Catering!

Wednesday the 26th was very different than the other days in my externship. I spent the morning doing prep as usual not knowing that all the prep work that I was doing was for an out-door catering event that we had at the end of a bicycle race. I even ended up cooking a bunch of vegi-burgers that Chef Paul had put together. When 3 o'clock came around Chef Paul had asked that I join him on this catering event that was to start at 6. After everything was prepped and rushed together (cups, utensils, ingredients, tools, cutting boards, rolls, ect.) we were off to find the location at which we were to set everything up. However, it being a bicycle race it had turned out that a lot of the center of town's roads were closed and we couldn't find a way to get to where we wanted to be. After many calls back and forth to Chef Leffler we found the spot we were meant to setup which was in the parking lot of a bike shop. There was a long grill that they had rented sitting there waiting for us to man and serve from. Quickly with the help of a few of the other employees of the Olde Mill Inn, we got to work getting everything ready for the crowd that would come demanding burgers, dogs, chicken, vegi-burgers, and everything and anything you could barbecue. After a rushed 20 minutes everything was in it's place and I got to work cutting up pickles so that we'd have slices ready. Afterwards we sat there... the invoice did say for us to be there at 6 but it turns out that the race was over around 7:30 and that they had announcements and such afterwards so not to expect people till around 8. The upside to this was I got to learn about Chef Paul's past a lot more during our 2 hour chat as well as got to know him better as a person outside of the kitchen. I also learned that he's getting married about a week before me which was interesting to hear and that he also has not yet sent out his invitations due to how busy everything has been in his life...

Finally, 8 o'clock rolls around and people start showing up, all together of course, so frantically I began setting up plates and giving out drinks as people ordered them all the while shouting orders back to Chef Paul on what and how people wanted their food cooked. Finally, things were rolling, the fires were high, and everything was heating up. Burger after burger went out till there were no more. (though we had a lot of left over chicken and hot dogs) The favorite though, seemed to be the keg of beer we had brought along which people just began coming around and serving them selves. Everyone was having a good time and were very happy with the food and service. The burgers were the talk of the night (aside from the beer). It was a great experience and probably the most fun I've had so far during this externship. Getting to connect more with someone that has had a lot of experience in the kitchen was a great learning experience. Around 10 o'clock we started to pack everything up for the ride back to the Olde Mill Inn to unload and call it a night. We were both exhausted and eager to be home from the long humid night.

Another few days

It's been rather difficult to keep up with these posts or post anything at all with the way things have been lately. Not only am I spending about 35 hours a week on this externship but I also have my other job to maintain as well as closing on a condo that I bought in Hillsborough and planning my Wedding that's coming up in August. This sadly leaves me very little time to keep this updated or work on anything at all. Though less about me and more about the externship. The past few days have been a steep learning curve. I'm starting to move much faster on the line and am able to see what needs to be done during the prep hours a lot more now without being told. Prep time is probably still the "longest" part of my day, both literally and feels like forever, however I know it needs to get done and I'm learning valuable knife skills while doing so. Everything changes pace drastically once on the line making the hours fly by like nothing, far more enjoyable than the prep times. I started out the first day just plating a few things here and there on the line and frying a few items in the deep fry, but I'm learning more and more. I know how to plate pretty much everything on the grill/fry half of the line now, just need to get times down on the grilling in correlation to the sauté side, which I know will come with time. All and all, as said before I'm learning a lot and working hard, when I get home it's hot shower and bed so that I can get up early the next day to go back into the kitchen again.

Day 1

Day one of my externship was very new and exciting. When I first ventured into the back door of The Grain House I found my self looking around and trying to take everything in at once. This is my first day working in a professional kitchen outside of school. Right off the start Chef Paul had me French cutting chickens, (which he can do one whole chicken in under 90 seconds) Which right then and there showed me that my knife skills weren't even close to being on par. I was learning quick as I was sent from one task to another making Polenta from scratch to cutting up Mir Pox for stock. The first 7 hours of my morning was spent doing lots of cutting and prep tasks but as the time rolled around 5 I was sent up to the line to learn from the Grill station and run the deep fried foods. This was much more fast paced than that of the prep stage of my day and a whole lot more enjoyable. Time seemed to drag on during the prep stage where late evening seemed to fly by on the line. It was a very interesting first day, that of both excitement and exhaustion. I do look forward to see what else working here has in store for me.