Camp Concord - S. Lake Tahoe, CA (Summer 2014)

My goodness, it’s been a long time.  What do you say to someone you haven’t seen or talked to in months?  You didn’t say goodbye nor warn that you would be out of touch...   That’s how I feel blogging today.  Embarrassed,  but happy to be back.  Where to start?

In my last entry I shared that I would be moving on from the office grind to the kitchen -- full on.  Eager and excited I packed my things and moved  into my temporary housing in S. Lake Tahoe.  A cute little cabin in the woods. Having never camped before in my life, this was quite the experience.  Living wise it would be a challenge having to share my space with an occasional field mouse running through my space in the middle of the night.  But over that, the experience was absolutely wonderful.

Getting up and walking just a few feet to the kitchen was in and of itself magical!!  No commute, truck noises, standing in lines, paying fares or tolls – just the smell of fresh air and the sound of birds and other small wide life.  I’d arrive at about 5:30am, start the coffee and get started on my morning service. We also served lunch, dinner and happy hour for the adults.  I would return to my cabin, think about my game plan for the next day, read a few cook books or flip through pages of Bon Appétit or FoodNetwork magazines, sleep for a few hours and it would all start again with my 5am shower the following day.  5am to 8pm -  6 days a week!

The fun:  creating new menu items and designing weekly menus.

The challenge: issues with raising the level of work by staff (most were teenagers or young adults), and getting management to let go and allow me to run the kitchen

What I miss: the staff counselors and aids, and guests.  The view!  My prep cook (Mike) and bakery magician (Dean)

I learned so much about batch cooking.  You are obviously taught these things in culinary school – how to increase yields, plan ahead, etc., but until you actually do it for groups of 200+ it really doesn’t sink in.  It got real, quickly!

Tell a crowd of teenage boys you’re out of fettuccini noodles and that they’ll need to wait 9 mins. for a fresh batch.  Wait for the warm response.  NOT. 

I miss the standing ovations, and thank you’s… I miss the kids who would come up to me and ask me to give their Mom my recipe for this or that for a food they hated up until now… the hugs.  I miss the Firefighters Burn volunteers.   I even miss the sometimes grouchy dairy delivery guy…

It would be easy to say that spending the summer  in Tahoe killed my marriage, but spending the countless hours I do cooking anywhere -- preparing for cooking, dreaming about cooking, watching cooking related TV would kill any marriage.  Lol.  That story is for another day…  Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY.

Slapped into Reality

Boy, did I romanticize what commercial cooking would be like. . . so wrong.  Oh, so wrong!

First assignment - Twitter.  Beautiful kitchen, in fact a very new kitchen.  Twitter does a great job of taking care of its' employees and adding another kitchen was just another example of that.  The problem is that the staff is not very organized.  Too many egos confined in one place!  Another part of the problem was that there was absolutely no time set aside for a kitchen tour, no hard instructions or sneak preview into the expectations of the day.  The Party Staff should build in at least 20 mins (paid) of time to get acquainted with the kitchen and staff.  Time spent running around like a plucked chicken, is time not well spent.
I was fortunate to have a wonderful team/station leader - Marissa.  Marissa was also fairly new in this role, but was clear on her responsibilities and worked her food/menu plan as best she could considering the poor support she received from management.  They were awful, and treated her as if she were the enemy.  Someone should tell Chef Lance this is not Top Chef nor is he one of them.  He is really full of himself.  I left there vowing never to return.  I understand through a fellow Party Staff employee who worked there the day after I did, that they eventually sent Marissa away in tears.  What a loss.  She is definitely an asset to that team.  I hope this gets back to the CEO.  Someone needs to know what's going on in that kitchen.  It's hard work; but if you enjoy cooking, it should be a labor of love. .

Day Two, Three & Four - Crow Canyon Country Club. The Event - Annual Easter Brunch for over 500 people!  This was a needed change from Twitter.  The Chef, the staff - everyone was wonderful and patient with me.  Even in moments when it was felt I was moving a little too slow, I was always offered an alternative way to do the task at hand.  Never yelled at (would have been at Twitter), but rather coached.  My guardian angel there was the lead cook, Evon, and Anita Marie who was an associate from Party Staff.  She shared her knowledge and kitchen tips with me and guided me in times when I was unsure.  Once she understood I had been out of the kitchen for 2 years - and never in a 'batch cooking' situation - she kept an eye on me.
Taking a break this week.  That was alot!!!! Now, that I know areas of weakness I'll work on those points.  I have reconnected with the Arts Institute, Culinary, and will be working as an Apprentice in their in-house cafe with Chef James.  I will be a sponge!  I have also learned that understanding a few Spanish words and phrases can go a long way BOH (Back of House).  So, I will also be looking for a class before I leave in June.

All for now.  I'm beat!

Let's Try it Again

Hello, everyone.

