That Was Quite a Week

That statement is definitely true. After working 10+ hours a day for the past week I can finally catch up on everything. So all in all, Easter brunch was pulled off successfully, yours truly didn't have to wake up early and make omelets instead he worked at night doing prep for the following week.

Things lately at work have been really good, on Friday, Zack and I banged out 80 covers smoothly for the most part except alot of confusion brought upon by the wait staff. Its just been alot of prep all week to put on the Easter brunch for 600 people. To fill up the rest of the blog page I've got photos of food from work because all of last week was somewhat of a really long blur.

Here is our trout dish. We take a whole trout, fabricate it but keep the two fillets together. Then we take Transglutaminase or aka Meat Glue (this is a natural enzyme that binds proteins together, theres nothing harmful about it and has no flavor) and we bind the two fillets together, therefore giving us a "whole" trout. The trout fillet sits on a bed of wilted napa cabbage and pickled currants and to the right we made a carrot puree and we have roasted orange and purple baby carrots and then braised thumblina carrots finished in reduced carrot juice aka carrots on roids. I fricken love this dish, it looks great I think and it tastes amazing.

 This was a special we ran on Friday, it was sea urchin flan. We made a custard base of bouillabaisse and sea urchin and poured it inside of the body of a cleaned sea urchin "shell" so to speak. The green sauce is a spring onion cream. What was awesome about that cream is we got local green onions in along with a whole bunch of other amazing produce (asparagus, baby braising mix and more!) To finish the garnish on top is uni and some baby tatsoi.

 This is grilled yellow fin tuna with a roasted spring vegetable fricassee and reduced balsamic vinegar. The big thing about this dish that I like is the fact I go through shitake mushrooms to find little ones (also called doubloons) and confit them in olive oil. The end result is a great tasting mushroom and an intense olive oil with an amazing smell. If theres something I think is great in this world, its mushrooms along with a long list of more things.

This is another special we ran on Friday featuring some local asparagus we got in. To the left is a mix of braised and roasted asparagus tips. In the middle, pan roasted scallops sitting on top of Meyer lemon whip (that stuff is so good) and then to the right is a piece of grilled asparagus with fresh herbs and orange and lemon zest.



Now this is was a total joke for Tim and I. We had a wedding on Saturday night and we had to put out a few kids meals. So we took it all to the next level and made the plating awesome. So a fanned corn dog with a beef tenderloin slider and a side of ranch dressing. It's oh so fancy.

To end this blog, I'm sitting here watching No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain and right now hes in Sardinia. I'm looking at how they are eating food, eating family style, everything is from the area and it all looks amazing! The way of life and how food is Incorporated into everyday life is so important, so key and its respected so much. Its seeing that I have a greater appreciation for food and I want to experience food in Europe and cook it. The idea of food seems to differ so much from Europe to the US and to other countries around the world.

But something I want to get my hands on and try is bottarga.

Bottarga is dried and salt cured grey mullet roe and this stuff looks interesting but apparently it tastes amazing. If I get my hands on some it would be quite the culinary adventure.

But I'm off for the evening!

-Garrett

R&R

After a much need two days off from work, I'm feeling rested and good. It was nice to have two days off before Easter.

As for working Easter....last time I checked the brunch buffet has 600 on the books (I'm not sure if its gone up) and I'm working one of two omelet bars....I'm really happy for QFP....French Omlets for 600....I'm goin to crack out the chopsticks and make omelets like its no body's business (should be a min per omelet, I've got to get my timing down).

But that's really it before I head off to work later today, I do have something that I found funny today while reading Eater: How to open an insanely popular restaurant in a big city






I found this funny because of the new trend of "Pop Up" Restaurants among things.

I'm off for the afternoon, another day of learning at work!

-Garrett

Some Spring Menu Pictures!

It's about time already right! I've finally got some spring menu pictures, its only like three if I'm correct but yeah....its some more pictures!

Other than that we had a late night last night, I repacked alot of the fish we had in house and we did some nice scrubbing on the ye ole line.

Moving on, to the photos!

This is our Roasted Pork Chop. To the left is a corn and ham stew. Under the pork chop is a hash made from confit sweet potatoes and a corn pudding the we made from early spring corn. We got a case in the other day and for being early corn, it sure tasted good, it was actually sweet. The outside of the chop is coated in Sage-Apple Puree (Homemade applesauce on crack, I could eat the stuff all day long) and then a crust of dehydrated crushed up corn, smoked bacon bits, lemon and lime zest and minced chives.

This is our roasted lamb dish. Theres a potato cake on the bottom. Included are some roasted fava beans, fava bean puree, and roasted morels. Crusted on the lamb we make a roasted shallot puree and then this intense herb crust. We take sage, rosemary and thyme. Separate the three and fry them until they gain a deep emerald color. Then we take the herbs toss them in a mix of 1 to 1 sugar to salt. Stick them in the dehydrator and then wait 24 hours. Then we mince them together and we have awesome herb crust. We throw the lamb once its done and crusted under the salamander before we slice it to let the sugar caramelize ontop of the crust a little bit.

This is our halibut dish. Its almond milk poached halibut and to the left is braised white asparagus with green and white asparagus tips and some charred spring onions. The sauce up front is green asparagus puree that is then thinned with some parsley and chive herb oil. This dish is really clean cut and sells I do alot of these out of all of my dishes.

A little funny pic, I found a K16 Lunch Plate Wipe that fell out of my knife bag yesterday morning.

Now, my Executive Sous Chef let me use his Masahiro last night....I loved this knife....and I might get one....and maybe with some Shapton Stones.....who knows, this is just a maybe

I think if I had more photos, I would post them to be honest (To make up that I'm still tired and don't have much to say). But I'm off to sharpen my knives and get some stuff done around the house and "office" (the downstairs bar/basement I have turned into my office). Seeya!

-Garrett

Fatigue....It Only Makes You Stronger

I'm exhausted still in the midst of trying to wake up this morning. We cleaned late last night giving the line a nice little scrub down. That and service itself was just......ugh......that's the only word I have for service last night is ugh. Now I will say I feel like I did really well getting my prep done in a efficient and timely manner. I felt my speed getting faster yesterday as I was continuing to prep out my line. Today will be quite the day, for I have all my MEP to make a huge batch of ricotta gnocchi and alot of raviolis for the appetizer I posted a picture of the other day.

I do have another photo to post (they are slowly but surely coming along!)

This is our Yellowfin Tuna Tartare. It features Asian pear, black radish, a yuzu dressing. The white foam in the picture is actually a lime whip, in the center is cilantro foam and the yellow cubes are Asian pear gelee. I really like this dish because it has a real nice balance of overall flavor, the colors look nice and it features some stuff I've never seen before.

Black radishes I'm a big fan of after getting to taste them. They are interesting and I guess they aren't an heirloom variety of radish but whats interesting is just the flavor if them. Instead of being spicy like most radishes, these have a very simple and clean taste to them. Then in the back of your mouth it picks up a small amount of spicy flavor. I think that's another reason why I like our tuna dish so much because the clean flavor of the radish really pairs up well with the sweetness in the pears and the acidity from the yuzu dressing.

It was so cool, the other day we got in a case of thumbelina carrots (really small, round baby carrots) They are beautiful and are going to go on our trout dish at work (hopefully a picture very, very, very soon!) I'm off to wake up, find some lunch, get ready for work and go in for another day of learning!

-Garrett

A Little Tid Bit

Hey Everyone!

I was reading Eater and Wylie Dufresne gave a TED Talk talking about the egg but also the education of cooking and why hes doing what hes doing. Its more than just about cooking, its about the education and learning of how and why. Here's the link:

http://eater.com/archives/2011/04/12/watch-wylie-dufresne-give-a-tedx-presentation.php#more

I recommend everyone watches it!

-Garrett

Today was a Long Monday....Good But Long

Overall today was great but its been very long.

Woke up early this morning to make it down to Pueblo to meet up with Tim (who runs grill) to drive out to Canon City to visit a farm. Well, we followed the directions and made it there.....but no one was there like nobody so we called it a day and drove back home. It was kind of a bummer because just from looking around it was some really nice farmland and what they had growing looked good. Its alot different in Canon City than in Colorado Springs because Canon City sits on a watershed along the Arkansas River so the ground gets hydrated well. Therefore growing in the south is better.

