School Day 6: The Stir Fry and Roasting!

Nothing sounds more dangerous in a kitchen than a giant wok burner with focused flames roaring at its loudest sounding reminiscently close to a jet engine! In today’s class we were to make stir fried noodles using full powered wok burners and roasting whole chickens.

We were free to baste and flavor our bird with anything we liked! I decided since it was a stir-fry day I’d go with some Asian flavors, garlic ginger lime coriander, soy coriander and some kecap manis.

The stir fry was just basic hokkien noodles with chicken, cashews, capsicums and some other vegetables. We took apart the chickens ourselves one each. We dissembled the legs, wings and then the breasts to dice it all for our stir fry’s.

It was a relatively short day. Next week is Easter break so there’s no school but the week after is our big test on basic methods of cookery.

Day 85: Grand Prix Night.

ANOTHER LATE NIGHT!

I think we had even less people than Saturday night. The night dragged on forever. Though the winners from Vodafone and the lotus team did come in for a late night celebration dinner, we got out by 12:30 but it was still rather late considering I have school tomorrow!

Day 84: Dead and Gone

What an amazingly slow night for a Saturday. None of us expected a night that would drag out till 12AM! With 160 booked and a few no shows we did 130 covers with tables from the red bull team which came in at 10:30 to celebrate their poll position placement.

They are probably eating dessert as we speak. Poor pastry section =(

I have a split tomorrow and I have no idea what to expect, since the race starts at 5 will people come eat before the race or will it be dead till the night.

Day 83: Pre Grand Prix Madness.

OMG another late night! Today was my split on the pass. This time I was left to do things on my own. With nothing explained to me. I was left to fend for myself. We had some menu changes with some very new and interesting dishes.

Snails and Soft-Polenta
Barramundi and Abalone
Honey glazed brussel sprouts
Wild boars pappardelle
Clam chowder tortellini.
 
There is a few more but these are the ones that caught my eye. Especially the clam chowder which is absolutely beautiful! If you were to go Donovans’ this would be the time to go!

I managed to avoid the attention of head chef during the time on the pass which means I didn’t get yelled at which is a good thing! I braised a lot of peppers for the upcoming functions and prepped them all for the busy weekend ahead.
 
Tonight was a full house again with another late finish. But I have a Pm shift tomorrow so I can stay up a bit!

Day 82: Prime Minister and Prime Ribs.

Another super long weekend this week with school on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday off to a start on Thursday PM or so I thought.

I woke up to my phone vibrating thinking it was 3PM already. No it was in fact 11 and the caller ID was WORK! First thing that came to mind was that I got my shifts mistaken but no. I was called into work early because the pastry section was in the shit and someone had to go help.

I showered and got into work at 12 and to my surprise my 1st docket was for our EX-Prime Minister John Howard. His VIP table of 3 only ordered some Oysters and a Rocket salad from larder, better than nothing I guess. I can now say I shucked oysters from our Ex-PM

We finished late last night though it was good service, nice and spread out. A lot for dinner 170 and a few race teams in from the Grand Prix.

School Day 5: Doughnuts and Steak!

As I said last week, this week we covered, theory of deep frying, baking and grilling. It was the same format as last week. Firstly the theory on the methods, then we were handed our recipes.

Doughnuts and steak sandwich with our own non fail bread dough recipe.
Personally my doughnuts weren’t as sweet as I’d liked them to be but it was interesting to make them for the first time and watch as the dough expanded and turned into those fluffy balls of pillow-y sugar.

I found that forming the smooth texture of the product was very important because as they fry they enlarge and all the marks become much more visible.



Doughnuts
250g strong flour
Pinch of salt
30g butter
5g dried yeast
30g sugar
125ml warm milk
½ egg

1. Sift flour and salt and rub butter into flour till a bread crumb like consistency
2. Make a well in the center of the flour and place yeast and sugar and pour in some blood temperature milk into the yeast.
3. Beat the egg into the remaining milk and add it into the mix.
4. Kneed the dough till its smooth and elastic
5. Place it in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth till size doubles.
6. Knock the dough back and divide the dough into 50g portions and roll them into balls or rings. Allow them to double in size again.
7. Heat oil till its 175 degrees and cook each side for 2 mins.
8. Drain the doughnuts and roll them in cinnamon sugar. ( the doughnuts should feel light and airy before you remove them from the oil)    

Day 79 - 81: Coolroom Chaos!

