another day, another canape
Sunday, March 11
Friday night was a relatively slow night at Beckta and I asked the chef where I should assist. He thought the garde manger station would be the best for me as they take care of a lot and would be the busiest area. So, back there I went to assist in the prep of the station and watch in the development of the daily canape, one area where the chefs get some freedom and creativity. One thing about chefing that people don't realize that it's all about repetition and a list of tasks day after day. There is little room for creativity, especially in the regular dishes on the menu that people love and come back for. Repeat clients want the same look and feel and are disappointed if this is not the case. In this way, I guess you could say even the best restaurants have something in common with MacDonald's in that it's not good to change your menu too much and frequently as the repeat customers come in, rave about certain menu items to their friends and family and bring them back for these certain menu items or want to return for special items they loved. For example, the lovely seitan in a rich rosemary sauce is a staple and favourite at Candle 79. Customers, vegans and meat eaters alike, absolutely love that dish and keep on coming back for it, including me. I love it as well. It's just perfect and why tamper with perfection, right?
So, it's a challenging job in a restaurant to keep the right balance between new and fresh ideas and the standards that people love. The head chef needs to decide when and how to wean his customers off of certain menu items, otherwise, on the other end, they can complain that the menu never changes and is getting stale. For example, on the Millennium menu there is a beet "rawvioli" dish, a beautiful raw salad dish, that customers absolutely love and keep on coming back for and Chef Eric decided to replace it all of a sudden one day with another raw dish, a raw asian napoleon dish. I said that people seem to absolutely love that rawvioli dish. Chef Eric said he knew that but it's been on the menu for way too long, and it's time for a change. After over 10 years in the restaurant business, Millennium has a loyal clientele following and any night the chef puts out something new and special on the menu, the customers are dying to order it and be "first on the block" to say that they've tried it and it usually sells out. So, it's a fine balance for a restaurant of when and how often you change the dishes on your menu.
The garde manger chef had to come up with a canape or amuse for the evening, which is given free to each guest upon arrival, and said he wanted to work with pineapple, mint and banana. I started thinking of creations and the sous-chef said why not a peanut and butter sandwich or he said "PB sandwich" and they were off. Next thing, the garde manger chef was off frying and baking the banana, making crostini, cutting foie gras, making a piquant pineapple sauce and gathering the other ingredients. I always ask what he's up to and if knows what he'll end up with and the answer is usually a cheerful "nope, no idea". The end product turned out to be a crostini with peanut butter, then foie gras, then a piquant pineapple sauce, topped with cilantro microgreens. Strange sounding combination but it seemed to work well and the customers loved it. There were a few chefs in during the evening, friends of the head chef, and they loved the canape and actually said they could eat more of them vs. ordering anything else, but of course they ordered lots else.
After prepping a number of items, I made the staff salad and dressing, which went with the Israeli couscous dish that one of the chefs made. Then we waited for business as the first customers would not arrive until after 6:30. During that time, I had the chance to try the best bread that the restaurant orders from a baker that only makes artisan bread for restaurants. He's worked for some of the best bakeries in Canada and NY, and started using one of the bakeries here at night to make his own version of bread, which is light, flavourful and wonderful. That's the thing about the bakery business and the hours as I think he works from about10 pm to 3 am or so to make his breads. You got to like working those hours day after day.
Also, being a slower night, I was brave and ventured on to the hot line to speak to the chefs again, something I would never do usually as it's unspoken forbidden territory except for those that need to be there, sort of a like a war line. I'm like a frightened rabbit when there, always on the look out and trying to listen for the chits coming in because that's my signal to get the hell out of there. That's when the person grabbing the chit yells out the order and everyone gets in action for dishes "on order" and that are being "fired", and believe me, you don't want to get in the way.
