I BURNT the cookies!!!

So this past Sunday, I was in at noon for a split shift (noon-8 pm) and I was outside in the prep kitchen baking desserts and doing prep work. I like that shift because its relaxing. Well anyways, I finished prep early, so the cooks asked me to make cookies for them. And i told them that I never really was good at making cookies. But one of the cooks gave me a recipe, so I went to town with Mint Chocolate Chip cookies (made with creme de menthe). The batter tasted SOOOO good! Well, i put them in the oven, but then they called me inside to help with the pantry because they were busy, and you guessed, my cookies burned!!!! I was SOOO mad! They were an ugly brown color. I immediately wanted to make new cookies, but the chef told me I would just make them again next time. But for the rest of the night, the cooks were teasing me about it. I need to redeem myself!!!!

CHOWDER!!! GEEEETT SOME CHEOWDAHH!!!

Yesterday was Chowder Fest in Newport. People come from all over the country to compete! There were some people from North Carolina and another group from Seattle! There are three categories: Seafood, Clam, and Creative. The Mooring has won three times in the clam category, so they cannot compete in that category anymore. They had won the past two years in the seafood category with their scallop chowder (with dill and corn), and were going for a third. Unfortunately, we did not win for a third year. The booth next to us won with their shrimp, crab, and scallop and zuchini and roasted red peppers and carrot chowder. It was SOO good. I hate to admit it, but I actually liked it more than ours. (Shhh don't tell my chef I said that.) I am glad they won. It was just that good. I also tried the Seatlle one from Pike Place. It also had roasted red peppers. Neither of the winning chowders were that thick, and ours was thin as well. When I had a break, I walked around to other booths to try the clam chowders. I gotta admit, they were horrible. Most were floury and thick as glue or too creamy. I really did not like many of them at all. It made me appreciate the clam chowder that we have at The Mooring much more! I spent the whole day running back and forth from our restaurant with hot chowder and scallops and pouring chowder. It was fun though. It was a gorgeous day! I am going into work today and I have to face Adi. He was so convinced we would win, so I don't want to know how he takes the news of third place.

Bada ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it!

So because I love it here so much and because Adi asked me to stay longer, I'm officially staying longer than August 3rd. Staying till Oct. 10th or so. I'm super psyched because I just love hanging out in Newport and going to work. I don't have much to say on the issue, but I'm stoked!!

Which team will reign supreme?

Front of the house (FOH) vs. Back of the house (BOH). You often here about the rivals between the front and back in restaurants and how sometimes the two dont often get along. But I have to admit, the relationship between the front and the back at The Mooring is surprisingly good. We have great communication and we are always joking around with each other. As far as I know, there is no sabotaging of the food or anything immature, haha. Although there are the few servers that don't get along with us, only because they need someone to blame their mistakes on. The food runners (basically just there to help bring food out into the dining room) give us the most shit, excuse my language. For some reason, they think they can criticize our food. First off, who do they think they are giving us lip? Second, it makes us hate them, which is not good! There is this one food runner (who sadly i admit I used to have a thing for him, but his "i know more than you" attitude made me dislike him), so anyways, this food runner tends to critique my food by saying I should do it a different way. I'm not sure if he is just being "friendly" in a rude way, but after a while, it gets obnoxious. It gives us cooks something to talk about though. We get to share stories about how "this food runner did this..." and "this server said this..." and "oh my god, if this server says that to me ever again...." And its funny how most FOH people don't even know who is cooking thier food! PLEASE....there are more of them than us, and we know all of their names. Is it that hard to know who is making your food? They should be a little more thankful if you ask me!