Wow what a hectic week with 1 out of Larder we all covered the spare shifts on a week where there was 160 every night. Hopefully things will begin to die down again after the Grand Prix.

Having such busy nights and the “through the back door event” threw off our prep, to make it worse we had trouble with our main service fridge which stopped working meaning we all had to move our prep to the cool room at the back which was another extra 20 or so steps and that counts! Every second counts during service.

I volunteered to go in and work on my day off on Friday because the prep list was massive and without a 3rd person it was impossible. So there goes ¼ of my weekend.

Day 78 - 79: Donovans' Through The Back Door.

For the food and wine festival, Donovans‘ does a event called through the back door, which our head chef takes groups of guests through the restaurant and shows them around the kitchen and around some popular Italian ingredients which we use at Donovans’ and finally teaches them how to make some pasta.  

For me it was a bit strange having people come up to us while we worked and observed what we did during a busy service. But it was a fun two days. Our pass turned into a alter of fresh produce!

It also brought a very busy Tuesday and Wednesday night over 160+.

It also seems that my arrogant little friend who has been giving me trouble has been let go as of today! And ill be covering his shifts.

School Day 4: Poaching and Boiling!

Back from the Labour Day break last week to attend school day 4, continuing to learn the basic methods of cookery. This week it’s boiling/blanching and poaching. As always theory in the morning starting with water temperatures required for both techniques a little on the soups and stocks module. Then it was off to the kitchen.

The 2 recipes to learnt today were a Chorizo and Fresh Herb Napoli with Penne and Eggs Benedict with focus on Hollandaise Sauce. Being a huge breakfast fan I was over the moon. I was very excited to be making a breakfast dish even though it was simple.

Basic structure when we are in the kitchen is to read our recipe, gather ingredients, and do the prep. Get the demonstration by the teacher then finish and show the product.
 
We started the Napoli Sauce first which we cooked for 2 hours, whilst the sauce reduced we started on the Eggs Benedict. I cooked a side of sautéed mushrooms and cherry tomatoes because I LOVE eating breakfast.

After our break we finished the pasta dish cleaned up and went home. next week should be fun with Baking,Roasting and Grilling.

Day 77: Is he all talk?

The weather is absolutely amazing these few days. Today there was 3 of us in Larder me and the 2 new guys. The new apprentice from Sydney. The one who has been mouthing off and acting very arrogantly was put to the test. to see if he was all talk or if he could actually walk the walk.

Well to no surprise of ours it was an EPIC FAIL on his behalf hopefully now he has some sense knocked back into him and he will drop the attitude and be willing to learn instead of answering back and acting like a smartass.

School Tomorrow SCORE!

Day 75-76: Gwrrr!

This change of shifts to regulate our 38 standard hours are putting me off my game. I came up late twice on both days I work and I’ve talked much harder days. I mean I think its because of these shifts that aren’t really constant anymore. I mean I went from having 2 to 3 split shifts a week to having all morning shifts this week.

I could be just run down and need a break but I basically have 3 days off a week.  I don’t think I need a break at all.

Custard Crusade: Le Croissant!

Went on a custard crusade the other day. My girlfriend has a unnatural love for custard. So I decided to surprise her with a trip to what the Epicure said was the best Vanilla slice in Melbourne.

Tucked away on Toorak road, there’s a small bakery that has been around for 40 years. My parents used to come here apparently when they were dating. Some of you may have heard of this place but it’s our first visit and it won’t be our last.

The shop front! The great treats await inside.


Custard Cone MMmmM

Vanilla Slice, Mini Croquembouche and Lemon Tart.

Address: 1204 Toorak Rd, Camberwell. Vic 3124
Open: Wednesday - Sunday
Phone: (03) 9809263

Day 74: Wow Pastry.

I got into work for a PM shift on Tuesday after Labour day. To my surprise there was 4 kilos of unrolled sour cream pastry that had been made that had not been rolled yet. I could have sworn that someone told me last week we had just rolled out 120 for this week. But oh well. We sell a lot of them so it ok i guess.

