plating, continued: sweet and savory

God it's so nice when you have someone to stock the station for you. Just. So. Nice.

I know, cause my coworkers did it for me yesterday, and then tonight I did it for another coworker. While you're all stressed out trying to get your sauces to temp and set out spreads, check your cracker situation

{What? wait?...hummm

&oh yeah, we're all working garde manger now, did I mention! the lil pastry elves, taking it over 4 nights a week and I get to kick it fairly easy on Mondays}

So, yes, yesterday was a flurry and I was nervous considering while I could plate up all the salads and apps I had not a snowball's clue in hell where/what my mise was in the walk in, how to make anything should anything need to be made

(and boy, did it, and who to do it? me...)

So. Set out salad stuff and bread, make family meal salad, try to get pastry items unwrapped, ice creams tempered, mise tasted, check quality and quantity of cut fruit, back to garde manger to make crackers, try to locate bread, oh wait that kind is all gone, make tapenade crackers, check on the candying darlings, which is to say yuzu, get salad ticket, plate, think oh I need to do inventory, wander for five minutes checking off various items and return to put cookies in their containers, plate up salads, check for the stupid cheese that tops one of the salad, invent a flour-sesame seed mixture to dip it in, refill salad greens, hunt hunt hunt for arugula and mache, ask the line cooks, yknow, what am I sposed to do with all this stuff tonight? bust out a couple dessert tickets and ease into the familiarity that comes with doing something every freakin day. then back to the newishness. Off the line, more inventory, oh shit the boss called, call the boss back, que paso? Back to the station, feel things out, check with the management team, put away the garde manger mise as best you think makes sense, clean the station, big tickets, start from scratch and clean again.

When I got home last night I watched a documentary about Enron and feel asleep far later than I should have to get up for a morning shift. Oh well. (dork, I know)

Things were good, slow but steady, a busier Monday night than we have seen of late. I puttered for hours today getting backups of fruit, cutting cake, consolidating and stashing and storing up. Our larder, fair to say, is full. It's wonderful when you see relief on someone's face and you think you put it there but as I told my coworker who kept thanking me, there will be a day when she is doing the same thing for me. The cycle repeats.

Off for dinner with my big bro.