I got moved to saute

[Boondocker]

hooray, no more dealing with kiddie meals and burgers along with all the other dinner stuff

[thombrogan]

Congrats!

[kamkazmoto]

Congratulations. I know that you will enjoy your new position.

[blwchef]

Good for you. What kind of place are you in?

[Rob Babcock]

hooray, no more dealing with kiddie meals and burgers along with all the other dinner stuff

Congrats! Although I really enjoy broiling, sautee is really my "specialty." What kind of place are you working?

[Fred]

Hope you got a raise at the same time!

[kcma]

my favorite position is always doing the dishs. it's so therapeutic :) i'm sure brandon would back me on this one. after having worked all the stations restaurants have, dish station is my favorite.

[Rob Babcock]

Hey, if I could make the same money workin' dish you'd never get me outta the dishroom!:D But no one seems to wanna pay me the same.;)

[kcma]

hehe, yeh. but no, it's not even about the money. there is something so soothing about doing dishes in the middle of service. it's something i really appreciate in a caotic day :)

[blwchef]

yeh, dishes are zen. I find butchering to be that way too.

[kcma]

yeh, dishes are zen. I find butchering to be that way too.

i'm with you there. but you can't really do much butchering in the middle of service :p dishes you can whenever your dishwasher walks out, or got drunk :D

but yeh, i love working in the morning. me and all the fish and meat. stocks and sauces. a whole team of hispanic cooks who are talking to each other in spanish :p i have no idea what they're saying, but i know they are talking about me :D

[Boondocker]

I work at a country club in northern MN http://www.northlandcountryclub.com

not really a great culinary area, but my sous chef has great experience. He used to be the sous chef at Charlie Trotter's place :)

[kcma]

then he must know David Lafever my old chef :) he was the chef de cuisine for trotter for many years. see, small world!!

[Rob Babcock]

yeh, dishes are zen. I find butchering to be that way too.

+1. I love cutting meat, but sadly I don't do any of the meatcutting where I am now. The owner prefers to do it all himself.

[kcma]

+1. I love cutting meat, but sadly I don't do any of the meatcutting where I am now. The owner prefers to do it all himself.

it's a previledge/responsbility when you have more experience :)

[Boondocker]

+1. I love cutting meat, but sadly I don't do any of the meatcutting where I am now. The owner prefers to do it all himself.

He keeps trying to teach me how to butcher meat, but when i was on grill I never had enough time to prep and learn how at the same time. Maybe now when i have low prep days i can convince him to teach me to do stuff instead of coming in later..

[kcma]

or REALLY push yourself :) before i was at providence. if you give me the prep list and tell me that i have 2 hours to get it all ready. i'd say no way. but it's just a natural progression. you get better and better and it gets easier and easier. i'm working 2 jobs now because 1 got boring :p

[Rob Babcock]

it's a previledge/responsbility when you have more experience :)

Unfortunately he's not really all expert at it; he's just a micromanager. He grew up in a Mom-n-Pop and never really learned, just did it however he did it. His weights vary by 25%-30% per steak; his filets are pretty rough (no distinction between where he's cutting on the loin and what he's doing with it); he leaves much more fat on that you normally expect; when cutting 'Yorks he doesn't grind the "scar", he just serves it (even for mid rare!:eek: ); the menu says "center cut sirloins" but his aren't...etc etc...

The Chef & I are both much more skilled. Just goes to show that having 40 years of experience doesn't mean much if you just keep doing the same stuff wrong for 40 years!;) Still, I respect that it's his place. And frankly I'm cool with him doing it. I cut all the meat at my last gig and while I enjoy it, I'm fine with just walking in, doing the prep, rocking the line and walking out.:D

[kcma]

ahhhh :) i learned not to vonlunteer my mad chive skill at my new jobs :p i've cut chive every single day for my last 2 jobs. and butchering fish will be something i'll do for the rest of my career... i've kindda accepted that, i mean, asain guy and all :p

[Rob Babcock]

ahhhh :) i learned not to vonlunteer my mad chive skill at my new jobs :p i've cut chive every single day for my last 2 jobs. and butchering fish will be something i'll do for the rest of my career... i've kindda accepted that, i mean, asain guy and all :p

An Asian guy that can't spell "asian"?:eek: Hahaha!:D (JK!)

