(Con)Fit to be tied...

Dinner 01-20-10 ($75/person)
Buckwheat blinis with Dungeness crab and watercress salad w/ creme fraiche
Rabbit ravioli with black trumpet, hedgehog, and chanterelle mushrooms
Grilled grouper with Meyer lemon and olive salsa, fried artichokes, and Savoy cabbage
Pink Lady apple puff pastry tartlet with Sicilian sabayon

Author's note: the batteries died in my camera, so no pics today! :( Not that I had time to take any, I was running around so. -- TMD

The day went fairly well today; started with cleaning chanterelle mushrooms for the ravioli, then moved to trimming sunchokes. Sunchokes are starchy root vegetables with a bunch of knobs all over; they are similar in consistency to a turnip, or an underripe potato. You can cook sunchokes much as you would a potato: fry it, mash it, puree it, etc. They taste a bit bland (like a potato). I also had to cut up artichokes (at least I didn't have to peel them! Woohoo!) and I look forward to next month or so, when they go out of season. :D

Later on, I picked Dungeness crab for the first course. The hors d'oeuvres were simple Lucques olives (big, oval, light- to medium-green colored ones) mixed with olive oil, red pepper flakes, thyme leaves, and lemon zest. These same olives were used in the olive salsa that accompanied the grilled grouper.

The highlight (?) of the evening was preparing duck legs for duck confit [pronounced "cone-FEE"], and butchering turkeys. A confit is when a meat or fruit is preserved in its own fat or juices; you can confit duck, lemons, etc. To confit the duck, the excess fat first had to be removed and the meat seasoned. Even all that fat is not enough to confit the meat (you need a LOT), and to this end packages of duck fat are sold separately. I roughly chopped five 1-lb. packages of duck fat for the confit; this fat was then rendered (melted slowly) in the oven. This melted fat was then poured over the seasoned meat and put in the walk-in to solidify. Confit is a preservation technique from back when people didn't have refrigerators, and needed to somehow keep their meats from spoiling.

(I have to send a thank-you to Heather, one of the evening's servers, who was nice enough to make me a cup of espresso with milk...to which I had to add sugar. :D I'm not normally a coffee drinker, but that espresso hit the spot, and didn't make my heart race like normal coffee does! Then again, espresso actually has LESS caffeine than regular coffee since they are roasted so darkly; the darker the roast (and the longer the roasting time), the less caffeine in the bean).

We also butchered 12 turkeys in preparation for tomorrow's meal. Just had to remove the legs, parts of the wings, and leave the breasts on the bone. Simple, right? NEGATIVE. Turkeys are big birds (and each of these turkeys weighed about 10-12 lbs. each), and their skeletons are a bit heavier and tougher than those of chickens. It took some extra muscle to push my knife through the rib cage to separate it from the breastbone. Plus, I kept struggling to find the sweet spot on the wings (it's that area on the "elbow" of the wing where there is cartilage between the two wing joints, and where it is easy to cut and separate the wing in that area). Anyway, I did have some help in getting them done, and the bones were roasted to make turkey stock (also for tomorrow's meal).

[sidebar: I felt like a turtle when the chef and another cook came to do some of the confit legs...they were churning out five duck legs to my one! And that same cook butchered four turkeys in the time it took me to get through one. *sigh*]

I rounded out the evening by preparing two containers of creme fraiche from scratch (approximately two gallons), doing the turkey stock, and doing a last-minute chicken stock. It doesn't sound like much, but I was running back and forth. I told y'all, the Restaurant Workout Plan is a winner!

That's about it for today. As soon as my laundry finishes, it's bedtime for Bonzo! Thanks for stopping by, and see you tomorrow.

T.

Under the sea...

Dinner 01-19-10 ($75/person)
Grilled Gulf shrimp with parsley/garlic butter and chicory salad
Black risotto with squid, clams, and olio nuovo
Roasted pork loin with star anise fried onions, and mache salad
Citrus soup with blood orange and Page mandarin sherbets

Grilled Gulf shrimp with parsley garlic butter and chicory salad

Black risotto with squid, clams, and olio nuovo

Roasted pork loin with fried onions and mache salad

Citrus soup with blood orange and Page mandarin sherbets

This was my first day rolling solo (for the most part), since the previous school intern's last day was Saturday. The day was more or less uneventful, unless you count unloading what seemed like tons of pork, and a visit from Meryl Streep. :D

Yes...Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia, It's Complicated, Sophie's Choice...yeah, THAT Meryl Streep) had lunch upstairs in the cafe, then came down and took a brief tour of the kitchen, led by Alice Waters (yes...Alice sighting!). All I have to say is, she's as regal in person as she appears on screen. I only gawked a little bit, I'm proud to say. :D

The menu is starting to have a lot of seafood, for which I'm grateful (kinda...I love seafood, but prepping it can be a beast, what with shells, multiple legs, and whatnot). Sometimes a dinner menu will feature seafood in all three courses, which is very filling because of all the protein. I helped prep Gulf shrimp for the first course...and let me tell you, these shrimp are so huge, they creep out of "shrimp" territory and head into "prawn" territory.

Gulf shrimp

Hopefully, I get to work on the squid in the near future. I watched as the cuttlebones etc. were removed. However, a jar of cuttlefish ink (cuttlefish are closely related to squid) was used to turn regular risotto black...didn't take that much of it.

