I had the best week cooking breakfast in the cafeteria.
The first day, I was a little nervous, especially because the chef put me on the eggs station. I had been practicing my eggs over easy on the weekend and had been able to flip a couple without breaking the yolks, so I felt as ready as I was going to be. Usually, each group has five people, so two people are supposed to be on eggs, but since we only have four people, I was on eggs by myself. Chef showed us how to set everything up for breakfast service, and then off we went. He also picked a special for us, which ended up being a frittata, something to be made on my station. Yikes. Between 7:30 and 8:50, it was somewhat busy, but not too bad. When 8:50 hit, the students arrived for breakfast, and then it was madness. Everyone after Block 2 orders eggs over easy just for fun. So I had 2 or 3 pans of eggs going at a time. It was chaos, but organized chaos. After service, chef told us that we as a group did an outstanding job, which felt really good. He also told me specifically that he thought I had natural talent. He suggested that I work in a restaurant where I can work closely with the chef because he thinks I would do really well and learn a ton in that kind of environment. It really inspired me to start looking for a better job.
We rotate stations each day, and create a new special each day, so on Tuesday, I was on the toast station, which is the easiest station. Basically, I just make toast to order and then butter it. Not very hard. But because it's easy, I helped out with eggs when the egg guy got slammed with orders. One of the students who ordered breakfast on Monday was there again on Tuesday, and he told me that I did a great job on eggs by myself the day before. Our special was pancakes with raspberry sauce, which chef really did not like because it is so similar to the regular pancakes on the menu. So he made us add bananas and chocolate chips to the batter and then whip some cream to put on top of the pancakes before service, which was pretty stressful.
Wednesday, I was on omelette station. We make them very differently at school than I do at work, so I had a hard time with them. At work, I just let the egg mixture cook out in a circle, add the toppings over one half, and then fold the other half over the toppings so you end up with a semicircle omelette. At school, we are supposed to mix the egg around, kinda like scrambled eggs, then flatten them out to set slightly, add the toppings over the whole egg, and fold it into thirds. For some reason, mine tended to stick to the bottom of the pan. I figured out later, after service of course, that I just had the heat on too high. The special was probably our best one - Mexican breakfast bowl. It was a deep fried tortilla shaped into a cup, filled with refried beans, black beans, scrambled eggs, salsa, sour cream, and green onions. It was definitely the most unique and interesting looking dish we did all week.
Thursday was a holiday, so on Friday, I was on the last station - grill. Grill is a busy station - you have to cook the bacon in the oven, grill the sausages and the hash browns on the flat top, and also make the pancakes and french toast to order. Our special was a Scottish breakfast, which chef picked for us as he's from Scotland. It was eggs sunny side up with sausages, back bacon, hash browns, baked beans, and a fried tomato. A took the day off work and came by school for breakfast. He said the special was delicious.
Next week - hot sandwich station.
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