[kcma]

english is this asian guy's second language :D see ;)

[blwchef]

ahhhh :) . and butchering fish will be something i'll do for the rest of my career... i've kindda accepted that, i mean, asain guy and all :p

hahaha,me too

[Boondocker]

talked to him today, and he was excited to hear that I wanted to learn that stuff

[kcma]

good :) good chefs never hide ANYTHING from the cooks ;)

[Boondocker]

hes trying to get me ready to go to new york or chicago when my girlfriend graduates in the spring :)

[kcma]

it's so cute and adorable when chefs care about their cook on a personal level. most chefs don't. glad you're working on someone who's thinking about your future!

[Boondocker]

yea, i had to earn it though. He tried to break me last summer working me nearly 60-70 hrs/ week with 5 shifts each week. Now hes really pushing me on saute with this new menu, i think he knows what i can handle more than i do though.. today was though, an entirely new menu and it took me near 5 hours to be prepped up for service :\

[Rob Babcock]

yea, i had to earn it though. He tried to break me last summer working me nearly 60-70 hrs/ week with 5 shifts each week. Now hes really pushing me on saute with this new menu, i think he knows what i can handle more than i do though.. today was though, an entirely new menu and it took me near 5 hours to be prepped up for service :\

To be allowed to work 60-70 hours is an honor!:) You've arrived. I never waste that much OT on someone that hadn't earned my confidence & trust.

[kcma]

yeh, 60-70 hours and not on salary? no wayyyy!! you know that means you make more money than pretty much every sous chef in LA right?

i think you're ready for next step :p 16 hour days, 2 hour commute, and 4 hours of sleep :D

[Boondocker]

I'll wait a bit before i do those :eek:

[Boondocker]

so i got absolutely demolished the last couple nights, how do you guys keep up with so many covers in a night? Even with every dish being only 3 pans (aside from the protein and purees which i dont count really) our tickets started piling up on me :|

[kcma]

you'll get better, no worries ;) it'll be 2nd nature before you know it.

some tricks that i can share with you is... ORGANIZE! the more organize you are, the easier it is. and prep is invaluable. dont slack through it. the more ready you are the easier service is. you dont ever want to run out of anything and have to run to walk in. have everything on your station.

the other tircky thing is cooking protein. that's something you cannot mess up on. starch can be kept work, and veg is easy to cook. meat is a different story. i always have a cooling rack, no matter how crowded it is. it's absolutely essential. not for the purpose of cooling or resting, but for organizing (yes, again). always have 1 or 2 piece of protein out, tempered, ready to go. and everytime something is ordered in. grab a new piece and place it on your rack. that way,you always know what's on the board and know what pick up to expect. and you'll be doing a gazillion things i'm sure. but between order in and picking up. sear that protein, and cook it partially. and put it back on the rack. once picked up, finish cooking it. so whenever you need anyting, mid-rare NY, medium rib eye, whatever. you look around your rack and find the piece ready to go, and finish it off. that's how you make sure you never fall behind. and every chef will tell you that they rather lose a portion of fish here and there than have to refire a whole pick up. when you're in a bind, borrow a piece from another pick up and try to sell your overcook meat later.

as for temp, i shared this with herb before too. the absolute perfect medium, mid-rare is not important at all. everyone, every cook, every chef, every diner will have a different idea of what medium is. so let's talk fish first, salmon. some will want rare, that's crispy skin, hot, not cooked. some will want well, cook the hell out of it. ppl who order well want dry protein. dont insult their choice :) everything else is pretty much medium. if you have 1 table that order a mid-rare and medium. cook them in the same pan and baste the 2nd one extra 30 seconds in foaming butter, done.

same with meat. ppl who order rare wants it nicely seared/grilled but not cooked. just hot. ppl who order well wants leather. everything else is in between. what you want to absolutely avoid is sending out 2 of the same temp protein when they order something different. even if it's medium and medium rare.

