Externship week ten

The interior of the cafe

Things are getting better...

Second week at the Root cafe and it's almost the middle of my externship. Last week I got an updated schedule for my externship. Two cafes were added. I don't know much about one of them, but the other is an Asian cafe and I am very excited going there. It seems I have adjusted myself for the work schedule and what is more important for the work environment. There are some rules which I don't like (taking lunch break at 10 in the morning when there is no food and I'm not hungry) but there are no strict control how you follow rules. Which makes life
slightly easier. The below us a recap for this week.

Monday

Almost sashimi...

It was a strange day. The menu was all vegetarian (sorry, not my cup of tea:-) Dishes on the menu were also strange for me. I worked on the dish called 'almost sashimi'. There were red rice on the bottom of the bowl, topped with ribbons of carrot and edamame beens (soy beens). For the garnish we used slices of avocado, pickled watermelon radish, sunflower seeds, small ribbons of nori, and sunflower sprout. Why it was almost sashimi, remained a secret for me. I had to prepare all components and during the service to serve dish as an 'action station'. I think our guests were not super excited about vegetarian menu in general and the dish I worked on in particular.
After the lunch I worked on lamb cofta. We mixed ground lamb with aromatics and spices, formed balls using ice cream scoop, then we cooked a few of them to taste seasoning (and eat some proteins:-).

Tuesday

Cooked amaranth greens

Vegetable day. For the whole day I worked on vegetables. In the morning I prepared amaranth greens for sauté. The dish was amaranth greens, onions, and red cabbage sautéed with garlic and grapeseed oil. Cabbage was cut already as well as onion. So I just cooked all vegetables in two butches. Start with onion, caramelize it till golden in colour, add garlic, then cabbage and cook until cabbage soften, but still crunchy. The last to add is amaranth green, cook for a couple of minutes to let them wilt (treat like spinach). The dish is ready.
After lunch I cooked bacon. It was cut and I cooked it to render the fat and get bacon crispy. It was not fast process, it took me about an hour. The amount of bacon was significant and in the middle it started to scorch to the bottom of the rondo, so I had to reduce the heat. Also I cut yams for the next day. It was not difficult as I used the globe machine.
At the meting today my perfect strategy for taking breaks was rejected. The management requested (without calling the names) that the breaks has to be taken at least one hour before the end of the shift. Yesterday I took 10 minutes break at 3:45 and my shift ended at 4:00. No more.....

Wednesday

Started grilling clams

I made a yams puree. The guideline the chef provided was kind of strange. Cook yams, mash it, then mix with hemp milk simmered with garlic. For the garnish use hemp seeds. The only alteration to the recipe we made is instead of steaming yams, we boiled it. The amount of yams was really big, we had about 20 gallons and there were not enough perforated hotel pans to steam it. While yams was cooking I helped to clean green beans.
During the lunch I grilled clams for the window special dish. That was not difficult, but busy. Our guests were eager to try that dish and I had to keep clams grilling in large numbers. The good thing was that there was no delay due to my slow grilling:-)

Thursday

Mushroom pho

The dish I was working on was a mushroom pho. First thing was to make broth. I had mushroom stock from the day before and as per instruction I received, I diluted stock with water, added aromatics (scallion, cinnamon, star anise). We had no ginger. Surprise! Diluted stock tasted like water. Indeed, to make broth you concentrate flavor, not dilute it. Finally the sous chef brought us some ginger and he decided to add dried mushrooms in that broth. After 20 minutes of simmering it tasted like mushroom broth. The rice noodles required soaking in a warm water for an hour and then brief cooking. The garnish was cut by other people. Yeah, not so proud of that dish, it could have been better.
During the lunch at pod serving the guests. My task was to pay attention that there were everything that suppose to be, all dishes are refilled as required and so on.
After lunch spent some time cutting potatoes and help cutting chicken for the next day.

Friday

French style roasted potato

My dish was a French style roasted potatoes. I like it - 'my dish', probably this is why I enjoyed this place. To make this dish I had to mix potato which I cut yesterday with chopped garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, and oil. Mix well and place on baling trays. Separately I mixed chipollini onions with oil, salt, and pepper and spread on sheet tray as well. Then I sauté diced onion in a rondo (it was cut in medium dice and would have burnt if we added it to the potatoes). Before I went on lunch break (at 10 am), I paced potatoes and chipollini onions in the oven at 350 F. When I come back (10:25 am) they were perfectly cooked. I mixed everything together (potatoes, chipollini onions, sautéed onions) and the dish was ready. The chef said it was tasty and nicely done.
During the service I refilled serving dishes with potatoes. Also spent some time chopping garlic and shallots by hands (this week somebody had broken food processor). Then I steamed beets (it took long time to have them done, this is why I prefer braising them). As soon as they were ready I peeled and cut them.