Day 28 - 29. Boxing day and The Call..

Sigh I can’t even attend Boxing Day sales when it wasn’t busy at all! The day started with a lot of cleaning and clearing all the left over’s so we could get our sections back in order which took like 1 hour max. Then we found out there was only 80 booked for lunch, very quiet compared to our usual December bookings.

I found out 2 of the larder chefs had resigned which leaves two of us left. I assume we’ll be getting more in.

I had staff dinner on Boxing Day I took some left over pork chops re-heated them and then roasted off some root veggies left over from Christmas service and made a Turkey Caesar Salad also from left over’s.

Day 29! The end of the Christmas Chaos, a very relaxed day, this was my last shift before my Weekend! I had had a go at calling today, first time since I was put on cooking duty’s I barely scrapped through without any mistakes. Looks like ill be doing a lot more in the near future.

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!
Christmas Day! 7:30 start, hard work and a successful out come. All the prep and the chaos from the prep team came together and I finally understood what was going on. Christmas day service was a complete change to what we normally do, though somewhat similar to Sunday lunch but on a much bigger scale.

I got there to see a new cool room outdoor and a long line of tables extending the pass by another 5-6 meters creating a pass which was 12 meters or more in length. Stacked on were tubs and tubs of prepped root vegetables waiting to be tossed in duck fat and roasted!

We were briefed on what was going on. I was in charge of the Blini smoked salmon plates which I ended up selling 45 in the end. We made a batch 8 times the size of what we normally make.

Donovans Christmas lunch has been a long tradition with many regulars who attend every year, we have a set menu with over 6 items on each course, which included roast turkey, Carpaccio, tortellini, the signature Bombe Alaska, and trifle.
 
We ended up having around close to 300 during the day which had no hiccups. We finished at 5ish and got to go home and spend time with the family. 

Christmas Eve..

As I expected. Not too busy today, there were three of us on larder so I drew the odd jobs card again. People came in late tonight, the orders started to come in more frequently around nine.

We finished up around 10:45pm! But have to head back in at 7:30am for Christmas day lunch. I wonder how I'll handle that.

Christmas EVE EVE..

OMG! Christmas EVE EVE! It was so very busy tonight full dinner seating of 175. I really hope Christmas Eve will be not as busy. My little flat tire adventure last night plus the crazy heat today didn’t go to well with my concentration. I accidently split a decent amount of water onto hot clarified butter which exploded into flames, freaked the shit out of me!

But on the plus side I came home with a new pet. His name is Stewie he is a small yabbie which I got to take home! I plan to grow him as Homer grew pinchy!

The winds..

Back to work as my pre Christmas weekend comes to a rapid end more quickly than I'd like. My week includes 3 splits, one tomorrow, another christmas eve and on boxing day.


I have a few recipies to upload. Cooked lots during my days off. Some nice salads involving rocket and another involving corn. I'll upload them asap.

One week before hell..

It was a busy split shift on Tuesday as we approach Christmas the time table reveals that I’m working every special day as a split, with my “weekends” reverting back to Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday was so amazingly hot thank god I was not in the kitchen. After this weekend, ill get another weekend on 21^st and 22^nd. I guess this is where it begins, the hospitality industry taking its toll no public holidays and no real weekends.

 Off to do some Christmas shopping!.

Day 18: Christmas Sausage...

Having the easiest week ever! This is most likely because the hours during Christmas and New Years are going to be hell. But I’m enjoying the peace while it lasts. I helped to make a Duck, cherry and pistachio sausage today, it very festive even in the colors of the ingredients.

Whilst drying out the tomatoes for the tarts I discovered, what I found to be huge mutant of a TOMATO just as big as the bananas delivered this morning. Check out the size of this monstrosity!

Christmas Sausage Recipe...

The Easy Week..

It’s my 4th week now at Donovans. I just came from a small interview and chat with Lee Atkinson from Sofitel Culinary Academy. Found out a little more about that place. The Culinary Academy is the only one of it type in the world. It is beneath the main Sofitel complex and has approximately 80 students. They are part of the Accor Hotel group which gives them a huge buying power and are able to provide better produce for classes.

This week is a relatively easy week. Just had two splits which were day 15 and 16 they were relatively quiet, a nice break in this crazy season. Our next time table hasn’t come out yet. But I’m told we are open pretty much everyday, so no Christmas no boxing day and no new years for me. The girlfriend will NOT be impressed.

But its 4 weeks and I’m still loving it. A lot of people have been coming in and out for trials, maybe ill be joined by some more people. School starts in February on Mondays assuming I’m offered a place at Sofitel.

As for me I’m off to spend my pay and enjoy my “weekend”.

Day 13-14: Croqenbouche...

I find myself driving sleepishly to work this morning, took a shot at one of those “V” energy boost shot things, god they taste bad! Beach road was closed again! I probably should pay attention to the notice board more.

Good AM shift today saw a Croqenbouche get assembled today and also learned to use the pasta machine to roll out sour cream pastry used for the tomato tarts. This thing tasted godly, with a light lemon custard and dark rich bitter sweet toffee holding it together mmMMm. Lunch was smooth just as smooth as last night. I’m on split for the next two days, dreading it but I know that it wont be too bad.

Day 12: Sweet Chanel...

Back at work after the weekend is always painful. My mondayitis is on a Friday sigh indeed. A cake came in today, it was very.. I guess superficial. Those of you who are Chanel fans would love this.

Apparently its from a cake store across from the South Melbourne Market. Called “Let Them Eat Cake”  these guys have made the best bag cake I’ve seen, the icing was flawless, and happy birthday to the lucky girl who got this cake!!

Weekend: The Hunt for HOOKED..

The lazy day out always begins with shopping down the beloved Chapel Street, hearing of a new fish and chip place we set out on a journey to try find HOOKED! Apparently this fish and chipery is a force to be reckoned with. When flake is banned from the menu and hand cut chips fried in Australian cotton seed oil I was ready and willing to try this one out. Unfortunately we didn’t know the address and made an adventure out of it.


Later on we found out hooked was just another block up at 172 maybe next week.

Day 11: Victory x2..

Ah. The long awaited weekend. Day 10. I took on the mayonaise again today and succeeded added the oil in and all 8 liters stayed emulsified. Here's a picture no curdling for me yay! Also cleaned the dreaded grill and I think it was my best attempt ever.

Working Monday and Tuesday was nice, big change from the busy Friday and Saturdays. Things are still pretty over wheliming and the chefs were right you have to love it to do it. It's very hard work they just don't say that.

Day 10: The Staff Meal

I would have loved to have been able to take a picture of my first staff meal but I didn’t get a chance to. I made salt and pepper swordfish with XO mussels. Had a few issues, first I didn’t make enough to feed the 24ish people, which resulted in me asking the hot entrée chef to make some meatballs up. The other problem was that some didn’t eat seafood and the fact that I forgot to check made me feel pretty crappy, I thought I had all bases covered but I didn’t


I’m on again for dinner next Monday. Maybe ill go for something simpler, like a stew or something that everyone can enjoy.