Stock Team is bad, but Dish Pit is usually worse.
Each night a given student is responsible for a certain cleaning chore in the Skills kitchen, with the duties being rotated, albeit somewhat randomly, so that everyone has a chance. By far the easiest job is Sous Chef, in which the student walks around with a clip board checking off tasks as they are completed. Stock team I told you about earlier. Stewards mop. Sanitizers sanitize. Walk-ins arrange the walk in freezer. Hot Line cleans the stoves and ovens. You get it.
Dish Pit is not as dirty as Stock Team, but you will get wet. You walk away basically soaked, no matter how careful you are trying to be. Depending on what is being made in the kitchen, dish pit can be easy or it can be a nightmare. When we were deep frying everything, dish pit was a circle of hell that didn't make the edit of Dante's Inferno. Dried out beer batter and oil that has been standing at 250 degrees doesn't make for a cheerful evening in dish pit. Thankfully, I missed that turn.
Today, however, we did a lamb stew with polenta and grilled lamb chops with cous cous. But the burners - the students that turn everything they pick up into charcoal - were out in force. Consider the stats: 22 students using four pots, half a dozen steel bowls, half a dozen plastic bowls, two or three saute pans, two to four plates, a baking sheet, a cutting board, and the inevitable odds and ends. That is a lot of dishes, friend. Think of it as a log ride through a compost bin.
Memorable dish pit moment: the day of the sauce and soup final, there was 16 feet by 4 feet of table top holding a solid wall of pots and pans. On an average day students try to wash a bit as they go to keep the load down. When up against the clock, I was tempted to throw spent pots and pans over my shoulder rather than use the 90 seconds it would take to drop it in the sink.
As I wanted to, I began to experiment tonight. The recipe for Navarin of Lamb with Polenta and veg du jour (more zucchini, kids?) had the polenta as a pudding under the stew. Chef gave us a take on cooling it and sauteeing it for an option. I poured mine into a paper bowl that I had fashioned into a mold and put it in the oven. It came out firm, like a cross between bread and mashed potatoes. I scooped out the interior and used it as a bowl, letting the stew spill over the sides. Chef liked it. I liked it. Fine.
I do still blow it on occasion, though. My first batch of polenta wouldn't set properly for a bowl, so I mixed up a second batch with more butter, which did the trick nicely.
Being in culinary school, all of us catch some Food Network from time to time. During the lecture portion of class, somehow Bobby Flay's name came up, prompting chef to roll his eyes. The class erupted in conversation about various TV chefs. The cool stance around the class seems to be that TV chefs are jackasses, to the last. Personally, I don't feel that a chef's presence on a network undermines his or her commitment to what they are doing, cooking. There are two TV chefs that I like a lot. I remember watching cooking shows with Mom as a kid, and to a certain extent, cooking shows are comforting to me, no matter what's being prepared.
If you have never seen the Japanese version of Iron Chef, you should. Even if you hate food, cooking, chefs, dishes, whatever. It's hysterical. Bad English dubbing, bizarre and over the top production. It's a riot.
Tomorrow is roasting. I won't be on dish pit, thank god. 40 or 50 saute pans of carmelized mirepoix. No thanks.
Each night a given student is responsible for a certain cleaning chore in the Skills kitchen, with the duties being rotated, albeit somewhat randomly, so that everyone has a chance. By far the easiest job is Sous Chef, in which the student walks around with a clip board checking off tasks as they are completed. Stock team I told you about earlier. Stewards mop. Sanitizers sanitize. Walk-ins arrange the walk in freezer. Hot Line cleans the stoves and ovens. You get it.
Dish Pit is not as dirty as Stock Team, but you will get wet. You walk away basically soaked, no matter how careful you are trying to be. Depending on what is being made in the kitchen, dish pit can be easy or it can be a nightmare. When we were deep frying everything, dish pit was a circle of hell that didn't make the edit of Dante's Inferno. Dried out beer batter and oil that has been standing at 250 degrees doesn't make for a cheerful evening in dish pit. Thankfully, I missed that turn.
Today, however, we did a lamb stew with polenta and grilled lamb chops with cous cous. But the burners - the students that turn everything they pick up into charcoal - were out in force. Consider the stats: 22 students using four pots, half a dozen steel bowls, half a dozen plastic bowls, two or three saute pans, two to four plates, a baking sheet, a cutting board, and the inevitable odds and ends. That is a lot of dishes, friend. Think of it as a log ride through a compost bin.
Memorable dish pit moment: the day of the sauce and soup final, there was 16 feet by 4 feet of table top holding a solid wall of pots and pans. On an average day students try to wash a bit as they go to keep the load down. When up against the clock, I was tempted to throw spent pots and pans over my shoulder rather than use the 90 seconds it would take to drop it in the sink.
As I wanted to, I began to experiment tonight. The recipe for Navarin of Lamb with Polenta and veg du jour (more zucchini, kids?) had the polenta as a pudding under the stew. Chef gave us a take on cooling it and sauteeing it for an option. I poured mine into a paper bowl that I had fashioned into a mold and put it in the oven. It came out firm, like a cross between bread and mashed potatoes. I scooped out the interior and used it as a bowl, letting the stew spill over the sides. Chef liked it. I liked it. Fine.
I do still blow it on occasion, though. My first batch of polenta wouldn't set properly for a bowl, so I mixed up a second batch with more butter, which did the trick nicely.
Being in culinary school, all of us catch some Food Network from time to time. During the lecture portion of class, somehow Bobby Flay's name came up, prompting chef to roll his eyes. The class erupted in conversation about various TV chefs. The cool stance around the class seems to be that TV chefs are jackasses, to the last. Personally, I don't feel that a chef's presence on a network undermines his or her commitment to what they are doing, cooking. There are two TV chefs that I like a lot. I remember watching cooking shows with Mom as a kid, and to a certain extent, cooking shows are comforting to me, no matter what's being prepared.
If you have never seen the Japanese version of Iron Chef, you should. Even if you hate food, cooking, chefs, dishes, whatever. It's hysterical. Bad English dubbing, bizarre and over the top production. It's a riot.
Tomorrow is roasting. I won't be on dish pit, thank god. 40 or 50 saute pans of carmelized mirepoix. No thanks.