Then instead of having my normal Monday off, I got yesterday off and I still have my Tuesday off so I was in work this evening. Our service tonight was a VIP Dinner for the club off of a limited menu off the new spring menu. I was very excited, like I've said before I really like our spring menu. I do have some what of a sneak peek for you all, a picture of our appetizer that we are running on the spring menu that we severed tonight.

This is our "Carbonara" Ravioli

My Executive Sous Chef Zach has played around with the French Laundry pasta dough recipe (Which produces a very, very, very, very, smooth and silky dough, amazing for this dish). We make our dough and the filling is actually an egg yolk. We separate whites from yolks and then freeze the yolks on a silpat in a sheet tray and then we can actually work with the egg yolks in a frozen state without them bursting on us. We then proceed to make ravioli in the same fashion. At service we hate them gently in basically poaching water so the pasta doesn't overcook but the yolk has a chance to heat gently to temp. So our ravioli then becomes somewhat of a poached egg  inside of a ravioli, its very cool and a very cool play on carbonara. The other components to the dish, under the raviolis we made a roasted onion puree and then charged it in a iSi siphon, then we shaved frozen bacon into curls and fried them off. A little bit of a fine herb salad, some shallot chips and Parmesan foam. The concepts of foams is very, very new to me but this is a very simple foam all for flavor purpose. We take Parmesan cheese, cut off a few chunks and then steep it in hot water getting this very, intense flavored water. We take alittle bit of that water and then add soy lectin (a stabilizer of sorts that makes foams) buzz it with a hand mixer and voila! Foam! Overall it is a really nice dish and a play on a concept and some things I've never seen before but theres more awesome-ness in store! 

I've got some more things I want to play with:

- Zach got some more sorrel in! I'm very excited!!!!!

- Wintermelon = Refreshing Flavor as I've been Told...so idea hit: Create a Sorbet of sorts????

- Concepts in Oxtail

- Ultimate Kansas City BBQ Sauce (To be the SAUCE BOSS!) and Moist Brisket

And of course more ideas and concepts I want to try.

But thats it for the evening so good night!

-Garrett

Whew! Relaxing Sunday

It explains all, I got Sunday off and after a long night like last night, its nice to relax.

We had quite the crazy Saturday evening, our 2nd menu tasting for the wait staff and then regular service. But regular service was just as crazy as the menu tasting. Our wait staff is pretty good at sending tickets out all at the same time.....more like all 8 tables at the time all at once.....and all were 4+ tops so it wasn't the best of evenings. But afterwards some of us got together and went out bowling and had a chance to relax.

So after sleeping in this morning and actually getting up and ready, I took the time to relax and read a bit and take a little adventure in Colorado Springs and I finally went to that Asian Market off of Highway 24. It was called the Asian Pacific Market and that place was amazing! It was cool seeing some new things but also stuff that I knew what it was and the flavors items produced, etc. I wanted to get some frozen dumplings (Because it sounded so good!) But I didn't so next trip though I will. Here's some pictures:

ALL THE DIFFERENT SOY SAUCES!

Jackfruit.....it looked very interesting

Wintermelon, this also looked interesting.

I'm looking forward to going back again and actually getting some things and playing around with ingredients. But 1st I need to play around with the ox tail dish and this awesome BBQ sauce recipe that Lisa sent me (Because I'm goin to be the Sauce BOSS and we are going to make some awesome brisket!). Other than that going to the Asian Market reminded me so much of Chinatown in NYC and to be honest I'm looking forward to going back to NYC for some fun adventures and some awesome food! But I'm off for the evening!

-Garrett

=D

I left work last night with a huge smile on my face.

It was that overall feeling of accomplishment, that feeling that what we did was great but boy was it a long, long day.

I started by coming in at 2 and starting to prep for the regular day what else I needed for my station. Then I had to jump in and finish up what else was needed for the menu tasting. At 3 we set up to line for our spring menu tasting and started to work. For us we had swapped out alot so we had about 15 to 18 new dishes to produce, send out all at the same time for our Food and Beverage Director. The food did come out great and everything was well seasoned and presented in a timely fashion. For the most part our Food and Beverage Director was pleased and happy. He pointed out a few minor changes that we needed to make but other than that it all was awesome.

Then Tim and I broke down the stuff from the tasting and set up our regular line for service. Where in fact alot of orders came off my station so Tim and I got together, broke off what was needed to be done, and we worked, banged it all out in a matter of minutes. Its always a great feeling when you can work really good with the other guy on the line and just bang it all out. We then cleaned up, scrubbed down and was set for the evening.

I had the chance to talk to Zack and the rest of the crew at the end of the night and we talked about the current spring menu, how today would work with our second menu tasting , and of course some stuff about future specials. I asked Zach once we got the spring menu off the ground and going I had an idea for a special and that was Osso Bucco. I guess the veal shanks are flipping expensive and I found out why. I guess Colorado is like the last stop on the shipping route (which quite honestly boggles my mind because though we are midland and in the mountains, anything from the west coast would take relatively shorter to get here than if it was from the east coast.). So I said then, why don't we figure out a dish to utilize ox tail. Its cheap and affordable but when cooked correctly its amazing! So thats a another weekly goal for me, find a way to use ox tail, come up with a recipe and present it. So there might be alittle segment soon called "Concepts with Ox Tail" or something like that.

I'm off to finish some things up this morning/afternoon before I head off to work so everyone have a great day/morning/evening what ever your time zone is!

-Garrett

AUSGH;OAHJK;GNAPOG.KJB

The above title explains your brain on Prep.

Yes, Prep or ones Mise En Place.

Thats exactly what I did today.....lots and lots and lots of prep.

Its not entirely a bad thing mind you, I really enjoy prep to be quite honest but tonight we prepped out our whole spring menu for our two tastings tomorrow and Saturday. I think theres only a few more things to do left because we didn't have a few items in stock but we are looking pretty good for tomorrow. I've got it all organized to a T, I cracked out my blue painters tape and labeled away. I'm going to make sure the camera is at work tomorrow to take pictures, I'm looking very forward to finally getting to see the spring menu as a whole come together instead of in pieces as it has been.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and all the cool things its going to bring as to actually bringing full plates together.

I'm sorry for such the short post but I'm beat and I need my brain to get off prep so good night all.

-Garrett

Some Interesting News

So yesterday was quite nice, went to Vennetucci Farm in Colorado Springs, Colorado with my Executive Sous Chef. Growing out here is very different than growing on the East Coast. It takes a tad longer for things to grow out here and because of the heat, certain items have a very short time period. So our expectations got changed abit for me and Zack. They do raise some nice pigs on the farm. They are a hertiage breed and boy they were nice looking and healthy pigs (that sounds a bit odd now that I said it that way...) But the owner of the farm gave us some insight on farmers in the area and what they grow. Hopefully they'll be more trips out to some more farms.

After that little trip Zack asked me if I could go in to cover my grill guy Tim, he got in an accident so I went in did a small party that was off of a limited menu, cleaned up and was done for the night. I was bummed I almost missed lasagna night here (and I requested it!) I came home, unwound for the evening and got some rest.

I go in at 3 today my time but I found a few interesting articles on one of the food blogs I read.

This is bacon cologne......yes bacon cologne.....I have a feeling the world of bacon has just be brought to a whole new level. Here's the link for the full story:

http://eater.com/archives/2011/04/06/bacon-the-cologne-that-smells-like-bacon.php

Also NPR posted an article discussing culinary school and if its worth it. I thought it was interesting because we are a specialized profession going to a specialized school and spending lots of money for our education. Here's the link:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134568267/regulators-try-to-light-a-fire-under-culinary-schools?ft=1&f=1053

And of course Epic MealTime posted there new video for the week so go watch it and laugh!

That's all for now, I've got my knives to sharpen and some externship manual to write in.

-Garrett

Where's Garrett Been? He Hasn't Written in Awhile....Oh My!

I'm alive and well so everyone knows. I've just been quite busy and tired and the need to sleep has taken over writing at night.

But work has been great, its been kinda long, working late and then having to get up early Sunday morning to do brunch. Oh brunch, so we do a brunch buffet on Sundays at Garden of the Gods and part of that there is an omlet bar and a carving station for prime rib. Being the extern I got to make french omlets and carve prime rib. I made french omlets like a champ (thank you QFP and Skills II!)

