Today is the first day of my junior year of college, so obviously I have school work I am currently avoiding. I only have class two days a week this term so you would think I could could get myself to focus those 2 times per week. And my answer to that is, I can and am choosing not to right now. So here we are, my dear reader. Hopefully I'm keeping you from something you should be doing too.
I have been a little low on ideas for writing on here since I have spent the majority of my time working. After talking to one of my closest friends about this, she came up with the idea for me to write about my job. And seeing as that's essentially the only thing I've been doing lately, I thought I'd go ahead and do it.
I work at a comedy club/ restaurant/ events center... It's a big building. My official job title is an events cook, but that's not the only position I occupy. First and foremost, I work in events. I execute the food that goes out for parties, weddings, meetings, etc. If there's an event going on somewhere in the building, you can pretty safely assume I'm in the kitchen. I really love catering and working with events, its always been one of my favorite aspects of the business. One of the most important things I've learned working with events is timing. Timing is everything, especially with banquet dining. Let's say you have an event for 200 people (which I do frequently) and you have a full menu to prepare- apps, salads, and a full buffet. Sometimes the client wants the courses to stagger and the food to come out in phases, and sometimes the buffet opens at 6:30 and everything has to be ready... AT 6:30. Each method has its challenges but it all boils down to this- hot food needs to be hot and cold food needs to be cold.
Prep time for these events usually look/are pretty leisurely until about a half hour before the event. Then it quickly turns in to organized chaos. Trying to time it so that everything comes out at the same time.. and ON TIME is tricky at first. Everything that is served cold can be taken care of in advance, get it out of the way. Then it's all about heating or reheating the items that take the longest to the ones with the shortest cook time. It requires some juggling with different cook times- but don't forget about the dinner rolls in the oven and burn them to a crisp!!... Not that I know what that's like or anything.. Shut up.
Another trick with working in events is how much food is enough for 200 people? Or how much is too much? There are a lot of general rules we follow for that sort of thing. 3 ounces per person of this, 5 ounces for that. But that's not an exact science. There have been a few of times where the guests apparently liked the chicken way more than the beef and we had to scramble make several more trays of chicken and had trays of beef left over. It's almost never perfect but the less waste, the better.
When I'm not working an event, I'm generally doing one of two things- working on the line if its the weekend (our restaurant is only open for dinner on weekends), or doing administrative work or other projects for our chef.
When I'm in the kitchen for the restaurant, I'm generally in the pantry station. All apps, salads, and desserts for both the restaurant and the showroom come through my station. And on a night where we have sold out shows and a full restaurant, it can get pretty crazy. That's why there's generally 2 or 3 of us at this station. When I'm working in the restaurant I definitely get my fix for the rush and the high energy I miss when I'm working my events.
The computer work I do is definitely more dry than the rest of my work, but that's not to say I love it any less. I just won't bore you with specifics, but I've gotten a lot of invaluable exposure to aspects of this business- ordering, inventory, costing, etc. I'm really lucky to be getting this kind of experience. Especially if I plan to have my own place some day (one of the things on the list).
So there you go, folks. A not-so-brief description of what I get to do week in and week out. It's a lot of work but I'm having the time of my life. Every day I go into work, I learn something new and that's so exciting to me. Obviously, I understand school is important and I'm learning a lot of (expensive) information while I'm here. That being said, I'll leave you with a great quote from Mr. Mark Twain, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
Go out and learn, nerds. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment