Its' game day baby!! Day one at Melange is about underway. I get all polished up, I have my knife kit under my arm, directions in my phone, and I am ready to roll. I show up at 7am not sure what to expect, who to expect, will i be treated as a welcomed additional set of hands or that guy that's in the way? I should of been expecting the real welcoming I received.
I walked into the kitchen and this is the gist of the intro.
"Hi, my name is Stewart, I will be joining you for the week. I hope Linda told you about my arrival."
"Great, go help John make pancakes, then come back over here and help me finish these tarts up, then when the Egyptian shows up you will be his all day. GO!"
I ran over to John, "Hey I am here to help my name is.."
"That's great want to make me 100 of these artichoke pancakes, cool."
So I started my day, making 100 silver dollar artichoke pancakes to get topped with olive tapinade, then 150 goat cheese and roasted tomato tarts, then a Texas style BBQ sauce, all before i really had a spot set or met the chef or got a real tour. So goes the early hours at a large catering company.
The day started to settle and I was formally introduced to the chef, the kitchen, and given the grand tour of the facility. And when I say facility, I mean FACILITY. This place was huge. a full warehouse full of everything and anything you would need to cater an event for 5000 people on a moments notice. They have full size convection ovens they bring to events, along with "portable" fryers, electric or gas flat top griddles( full restaurant size) and full size mixers and other production equipment. This place literally has everything. But enough lurking, time to get back to the kitchen.
The next few hours were a flurry of activity, cutting, prepping, blanching, sauteing, and just taking everything in. Then out of no where... TACOS. They were breakfasty but satisfying. Apparently there are two Mexican dishwashers named Tio, and Domingo. Domingo works his ass off, Tio makes tacos. This is really going to frustrate me later, I just know it. I almost forgot, for late lunch myself and john made chicken curry. He added ancho chili powder, i was not pleased with the addition.
I have been floating around asking people for things to do because I am waiting for this Egyptian chef to show up and be his helper in the kitchen. Every couple hours we would get a call, he will be there in 3 hours, every time. Finally when we went to pick him up from the consult at 4 I was the only one left in the kitchen. Just me, the new guy, only been here for 9 hours, and i was his go to for the rest of the day. He was here to help prepare the dishes for the opening of the King Tut Exibit and the dishes chosen were at the very least, tedious to the extreme!!!!
He shows up and we start cooking. He fills a pot up with water, sugar, a couple lemons, some cloves and sets it on the stove. Next I start cutting every white onion we have in the house. And i mean mounds of onions, and we still ran out! We were making fried onions to top the Kishari, a mix of lentils, rice, macaroni noodles, garbanzo beans and a rich tomato sauce. These things fried for at least 20-26 minutes per batch till they were goldeny black. Then we moved on to the rice for the grape leaves. The mix was rice, tomato paste, tomato sauce, parsley, dill, mint black pepper, salt, red hot pepper from Egypt, lemon, cinnamon and cumin. I was a great fresh combination, but then came the bad part, 500 grape leaf rolls.
We started rolling at 6 o'clock. My first 12 were rejected, "No you roll to lose, to much, or no no good." But after my 30th or 40th i started to get the hang of it. By this point the executive chef was back and he joined our rolling crew. All the leaves had to be removed from the jars, washed, trimmed and cut to size if needed then layed out. My hands were brined by the third hour. By 9:30 we were finishing up, the syrup was coming off the heat, and I had cleaned up my side when the exec told me to go home and be back at 7 tomorrow. I bid them good night and headed out. I smell like brine, my hands are pickled, and i am very tired but, i had a blast with these new people and look forward to the next day of work. Tomorrow I am going to the Egyptian exhibit.
Stewart Lane
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