Goodnight Chef!

I went in yesterday and announced that "slave boy is here"! The big Chef and 2 of the Sous Chefs were at work. "What do you have for me today Chef?" I asked the most senior Sous Chef. "Let's start with the herbs" was his reply. I wanted to say "roger", but I remembered that I am in the kitchen and not the cockpit, so I said "ro..I mean yes Chef".

I set up my station at the prep table, knives, cutting board with wet paper towel underneath to anchor it, a rinsing bowl, a hotel pan, my water bottle, and my trusty scraper which I am addicted to. I grabbed the herbs and went to work. This is only my 5th day as an intern, but there is nothing like repetitious cutting to improve knife skills. I have really improved. No cuts yet! although I did slice a piece of my thumbnail and the underlying flesh with a peeler 2 days ago. Ops normal for a kitchen.

Chopping puts me in a zen state. Once I find a rhythm, my mind relaxes and I slip into a meditative state. That's why I've never gone for the kitchen gadgets that chop or dice. I just love to use my knife and chop away. The mood in the kitchen was happy. Almost all of the cooks are under 32, with most in their 20's. Their banter is witty, reflective of their age, and almost always a parody form some movie, commercial, or TV show. This is where I feel a little bit of the grand pa. I have no idea what some of their chatter is about. Pretty funny actually. I have become the guy I used to make fun of when I was younger.  They're well humored about it.

"All finished with the herbs, what's next Chef?" "how about vacuum packing the rhubarb, whip some cream and put it in a 9 pan, and thinly slice some snap peas on a bias and put them in a deli cup ?". About 30 minutes later, "what's next Chef?". "Go help the Grade Manger with his set up". Garde Manger is typically the junior position in the kitchen and is responsible for the amuse bouche, salads, and cold apps. So, I went to help him. The kid working the station put me to work. He asked me to make the amuse bouche which was a shrimp remoulade. I had to finely chop some shrimp, and mix it with herbs, vinegar, mayo, shallots, salt and pepper. This kid displayed a lot of maturity when he told me to mix everything in a ratio that would best balance the flavor! Cool! This 22 year old kid is confident enough to give me some autonomy.

Feeling that I should dispense my slave labor equally around the kitchen, I asked another Sous Chef "what's next?". "Go get the clams that I just baked and use your beak to cut out the clams form the shells, put them in a tall deli, fill with clam juice and put in walk-in". "Roger..damn it..I mean Yes Chef". Guy's thinking I am a total nerd.

45 minutes of clam scraping. By this time, the prep table is empty except for me, as all the cooks are finishing their prep on the line with an hour before service. The senior Sous Chef walks by and says "you can bring the clams on the line and do it there if you want". It was a nice offer to include me  but I was enjoying my quiet space so I politely declined.

The service began. It was to be a very quiet night with only 30 covers. I walked station to station to observe, assist, and take notes. Not much going on. About an hour and a half before end of service I decided that I might leave early. The Sous agreed.."get out of here". I went to the back and changed. As I walked by the line and said goodnight to everyone, the Big Chef who is stoic and quiet said to me: "Goodnight Chef".

WOW. I know that they all call each other Chef, but for THE Chef to say this to me was a real show of recognition and respect. As I walked to my car I couldn't help but have a smile on my face.

Veal Stock

Oh Yeah! After and hour or so of chopping the usual herbs, I was given the assignment of making (or at least set up for day 1) the veal stock. 100 Lbs of bones and knuckles, 15 onions, 25 carrots, 2 bunches of celery, 4 large cans of tomato paste, spices, etc...I first soaked the bones in cold water (degorger) to rid of impurities, then browned them in the oven to get some color and flavor, then I filled up 2 huge stock pots with all the ingredients and topped off with water, and placed on heat. Skim, skim, skim, and more skim. Tomorrow, the stock will be drained, strained, and the juice will be reduced. The bones and mirepoix refilled with water for a second batch. That will also be drained and strained. The 2 liquids will be combined and reduced some more for the eventual veal stock. the restaurant does this every Monday and Tuesday.

It was a slow night, so I received lots of instructional tidbits

from everyone as there was slack time on the line. I have never had pork cheek before. Upon hearing this, the sous had one fired for me to try. I was expecting just a piece of meat as a sample, but the hot app guy prepared me the entire dish and served me the same plate presentation used for service. It was awesome. The cheeks had been browned in a pan, then braised for 2 hours and then sauteed in a pan upon being fired, served on a bed of polenta and Swiss chard, with a veal sauce reduction. NICE!

After that, it was 20 minutes of organization in the walk-in fridge, a little cleanup and the night was over.

The night ended on a high note as the sommelier gave all the cooks a blind taste of a wine to see if anyone of us could guess what it was. No one got it right. I had never even heard of the varietal before. The name was too long to remember but it began with "Franken--------------". It was a sweet desert wine from Austria with flavors of peach and pineapple.