now, some perfectionists will say. no way! you gotta cook every protein to the order and cook them perfectly! to that i say, NO WAY! first of all, everyone's idea of temp is different, you can't make a perfect protein for everyone. what you CAN do, as a cook, is to make them think they have the perfect protein. you cannot meet their expectation everytime, but you can make them think, "wow, this medium-rare is a bit different from mine... but this is BETTER! WOW!" and i think that's the trick to working on the hot side. organizing (yes, again...), if you can cook the whole plate perfectly, hot sauce, hot veg, hot starch. the meat/fish is right. everythign is hot, and the entire pick up is fast. they dont wait, they enjoy their food, they're happy with everything. and as long as you're pretty close to the target, you'll make them very happy.

now, multi-tasking :) dont do 1 thing at a time, it'll destroy you. stir that risotto, toss that ripini, pull butter foam off the heat, check temp. do it all at the same time and move as fast as you can. chef doesnt care, and diners certainlly will not give a crap that you over-cooked the cauliflower because your rice is burning and you haven't seared that fish yet.

you have downtime between pick up. ORGANIZE :D top everything off, make srue you're not running out of anything. you need to heat more puree, cook of more ___, do it. dont wait. you dont need anything. clean and organize again :) it'll get easier and easier and you wont even have to think about it anymore, mussle memory ;)

[Boondocker]

so last night i seriously reorganised my station and today i went in early to set up all the shit i would need tonight (1 qt pots to store my cooked misen in, seasoning pans to pull my proteins into etc.) hauled ass everywhere i went in the kitchen, went "shopping" when i went into the cooler and didnt talk to anybody. Prep was way easier, and service was a breeze. I even convinced my boss to get a half speed rack to put under our plating station because theres nowhere to put a full rack at my station.

thanks for the advice kc, its always nice getting pointers from a seasoned pro

[kcma]

glad i can help :)

i tell all the cooks i train the same thing. being a good cook is NOT about how well you can cook your steak, make your sauce, cut your _____. those are easy.

the hardest part is organizing. knowing where to keep your prep, knowing exactly what you need, knowing your orders and pick ups, and synchronizing it all. most places starts cooks in pantry. it's not the easiest station, but there's always a senior cook there to guide the new cooks. the mistake most cooks make is thinking that they're learning recipes, and learning plating. those are minor and insignificant.

recipes really dont mean anything at all, i haven't used any in years. techniques and tasting is what's important. and plating is EASY. little kids can do it. what makes a good cook good is organizing (and cleaning). knowing exactly what's going on, what you need, and where everything is :)

[Boondocker]

I just started cooking a year ago. Started on lunch and in the past couple of months have worked my way up to grill, then trained in my replacement and got moved to saute when our great saute cook moved. I'd want to try pantry once i get saute down, but our pantry is really boring. a few apps and cobb/ceasar salads. Anything cool we try to put on there doesn't sell, but the cobb salad will...

[kcma]

ahhhh, well not every restaurant executes pantry :) where i worked we do lots of raw, composed salad, and lots of terrines/cured meat and chacuteries. you can always find ways to make it interesting. but yes i hate cobb salads!

[Boondocker]

its all the members will buy off them, we had a halibut salad, a fresh spring garden greens salad with grilled escargot and a few other things that nobody would order except our sous chef's friend. buncha old people who want their steaks with baked potato's and their deep fried walleye

[kcma]

:p learn everything you can, and then move to another spot where you'll learn more skills :)

[Boondocker]

planning on sticking around till next spring, learning everything i can then go wherever my girlfriend gets a job and work at the best place i can

[kcma]

let me know where your'e thinking about. i'll point you somewhere if i can :)

[Boondocker]

she wants to go to chicago or new york (she's in theatre)

[kcma]

2 of the greatest culinary destination to be trained at :)

[Boondocker]

exactly, wouldn't mind going down to Miami either though the way he talks about Norman's

[kcma]

miami isn't foodie town :p talk your girlfriend into NY, Chicago, SF, LA :)

[Boondocker]

will do my best ;)