Dick in a Box

1: Cut a hole in a box
Being the weekend before Halloween, the costumes were out and about. I didn't see anything terribly creative, but I did see a guy sporting a "dick in the box". I saw the costume while I was still in front of the restaurant. One of my co-workers had no clue what "dick in a box" was, and I was surprised and saddened. I then sang the steps to "dick in a box" for her. I am not trying to claim that the costume was creative or anything. In fact, I suspect there will be many similar costumes on Wednesday. The guy did a good job, though. He had the full early 90s R&B clothing and hair kicking it.

2: Put your junk in that box
Work was alright last night. Not great, just alright. I got a little annoyed because last night turned into "help others get ahead night". I don't mind helping other people and doing some of their projects. I do mind starting some of those things after midnight, because I know that means we will get out late when we didn't have to. I really didn't want to try to squeeze in a giant batch of fruit curd that late in the night, but the other girl who works downstairs with me really insisted. Then when the curd was almost done she asked me to cut out some super tiny cookies that are a part of the dessert amuse. You know, if you still had your own stuff you wanted to get done, then why take on so many additional projects? We ended up getting out at 2:15am. She was really thankful when I finished the cookies, which made me less pissed off. She is a really nice lady, but that curd should have waited till today.

3: Make her open that box
There is something else that has been annoying me about work. This is so minor and petty, but I just can't help it. Everyone calls our food processor "the Robot Coupe" (pronounced rowbow coo -- all Frenchified despite the fact that the company was started in Jackson, MS). It's not a Robot Coupe, it is a Cuisinart Food Processor. It says so right on the front. Robot Coupe is a brand, a brand that actually makes many different products. We don't have a Robot Coupe food processor, but we do have a Robot Coupe immersion blender. I know it is a petty complaint, but I had to vent a little.

No Work

I've been sick a bit this week, so I decided against going into work last night. I wasn't all that sick anymore, but I was at the stage where I coughed constantly while hacking up phlegm. Not the best stuff for a kitchen.

On the way home I stopped at Caputo's deli to pick up some of their homemade soup. While there, another patron spotted my knife roll and greeted me with "Hi, Chef" as he walked past. A stranger called me "chef"! Yay! Perhaps I should start insisting people always call me by the chef title. When filling out forms, I can cross out "Ms." and replace it with "Chef".

Service

Last night was my first serious look at service. Since I only work two days a week, Chef really cannot assign me service. I am not there enough to really learn how to plate everything and keep it fresh in my mind. Additionally, it usually takes a few days straight working service to solidly get something of a handle on it. People who have worked service for 2 weeks still have things to learn. Chef wanted me to watch (and help if I could) Saturday night service so that I would be familiar with it in order to have all the information I need when deciding to work their full time. There are many desserts and some overlap areas. The desserts that overlap areas are usually plated differently depending on the area. Desserts for the main dining room as part of the prix fixe menu will be plated one way, but the same dessert in the tavern may be plated differently. I already feel like I am going to need pictures of everything in order to actually remember them.

I observed and very minorly helped for a little over an hour until they kicked me out. It hit that 9:30 pm time when things get really busy and they needed the help of someone who actually knew stuff. So I went downstairs to continue the glories of coffee cake batter and marshmallows while the girl downstairs went up to help with service. I think the main girl running service was a little upset by my presence. She felt like she had to train me, and she definitely didn't have the time for that. I was really just there to observe, Girlie! Calm down!

A Little Something for you White Chocolate Haters out There

Today I talked with Chef for a little bit in the Chocolate Room (yes, the greatest room one could ever have) about my possible future at the restaurant. She asked if I would be interested in working there after my externship was up. I was very honest with her. I do want to work there, just not immediately following the conclusion of my externship. I couldn't take on poverty so quickly, especially with the holidays coming up. Also, I have made it somewhat known at my current day job that I would be leaving sometime around the first of the year. Did I mention that my current day job closes down during the holidays, so we get about 1.5-2 weeks paid vacation? I didn't mention that? It's a pretty sweet deal, right? I have to take advantage of that one last time. Chef told me that I didn't have to make a decision right now. Someone on staff is leaving around Christmastime, so it would be good timing. Would it be a dick move to put in my two weeks notice the day I return from winter break? They've been dicking me around at work for the last 3 months, so maybe I will just consider it retribution.

I learned one of the coolest things today -- how to make caramelized white chocolate. It is delicious and tastes similar to dulce de leche, but with the creamy texture of chocolate (when it is warmed, because it is a solid block o' chocolate when it cools). I do not know the details, but basically you cook white chocolate couverture (high quality chocolate used for chocolatiering, not that nestle white morsel shit) slowly in a metal pan in an oven over a long period of time. The white chocolate slowly caramelizes and turns a beautiful medium brown. Chef had me use it to make some panna cotta. The residue in the mixing bowl was damn good. I can't wait to taste it once it is chilled and to see what it is paired with as a plated dessert.

"He just came up and punched me in the face"

This is what I heard on my way to the subway last night after work. A group of people were filing a report with a few police officers.

It was a weird night in general. There was a really crazy energy going through the Flatiron district at 2:15am. There were emergency vehicle sirens all over the place -- I would see multiple flying down different avenues in different directions. I could hear more sirens later as I waited in the station for my train. The streets were loaded with really rowdy people. There is always a very active nighttime crowd, but this was at a new level. It kind of felt like everything was on the verge of turning to complete chaos. It would have been complete if the zombie plague had started at that moment. I had my knife kit with me, so I would have been pretty well equipped to take on the plague. Alas, there was no plague (that I know of.)

