Day seven: Salad si? Salad NO!
Posted on | May 11, 2009
Welcome to culinary school where, just like in a restaurant kitchen, the unexpected can happen any day, at any time.
Like, say, when you are in the middle of salad production.
As I was. Then, suddenly, was not.
Second term rush
Of the three terms there are in my schooling, the one I am the most excited about is this term, the second one. Why? Almost everything we are learning is precisely what I want to learn.
I mean, I made multiple hollandaise sauces. How amazing is that?
And, of all the things we are learning, one of my favorites is salads.
We are booked to have two days of salad production: Today and tomorrow.
Then the unexpected happened.
“Fast food is geared to a three- to five-year-old palate.”
~ Chef Rushmore
The big project for this term is a yield chart where we find out the yield involved in a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices.
What this entails is weighing an item, such as a head of lettuce, and noting the weight. Then you take that head of lettuce and turn it into usable pieces. In this case, you might get rid of any brown edges and the core and any leaves that are bruised. Then you weight what is leftover.
You now have your AP (as purchased) weight and your EP (edible portion) weight. Then, using these two numbers, you figure out your yield (what percentage of your item is usable).
Next, you figure out the volume of your usable product by putting it in cups or tablespoons or teaspoons or what have you.
For example, you may get six cups and three teaspoons of usable lettuce from one head.
Finally, you use the price of the lettuce to learn what it cost you per unit of volume, such as how much your lettuce costs per cup and per weight.
It’s a lot of work to figure this stuff out for tons of produce and herbs and spices. So, as usual, I was in the kitchen by 6:30 am. And I got a good start on my numbers.
So this head start plus the salads we were about to make put me in a great mood.
For now.
A salad a day …
My team was given three salads to make: A fruit salad, an artichoke salad with olives and vegetables, and an endive salad with shallots and poached eggs.
I got Stern Girl to do the fruit salad (she’s so conscientious I figured she’d do a great job with all those fussy fruit cuts), I gave Other Guy the artichoke salad to do (partially because he is not allowed anywhere near poached eggs after our breakfast live fire and partially because he is great with vinaigrettes and this salad is all about the dressing) and I took the endive salad (erm, ’cause I wanted it!).
And we were going along beautifully: Other Guy had the easiest of the three, so he finished in no time. Stern Girl was making great progress with her salad. And I, I had finished all my mise en place and was making my croutons, rendering my bacon, and just about to poach my eggs when it happened.
The Ansul system went off.
Scrub a dub, dub
Student #1 as he participated in the great kitchen clean up: “I’m payin’ to do this!”
Student #2 as he helped: Twenty thou, man.”
Student #1: “Not me. I’m payin’ twenty-eight thousand.”
Student #2: That’s tough.”
Student #1: “Yeah. Tough.”
The Ansul system is a restaurant fire suppression system. We get a fire; it goes off.
Only there was no fire.
But there was a workman. And there was a miscalculation on his part. And the liquid agent the system uses to suppress fires was released.
If you’ve been reading me for a while now then you know what problem we had: Chemical contamination. And if you think about it for a minute then you know what had to be done: Everything edible thing in that kitchen that was not protected (in a jar, say, or in a walk-in) had to be thrown away and every surface had to be scrubbed.
Can you imagine how much food was there? And how many surfaces had to be cleaned?
So every student at every table who had finished, or nearly finished, making an elaborate salad had to trash every ounce of food they had prepared.
And, to add insult to injury, we then had to scour every pot, every pan, every wall, every stove, every dish, every tin, every bowl, spoon, knife, tray, spatula, measuring cup, scale, table, rack, board, floor, sink …
So we labored until noon: Students scrubbing; chefs watching or talking or flipping through food magazines.
Then the school decided to treat the students to lunch in the school restaurant, after which we were to be sent home, without our lecture.
By now, I had been on my feet for almost six hours, scrubbing for at least half of that. I was hungry, sure, and thirsty. But, even more, I was filthy and greasy and every-so-slightly sticky with fingers that made a sickening sucking noise every time I pried them apart.
So I excused myself from lunch and came home. Where I stripped, scrubbed, drank, and ate.
I think I’ll make a salad for dinner. And get the husband to clean up afterward.
That sounds fair, doesn’t it?
Comments
5 Responses to “Day seven: Salad si? Salad NO!”
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May 11th, 2009 @ 7:24 am
What a calamity! I sure hope that never happens again.
May 11th, 2009 @ 7:43 am
That actually was a better outcome than I expected. I half expected for your instructors to say, “Well, this is the real world and in the real world you still have deadlines… get busy.” So I will say that I am glad that they did do that and at least tried to make it right.
May 11th, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
The artichoke salad was sounding so good until…
May 11th, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
Thank you for that pricing bit! Sorry for all the scrubbing, chica.
Have that salad!
…and a cocktail!
May 11th, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
well it is Monday… and mercury in retrograde… anything can happen. Sounds frustrating. We recreated the salad we learned at our central market class… soak a gala or similar type apple slices in apple vinegar 2-6 hours. Wash and trim baby spinach leaves. toss with dressing: 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar… 1/2 c. sliced strawberries… dash of sea salt and a teaspoon of sugar (@used splenda). whirled in food processor. plate dressed salad… top with toasted walnuts, dried cranberries and feta cheese. you have to get a bite of everything and don’t eat just the apple without at least a good dose of dressing to counter the tart. most unique salad I’ve had in a while.