Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My First Solo Gig

3:45pm, Thursday, June 25.

I arrive at 350 Park Ave, 8th flr, a bit early for my first solo gig. The admin in charge meets me at reception and shows me to the kitchen. It's an office kitchen not unlike the kitchen in The Office. Equipped with a toaster oven, microwave, coffee machine and fridge, this will be my kitchen for the evening and in it I am to make a 3 course plated dinner for 12 executives.

The Captain arrives 15 minutes later and chats cheerfully with the admin. When she leaves, he whispers (not so cheerfully), "We're in trouble." Turns out this particular catering company had four other gigs the same evening, all occurring simultaneously in Manhattan, and hired only one driver. So the equipment and food are still en route ... or not, no one seems to know. We wait an hour and a half for the driver. It isn't until 6pm that my kitchen is finally set up and I'm able to start cooking. With a 7pm service time, we're seriously cutting it close.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the menu


First Course
Mixed Field Greens, Pomegranate Seeds, Toasted Pine Nuts and Asiago Cheese with an Aged Balsamic Dressing served with Fire Grilled Shrimp with Three Sauces - Wasabi Aioli, Thai-Basil and Chipotle Garlic

Second Course, choice of

Polenta Crusted Sea Bass with Corn and Tomatillo Salsa

or

Pepper Crusted Filet of Beef with Mushroom Demi Glace

both served with
Grilled Asparagus and Scallion Mashed Red Bliss Potatoes

Third Course
Assortment of Fruit Tarts, Petit Fours and After Dinner Cookies

Rasberry Daquoise and Lemon Tart

Fresh Berries with Whipped Cream


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Food goes out hot and plates come back empty, which is a good sign. Once in a while an office worker, smelling the air, would wander into the kitchen. We make a nice plate of leftovers for the hard working non-executives still hanging around after 9pm.


As we clean and pack up, the Captain tells me he's worked with this client in the past and his team had previously been tipped $400! I'll have to wait for next week's paycheck to find out, but let's hope the current economic climate does not dampen their generosity.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Nobu ND Station Three - Wok: Hot Food Foxhole

Wok was my first hot station in the line of four - Wok, Grill, Tempura (Fry) and Omakase (Chef's Tasting). It easily became my favorite because of the fast turn over of these quickly sauteed dishes. Food meets ticket almost instantaneously.

Wok Station
Miso Soup
Aka Miso Soup
Clear Soup
Spicy Seafood Soup
Sea Bass Black Bean
Sea Bass Enoki
Sea Bass Dry Miso

Artic Char Inaniwa
Squid Pasta
Mushroom Salad
Shrimp & Lobster Salad
Lobster Wasabi Pepper
Lobster Black Bean
Creamy Spicy Crab
Whole Fish Special

A typical day on Wok starts by boiling several large bains of water for all the dashi-based soups and sauces. While these bubble away, the station is prepped - proteins fabricated, vegetables cut, and oils, sake, mirin, and soy sauce bottles refilled. Service on Wok requires a lot of movement and juggling of multiple tickets. There's no time to idle when you have two saute pans on the fire, a whole fish in the steamer, crab in the sally, and six miso soups about to boil over. But it's all in good fun and helps make the night go by quickly.

Another reason why I favored this station was due to the close kitchen camaraderie that was formed. Most stations are performed alone with little help or input from anyone else.
The Wok and the Omakase stations work closely together to get food out. When Wok is slammed with a dozen different dishes, Omakase will pick up half the load. In return, when Omakase is rushing to plate for ten, Wok will jump right in. A good duo requires few words and performs what looks like a choreographed dance around each other to attend to the various foods. It's a relationship born of sweat, blood, stress and fire and is as close to a war buddy as I'll ever have.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Midtown Catering

It was a busy catering week for me. I had three gigs all in Midtown West, which is admittedly my least favorite section of Manhattan. This aversion most likely originates from previous employment in Times Square, where trying to get a quick lunch is a 45 minute ordeal - meandering through constant street congestion, standing in tourist and angry banker-filled lines, and paying twice as much as one would pay 20 blocks down. But I digress...

The first was a private cocktail party at a nightclub called Touch. Picture, if you will, a Times Square club with an hour-long wait in a line filled with loud B&Ts, doors guarded by list-wielding heavy-set bouncers, and an 18 year old hostess demanding $25 at the door and a mandatory $5 coat check. Inside you'll find stained velvet couches, 'reserved' signs on all empty tables, and $17 beers. As you might have surmised, I do not visit such clubs and could not help but laugh at the angry line as I entered quickly through the nearby employee entrance.