The grand total comes to 376 that’s a lot of sun-dried tomato tart tartans. We sell a lot so it will be good to know I can just make them whenever we run out without having to re-roll more pastry.

Day 73: Pre-Labour Day Pains

Silly me thinking it was going to be a easy Sunday split because we had a slow lunch. After my break I came back confident of a hard nights work, but by the time it was 7:30 I had lost all hope that anyone would actually come eat because of this crazy weather.

This is probably why it hurt so much more when 8-9:30 was packed with 120 all at once. I barely scraped through without messing up, and due to the rush my paranoia kicked in making me doubt myself that I pinned a docked which had mains to order.

Turns out in the end I had nothing much on mains the whole night only a lot of oysters for entrees.

Also guess what I'm no longer required to work on Labour day for public holiday rates looks like tomorrow is a day off. 

Day 72: Record Attempt!

Almost a record, last night we attempted to break our Thursday night record which sits at 168, but even with full house plus walk-ins. We met just the standing record.

Service was spread out nicely and everything ran relatively smoothly. I managed not to get noticed by head chef who does a split shift on Thursdays whilst working with our other new member of the Donovans family, a 22 yr old apprentice from Sydney with a bad attitude, though we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things we did a good service.

Day 71: Ricotta Fritters and Arancini Arm Ache

Well a ½ day on the pass. I got in just before 9. I started off by cleaning 12 crabs, then off to finely chop some onion celery and carrots for my Mushroom Arancini balls for the function on Thursday and Friday nights.

There were 3 recipes for me to make but with my lack of knife skills and inexperience I managed to successfully make the delicious and fluffy Ricotta Fritters and prep up on the Sicilian egg plant salad. Before I ran out of time and had to set up and finish rolling and crumbing all the fried stuff that would be on the 4 taste menu in the next few days.

I think I rolled and crumbed over 100 items today and boy did my hands get dirty! Today I saw all the duties that were on the people who worked on the pass, as well as having to look after everyone in the different sections and plate food.   

Well anyway here is the Recipe.  Enjoy

Savory Ricotta Fritters

1 cup Ricotta
1⁄3 cup Parmesan
3 tsp. finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
1⁄2 tsp. grated lemon zest
1⁄8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
6 eggs
1 cup Milk
1⁄4 cup Flour
1 cup dried bread crumbs
Canola oil, for frying

1) In large bowl stir together ricotta, 4 eggs, flour, lemon zest and nutmeg, until mix forms are wet dough like consistency.

2) In a separate bowl mix together dried bread crumbs, chopped parsley and parmesan cheese, make sure the crumb mixture is consistently mixed.

3) Wisk eggs in a new bowl then add milk.

4) Season ricotta mixture with salt and peper to taste. Then begin to roll and crumb the fritters, using the keep one hand dry method. Feel free to double crumb if you have to

5) Heat enough oil to 150 degrees and begin to deep fry in batches for around 3 minutes.

6) Drain Ricotta Fritters on paper towel and serve with a wedge of lemon.

Day 70: Chiiiii

I dunno if it was busy today or if it was just coz there was someone who was sick in my section. But overall I got a lot of prep done including some for the function on Thursday. I worked with a new guy today he is a 28 yr old Vietnamese guy who everyone loves because he is small and very cheery.

Tomorrow I’m on the pass for the AM shift. Should be interesting get to learn a few more things when I get in so I can work there properly is if someone sick or away

School Day 3: Kitchen!!

Into the kitchen finally after 3 weeks of theory I get to enter where I feel at home! But not before the Occupational Health and Safety test, which turned out to be much easier than hygiene, considering I only studied 1 hour for it when I got home from the going away last night.

Today we continued and finished off the theory on Braising, Steaming and Stewing. Then we headed into the kitchen to cook up a Lamb Madras, Braised Lamb Shanks and a Steamed Fish.

Along as cooking these we learnt how to trim lamb shanks and fillet the fish. It wasn’t bad for the first day in the kitchen at school, though I received a nasty burn when a hot pan fell on my hand.

Can’t wait till next day of school.