Do You Know How to Turn an Artichoke?

The big Chef was at work today. This being my first day working with him. A quick bio on this Chef is that he is a CIA grad, worked at the French Laundry for 3 years, and is really responsible for this restaurant getting its Michelin Star. He is in his 30's, serious, and runs a taut ship. I walked in and said my hellos and got my cutting board to get ready to dive in to my parsley-chives-tarragon-chervil chopping routine when the Chef asked me if I know how to turn artichokes. "Yes Chef". But since everything is done a little differently in every kitchen, I asked him for a demo. He turned a perfect choke. In school, I would have to turn one or two for my practicals, but today I had to do a whole case. It was slow going, and mine were not as pretty, but the repetition allowed me to improve my speed and technique. I was told that the kitchen record is 20 minutes for a case...uhmm...90 minutes later, I was finally done. No new artichoke records were set today.



I was down for only a 4 hour prep today and would miss the service to allow me to have sufficient rest for my flight

tomorrow. Next I was given a bucket of lobster legs to shell followed by chopping some cooked rhubarb for the  Sous Chef. Next I helped the meat cook with his mis en place by trimming beans, shredding some potatoes and skinning fava beans. That was it. A short day.

My 2nd Day as a Stage

My body was hurting, my fingers felt swollen, and my feet ached from the clogs. I guess I'll get used to it. Today, the most senior Sous Chef was running the kitchen. His leadership style, a little stern and business like, was quite different from yesterday's Sous who was a bit more relaxed.

I began chopping away at the same herbs (parsley, chervil, chives, and tarragon) which are then combined and used as garnish on salads and most of the meat dishes. The number of seating expected was double that of yesterday, so I had to chop twice the amount of herbs. The chopping seemed to last forever. Then I had to brunoise some carrots and celery for the meat cook. Next I made some chicken mousse with creme fraiche, ran it through a tamis, and mixed it in with some duck confit and herbs to make a duck farce. I then made little egg shaped farce wrapped with cooked onion skin. The meat cook uses this for one of his dishes. This took me right up to service time.

The amuse bouche is a dollop of chopped lobster meat and herbs (I think) placed on a toasted brioche disk. I was told to make 20 more of the disks. I pulled out my bread knife and began slicing 1/4" thick slices of brioche. Then using a ring cutter I made 20 disks, sprayed with butter, and headed to the oven to bake them when the meat cook stopped me and told me that my disks were uneven in thickness. "You need to make new ones" he told me. Damn! I went back to my prep station and cut more slices as carefully as I could, made 20 more and went back to the oven. The same meat cook said "hey can you run back and get me ------ from the fridge, I'll watch the brioche". While I was in the back gathering his stuff, he came back and told me that he had forgotten about the brioche and they had burned. Damn! I had to make another 20! By the time it was over, I could cut some nice 1/4" slices.

The line was slammed twice and I did my best to help where needed but mostly stayed out of the way. I fetched items that were needed form the back fridge as stations ran out of their ingredients, chopped some shallots when they ran out, and got a little time at the stove with the hot app cook who let me cook some fois gras.

I got to see the line in full motion. Apparently it was a bit too chaotic because one of the waiters also played the role of expeditor. If an order came in while he was out front, then the ball would be dropped as an expeditor since you really can't do both jobs effectively (that's how it was explained to me anyway).

It was already closing time when I looked at the clock. The service was a big blur of time that had elapsed double time. As I walked to my car I took a mental inventory of lessons learned for the day. This sous chef was reluctant to let me run too freely and kept a little tighter leash on me than yesterday's sous. The kitchen behaves differently depending on the leadership style of the Chef in charge. Fetching items was a great way of learning the whereabouts of items in the kitchen and the walk-in fridge. The brioche fiasco taught me not to present something unless it was done right. I made a few mistakes and learned form them. All in all, another great day of learning in the kitchen.

Stage Day 1

What does a stagiaire do on his first day? For me it was a day full of wonderment, learning, hard physical labor, and a bombardment of information. I showed up 30 minutes early as instructed to get a head start and some acclimation with one of the 3 Sous Chefs. The Chef had told me to wear my Le Cordon Bleu jacket until they could order me a jacket with the restaurant logo. I dreaded appearing as some prima donna strutting around like I am someone special. Luckily, no one seemed to care. The Sous Chef was in charge today since the Chef was off. I was led around and introduced to everyone, then shown to the prep area. It seems that I am a bit of a novelty and a source of curiosity as word had already spread that "some airline pilot" was starting an internship. I did about 4 hours of chopping herbs, shucking peas, de-stemming spinach, etc..During this time, I kept my head down, mouth shut, and my ears open as I settled into the flow of the kitchen and got a feel for the different personalities. The kitchen is immaculate, well organized, and clean. I love it! My body felt the 4 hours of prep. I am definitely out of "kitchen" shape. After the prep, everyone began setting up their stations for dinner. One of the line cooks asked me if I was leaving after the prep, and I replied "I am staying until closing". I had not even considered leaving early as an option on my first day. I think this went a long way toward making a positive first impression.