Before this, I had the pleasure of unloading eight (count 'em) pork loins, plus four pork shoulders. People don't really appreciate how BIG a pig is...two pork loins took up ONE large box (and we won't even get into the time consumption of breaking down those large boxes). Each box weighed at least 50 lbs. The boxes were stacked outside and I had to haul each box's contents inside, one by one. Alice Waters (!) came by, saw me breaking down a box and said, "All those big boxes!" (it's the little things that keep me excited). Then I unloaded two boxes which each contained two pork shoulders...again, roughly 50 lbs. per box. All this in intermittent rain showers. Did I mention that I only weigh 135 lbs?

The Restaurant Workout Plan...coming soon to stores near you!

A vendor came by, trying to unload some black truffles. The chef was unimpressed with their quality, and definitely not with the price (although he said the price was good and relatively cheap), and passed on their purchase.

Black truffles

Cheap...those truffles had an initial asking price of $740/lb! Seven hundred and forty dollars. Per pound. That's three places BEFORE the decimal point. I really did ask for clarification, in case I just heard incorrectly. Truffles, in case you didn't know, are fungi (I'm not talking about chocolate truffles!), and are found underground. Pigs are used to sniff them out (the smell of the truffles drive them crazy). Truffles are hard to get to, hard to find, which account for their exorbitant prices.

The evening ended with the shredding of rabbit meat for rabbit ravioli and an early cleandown.

That's it for now; time to get ready for work and brave the cold, rainy, windy weather (welcome to "winter" in the Bay Area). Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow!

T.

Wascally Wabbits

Dinner 01-16-10 ($95/person)
Smoked steelhead salmon salad with watercress and horseradish cream
Steamed salted ling potato and cod fritters with black olive salsa
Grilled lamb with tarragon sauce, roasted potatoes, and sauteed artichokes
Kirsch, bittersweet chocolate, and pistachio ice cream bombe

It's been a few days since I last wrote (or has it been a week?), and I apologize for leaving you hanging. A stomach bug had me down for two days last week (Wed and Thurs), and Friday I worked in the morning while training on Garde Manger duties in the cafe...and Saturday was so busy, I didn't have time to take any pictures! This installment may be a bit boring, but hopefully I'll bring more flavor next time.

When I finally returned to work on Friday morning (1/15), I had to arrive at 6 a.m. (yes...GET THERE at 6 o'clock in the morning) to train on Garde Manger. What is that, you may ask? The Garde Manger ("guardian of eating", loosely translated from French) is the person who is responsible for whatever is purchased and stored in house. The GM checks in the produce deliveries; strains stocks; stores creme fraiche; prepares pasta and other items for the cafe meals; and whatever else has to be done.

(in case you didn't know: Chez Panisse has both an upstairs cafe, which is a bit less formal and has a more traditional a la carte menu [which is less expensive] that changes daily; and the downstairs restaurant, which is more formal [and more expensive] and has a fixed menu that changes daily)

These duties can further be broken down into Pasta and Lettuce duties, which sounds just like it is: making fresh pastas and washing/trimming lettuces. It may sound simple, but it's actually quite time-consuming. Do you know how many different lettuces can go into a salad at any given time? And each of these lettuces is prepared differently; all have to be washed (these things are DIRTY! Remember, they're picked then brought directly to the restaurant) and portioned into bite-sized pieces. Some have to be trimmed before they get to that point, especially if the leaves are small enough to be eaten whole.

Rosa Veroni lettuce (closeup)

As for the pasta...well, you have to make the pasta dough, put it into the machine, and cut it into equal bundles of pasta...enough for lunch AND dinner service. There are different types of pasta, depending on what is being served. Spaghetti is always made, but sometimes lasagna and ravioli pasta have to be made as well. And lastly, green garlic has to be minced (and suspended in olive oil) for the cafe line cooks, and cheese grated for the pizzas that are offered daily.

(green garlic is immature garlic; while most people are used to the big, multi-clove crowns of garlic, immature garlic has a crown that is only one clove big. Green garlic is good for when you want garlic, but not as strong a flavor as mature garlic.)

The GM duties are where everyone starts when they get hired for Chez Panisse, and it's a good way to learn where everything is located and how the entire operation flows. I also got to help prepare the staff meal, which was cool. :D Some interns in other restaurants don't ever get near a stove, let alone handle meat and fish, so I'm pretty blessed to be where I am and doing what I do.

Saturday was back to my normal duties in the downstairs restaurant. The menu was a variation on a previous theme, and the plating was practically identical to pictures I've posted before...even if I had time to take pictures. I did manage to take a picture on Friday of the fireplace where the meats are grilled.

Chez Panisse downstairs kitchen fireplace

I was on hors d'oeuvres station again: unsweetened chocolate crepes filled with a mixture of tatsoi [an Asian cabbage, similar to bok choy], ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, and garlic that is then baked for about 20 min. The crepes were garnished with bits of peppercress (watercress with a peppery bite).

Baby tatsoi

The highlight of the evening was butchering rabbits. The rabbits come skinned, beheaded, and individually placed in bags; they look like big fetuses. I thought it best not to include pictures, lest the PETA mafia come after me. Anyway, I had to remove the big pockets of fat from inside the rabbits, and also the livers and kidneys; these were all saved for later use. Then we had to remove the back and hind legs (with a knife), and separate the ribs from the back (with a cleaver). These were for Monday's (today's) menu.