I’m finally getting back where I belong.  My 2 week assignment at Morgan Stanley turned into 2 years!  I will not lie; I really enjoyed my time there.  The team I supported was the best group of people any Admin could ask for.  However, the burning desire to get back in the kitchen would not go away, and because I could not be converted to an FTE, there was no reason to fight it.

So goes the adage, ‘be careful what you ask for’ because ready or not you might just get it!  On a whim as I was surfing the Net for job opportunities I stumbled on an Ad for Open Call-like interviews for the Hospitality industry.  Sounded interesting, so I showed up after work.  The Party Staff.  I applied, they loved me and the rest is history.  The staff there is amazing.  Reviews on Glassdoor aren’t so good, but so far it’s been a great experience with regard to the way I have been treated as an employee; as a person.

My first assignment is in a few days, so I’ll get to see first hand how the process works through to being paid.  I am very optimistic this will be a positive working relationship.  Yes, the pay is low, but that’s the nature of the beast.  If you are not clear on that, hospitality really isn’t the field for you.

As it stands, I have short-term Cook assignments on calendar at Twitter, Charles Schwab and the Crow Canyon Country Club.  Not bad, huh?  We will see if what that say in the reviews is correct – that schedules change constantly.  In the meantime, I also plan to register with Acrobat, a similar agency in Sacramento.  I’d like to keep busy until my assignment in June.  Oh, I didn’t mention that, did I?

Well, I’ll be 1 of 2 cooks at Camp Concord in S. Lake Tahoe from June 15 – August 31.  Really excited about that.  It will be a real hands-on learning opportunity for me.  Afterwards, I’ll get back in school.  I'm about 70 units in, so I don’t have very far to go to get my BA in Culinary Management.  No distractions or derailments this time around!

I’m making good connections through LinkedIn with local Chefs, and many have graciously agreed to have me job shadow and/or apprentice.  Yes, things open up, but you have to stick your head in the door.  No one or no opportunity is going to come looking for you sitting at home watching Judge Judy and stuffing your face with TV snacks.  You have to get out there and stay active in your craft.  And read, read, read – The NY Times Magazine, what’s trending in the food industry, who’s who in the Chef world, explore unfamiliar territory with regard to foods and see what others are doing.  Get addicted to the cooking shows, esp. the challenges because there you’ll discover ways to prepare foods in a variety of ways.

There are some really good home cooks out there.  Follow them on InstaGram or Twitter.  We are multicultural now – just meat and potatoes, salt & pepper won’t cut it.  Our palates are primed for new flavors and sensations.  We now eat foods we never even heard of.

Take this 15 year Chef, Flynn McGarry, who prepares $160-a-head dinners out of his parent’s house.  He’s a genius.  He prepared a dish using St. John’s wort.  Really??!  Puffed trout skin?? WTF.  Watch this kid; he’s talented.

All for now, my lovelies.  I try to update my blog after every new experience or job assignment, so stay tuned.  And please, leave me message.  Let me know you’ve been here!  Thanks, ChefV

 

What I learned about cooking in BENIN

Nutmeg. Forget about it! Two food items that I searched and searched for were Nutmeg and Celery.  Never found nutmeg (or anyone who remotely knew what it was) but I did find celery… not celery stalks, but celery leaves.  Very tender leaves and give me the celery flavor I needed.

Meat, vegetables and fruits are usually purchased in open markets, but supermarkets sell dry and canned goods.

Local livestock includes chickens, guinea fowl, ducks and goats.  Fresh fish are plentiful and is dried, smoked, deep fried (whole) and grilled.  Hunters sell “bush meat”, which is also usually smoked and dried; this might be antelope, grasscutter (groundhog), porcupine, or other wild animal.

Because chickens are not grain fed and are physically active, the meat is very tough.  You have to be creative in breaking down the tissues until they are tender enough to digest.  I braised a chicken and baked it for over 2 hours, before it was edible.  Not very tender by our standards, but everyone enjoyed it.

Staple is Yam – not what we know as sweet potatoes.  I attempted to prepare candied yams and ended up with a pot of candied starch, suitable for scrapbooking paste but definitely not eating!  They are a large tuber with a thick bark that must be removed with a knife; several varieties of yam are available in Benin.  Cassava is also a staple.  Both can be prepared in various ways, including a dried powder which is soaked in water, combined with hot water and whipped up into a fluffy form, or with its starch extracted.  Starch is particularly popular in Benin.  Rice is not native to Benin, but it is one of the most popular staples available.

Vegetables include water leaf (efo – a spinach-like green) and okra.  Cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes and carrots are available, but still considered foreign food.  They grow well in Benin.  Who does love pomme frites? Pineapples – which up until now, I had only associated with Hawaii – grow everywhere and are as sweet as sugar.  Mangos, passion fruit, and oranges are incredibly good.

Pounded yam (sliced, boiled, then mashed till smooth and elastic with a mortar and pestle) is a typical Benin dish, served with a soup.  I attempted to incorporate cornbread, but it didn’t rise like it should have.  It was good, though.

Bananas, bananas, bananas... they grow everywhere! small ones, large ones, plantain - you name it!

