Externship week seven

An example of food served 

Indian cuisine...

This week is another rotation for me, this time this is an Indian food. The place I will be working at is the only place serving food restaurant style at Google (all other cafes are serving food buffet style). The curriculum for the next two weeks are very interesting and I am very excited about it. At the end of the next week I have to take a test, to show what I have learnt during these
too weeks.

Monday
As usual it was a prep day (everywhere is the same:-). I had a tour in the kitchen at the beginning of the day. Then I peeled, deseed, and cut two cases of fussy melons (like cucumber). We had a usual staff meeting at 10 in the morning. At this place for the meeting all food items from the menu are served and all people working that day are able to try everything. Then there was a lunch for two externs staring at the same day (very unusual to have two externs same time at the same site). We were taken by sous-chef for the lunch at this restaurant, so we were able to experience food and service to see it from the customer perspective. After lunch I cut some carrots, chilli peppers, shredded big amount of pannier (Indian cheese), and cut four cases of eggplants. During the day the chef  came and asked if I can execute a recipe given. My answer was yes, sure. He gave me a recipe, but it was in Hindu. That was a favorite joke of the chef.

Tuesday

My working place during
the service

Our truck - new and big

Supposed to be a very busy day. There was a conference and the restaurant was closed for usual reservations. We expected to have about 250 covers for the conference and also expected about 800 people for the food trucks. At this place usually only one food truck is serving food, but due to expectation we got another one. Unfortunately expectation were set too high and we were not busy. There were less than usual number of guests at the restaurant and food trucks were not busy either. I worked
on the new (big) food truck. We set it up in the morning, during the service time almost fall asleep (we had may be 40 people), then beak down and clean up the truck. Late afternoon there were some veggies to cut, mushroom to wash and marinate for the next day. My last task was to toast spices (coriander and  cumin). Since there was a big amount of these I toasted them in the oven. I was told to toast them until I can feel aroma and there will be a smoke from the oven. The second indicator was quite new for me.

Wednesday

Old truck

Another day working on food truck. Today it was

Our menu on a food truck

a small one. In the morning I cut about two cases of sweet potatoes. Then we set up truck and moved all food there to prepare for the service. Accidentally I managed to drop a container with daal on the ground.  When I took it from the hot box, I expected to have a full size hotel pan, but it was half size. So the daal was on the floor, luckily I did not burn my feet, but have to excuse my French. Guys who worked with me were very calm and said that it could happen with anybody. During the service we were busy. For more than an hour we had a line about 20-25 people long. We worked fast and efficient and people spent may be 5 minutes in the line. After lunch service I was back to the kitchen doing prep for tomorrow. I cut the onions using machine (again was crying like a baby), blanched potatoes in a deep frier, toast spices for Garam Marsala.

Thursday

Thursday's plate

In the morning I was cooking! Surprise. Together with a lead cook we made cabbage daal. We started with spices and fried them in the oil, then we add daal and cooked it till almost done, then we add cabbage, cooked for a little bit more and it was done. During the lunch time I worked on the line plating dishes for the guests. After lunch I prepped vegetables for the next day.





Friday
Wasn't a remarkable day. In the morning worked on the assembly line. We were building biryani for the lunch service. We had two types one with chicken and the other vegetarian. We had a lot of hotel pans with chicken or vegetables inside. Our task was to place even layer of rice, then some garnishes or condiments (chopped cilantro, coconut, cream infused with saffron, fried onions), then another layer of rice, cover with foil. That was ready to go in the oven to finish cooking. My next task was to fry pappadums - crispy Indian flat bread. That was quite easy. Take a few pieces with a tongues, deep into the hot oil, change the side tongues hold the stack, deep fry for about 30 second, remove from oil and let it drain.  After that I moved to the prep for the next week. I cut a couple of cases potato. Then there was my 'favorite' vegetable - onions. Onions I had to peel and then slice them on a machine. Still the amount of onion is enormous and I continue to cry. On average this cafe uses between 600 and 800 pounds of onions weekly. After onions we were busy with a deep cleaning (every Friday).