Rabbit is a bit harder to butcher than chickens because, well, rabbits hop; thus, their muscle and bone structure of their hind legs is way different from those of chickens, which simply walk. You have to really maneuver a SHARP knife around the joints in order to get the legs off. Plus, since rabbits don't have much meat on them anyway, you have to make sure you don't remove too much of what little meat there is.

Chez Panisse is just like a typical French (or European) kitchen in that nothing is really wasted: bones get used for stocks; organs (livers, kidneys, etc.) get used for pates, rillettes, mousselines, mousses, and terrines; vegetable tops (especially beets, turnips) get cooked as side dishes or included as extra flavoring (e.g., leeks, green garlic, fennel). Anything else is put aside to be made into compost, which fertilizes vegetables at the farms and the Edible Schoolyard. It's recycling at its best.

That's about it for today. I'm enjoying the rest of my day off, and I'll be back on the grind tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by, and see you on Wednesday!

T.

Just 'Shrooming

Dinner 01-12-10 ($75/person)

Belgian endive and mache salad with beets and farm egg
Wild mushroom ravioli with escarole
Grilled striped bass with anchovy butter and artichoke puree, Savoy cabbage and pommes frites
Coconut tapioca with passionfruit ice cream and tangerine sherbet

Belgian endive and mache salad with beets and farm egg

Wild mushroom ravioli with escarole

Grilled striped bass with anchovy butter, artichoke puree, Savoy cabbage and pommes frites

Coconut tapioca with passionfruit ice cream and tangerine sorbet

Today was a fairly low-key day...or maybe since I wasn't feeling well, the day was just somewhat of a blur. It was probably a combination of both: my health, and also the non-delivery of some items that were to be prepped this evening for tomorrow...which means they'll have to be done very quickly tomorrow. *sigh* It's quail, though, and that doesn't take long at all (I'm a quail machine!).

Speaking of quails and their cousins...today a shipment of 116 squab came in (actually 126); they're on the menu later this week. I had to check them in, put them in a protective bin, and store them in the meat walk-in in the meantime.

Prior to this, I cleaned more mushrooms: this time, chanterelles, hedgehogs, and black trumpets. All of these went into the homemade ravioli, which was made and then rolled on an automated pasta machine. I always shake my head in amazement at such machines because in school, we use the old-fashioned kind that you crank by hand, and is sold more for home use. In fact, we do so much by hand at school, I'm surprised when people look at me funny and ask why I didn't use some piece of kitchen gadgetry (such as a Robo-Coupe/food processor) to chop or mix things up.

I once again got a chance at a more integral part of a meal by helping to make the anchovy butter for the grilled striped bass (trivia moment: wild striped bass have perfect dark stripes along their sides, while farm-raised bass have slightly zig-zagged stripes...like someone was painting stripes along their sides and got their arms bumped during the process). I love wild striped bass, so I was glad to have this for dinner (and it was SLAMMING! That anchovy butter was the truth!)

[sidebar: while mincing shallots with another chef's knife, I realized that I really need to work with smaller knives...definitely a 6" chef's knife, and maybe even a 4" one for smaller vegetables and herbs such as shallots and garlic]

The rest of the evening was uneventful, except for making sure that we had enough mini pieces of toast for the evening snack and me scalding my hand on a VERY hot oven door. It's a borderline 1st-degree burn (a couple of tiny blisters), but I'm okay. No finger cuts today! We also made creme fraiche (I came in late in the process last time; this time, it was from the bottom up!) and two pots of chicken stock (this time, whole chickens were just put into the pot to simmer--they had not been broken down into parts. WOW.).

Okay...that's about it for today. I'm going to lay it down and hope I feel better. Thanks for stopping by.

T.

The Sausage Diaries

Dinner 01-09-10 ($95/person)
Warm chicory salad with goose prosciutto, chestnuts, and chanterelles
Roasted scallops with cauliflower saffron puree and parsley coulis
Grilled quail stuffed with duck liver and raisins; with gratin dauphinois and wilted escarole
Bittersweet chocolate and hazelnut torte with Cognac ice cream

Warm chicory salad with goose prosciutto, chestnuts, and chanterelle mushrooms

Roasted scallops with cauliflower saffron puree and parsley coulis

Stuffed quail with gratin dauphinoise and wilted escarole

Bittersweet chocolate and hazelnut torte with Cognac ice cream

Today was a steadily busy day. I actually got to be more involved with the meal preparation by stuffing all those quails that I prepped the other night (yep, all 110 of them!). It was kind of cool, seeing how something I did the prepwork for just moved along the production line; it lended a sense that the scutwork that I do really is somewhat important.

The stuffing for the quail was pretty good: bread, duck livers, golden raisins, currants, parsley, thyme, and a generous amount of Marsala wine (which was also sprinkled on the birds themselves). Mmm mmm GOOD! The quail (as are all of the meats) are grilled over an open fireplace...yes, a wood-burning fireplace! As anyone who's eaten grilled items can tell you, that smoky wood flavor just can't be beat. [I'll get a picture of the fireplace for Wednesday's blog entry.]

I learned to make crepes too! They were the hors d'oeuveurs for this evening, filled with a ricotta/lemon/parsley mixture. I didn't get to actually make any crepes, unfortunately, but I did watch closely while they were done...and I filled and folded the finished product.