Crayfish (or dried shrimp) is used a lot to season soups and stews. And of course, Maggi is king.

Oh, the Anguish . . .

I so want to cook something today.  Anything. Fish, Fowl or Meat.  Veggie or Soy – it doesn’t matter!  If I can’t cook, can I at least find a job that will allow me the privilege of designing a menu or working with a top chef or catering manager??  Oh, just to be near food…

In my current role, I’m close but not close enough.  Everyone is a foodie! So, I am tasked with organizing a meeting, finding the venue, etc., but when it comes to the fun part – selecting the menu, the wine – the executive wants to take control.  This is the part EVERYONE loves… jeeze.  I’m not complaining, though.  Working in San Francisco and reading the so very many publications on new spots is where I want to be! 

Everyone’s a food critic, but if you can filter through most of that and just focus on the Chef and his/her passion/purpose, restaurant ambiance and plate presentation, it’s a lot of fun.  Next to Portland and New York, there is no better place to be with regard to amazing restaurants.

I've decided to "get back out there" in the new year.  Maybe private cooking events and parties, but keeping my day job.  I'm sorry, but being BROKE does not feel good.  I bow down to the individual who sacrifices everything - waits tables, buses dishes, lives on the street until their dream is realized... I guess I'm made up of the synthetic version of that.  (I love sleeping in a warm bed with clean sheets - so shoot me!)  So, I good to my next favorite thing -- Personal Assisting. Would love to land a job as a high profile Executive Assistant, Personal Assistant or Concierge.  

It'll come.  Keeping my eye on the prize.  Until later.  ChefV

I'm Still Here

With so much free time on my hands, I decided that maybe I should Blog again.  As many of you know, my rising breakfast business fizzled before it begun.  I learned very quickly that you must have two things: (1) capital to carry your business for a minimum of 6 months and (2) financial nets – people who are able to catch you if you fall.  Seriously.  I keep reading about all of the things you need to get a successful restaurant business off the ground, and I truly believe that if you can cook, and passion and these two things, you can be successful.  If you have the capital you can pay someone to do that other stuff… business plan, market research, blah… blah.  B O R I N G.  There are people who do this for a living – let ‘em.

People were coming, eating - enjoying the love on a plate. I even had a few faithful followers.  They loved the food and word was spreading.  The thing is, I was renting “month-to-month” from property owners who didn’t believe in me, or who were not in a position to carry me for a few months until I could really get rolling. (BTW, I don’t think business has ever been the same!)

I put in time, the sweat, long hours and every cent I had.  My husband and family supported me as much as they could, but in the end, it was really all on me.  So, after a few nights of hiding in the bathroom to shed a few tears and finally folded, vowing to return to the 9-5 workforce where it was safe.

I am currently working on assignment at Morgan Stanley in San Francisco; every day looking for that perfect opportunity for permanent employment.  For me, this means working in an environment where I am challenged and able to use my natural creative abilities to produce satisfying product.  I’m thinking that a role as Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant would be supreme.

Ideally, I would be supporting a powerful executive or socialite whose daily schedule is quite demanding.  I would orchestrate his/her life in such a way that they could be free to do what they do, and I would have the autonomy to handle the mundane matters of the day, from the floral arrangement in the office to scheduling meetings and handling travel particulars.  I would find a way to do the professional administrative things while weaving in a bit of creativity here and there.  Humm.. maybe even overseeing a meal or two for a small dinner party at his/her home or planning a cocktail party!  That would be fun.

I have a few more classes to complete before I have my culinary degree, and I plan to see that through.  I am also looking into floral design classes, which I believe will be an added edge.  Not ever giving up the dream, but now that I have had a chance to step away from it for a moment, I am learning that there are so many other ways to have my Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffles, and eat ‘em too!

Candied Yams CLOSED

Well... it's over already. Business was just gaining momentum; folks were really lovin' the food -- but the guests weren't coming fast enough. November 1st came before I knew it and I was without the monthly lease payment required to stay. After replenishing product, paying my waitstaff and purchasing the necessary commercial kitchen appliances, equipment and gadgetry, I was down to cash register fodder.

So sad. So many people had stopped by the place saying that they didn't realize we were open for business... would tell their friends and come back... now, they'll come back, and I am no longer there. I just wish the B&B could have carried me for 60 days. That would have been the right thing to do... guess they have bills to pay too. So sad.

Not giving up the dream. Gonna work -- hopefully, I'll find a gig to get me through the holidays, then I'll work on saving to start it again. I know I'll be able to find another kitchen. All good things in time. The lesson for me is actually restating the OBVIOUS. I should have saved at least the equalivent to 3 months+ cushion to carry me over the first 3 months which any fool knows is the hardest to get over when starting out. Unless an investor or two comes along.... yeah, that would be sweet!

It was a fun ride. A lot of work, but boy was it rewarding. Having my menu validated by people coming in telling how wonderful their meal was. That was priceless! I know I have a gift; a special gift. One day the world will bear witness.