Of course I get Monday and Tuesday off and today I went in to Garden of the Gods to sit in on a Menu Development and Budgeting meeting with my Executive Chef, Executive Sous Chef, Food and Beverage Director and my General Manager. We are in the process of switching over from the winter to spring menu and what comes with that is costing out the new menu and all that fun jazz. But after that learning experience I went to the library (one of my favorite places) and checked out Fodors Guide to Spain and Singapore (I think I have the travel bug) and went to the bank to deposit last Friday's paycheck (YAY! Its all getting saved away!)

Tomorrow I'm going to have quite the adventure. The weather is supposed to be really nice so I think hiking is in the plans for tomorrow and also I'm going to a local farm with my Executive Sous Chef Zack to look what they are growing and raising. I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe with some time left in the day I can go by the giant Asian Market I passed on 24.

But I'm off for the evening. So everyone have a great day and a good night!

-Garrett

"Order In...6 Chicken Quesadillas...REALLY!?!...April Fools"

Ok...So if you haven't gotten the point...Quesadillas are a really big pain in the butt to make...let alone any amount of them above 1 order. I'm not going to go on a rant about quesadillas but I'm going to leave it as that.

Overall, I'm going to say today at work was good to ok. I walked in today feeling great and then I guess I say my prep list that I wrote out last night and then some of the extra things I had too do and felt alittle shuffled by it. It kinda blows because we only have one VitaMix in the kitchen and its gears are stripped so its already jank. Then the blender cup to the VitaMix has a nice crack in it so half of your contents end up on the prep table. We were using it alot today and the demand was high for it so it was constantly being shuffled around. It was also making us all angry.

Service went well, it wasn't too terribly busy or the tickets were really well spread out, who knows. Good food was put out and we kept the flow.

We got to tinker a bit with some menu items going on the spring menu which is very very cool (Pics to Follow Soon!) Next Monday I get to go to a menu development meeting with my Executive Chef, our Food and Beverage Director and the General Manager of the Club. I believe they are going to finalize the menu costing and the overall menu itself to see that it will see fit at the club.

The incredible item I have to share tonight....Carrots on Roids.
Now this sounds very odd and much like a carrot on GMO but this is not the case. We cooked baby carrots this evening with alittle bit of stock to steam them. Now here is the kicker, this is what makes the carrots on ROIDS....CARROT JUICE! We then cooked the carrots in reduced carrot juice, added a tad of butter and white wine, reduced and tasted....they were delicious and it was simply because the carrots were then cooked in there own juice. I'm a true believer now in this practice and I feel I'd continue cooking my veg in there own juices.

But I'm off to bed so good night everyone!

-Garrett

At The End of The Day....

When you can walk away from your day at work and say, tonight was great, I feel great about the work I did and the dishes I put out. That's a great sense of accomplishment. It's nights like these I want to have and feel more of. It's also when you can feel that "Hey, my speed is getting better, I'm learning and feeling more comfortable about this all." I feel like tonight was an awesome night and I'm feeling alot better and more confident about running my station.....though I still need to work on my speed.

But other than that, the line tonight put out some awesome food, gave our line a nice little scrub down, and wrote out the prep lists for tomorrow and thinking into the future for the spring menu (I'm looking forward too it!) Had a good conversation with the PM crew, my Executive Sous Chef and our PM Lead who runs the grill. Talks about food, technique, careers, goals, etc. It was a great day simply put!

I didn't get time to check on my picklings today once again! I feel so bad about that...I promise it will happen! But this afternoon, my Executive Sous Chef was working with an item I'd never quite seen nor tasted....Sorrel

Now Sorrel is an interesting green/herb, what ever it maybe but I think its delicious! Eating it raw it has a fresh crisp but it produces a citrus like flavor. I think if you threw this into a salad of mixed field greens or baby greens it would be a little surprise to your guests, its like when eating it you didn't even need vinegar or a juice, just alittle oil that's how much citrus flavor it gave off. My executive sous chef wanted me to blanch some (he was playing around with it) I blanched it and it turned into this ugly brown, over cooked greens color. I followed standard procedure for blanching green veg but this doesn't seem to follow that procedure. Despite its ugly color I went on to eat it and after blanching it its citrus flavor only intensified and was even better. I'm hoping we get some more in the kitchen or I can find some, I'd love to play with it more and see what I could apply it too.

But I'm looking forward to another day at work tomorrow and of course another day of learning. (When do I not look forward to work!) Good night all!

-Garrett