One of the main things I did today was make sausage. I'm sorry: I have a block against the fabrication of red meat...probably because in school, I was one of the slower learners when it came to breaking down beef, lamb, pork pieces (ribs, butt, legs, etc). My instructor would get impatient and frustrated with me, like, "don't you GET it?! Why don't you get it?!" He'd been butchering for so long, what's second nature to him was light years away for me...and he haf no idea how to break it down for those who don't have a passion for butchering (like me). Not to mention, I'd fervently hoped that those two days of sausage in Garde Manger (for which I received my lowest daily marks for the class) were the first--and last--time I'd have to deal with sausage making in this lifetime. :D Ha...joke was on me!

To compound the issue, I am not a fan of the large, complex machinery used to do things like make sausage, saw hard,, large bones in meat, etc. (the meat grinder and the bench saw, respectively). Visions of severed limbs dance in my head (BIG sharp parts!), not to mention the drama involved in using said machinery. For example, to make sausage, you have to take the myriad parts and put them on ice for at least 30 min to an hour prior to using (it helps the meat pass through the grinder better)...and if you even let it sit out for over 10 min., you need to chill it again. DRAMA.

And let's not get into the casings used for sausage. Sausage casings are nothing else but the intestines of certain animals. The animal casing you use is dependent upon the size of sausage you want. For one of those Johnsonville bratwurst sausages, you'd use a hog casing (like we used tonight). Most other sausages (like breakfast sausages) use sheep casings. Really big sausages (like salami) use beef casings. Anyway...tonight we used hog casings, and like all casings, they are usually separated after delivery, knotted in bunches stored in salt and soaked in water before using. Well...these hog casings were all in a tangled, snarled knot that made it difficult to find where the beginning of the knot was. And they were filled with salt, which made it difficult to slip them over the nozzle of the sausage stuffer. We had to re-rinse the casings of salt so that they could slide over the nozzle easily.

(anyone who thinks that sausage making DOES NOT have a phallic component is fooling themselves).

Once the casing was on the nozzle, I turned the plunger slowly that it went down into the canister full of ground meat mix and pushed it down so that it would ooze out of the nozzle opening and into the casing. This continued until the meat was out of the canister. The chef went and cooked two samples of the sausages, then came back and we proceeded to stuff a lot of sausage...three LARGE coils (like the one below) and two smaller coils...had to be over 100 sausages when we were done portioning the coil into individual links and tying them with twine, so they could be hung to dry over the weekend (they are on the menu for Monday..

Pork sausage (large coil)

So, I got through the sausage making. I was nervous when I saw legs and shoulders of lamb in the walk-in...at least I didn't have to do those today, though I know my day is coming. *sigh*

Okay...my eyes are getting heavy, so it's time to wrap this up and get some sleep. I need to sharpen my knives (two of them got pretty dull this evening), take some unnecessary stuff out of my knife bag, and enjoy my days off. Thanks for stopping by, and see you on Wednesday!

T.

Cluckin' along...

Author's note: I forgot to take pictures of the oysters! My bad. -- T.

Dinner 01-08-10 ($95/person)
Warm Tomales Bay oysters with leeks and fennel sabayon
Ricotta gnocchi with escarole, chanterelles, black trumpets, and olio nuovo
Grilled lamb with potato cake, artichokes, and new onions
Cara Cara and blood orange tartlet

Ricotta gnocchi with escarole, chanterelles, black trumpets, and olio nuovo

Grilled lamb, potato cake, artichokes and new onions

Cara Cara and Blood Orange Tartlet

Today went pretty well, considering that I wasn't told that I needed to be there 30 minutes later than usual...so I showed up about an hour earlier than I needed to be. Oh well...I got productive and peeled artichokes. *sigh*. Cleaned chanterelle mushrooms and black trumpet mushrooms a lot. Black trumpet mushrooms are very long, thin, and black...and they tend to harbor dirt inside. So I split them open and flicked out any dirt I could see, so that they could be washed later. Black trumpets also don't taste bad at all! And, a baby scorpion was actually inside one of the trumpets! It must have been newly hatched; it was so small, it could fit on the head of a pencil eraser. I also flicked out the occasional worm that was trying to hide out in the mushrooms.

I also got to practice making quenelles (the football shapes that the gnocci is in). I made them once in Garde Manger, and did an okay good job at it. Doing them again proved to be a bit more of a challenge because 1) didn't remember 2) used a bit more product 3) actually had someone TEACH me the technique. It was fun, quick and easy.

Dinner was off the hook tonight: in addition to the lamb, gnocci, and oysters, we got to try four different types of wine: a sancerre (DELICIOUS), another red (something with a G...Girdome or something. It was really good!); a chardonnay; and a muscatel. Mmm, mmm, good! We also got to try a really good pate that was made by the outgoing extern. A good time was had by all, for sure.

Later on, I finished SUCCESSFULLY prepping the quail for tomorrow (110 quail...WHAT!). I also got a surprise project: the upstairs cafe wanted 50 chickens cut up into parts (leg quarters and breasts).

