Sundays aren't quite busy but tonight I think we served about 180 people.
Just as I said yesterday, I'm coming in on time and I did. And yes, there was a lot to do but I trust the people that I work with. Nick can pretty much work on his own so I don't have to worry about him. Zak has picked up speed on his knife work and has proactively took note of how to set up the station so I just had to do the major cooking stuff.
Normally if I'm running the station, I have to do the knife work. But Zak wants to practice so I let him do all the beautiful knife work that we do at the station. But I think he's ready to learn the rest of it so I'll start training him on that pretty soon.
We were pretty efficient. We were pretty set 25 minutes before our 4:30 deadline. Not only were we set up for service today, we also got some prep work and projects done for tomorrow.
I was the last person to leave the kitchen though since I had to do my shelf inventory. We cleaned up and organized our shelf too. Chef Peter liked it. He said the shelf looks a lot better since I took over. That was really sweet of him... although, I haven't really taken over. Mike still runs the station 5 days a week. I'm just stepping up a little bit. And I'm glad it's being acknowledged.
Tomorrow will be a long day for me. I'll work at Chez Panisse in the morning and at Aqua in the evening. It's quite tight but I wanna be able to manage.
I already did the prep list for my team today. I delegated the tasks and prioritized them too so I'm not at all worried.
Whew! I love the challenges of work. I must really have the heart for it.
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Lessons Learned:
Fixing the Yellow Tomato Gazpacho
This is one thing I was challenged to do today. The gazpacho tasted old so it has to be fixed so we can use it for service.
Yellow Tomato Gazpacho
2# of Yellow Tomatoes
1pt of Tomato Water
1T Champage Vinegar
1pt of Olive Oil (blend)
2 Shallots
A pinch of chopped garlic
A pinch of Salt
- macerate tomatoes, garlic and shallots in tomato water and champagne vinegar. Process in a blender, emulsify with oil, and strain thru fine chinois.
What I do though is to strain out tomatoes and process them. I add liquid as needed since the sweetness and the tartness of the tomatoes may vary. I taste it too before I add the oil. Sometimes it may need help. I add a pinch of sugar too, not to sweeten it but to bring out the fruity-ness of the tomatoes. I add oil in increments to make sure it doesn't taste greasy. Too much oil and too much vinegar makes it taste old.
So to fix the old tasting gazpacho, I threw in a couple of fresh tomatoes. It didn't fix it. I added a splash of lemon juice to bring out the tartness. That did the trick!
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