$10/hr

So the big news of today is that everyone in the pastry kitchen earns $10/hr. Okay, the head Pastry Chef obviously doesn't get paid that little, but pretty much everyone else does. This isn't shocking. I pretty much already knew this was going to be the case, but it was a reality I hadn't fully accepted yet. It has been an issue that I have putting off until later. Well, "later" is coming up too soon. Eek! Can I really do this for $10 an hour? Even at 45 to 60 hours a week, that doesn't equal much money. And don't say, "Oh, but you will be doing what you love!" I will punch you in the face for being an ass. Let's be realistic about this. No one ever "loves" being on their feet for 12 hours straight with no break (and you sort of eat your "meal" while still working). The differential between what my coworkers earn and what the wait staff earn is ridiculous.

Despite finding out for certain how much everyone does (not) earn, I was in a really great mood today. I think it was because I only worked at my day job 4 days this past week, and those 4 days flew.

I hate to reveal that I stereotype people, but sometimes you just can't help it. I was very surprised to learn that one of my coworkers likes the punk rock music AND is familiar with Crass. He was talking about what he would wear back in high school and mentioned wearing a Crass t-shirt. I was totally blown away. He's Mormon, I think. Either he is Mormon or was Mormon. If he ever reads this and tells me he is not Mormon, then I apologize. BUT just thinking he is Mormon will already tell you why I was so surprised. To my defense, I am surprised whenever anyone knows about Crass. I don't want you to think that Mormons can't listen to cool music or anything.

Last thing, I saw a whole pig today. It was giant! And, most importantly, it was dead. It was lying on the table in the culinary kitchen next to the pastry kitchen. It was so big and so incredibly dead. I had never seen anyone butcher an entire pig carcass. It was pretty kick ass.

Nuts

Ugh. Today I chopped nuts by hand for HOURS. Seriously, I chopped 3000 grams of nuts today. I know some of you may not be familiar with grams and exactly what 3000 grams of nuts looks like. 3000 grams is just over 6.5 pounds. The combination of my shortness and the high bench I was working at was bad news for my right arm's deltoid muscle. I had to bringing my arm up too much to maintain a relaxed position. Chef Norman would have cried. I really don't know how I got through it. My chopping was extremely erratic and I was in a bit of a daze during the last hour. (I also only got 2 hours of sleep previously because I was busy making an awesome groom's cake. Lack of sleep probably didn't help that daze any.)

After that, I spent most of the night helping Chef mise en place (French term that basically means to measure out all the ingredients for a recipe) a number of recipes for a class she was teaching the next day. I also got to make some brioche dough that she would be using in the class. I finally was able to use the latest thing in yeast -- SAF yeast. SAF is a new brand of yeast that we heard about in school but never got to use. It is more active that good ol' compressed yeast so you use less. You also don't have to put it in a starter. It is supposedly strong enough that you can just add it directly to the dry ingredients.

The other thing that made me happy today was passion fruit curd! Chef asked me to make a huge ol' batch of curd (think 3/4 of a tall stock pot) and just rattled off the ingredients and really didn't stick around to go over the process. It made me happy that she trusted me and didn't feel like she needed to go over anything with me. How did the curd come out? It was awesome.

Sometimes You Have to go Backwards to go Forwards

Stupid MTA. This weekend there is track work on the station I use to get home at nights. I didn't know this until I got to the station at 2 something in the morning. I had to take an uptown train one stop and wait ages for the train that would finally get me home. I am already emotionally prepared to dish out some dough for a cab tomorrow night.

Today I finally got to do some chocolate work. Not a lot of chocolate work, just a little. It ends up another girl is taking over my swing duties, so it was weird to watch someone else learn the things I already knew. I feel very competitive about it. Is it bad that I want to know if she can pick things up as quickly as I can, etc.?

I also now understand why the locker rooms at school were always hot air messes. Part of our culinary training was to prepare for stifling hot locker rooms. There is no ventilation and you start sweating profusely the moment you step inside.

One More Thing

I can't believe I forgot to mention this. When I left the restaurant on Friday night I had a bit of a rat encounter. A rat momentarily blocked my access to the subway entrance. I started walking down the stairs to get into the station and was stopped by the sight of a standard subway rat just hanging out two steps below me. The stairwell is pretty narrow, so I didn't know what to do. I didn't dare pass the thing. I would surely scare the rat by running past it, but there was no way to be certain that it would choose flight over fight. Thankfully, I spotted an empty water bottle nearby and kicked it at the rat. It scurried down the stairs and out of sight.

While on the platform waiting for the train, I was able to count at least 15 distinctly different rats at one time. At 2:30am you are bound to see more rat activity because there are less people around and the trains run less frequently, but this was still ridiculous. I was waiting near the end of the platform where the front of the train would end up, and most of the late night party-goers were waiting around the middle of the platform. At one point some guy walked over to my end in an attempt to find a save place to pee. Even needing to pee was beat out by the rats. I warned him of the rats, he kicked some bins to scare them away and then gave up and went back. I am sure you are wondering if there was a grossly deformed and bitter rat amongst the rat mass. Why, yes there was! One particularly large rat had some crazy tumors on its body, moved slowly and loudly tried to attack every rat that came in its vicinity. At least I wasn't bored while I waited for my train.