*SIGH*

I didn't mind doing the birds, but since I received this project around 8:40 pm, I was feeling a bit bummed because I knew it would take a while. I was averaging about a bird every 15-20 min...not good, timewise. (and yes, they had to be done by tomorrow).. The chef watched me a for a while, made a suggestion about cutting the legs...which promptly cut 5-10 min. off my per-chicken prep time. Then, after a while more, he gave another tip for removing the breast...which knocked another 5-10 minutes off my time. By the end of the evening, I was breaking down whole chickens in 5 minutes. FIVE. MINUTES. HOLLA!!! I only ended up doing 30 of the 50 birds, but that was pretty good considering my late start time. Even the chef told me I did a good job, miracle of miracles. I was feeling pretty good. Me, the Chicken Slayer. What a turnaround from 2 days ago...recognize! :D

I did two chicken stocks this evening (peeled the carrots to avoid drama) with the feet and carcasses of the chickens I broke down, and ended my day with relatively little drama, unless you count the aching forearm muscles from my scrubbing frenzy with the mussels yesterday. And more cuts (albeit superficial ones) on my thumb...they must have come from testing the edge of my knife while breaking down the chickens.

Another Alice Waters sighting as I was walking back from the staff locker room...and she spoke to me! Again! She said hello, smiled, and exchanged pleasantries. WOOHOO!! Yes, it's official: I am an Alice Waters groupie. Hey, I have nothing but admiration for anyone who claws out their own little niche in the world and dares anyone to take it from them.

Speaking of Alice Waters...one of the chefs told me that they may be looking for volunteers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School, which is a site for one of the Edible Schoolyards. Seems like they may need someone to help teach culinary skills classes to the kids. Hmm...did I not do that over the summer, for the national program Operation Frontline/Share Our Strengths? Yep, I sure did! It's about to be on like a pot of neckbones!

Okay...now that I'm caught up on my postings, I need to catch some Zs...at least I get to sleep a bit later tomorrow! One more day of work, then 2 days off.

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow!

T.

Nobody knows the mussels I've seen...

Author's note: I was late with this posting...I apologize! -- TMD

Dinner 01-07-10 ($75/person)

Shellfish gratin with spinach, chanterelles, black trumpets, and bread crumbs Cream of Lentil soup with chorizo and cress oil
Spit-roasted chicken with herb butter and winter vegetable ragout Pomegranate-lime and candied tangerine ice cream bombe

Shellfish gratin with spinach, chanterelles, black trumpets, and breadcrumbs

Cream of Lentil soup with chorizo, sour cream, and cress oil

Spit-roasted herb butter chicken and winter vegetable ragout

Pomegranate-lime and candied tangerine ice cream bombe

After a sucky Wednesday, the Universe decided to give me a break. For starters, I got to work on quails, which I did pretty well on. So I am not a total butchery screwup (but as I mentioned, I did better at poultry than red meat). Speaking of red meat, I didn't have to work on any because the lamb (yeah, that lamb, the one I screwed up a piece of) was already done for Friday's dinner. YAY ME!

I helped peel more artichokes (*SIGH*) and picked more crabs for the shellfish gratin (which also included scallops and lobster...YUM!). Finally, I got to scrub mussels. Mussels are related to clams and oysters; they have shells that open and close on a hinge. They were really pretty (forgot to get a picture...sorry!), but rather dirty. Mussels have beards -- hairy projections from inside the shell -- that have to be pulled off before eating, not to mention scrubbing all the seaweed, etc. that has adhered to the outside of the shell. That took up most of my evening (including three changes of the mussel water), but I got those suckers rather spic and span. Maybe I have a future as a mussel washer!

I started working on hors d'oeveures last Saturday (YAY), and today was no exception, since it is now part of my duties. These hors d'oeveures change daily and usually is some sort of nut, radish, or pate. It was olives today (Lucuque olives, to be exact: a French green olive, soaked in thyme), and they are prepared using olive oil, red pepper flakes, thinly sliced lemon peel, and bay leaf. Small dishes of these are given to each customer to whet the appetite for the first course.

After dealing with the crabs, I noticed later (when cutting the lemon peel...OUCH!) that there were a myriad of cuts all over my fingers. One in particular kept paining me: a cut right over the knuckle of my thumb (got it while butchering a chicken or something, a couple of days ago). One never realizes how important and how THERE a thumb is, until you keep banging it into things. I took for granted how much I needed my thumb till the cut, bandaged part kept getting caught in my belt buckle while fastening my belt; when picking something up, when reachign in my pocket. Note to self: find a less active area to cut myself next time.

One thing that was interesting yesterday was the number of dietary requests for dinner: no salt, no butter, etc. Now, I don't knock anyone's personal food preferences, especially if they have an illness such as celiac disease, or food allergies. But when you come to a restaurant wiht a fixed menu, and you KNOW the kind of ingredients they use on a regular basis (this is classic French cooking, so lots of garlic, leeks, onions, carrots, fennel, and shallots) why quibble? . Better yet, why go to any fine dining establishment with such a list of demands? Part of the joy of fine dining is in ENJOYING what is put before you...why ruin the occasion just because YOU don't like a teeny portion of what's on the menu? Also, fine dining places tend to make as much as possible IN ADVANCE...especially meats. Meats that need to be marinated are often done early in the day or the night before, so the flavors can soak in . At places like Chez Panisse, where the week's menu is printed in advance, it's easy to see what's being served: just CALL THE RESTAURANT (what a novel idea!) and ask what's in the food being served. That way, you can make the decision to dine there or not. But I just dont' get it when people don't want to fully take advantage of both the food and the experience. *shaking head* Then again, some people fee

I'll leave you with this thought: love is a lot like cooking: if you can't get down and dirty, and get your hands dirty as well, then what's the point?

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.

T.

Of Loins and Lambs...

