Externship week nine

Working in the cold room,
feels like a North Pole

Where do you prepare cold dishes? Right in the cold room.

New place again for me. This time it's a cafe named Root. Don't sure about the name of the cafe and where did it come from. The chef is trying to play everything very simple, but with some sophistication. Anyway, it seems she know what she is doing and she is a nice lady. The manager of the cafe is not nice. Likely for me I saw her probably three times during the week.

Root is the only gluten free cafe at Google. There is no single item with gluten on premise. The chef is GF. I do not care much about gluten, but it is interesting to see what they are doing to substitute common ingredients. The cafe is opened only for lunch and that makes life quite easier.





Monday.

Tofu dish

I worked with a special dish. There is a window in the cafe and every day small plate is served out of this window. For Monday it was tofu with roasted fennel and apples, fried yuba (tofu skin) and pineapple sage and fennel frond for garnish. I tried all components except for tofu. Do not like it. I had to fry yuba in a grape seeds oil, then toss is with brown sugar an cinnamon. For the fennel and apples we added honey, cinnamon, and vanilla powder and roasted in the oven. During the service my job was to assemble the dish in front of guests. After lunch I worked on the dish for the next day braised wild boar. Boar meat we received was shoulder BRT (boned, rolled, trussed). All what we had to do is to place pieces of meat into deep hotel pans, add chicken stock, aromatic vegetables and herb (onion, celery, carrot, thyme, parsley, bay leaf), salt and pepper. Then we covered these pans with foil and cooked overnight in a very low oven (about 200 F).

Tuesday.

Braised boar with
mushroom sauce

An inspection is expected tomorrow, so everyone is 'on high'. I was asked where is my servesafe certificate and why I do not care it with me (why should I, HR has a copy).
In the morning I had to take out boar from the braising liquid, strain liquid for sauce, and place meat on sheet pans. Then I moved to my favorite vegetables. I helped to cut potatoes, prepare beets for steaming, then peel steamed beets. Also I made croutons from a gluten free bread (this cafe is gluten free). Even though the bread was good, it is not the same as wheat bread. Croutons needed much more love and attention. First, you have to toss them with butter and garlic very gently, as the bread tend to fall apart if you apply pressure. Second, when you roast them in the oven, they got colour very easily, but they need more cooking time. So I had to move them a couple of times. Result was good: the croutons were golden colour and quite crunchy. After that I cut some more vegetables and left.


Wednesday
Had to work a salad station in the morning. The only thing I don't like about this station is that you have to work in a cold room (42 F). I don't know if it's reasonable. The explanation I got is that this is the Health Department requirement, so cold food stay cold. At the premises they have a special jackets to keep you warm, but the feet and the hands get cold very quickly. During lunch time I worked with cauliflower. First I was told that it was for the next day salad and I had to separate it for a really small florets. Then I was told that cauliflower is for a back up vegetable dish and we do not need these small florets, but we need bigger florets and quickly. Then strategy changed again. We did nit need back up and I had to cut bigger florets for the smaller ones. It kept me busy for almost two hours. After lunch Brussels Sprouts were waiting for me. That was easy, just cut a little bit of stem.

Thursday

Fruit plate, seems ridiculous 

Again it was a salad station in the morning. Again it was the cold room. These was a nice vinaigrette for the salad made from grapeseed oil, apple and passion fruit puree, mustard powder, salt and pepper. Probably it's me, I love passion fruit. During the lunch I worked on the floor, keeping an eye that the dishes are full and the guests have everything they need. That was a nice change, there were hot station and it was a good change after the cold room. After lunch I marinated flank steak for Friday. For me it was new think, as we used beef stock for marinate. I've never used stock for marinate. I made marinate (stock, garlic, lavender, vinegar, salt, pepper) and marinated steak overnight. The lead cook promised that I will be working on that steak on Friday. Was very excited to hear that.

Friday

Steak with sauce

Steak served for the service

Come to work a bit earlier, but not because of excitement. The traffic was good and shuttle made it earlier. Another lead cook said that I am going to work with vegetables. I was disappointed and asked about steak. I think my face was telling more than I wish. And he put me to work on steak! For the beginning I had to grill mark all steaks. The next step was to make the sauce. The sauce name was 'lavender white chocolate sauce'.
There were parsnip, onion, celery thinly sliced and cooked in butter till soft. Then I added lavender pureed in a small  amount of milk. Then was cream. After that I pureed sauce and add white chocolate (small amount), salt, and pepper. The sauce was ready. Cooked one steak for the chef testing. She was pleased with the whole dish (marinate, cooking, sauce) During the service time I had to cook steak, rest it, cut and serve on big serving dishes. Yeah, it was really busy day, but very satisfying. After lunch there was small prep work for Monday and it was the end of the week.