The Journey Begins...

Downstairs dinner menu 12-29-09 ($75/person):

Warm chanterelle sald with new onions and green garlic feuillete

Lingcod and Dungeness crab soup with fennel and olio nuovo

Grilled rack and loin of lamb with olives and panceta, hand-cut pasta with artichoke, young spinach, and tatsoi

Coconut meringue with tangerine ice cream and blood orange sorbet

Yesterday was my first day at Chez Panisse.

Oh. My. F***ing. GOD.

I don't normally curse like that (especially with God in the same sentence), but yesterday's experience was so surreal, so off the chain, I had to revert to such base commentary. :D

Where do I begin? With the produce, which was so beautiful, so in a class by itself that anything I've cooked with till now (and culinary school lets us cook with some pretty good produce) is just a vague resemblance...or a poor relation? :D

The restaurant vibe: calm, quiet, and at its core, inherently female (with all that implies LOL). Everyone knows their job and executes it with pleasure and joy, and are also willing to help others (like me!) so that the smooth operation continues. None of that Hell's Kitchen, Anthony Bourdain, yelling and screaming testosterone-fueled mess...GLORY!!

The (cooked) food...Lord...flavors were hooking up and having a ball like it was Mardi Gras, New Years Eve, Carnival, J'Ouvert, and an old-school house party going on, all at once! :D These chefs have truly been in the game for quite some time and it reminds me of why I like to watch Iron Chef America: they put flavors together in ways I'd never even dreamed existed.

As an intern, I don't do much except prepwork, but that's enough. Yesterday I set up for the daily chef's meeting; peeled and trimmed a case of baby artichokes (for the main course); cored a case of apples (for the daily apple tart); butchered a pork loin (for today's main course); set up for our staff dinner (or family meal, which is what's being served that day, minus the fancy plating arrangement--plus a really good glass of wine); julienned goose and squab gizzards; cleaned spinach; in between cleaning. At the end of the night, I help scrub down cooking tables, sweep and straighten the kitchen walk-in, wash personal knives and cooking utensils, and do a quick inventory of stocks, creme fraiche (which I'm responsible for making when it gets low--it takes 2 days to make), and anything else. My hand was aching (doubly so when I cut my finger while butchering that pork loin), and Extra-Strength Tylenol was my friend.

One of the things I really find interesting is how different the "real world" is from culinary school. Between what we're taught and what I've seen in the past 24 hours: Weeeeeelll...let's just say that there is a big difference between theory and reality.

Another thing I find interesting is how much it takes to put the "fine" in fine dining. People show up 2.5 hrs before dinner service begins just to polish glasses, coffee cups, and silver; set tables with linens; light little table lamps; arrange centerpieces. And everything must be just so. I will learn more about this when I return from externship and get into the front-of-the-house (FOH) stuff (vs. cooking, which is considered back-of-the-house, or BOH for short). Still, it's the little things which add up to such an incredible (and expensive) experience.

Today, since the menu changes, I'll be doing different prepwork (but I suspect I won't be getting away from artichokes anytime soon since they are on the menu for the rest of the week, more's the pity), but I'm still looking forward to it.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you tomorrow.

T.