Six Week Update

As the summer is getting closer, the restaurant is getting busier and busier. But unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating, which is a large influence on business side of things. This past Sunday was Mother’s Day, which was busy, but not out of control. There was a steady pace of people throughout the day. I worked pantry and we had a special appetizer and special dessert to take care of. The special appetizer was four oysters with a spinach and parmesan risotto and the desserts was angel food cake with white chocolate mousse and a strawberry. Because we were well prepped, service went smoothly. I trained a new person on the pantry station as well. He is from Johnson and Wales, but because he is still in school, he only works weekends. I think he will be a great addition to The Mooring because he is very enthusiastic to learn the most he can and to stay busy.
By this time, I have trained on the Hot App station and been the hot apps person two days, but one of the days was ridiculously slow, so I really didn’t get much practice. This past Monday was a little busier, so I worked on the timing of putting appetizers up. For the most part, when a ticket comes in, we fire the appetizer, unlike an entree which waits. It is only when the ticket is AS ENTREE that we have to time it with the saute and grill stations. I have also been practicing the timing for when I have two or three items that take differing amounts of time so that they are both hot and fresh. There is definitely a lot less prep than the pantry station, but I can see how it would be very busy in the summer. I hope to pick up more shifts on the Hot Apps station so that I can become really good at it, since it is my only hot line experience. As it gets busier, it will be great practice for me to learn how to multitask. As for working the pantry station, I have definitely developed a rhythm and flow. I really enjoy working that station because there is always something to do for prep—sometimes too much to do! For both the Hot App and Pantry station, it is important to have back ups and to be aware of what the station has and does not have. For example, the Hot Apps station was running low on caramelized onions, but because it was not needed immediately, I just sliced the onions for the station so that when they are needed, the person working the station already has sliced onions.
The other day, Chef Adi and I were talking about how I will be picking up a shift as pastry/night prep once a week. I am really excited about that because I love making desserts, so I guess he saw that. Maybe this will give me a chance to come up with new dessert ideas too. I then mentioned that I like getting experience on the hot line and that I want as much practice and experience as possible by training on saute as well. He said that the best way to do that was to stay past my extern date (August 3rd) and to stay until the end of September or even through October. I only have three months left, so by the time I learned the saute station and became good at it, I would be leaving. Previously, the only reason I wanted to return on August 18th to CIA was to be with my stream of students because we worked well as a group. But if it means learning more and staying at The Mooring, I am strongly considering staying. I really love working at The Mooring and want to continue to learn as much as I can. But Adi assured me that there is no rush to making a decision, so in the mean time, I am taking each day by day and learning what I can. I am pretty sure that I will want to stay longer than August 3rd, I just need to make sure there is a date in October that I can return to school. I love Newport, I love The Mooring, I love my externship!

Look Ma, I'm cooking!

So a few days ago, I moved to the Hot Apps station, so I actaully cook now. I really like this station because there is a LOT less prep than the pantry and we arent responsible for nearly as many items (pantry had salads, raw bar, and desserts). There isnt much room to move around, so once two people are on that station, it must be crazy! It is a little harder to manage the station though time wise because the things take time to cook, rather than on pantry where you make a salad and its done. And you have to time things to be ready with everything else (unlike pantry where you can make a salad and let it sit.) Its really a matter of understanding the items on the station, like understanding how long everything takes. So if I got an order for the Stuffies (stuffed clams) and crab cakes, I would get a pan hot for the crab cakes then put the stuffies in the oven (they just have to heat up). Then i would sear the cakes in the hot oil and put them in the oven to warm with the stuffies. While they are cooking, I would set the plates up with the greens and sauces. Seven minutes later, I would take both out and plate them. It takes practice. I trained on the station for three days (but all three days it was pretty slow, so I didn't get to practice much). I was looking forward to being on the station alone today so that I could practice, but it was SOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOWWW!!!! I don't think I cooked more than seven items (5 of them came in at once).
Because it was so slow, me and the other intern (she is also from CIA) made a special dessert. We took chocolate ice cream and added graham cracker crumbs, marshamallows, and hershey bars. We pressed it into a graham cracker crust and drizzled caramel sauce over the top. OMG it was SOOOOOO good!!!!

Right Answer, Audrey.

APRIL 26, 2009. A day that I will remember for a while, only because it was absolutely GORGEOUS outside, and I was inside a kitchen all day. We kind of knew it would be wicked busy for the days leading up to it. The restaurant opened its patio seating (extra 100 seats i think) and we had TONS of reservations. Plus it was Sunday, a beautiful day to be outside. The day went somewhat smoothly. We were prepped, so we never ran out of food (except for a temporary hold on littleneck clams, also called 86'ing the littlenecks, thats a term in the kitchen for when something is out of stock) we put them back on the menu about an hour later when the daily shellfish order arrived. And we only got minorly set back with salads and raw bar orders. It became confusing as to which salads we had made and which ones we hadn't. We actually waited until there were no salads in the window and until servers had to call for them so we would know which ones we had done and not done.
I was so ready to go home at 4 pm when my shift was over, until Adi (the chef, but we call him Adi, not chef, its a very informal kitchen!), calls out, "Hey Audrey, you wanna stay a few extra hours?" The way he asked was pretty much saying, "Audrey you are staying a few extra hours, thats not choice." And because I had tons of adrenaline running through me, I yelled back, "sure! I would love too! (but there was also someone working there that I have a tiny crush on, so I was okay with staying, SHHHHH.) Then one of the food runners looks at me and just laughs probably thinking, "that was stupid, hahahahahaha." And then I look at Adi after I gave him my answer and he looks at the sous chef and says, "she gave the right answer," almost like it was a way to test my value as an intern....either way, I only stayed 3 extra hours, no big deal, but I was tired. I think I'm on his good side though now, or he just knows that I have a hard time saying no to anything and now he will take advantage of it. I'll report back later.