Next, I was given the opportunity to sit in with the Sous Chef as he briefed the wait staff on the dinner menu, specials, and the amuse bouche. Without a specific assignment, I just hung around the line as the action picked up. I really wanted to observe the flow since this was my first time in a professional kitchen. The Sous Chef was the expeditor for the night so he gave me a little insight into what he was doing. He also allowed me to help with the construction of the amuse bouche. The amuse bouche was being handled by a another intern at the garde manger station, so I didn't want to butt into his turf. I was really just trying to stay out of the way. At one point I looked up and the cook at the hot app station waived me over and started teaching me how he was cooking his sauteed Scallop and lobster dishes. He had made a beurre monte that he was using for the lobster. He showed me his specific browning technique for the scallops. The Sous Chef then allowed me to torch the sugar on one of the custard brûlées. I then got some instruction from the meat station. As I went from station to station, I would take a detour to the veal stock pots and do some skimming (a task that I can do without messing anything up!). All in all it was a whirlwind of information for me.  I was given a taste of almost everything that was prepared. Even the pastry chef made a chocolate plate for me as well as a soufflé for me to try. I felt fortunate that this crew was willing to be so generous with their time for a lowly first day intern.

After the service subsided, I helped with cleanup and helped repack the fish on ice, helped with putting things away, and organizing. As a final task, the Sous Chef pulled me aside and allowed me to help him take inventory for next day's order.

I left there feeling exhausted. After only one day, I have a deeper appreciation for what happens in the kitchen to create that beautiful plate that appears at the table. I was taken by the orchestrated dance I had witnessed on the line. A huge job made to look effortless by some very talented young chefs. Day 2 tomorrow....

Eager Beaver

I arrived at the restaurant to meet the Chef de Cuisine with my knives, jacket, shoes. I was ready for action..whatever that may be! The Chef was nice, cordial, young (32), and spelled out what my duties would be. When he found out that I am an airline pilot his response was "and you want to do this why?" I had to chuckle. I guess it is a very reasonable question. One which I could not really answer without

launching into a diatribe about the demise of the airline profession and the industry's abusive treatment of its employees (see I can't even write about it without going off!) So, I wisely sidestepped it and we discussed his plans for me. He let me know that it is imperative for me to begin my internship by doing the daily prep of vegetables to improve my knife skills. Precision and speed is the goal. Next he would probably move me to garde manger, and then a natural progression after that based on my aptitude. He is completely flexible with my schedule and will work with me on my hours. I couldn't ask for more. I was then introduced to one of the three Sous Chefs who will be my immediate "mentor". A very nice guy as well. I discovered that this kitchen is staffed by a crew of 9 who have all worked together for 3 to 5 years with little turn over. Looks like a happy kitchen.
After another tour of the kitchen I was told to report for my

first day on Monday. Back to the Jekyll and Hyde show .For now, the knives and chef jacket go in the closet and my flight bag and pilot uniform come out for my flight to JFK tomorrow.

Internship (stage)

Today I had an interview for internship at a nearby restaurant. As you may know, since my return from Paris, I have been trying to sort out where I fit in with this whole Chef thing. Should I keep it as fun in my own kitchen, should I explore it as a follow up career, a little of both? Am I too old? Am I being realistic? Upon my return from Paris, with a boundless naiveté, I decided to apply for internship at the French Laundry. Nothing like going for the Gold medal after 2 months of training! A couple months later after some creative letter writing, self-promotion, and anxiety I was denied. I was almost relieved because the thought of working in that kitchen terrified me. What if they would discover that I have absolutely no talent and I am a fraud? The vision of the rest of the kitchen staff constructing cutting edge cuisine in their spotless uniforms while I was hopelessly wrestling with my Hollandaise as food was flying all over the kitchen was my recurring nightmare as I waited for a response. That was 6 weeks ago.

Since then, the nightmares have ceased, I have regrouped

and applied once again to another place...a 1 star Michelin restaurant with an exciting menu of California-French dishes run by a French Chef. I realize that I need to see a professional kitchen before I can go on any further. I may love it, I may hate it, or as a friend said recently "You'll love it and hate it". I need to find out.

Today I met the Executive Chef for an interview and was elated to be accepted for the Stage. I was a bit self conscious as I was given a tour of the kitchen and introduced to everyone as the "new intern". The looks and eyes conveyed "who is this old guy trying to fool" or so it felt anyway. The kitchen was spotless and the facilities are beautiful. Most important for me, the Chef is willing to work around my schedule and essentially allow me to come in when I can. I could not ask for a better kitchen, location, and situation. Tomorrow I'll meet the Chef de Cuisine, a CIA grad ,who incidentally did work at the French Laundry for 3 years, to get the specifics of my job. Time to sharpen my knives!