The party itself was pretty easy, although it still amazes me that we are expected to produce all the food out of
what looks like an old office, with only one portable grill, two toaster ovens and one working sink. But we pulled it off once again and pushed out passed hors d'Ĺ“uvres of lobster mac & cheese, mushroom risotto, chicken empanadas, and smoked duck breast, along with platters of cheese, sandwiches, and chicken satay. I left the club past midnight with the line still miles long...Did I mention this was a Tuesday night?

The next gig was a two-day CEA conference at an event space on W. 34th St, across the street from the Empire State Building. We were set up in the far back corner hidden from view by a black curtain. With a microwave and three toaster ovens, we made 2000 passed appetizers over two days, including mini-cheeseburgers, mini-mushroom pizzas, cheese puffs, shaomai, spring rolls, and lobster empanadas. Thankfully, two great chefs were with me at this event and we were able to turn over the food at lightning speed.

Next up is a very large sit-down dinner. These tend to be more interesting and exciting to work. Details to come!

Side Note: I must make business cards asap. I feel like such a novice when a client or fellow chef asks for my information and I have to scribble it down on a scrap of paper. Any suggestions on where I can order unique business cards (cheap!) are greatly appreciated!

Kosher Grilling

This past Tuesday, chef friend Shaya and I battled an early call time, relentless rain and thick fog (in June?!?) to teach another kosher cooking class at the JCC Greater Five Towns, Long Island. It was a summer grilling class, which we did on an indoor grill due to said inclement weather.

On the menu
(sorry, no pics this time)
  1. Rosemary and Garlic Grilled Chicken Breast with a Grilled Corn and Radish Salad
  2. Spice-Rubbed Grilled Skirt Steak with a Tehina and Tofu Noodle Salad
  3. Bulgar Wheat Grilled Burger with a Grilled Watermelon and Arugula Salad

The feedback was so great that they've asked us to come back for two more classes this Fall. One will be on Egyptian/Middle Eastern cuisine (Shaya's background) and the other on Japanese, for which Shaya will help me kosher-fy some of the recipes I learned from working at Nobu.

Although it does pay less, I'm really liking these culinary instructor gigs, more so than the catering. Being a back-of-the-house type, I'm surprised that I'm actually enjoying the heavy client interaction. Also, having some input on the menu is creatively more satisfying than churning out, say, 100 goat cheese-stuffed endive cups. Now if I could find a place to teach that doesn't require me to wake up at 5am...

Side Note: On my days off, I bake...

Sour Cream Apple Pie and Buttermilk Biscuits



Monday, June 1, 2009

Fish Course

Seven Course Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables prepared in Classic French Technique
FCI Final Project
April 10, 2007

Atlantic Cod in Coconut-Ginger Sauce with Upo and Star Fruit

Ingredients (4 servings)
200g Atlantic cod
1 upo (winter melon)
100ml fish stock
200ml coconut milk
1 tblsp grated ginger
1 jalapeno, remove seeds and emincee
patis (fish sauce), to taste
pepper
1 star fruit
peanut oil for deep frying
cilantro sprig

Procedure

Fish
  1. Clean, skin and debone cod. Portion into 50g per serving.
Upo
  1. Peel upo and spoon out the spongy center. Cut into 7in. x 2in. rectangles, and cut those across to form two right angle triangles (3 per serving). Poach in fish stock until tender and set aside. Keep warm.
Coconut-ginger sauce
  1. Reduce fish stock by half.
  2. Add coconut milk, ginger and jalapenos. Simmer until lightly nappant. Taste and adjust seasoning with fish sauce and pepper. Strain and keep warm.
Garnish
  1. Thinly slice star fruit (1 per serving) and deep fry in oil 350F-375F until golden. Remove and drain on paper.
  2. Pick fresh cilantro sprig and prepare very thin slices of jalapeno (4 per serving).
Finish
  1. Season and steam cod in a little fish stock.
  2. Arrange upo triangles on the bottom of a shallow bowl. Spoon on sauce.
  3. Place cod on top and spoon additional sauce.
  4. Garnish cod with fried start fruit and cilantro sprig. Garnish sauce with jalapeno slices.