I heard at one point that a special risotto would be made from scratch for a vegetarian client, and it was one of the first orders in so I ran over to the chef to ask if I could watch him make it. He was welcoming and patient with me as he explained what he was doing step by step, ingredient by ingredient. All the stock that is made is meat or fish/seafood based so that any special request vegetarian item in the restaurant has to usually start from scratch and you have to watch each ingredient that goes in. For example, at one point, he usually fries up in butter the assortment of wild mushrooms that goes into the risotto, but he said he would use extra virgin olive oil instead in case the person can not or does not want any milk products in her/his food. I thought that was insightful but he said that it would be wasteful to make a risotto that might come back because it didn't meet the customer's requirements, and he'd have to spend another 20 minutes or more making a second one. So, after stirring constantly and nurturing the risotto through many vessels, stages and additions, it was almost ready and he asked the chef if the person could eat parmesan. A waiter quickly ran back to the customer to ask and ran back to the line to say "yes" and in it went. Making one dish for a customer can be a very time consuming and attentive process, but makes you understand why and what you're paying for at the end of the day. As the risotto was finishing, the chit machine started firing orders and off I scampered back to safety of the the garde manger station.
At the station, I helped the garde manger and pastry chefs prepare canapes for every guest that came in, a variety of salads, appetizers and cold portions for the tasting plate, and desserts and the amuse or petit fours for all guests, which were home made cookies of yummy mini macaroons and date newtons. A new tasting plate menu had started so that was fun looking at and preparing the new items such as one of the cold courses that looked absolutely beautiful with tilapia sashimi with blood orange sections and almost smoking grapeseed oil poured on at the end to slightly sear the fish.
Despite a slow evening, there were still a lot of tasting plates, birthdays, and even a very late Valentine's celebration, and special plates for chefs coming in. On Wednesday and Thursday, they had people marked down as celebrating International Women's Day by the way. Wonder if they wrote anything on the plate. Usually special celebrations get chocolate writing on their dessert plates. So, after a short, nine hours there I headed home after the last orders came in and when the stations were starting to be dismantled for the evening. Another day, another canape.
Friday night was a relatively slow night at Beckta and I asked the chef where I should assist. He thought the garde manger station would be the best for me as they take care of a lot and would be the busiest area. So, back there I went to assist in the prep of the station and watch in the development of the daily canape, one area where the chefs get some freedom and creativity. One thing about chefing that people don't realize that it's all about repetition and a list of tasks day after day. There is little room for creativity, especially in the regular dishes on the menu that people love and come back for. Repeat clients want the same look and feel and are disappointed if this is not the case. In this way, I guess you could say even the best restaurants have something in common with MacDonald's in that it's not good to change your menu too much and frequently as the repeat customers come in, rave about certain menu items to their friends and family and bring them back for these certain menu items or want to return for special items they loved. For example, the lovely seitan in a rich rosemary sauce is a staple and favourite at Candle 79. Customers, vegans and meat eaters alike, absolutely love that dish and keep on coming back for it, including me. I love it as well. It's just perfect and why tamper with perfection, right?
So, it's a challenging job in a restaurant to keep the right balance between new and fresh ideas and the standards that people love. The head chef needs to decide when and how to wean his customers off of certain menu items, otherwise, on the other end, they can complain that the menu never changes and is getting stale. For example, on the Millennium menu there is a beet "rawvioli" dish, a beautiful raw salad dish, that customers absolutely love and keep on coming back for and Chef Eric decided to replace it all of a sudden one day with another raw dish, a raw asian napoleon dish. I said that people seem to absolutely love that rawvioli dish. Chef Eric said he knew that but it's been on the menu for way too long, and it's time for a change. After over 10 years in the restaurant business, Millennium has a loyal clientele following and any night the chef puts out something new and special on the menu, the customers are dying to order it and be "first on the block" to say that they've tried it and it usually sells out. So, it's a fine balance for a restaurant of when and how often you change the dishes on your menu.