Dinner Menu 01-06-10 ($75/person)
Comte cheese and green garlic souffle with rocket salad
Dungeness crab risotto with sea urchin and herbs
Grilled duck breast with mulberry sauce, artichokes and chanterelles Crepes Suzette a la Chez Panisse

Comte cheese souffle with rocket salad

Dungeness crab risotto with sea urchin and herbs

Grilled duck breast in mulberry sauce with artichokes and chanterelle mushrooms

Crepes Suzette a la Chez Panisse

"Life: sometimes you're the windshield. Sometimes, you're the bug." -- Torraine Williams

Yesterday sucked like a Hoover, for lack of a better term. And in the above windshield/bug analogy, I was definitely the bug.

To kick things off, I was still aching like Hulk Hogan (in his prime) came at me from off the top rope. [yes, I"m showing my age]

Then, after peeling more blasted artichokes, I got an artichoke "splinter" while doing so (artichokes occasionally have these needle-like projections on the very tips of their leaves, similar to those of a cactus, but much smaller and softer). Freakin' artichokes.

Then I picked crabs (which wasn't bad), but as anyone who's ever eaten a whole crab knows, cuts are inevitable from the broken shell. I'm tired of going into the first aid cabinet for band-aids.

The finale to my evening was my poor attempt at fabricating rack of lamb. I was just not comprehending the chef's instructions, despite repeated instructions, to the point that he got frustrated and sent me upstairs to pick more crab. *sigh*

Which leads to my current crisis of faith: why the f*** am I here?

I've had this thought before, of course, when I was at school. My culinary goals seem to be completely at odds with the school (and, to an extent, externship) curriculum: which is to basically be trained to own and/or operate a fine dining establishment. McDonald's wannabees need not apply.

But that's not what I want to do. I knew that before I even set foot on CIA's campus. I'm a do-gooder, all about nonprofits and serving the community, and using my skills to that end. In the kitchen, I actually like peeling vegetables and just watching people cook and create, asking why they chose this oil or that herb. It's the butchering that is taking me out of my happy place. I am not the current intern (the one leaving soon), nor am I the previous one. I'm a different personality and it shouldn't be assumed that I'm just like them. I'm not a widget.

Plus, this is a physically demanding job. I'm up to 600mg of Motrin per dose now. *sigh* This is a young person's game, for real.

Speaking of which...perhaps I'm also too jaded to fully appreciate things. I'm at an age where I'm no longer affected by hype, but that also means that I don't really get overly excited about some things (my passion remains for my writing and service--and no, I don't want to do food writing). Sometimes I envy younger co-workers for still having that spark, a spark that has not yet been diminished by simply living.

On a positive note: Alice Waters spoke to me yesterday!! :D She was hanging out in the kitchen, and I was picking crab. She walked by, nudged me in the shoulder and said, "Ah, picking crab." I smiled, she smiled and went on about her business. The one bright spot in an otherwise crappy day.

(okay, it may not seem like a big deal to you, but I"m an intern and therefore invisible. It's a BIG DEAL to me.).

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.

T.

Out On a (Chicken) Limb

Dinner 01-05-10 ($75/person)

Warm endive salad with artichoke, farm egg, and Parmesan cheese House-made spaghetti with clams, pancetta, and green garlic
Grilled Dexter beef with marrow butter, potato and black olive puree, and winter greens
Pink Lady apple puff pastry tartlet with vanilla bean ice cream

Warm endive salad with artichoke, farm egg, Parmesan cheese

House-made spaghetti with clams, pancetta, and green garlic

Grilled Dexter beef with marrow butter, potato and black olive puree, winter greens

Pink Lady apple tartlet with vanilla bean ice cream

Well...yesterday marked my first week at Chez Panisse. Granted, I was off for three days of that week, but I worked enough to make up for them. :D

Coming back after days off is never easy...as I write this, I am struggling to wake up and get it together (aided by a nice, big, strong mug of Irish Breakfast tea). I woke up with everything aching and it was all I could do to just lay in bed like a beached fish. *sigh*

(note to self: pop some Tylenol)

Yesterday was more artichokes *sigh*, and peeling potatoes, carrots, and vast and sundry other vegetables. There was a lot of stock-making going on, so I did a lot of mirepoix (a specific trinity of carrots, celery, and onions used to make stocks; it adds flavor), with the addition of fennel (a member of the onion family that smells like licorice) and sometimes leeks.

Of course, there was the daily butchering: duck breasts for tomorrow's (now today's) menu, and chickens for stock. The duck wasn't that bad, but the main thing was to get rid of excess fat. In case you didn't know, duck is an extremely fatty bird and we had to get up under the skin and scrape off whole plugs of fat. This fat is saved and later melted down to use in other dishes (ever had potatoes fried in duck fat? GLORY!!)

The chickens, though...usually, we make stock from any bones that are still around. However, since chicken (or any poultry) bones have been used up by now, we had to get some from the source: the whole chicken. We saved the legs, thighs, and breasts for later use, and the carcasses and feet were used for stock. I think we butchered about 20 or so chickens. It was while doing so that I began to think that maybe I was in over my head at Chez Panisse. I am not a butcher, never wanted to be a butcher, preferring to get my meats nicely wrapped in plastic wrap (or wrapped in butcher paper) and stored in a refrigerated, glass-enclosed case. :D GEtting up close and personal with dead, refrigerated animals is...an experience. It's also a bit daunting because the previous two interns LOVED to butcher. Oh well...I've always been different, so why should now be anything new? :D I am learning to butcher well, though it will take me longer than them because I don't have that passion for butchering. Still, I feel like I'm that kid on the short yellow school bus.

