Victory

Last night I faced some old foes and won! That's right. I came face to face with marshmallows and I successfully made a batch in..... one attempt. In your face, marshmallows! I also did well against the bar nuts. It wasn't a complete conquest, however. I'd say I won the battle but not the war on that one.

Last night was a really good night overall. Chef even told me that I was doing a good job and that she was impressed with my work and my approach to working. I got to work alone with Chef for a few hours. I asked her if "this was a normal set-up for a restaurant" since I had never worked in a restaurant and had nothing to judge it against. She laughed and said "not at all." At this point, very few restaurants have so much space, staff and money dedicated to pastry. At our restaurants the menu is prix fixe, so dessert is automatically included in the price structure. Since our restaurant is so popular, all seats are reserved well ahead of time. That means we knew in advance that about 240 people would be served for dinner last night. Since all of those people get dessert (unless they decline, which does happen sometimes) it is easier to determine how much to make every day.

I helped Chef work on a new dessert item. She had me make a zucchini cake while she made a goat cheese based filling. I got to taste and discuss the first attempt at a new dessert. Eating dessert as a part of your job = awesome.

I couldn't help noticing that we use a crazy amount of grapeseed oil in our kitchen. We stock more grapeseed oil than any other oil, by far. I was really curious about it because I knew nothing about grapeseed oil. I finally decided to ask Chef about it and I was surprised by the answer. Basically, the executive chef likes to use grapeseed oil and prefers it over canola oil. Therefore, my chef is encouraged to use it as well. Chef said that she could use canola if she wanted to but it isn't worth the bother. Some things aren't worth fighting for. As brief as the conversation was, it did remind me of what I already knew. Pastry chefs answer to another chef. The executive chef is still the captain of the ship. This is one of the reasons why a few pastry chefs have started their own dessert-centric restaurants over the past few years.

For the curious, grapeseed oil has a very high smoke point (like peanut oil) without the allergy concern and has a very light taste. It is also expensive.