The garde manger chef had to come up with a canape or amuse for the evening, which is given free to each guest upon arrival, and said he wanted to work with pineapple, mint and banana. I started thinking of creations and the sous-chef said why not a peanut and butter sandwich or he said "PB sandwich" and they were off. Next thing, the garde manger chef was off frying and baking the banana, making crostini, cutting foie gras, making a piquant pineapple sauce and gathering the other ingredients. I always ask what he's up to and if knows what he'll end up with and the answer is usually a cheerful "nope, no idea". The end product turned out to be a crostini with peanut butter, then foie gras, then a piquant pineapple sauce, topped with cilantro microgreens. Strange sounding combination but it seemed to work well and the customers loved it. There were a few chefs in during the evening, friends of the head chef, and they loved the canape and actually said they could eat more of them vs. ordering anything else, but of course they ordered lots else.
After prepping a number of items, I made the staff salad and dressing, which went with the Israeli couscous dish that one of the chefs made. Then we waited for business as the first customers would not arrive until after 6:30. During that time, I had the chance to try the best bread that the restaurant orders from a baker that only makes artisan bread for restaurants. He's worked for some of the best bakeries in Canada and NY, and started using one of the bakeries here at night to make his own version of bread, which is light, flavourful and wonderful. That's the thing about the bakery business and the hours as I think he works from about10 pm to 3 am or so to make his breads. You got to like working those hours day after day.
Also, being a slower night, I was brave and ventured on to the hot line to speak to the chefs again, something I would never do usually as it's unspoken forbidden territory except for those that need to be there, sort of a like a war line. I'm like a frightened rabbit when there, always on the look out and trying to listen for the chits coming in because that's my signal to get the hell out of there. That's when the person grabbing the chit yells out the order and everyone gets in action for dishes "on order" and that are being "fired", and believe me, you don't want to get in the way.
I heard at one point that a special risotto would be made from scratch for a vegetarian client, and it was one of the first orders in so I ran over to the chef to ask if I could watch him make it. He was welcoming and patient with me as he explained what he was doing step by step, ingredient by ingredient. All the stock that is made is meat or fish/seafood based so that any special request vegetarian item in the restaurant has to usually start from scratch and you have to watch each ingredient that goes in. For example, at one point, he usually fries up in butter the assortment of wild mushrooms that goes into the risotto, but he said he would use extra virgin olive oil instead in case the person can not or does not want any milk products in her/his food. I thought that was insightful but he said that it would be wasteful to make a risotto that might come back because it didn't meet the customer's requirements, and he'd have to spend another 20 minutes or more making a second one. So, after stirring constantly and nurturing the risotto through many vessels, stages and additions, it was almost ready and he asked the chef if the person could eat parmesan. A waiter quickly ran back to the customer to ask and ran back to the line to say "yes" and in it went. Making one dish for a customer can be a very time consuming and attentive process, but makes you understand why and what you're paying for at the end of the day. As the risotto was finishing, the chit machine started firing orders and off I scampered back to safety of the the garde manger station.
At the station, I helped the garde manger and pastry chefs prepare canapes for every guest that came in, a variety of salads, appetizers and cold portions for the tasting plate, and desserts and the amuse or petit fours for all guests, which were home made cookies of yummy mini macaroons and date newtons. A new tasting plate menu had started so that was fun looking at and preparing the new items such as one of the cold courses that looked absolutely beautiful with tilapia sashimi with blood orange sections and almost smoking grapeseed oil poured on at the end to slightly sear the fish.
Despite a slow evening, there were still a lot of tasting plates, birthdays, and even a very late Valentine's celebration, and special plates for chefs coming in. On Wednesday and Thursday, they had people marked down as celebrating International Women's Day by the way. Wonder if they wrote anything on the plate. Usually special celebrations get chocolate writing on their dessert plates. So, after a short, nine hours there I headed home after the last orders came in and when the stations were starting to be dismantled for the evening. Another day, another canape.
posted by Caroline at 9:23 AM
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