It's at this point that I do express some disappointment in my culinary education to date. We have to take a meat identification and fabrication course; it's a 7-day course, and we take it early in our curriculum. The class fabricates meat for the production kitchens of the school...which means that by the time you get to those kitchens, you don't really have to do anything to meat because it's already done...including trussing roasts. So unlike those who work meat on a regular basis, I haven't broken down a pork loin or deboned a chicken since JUNE 2009. It's a classic case of use it or lose it, and I'm praying my "it" will find its way home soon, or else I'm SOL. I'm not so bad with poultry, but red meat is more of a struggle (at least I can see the different parts of a chicken; all red meat looks pretty much the same to me, once it's opened up).

Anyway...I'll cut this post fairly short so that I can get ready to go. Thanks for stopping by, and see you later.

T.

Deez (Chest)Nuts

Author's note: I finally remembered to bring my camera, so that I can add pictures of the daily menus! :D -- TMD

Dinner 01-02-10 ($95/person)

Levant Toast with Duck Rillette and Radishes
Maine lobster and scallop salad with avocado and grapefruit
Ricotta gnocchi with artichokes and olio nuovo
Grilled quail with chestnut and chanterelle stuffing, potatoes, and mixed greens
Tiramisu

Maine lobster and scallop salad with avocados and grapefruit
(staff portion)

Grilled quail with chestnut and chanterelle stuffing, potatoes, and mixed greens

Maine lobster and scallop salad (individual portion)

Tiramisu

Saturdays are at a bit slower pace...or maybe it's the people that worked last night that brought a more calm energy to the place. I don't know. There were over 100 reservations for dinner, so the joint was jumping, but it seemed like a regular night to me. :D

Anyway...more artichokes today! I'll have to get used to them, since they are in season and Chez Panisse is all about creating a daily menu from seasonal fruits and vegetables. At least they were the bigger artichokes and weren't so labor intensive to prepare (I just helped peel them today). I still maintain that there is a special circle of Hell reserved for whoever planted the first artichoke seed, because of all the drama that goes into preparing them to be edible.

All that pretty green spiky skin? Can't eat it...it's too fibrous and tough, even after cooking for a long time (they're better as a food decoration). So you have to pull off all those overlapping leaves until you get down to the paler green/yellowish leaves, which are tender and better to eat after cooking. Which means that whenever you buy an artichoke, you're throwing out about 50-60% of it. Kind of makes you think twice, unless you love artichokes that much.

But I have to give the executive chefs at Chez Panisse props...I mean, they have to create different menus for each day, based on the same available ingredients. Kind of reminds me of Bubba, Forrest Gump's best friend in the movie Forrest Gump. Bubba came from a shrimping family and once broke down the many ways shrimp can be prepared: "boiled shrimp, fried shrimp...shrimp fricassee..." That's how I feel about the thought going into trying to make one particular item (like artichokes) different every night, so that people don't feel cheated out of the money they're spending for dinner. Especially when that item (like artichokes) don't lend too many preparation choices.

But that's why they get paid the big bucks. :D

One of my duties last night, in addition to peeling artichokes and cutting potatoes, was to help peel chestnuts for the quail stuffing. Now, chestnuts are another (unknowingly) drama-filled produce item. Not only do you have to peel off the hard outside skin, but there is also a second, light brown skin on the inside that must be removed before eating. So unless you hook your knife just right underneath the outer skin, you have some peeling awaiting you to get to the tender, pale meat of the nut.

(Fine dining = food drama = high prices. But the end results are usually worth it. But I digress.)

Anyway...after the chestnuts are peeled (hint: heat the chestnuts to almost boiling for easier peeling), they were soaked in milk to add a bit of sweetness. This milk can later be saved and used in different ways to add that chestnut flavor: add to hot chocolate, smoothies or milkshakes; add to soups and sauces; even heat and drink on its own (the staff got to drink some, with an added dollop of chestnut honey. YUM!).

Then I was off to clean chanterelles. Chanterelle mushrooms (one of my favorite types of mushrooms) are these yellow mushrooms that have an almost chicken-type flavor. Anyway, like most produce at Chez Panisse, it is live and direct from the ground: as in, pulled from the ground, put in a crate, and driven to the restaurant's door. None of that sanitized, hit-with-the-timed-overhead-spray-of-water, grocery-store produce! I can't begin to count how many roly-polys, ladybugs, and snails I have removed from produce in my first week there. Which is why it's important to ALWAYS WASH YOUR PRODUCE BEFORE EATING, the dirt notwithstanding. But I digress.

This particular batch of chanterelles seemed to be bathed in dirt. Like someone picked them from the ground, turned them upside down, and gave them another dip in the dirt for good measure. You usually can't wash mushrooms like you can other vegetables, via some sort of immersion in water. They are 90% water themselves, so adding more water isn't going to be good for a finished product (think of what happens when water meets hot oil, then think of what might happen when sauteeing water-logged mushrooms. Or the texture of a water-logged mushroom. Exactly.). Mushrooms usually have to be cleaned with a brush (a small paintbrush or pastry brush will do), and you can use SMALL amounts of water to spot-treat any stubborn clods of dirt. Still...even after brushing and brushing and spot treating and spot treating, the chanterelles weren't the brighter golden yellow that I preferred...but they were better than what they were. Some were used to prepare the vegetarian meals, while others were used for the nightly centerpiece (which usually ties in some item that is featured on the menu).

Romanesco cauliflower and chanterelle mushrooms

(note to self: next time you're told to get some chanterelles out of the walk-in and clean them, try to grab the not-so-dirty ones!)

(for the uninformed: a walk-in is shorthand for a walk-in refrigerator...kind of like a walk-in closet. :D)

I also peeled the "feet" off scallops, for the salad. The "feet" are the muscles that attach scallops to their shells. They're kind of tough and not very appetizing. That took a minute since the scallops used were bay scallops (the small ones), not sea scallops (the BIG ones). They must be kept on ice until used (which is true for all seafood and meat).

Saturday nights are also clean-out-the-walk-in nights: since the restaurant is closed on Sundays, everything that can't be used by the upstairs cafe staff (since they cook lunch) or can't survive until Tuesday, gets either thrown out or offered to staff to take home. I was privileged to get to take home some scallops and a cooked lobster (who has been dubbed "Fred", and may end up in a risotto).

"Fred"

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off till Tuesday, so see you Wednesday!

T.

Setting off the New Year, CP style

Dinner Menu 12-31-09 ($175/person)
An aperitif and hors d'oeuvre (fois gras w/ truffles and Champagne)
Smoked black cod and salmon salad with steelhead caviar
Dungeness crab consomme with wild mushrooms
Roulade of squab breast with duck mousse and pommes Anna w/ artichokes
Bittersweet chocolate souffle with Grand Marnier creme Anglaise

Happy New Year, y'all! Chez Panisse is closed today for the New Year, so I am resting my legs while I recount yesterday's affairs.

Yesterday was just CRAZY at Chez Panisse. The annual New Years Eve dinner is, of course, the crown of achievement for the whole year, so it has to be spectacular...and each year's meal needs to be better than the last.

Even though seating was half an hour later, and there was a longer period between the first (6 pm) and second (9:30 pm) seatings, there was still so much to do; mainly because there was so much detail in the NYE dinner...even moreso than an everyday dinner.

We peeled more artichokes (which have to be one of the dirtiest vegetables on the planet, requiring one to scrub one's hands vigorously with a Brillo pad or pumice stone to get the dirt out of your skin!), and I was tasked with trimming and cutting small carrots (not baby carrots, like you buy peeled in a bag in the store; these are actually midget carrots, in varying shades of orange, yellow, white, and even an orange with purple stripes!). For dinner, I got to cut up turnips (long ones, round ones; big ones, small ones; white ones, red ones, brown ones, yellow ones).

Then we helped assemble the squab for the main course (yep, got to see those squab breasts again, up close and personal). I really hope people enjoyed it (we didn't get to eat any for dinner due to the limited quantities...DRAT!), because it was a lot involved in assembling those things: putting the duck mousse on the breasts; wrapping them in chard leaves; doing a standard breading (egg wash, flour, more egg wash, bread crumbs) and praying that they didn't fall apart when being fried. All this x 110 servings. Yep.

Good thing that the evening was so festive. :D We were given complimentary glasses of a delicious rosé wine, and dinner included both Sancerre (a white wine) and a Zinfandel (the regular red one, not white Zinfandel). And, we got to snack on an assortment of cheeses (including one that came wrapped in a Savoy cabbage...very interesting) and freshly-baked breads (including a cinnamon roll made with golden raisins). YUM!

Staff dinner was everything on the menu except the crab consomme (DRAT! x 2) and the squab (we had beef tenderloin instead...it was still good!). The salmon and steelhead caviar salad was EXCELLENT. That was my first time having high-quality caviar (we tried different kinds at school but, like most things, they pale in comparison to what is served at CP) and man...while I probably wouldn't snack on it regularly, it was good in a dish like a salad, and just enough for me, portion-wise. I may have missed out on the chocolate souffle, but I did get a rather delicious duo of homemade pear sorbet and huckleberry sorbet, on a bed of huckleberry sauce. YEAH!

The rest of the evening was spent assembling squab for the second seating; prepping the quail for Saturday (since we are closed today); starting the creme fraiche (2-day process, remember?) and just cleaning and assisting where necessary.

I left about an hour later than usual so that I could get to the buses on my side of the world on time...and ended up stuck on the BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit: the subway of the Bay Area] when the New Year rolled in (who thought it was a good idea to put a train out of service due to unexpected schedule changes? Not me!).

At least my wait was entertaining. :D I got to inhale the smoke from the people getting blunted on the train (No smoking on the train? HA!). Plus, a gentleman at the stop where we were forced to disembark was rolling his own fattie (from the odor of his fresh weed, I'd surmise that he may have had a very good grade of it. But I'm nowhere near an expert on cannabis.). And two young women were mixing Courvosiers and Cokes while waiting for the next train. And women with healthy curves squeezed themselves into outfits 2 sizes too small, and boots (which apparently is the style here). And how could I forget the guy in the Bengal tiger-patterned faux fur/velveteen pants (like those that wrestlers, or MC Hammer, used to wear), with the half-braided/half-poofy Mohawk (like AJ from BET's 106 & Park used to wear, but different), who was riding a bike? Dude's hair was kinkier than mine! But he was stylin' and profilin'...I ain't even mad. Gotta love Oakland on NYE.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the start of your New Year! See you in a couple of days.

T.