now
somewhere in time I have lost the need to write. I don't really know where it went. Maybe it went away in the day to day of being to busy at the two restaurants...maybe it is because I don't understand the response. Or feel the need to have one anymore.
For the last eight months I have been working at two jobs...a morning one and an evening one. The evening one has been the same. Until recently. It was the so called' bbq joint'. But it was really more than barbecue. It was a local hot spot, farm to table, handmade regional cuisine, 'fancy' restaurant...which just happens to sell barbecue as one of its many items. We have a smoker that will do 1000#+ of meat at a time and runs 24 hours a day, an inferno of a wood fired grill, and a seasoned kitchen staff that can make covers fly by.
The morning one has been a variety. The bakery...and if you haven't picked up on my method of understatemnt...well...anyway. Celebrity owned scratch bakery and deli. nationally featured in text and tv and books and etc... and dram filled. There was the tex mex place....working for my friend, helping to make a stand...and then there is the fish place.....which is where I am now...and having been recently salaried and soloed...where I am now full time AMs and PMs.
The fish place....hmmm....I have never been a 'fish' guy. I mean I like sushi as much as the rest...but as to breaking down whole fish...not so much. Its a challenge.
Today...
wreckfish...one fish...35#....20 portions...from scales to cheeks...head as big as a football, with a mouth that could swallow a 2 liter bottle...
snapper...10 fish...from scales to portions
striped bass...as well
ahi...30 portions from skin to trim
redfish, whole breakdown
monkfish, tail breakdown
scottish salmon, from whole to potions...
scallops
oysters...15 kinds on any given day
rock grouper, to prep for deep frying whole
loup de mer,
clams
mussels
etc...
in the past...
whole 80# halibut
orata
pompano
trout
swordfish
moi
etc...
Can you believe I spent two years in Hawaii and never cut more than frozen sides of mahi or fillets of snappers and tune loins...admittedly, I can cut a wicked tuna now, but...still. I had never cooked Hawaiian moi...until here...next week we are getting opah and moana....I have learned so much about cutting fish in the last two months...and I am still getting new experiences daily...I mean how do you tackle a 35# wreck fish...that is 12 inches thick....and I am nowhere in the league of the exec before...who had been cutting daily for the last 8 months...but soon...
its a whole new ball game...and a whole new world to suddenly be in charge of...yes, in charge of. Brigade of 15 misfit cooks and dishwashers, skilled and unskilled, an exec chef above, a sous chef under, two owners, a past that includes a fired exec who yelled and screamed, an ineffectual sous who was the opposite, a patio which seats half the restaurant's capacity and is hot or cold depeninding on the weather, a menu style that is currently inconclusive...and well...
We have turned the morale corner at least...the dead wight is leaving; the new blood is excited, the FOH is happy we are here(me and the new exec), and the kitchen is getting deep cleaned and organized and stocked and emptied.
Amidst all that is still the day to day that Sarah talks about, the coaching the teaching, the ordering the receiving, the trashing the prepping, the cutting, the cooking , the cleaning, etc...
And so writing is no longer a release...because I no longer need one...I have too much other stuff to do....and to learn, and to take care of.
But maybe...more later....
For the last eight months I have been working at two jobs...a morning one and an evening one. The evening one has been the same. Until recently. It was the so called' bbq joint'. But it was really more than barbecue. It was a local hot spot, farm to table, handmade regional cuisine, 'fancy' restaurant...which just happens to sell barbecue as one of its many items. We have a smoker that will do 1000#+ of meat at a time and runs 24 hours a day, an inferno of a wood fired grill, and a seasoned kitchen staff that can make covers fly by.
The morning one has been a variety. The bakery...and if you haven't picked up on my method of understatemnt...well...anyway. Celebrity owned scratch bakery and deli. nationally featured in text and tv and books and etc... and dram filled. There was the tex mex place....working for my friend, helping to make a stand...and then there is the fish place.....which is where I am now...and having been recently salaried and soloed...where I am now full time AMs and PMs.
The fish place....hmmm....I have never been a 'fish' guy. I mean I like sushi as much as the rest...but as to breaking down whole fish...not so much. Its a challenge.
Today...
wreckfish...one fish...35#....20 portions...from scales to cheeks...head as big as a football, with a mouth that could swallow a 2 liter bottle...
snapper...10 fish...from scales to portions
striped bass...as well
ahi...30 portions from skin to trim
redfish, whole breakdown
monkfish, tail breakdown
scottish salmon, from whole to potions...
scallops
oysters...15 kinds on any given day
rock grouper, to prep for deep frying whole
loup de mer,
clams
mussels
etc...
in the past...
whole 80# halibut
orata
pompano
trout
swordfish
moi
etc...
Can you believe I spent two years in Hawaii and never cut more than frozen sides of mahi or fillets of snappers and tune loins...admittedly, I can cut a wicked tuna now, but...still. I had never cooked Hawaiian moi...until here...next week we are getting opah and moana....I have learned so much about cutting fish in the last two months...and I am still getting new experiences daily...I mean how do you tackle a 35# wreck fish...that is 12 inches thick....and I am nowhere in the league of the exec before...who had been cutting daily for the last 8 months...but soon...
its a whole new ball game...and a whole new world to suddenly be in charge of...yes, in charge of. Brigade of 15 misfit cooks and dishwashers, skilled and unskilled, an exec chef above, a sous chef under, two owners, a past that includes a fired exec who yelled and screamed, an ineffectual sous who was the opposite, a patio which seats half the restaurant's capacity and is hot or cold depeninding on the weather, a menu style that is currently inconclusive...and well...
We have turned the morale corner at least...the dead wight is leaving; the new blood is excited, the FOH is happy we are here(me and the new exec), and the kitchen is getting deep cleaned and organized and stocked and emptied.
Amidst all that is still the day to day that Sarah talks about, the coaching the teaching, the ordering the receiving, the trashing the prepping, the cutting, the cooking , the cleaning, etc...
And so writing is no longer a release...because I no longer need one...I have too much other stuff to do....and to learn, and to take care of.
But maybe...more later....
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