School wrapped up in late November and I set off for Vegas soon after, starting at one of the major Strip hotels on December 12. I have to say that my externship so far (I've still got a month left) has been a phenomenal learning experience, and some weeks I'm exposed to so many different and exciting ideas, methods and philosophies (not to mention expensive equipment and exotic ingredients!) that sometimes I worry my head will explode. I've seen, for example, about ten different ways to make creme brulee.
Every week, I rotate to a different department in the bakery or a new restaurant, so I've done everything from buffet production (a couple thousand fruit tarts in one go, followed by equal numbers of tiramisu cups, cheesecake slices and so on) and finishing room work (dipping strawberries in chocolate, making platforms out of of chocolate for showpieces, etc) to plating desserts in some of the hotel's restaurants.
In general, it's been a terrific and positive experience, aside from the occasional personality conflict, which I've tried to handle with a calm smile (and the thought "I'll get you later, when you least expect it..."). But seriously... the staff in the bakery have been very warm and encouraging to me, as have most of the people in the restaurants. I've learned how the personality of a chef can tremendously impact the entire environment of a kitchen. My least favorite restaurant experience, for example, involved a kitchen one by an exceedingly sour and angry chef whose hateful, black-eyed glare and inability to say anything positive put the entire staff in a state of tense silence. Close to tying for last place was a restaurant run by a spiky-haired Dude who looked and acted disturbingly like Jason Bateman's dudely sportscaster character in "Dodgeball." In his kitchen, overgrown boys threw things and randomly accused each other and innocent bystanders of being "motherfuckin' faggots." Uh, yeah. That's professional. Jerks.
On the other hand, the executive chef of one of the bigger restaurants not only worked the line (instead of standing in front of his cooks, hands on his hips, scowling like the Angry Guy), but kept things calm even though the place was turning more than three times the covers (customers served) of either of the aforementioned restaurants. When chaos threatened, the chef would just say, in a loud but calm voice "Let's go, gentlemen" or "Hustle, hustle, hustle." I have a lot of respect for a head chef who is not only willing to sweat beside his cooks on the line, but also behaves like the person in charge without dissing his underlings. It's really not that hard to do (the respect thing, not working the line while simultaneously expediting -- calling out orders as they come in -- and keeping an eye on plates as they go out. Whew.).
As part of my externship, I also have to do tastings called Chef's Table. The externs (at any given time there are a half dozen of us, both pastry and culinary, floating about the hotel) are given a theme and we each have to come up with a course on our own that fits with what everyone else is doing. We serve the food to the head executive grand poobah chef and a dozen or so other invited guests, all head chefs from various parts of the hotel (which is the largest in the world and employs more than 10,000 people, nearly half in the food and beverage deparments).
For the first Chef's Table back in January, the theme was Asia and, as the only baking and pastry student at the time, I had the dessert course all to myself. I did "Dessert Dim Sum: Western Classics, Eastern Flavors" and basically took a bunch of extremely traditional French and Italian pastries and desserts, shrank them down to bite-size and changed the flavor profile to something with more of an Asian theme.
I love process (boy, how I love process!) so here's a shot of the plating in progress:
And here's a close-up of the finished product. From top, clockwise:
digestif of basil seed drink with microbasil garnish (in glass)
mini Paris-Brest with green tea, almond and sesame flavors and mulberry reduction
ginger and lemongrass napoleon (with my first ever pulled sugar garnish!! It's supposed to look like teeny purple chopsticks. It was so much fun doing it, because I find I love working with sugar... I love the danger of it (getting burnt with sugar is much worse than getting burnt with, say, boiling water, a hot sheet pan or even a blowtorch because the sugar burns through the top layers of skin and keeps going down into you, at least until you run, shrieking, to the nearest cold water source...))
mini Pithivier with purple yam filling (instead of the traditional frangipane) and jellied cream of coconut
coconut-lychee pannacotta with grass-jelly reduction and a five spice biscotti
The plating is a little rough, I know, but I think it's not a bad start. The next Chef's Table is set for this weekend, so stay tuned...
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