this week, saterday the 8th 2011

This week was a good one, Fryday was super busy and I got to work the line a little bit, but I also helped with the party that the chefs table was hosting, overall we had about 160 people on. They best part happened after service though. I was talking to Vance and he was saying how the hours where waying on him, he works lunch and dinner service every day with only a two hour break, 6 days a week. It is not hard to see how you could get burnt out being worked liked that, So I talked to chef peter as he was leaving, as I asked if i could "Lighten the load" A large smile came across his face and said a very enthusiastic yes, and seemed very happy. So it looks like I may be getting to work the line on more of a schedule, awwwwww...yeah. I am hoping that the more work I do on the line the sooner I will get paid.

Saturday, I was not needed as much, but there was a catering for a BYU football game, so I went to that with chef troy. I gave vance a ride home because I had the car, other then that It was a basic night.

My First Week At The Chef's Table

Well the first week was eventful (considering that it has been me first real look into a real restaurant).
There was just one little hiccup that first day, I was supposed to a statement from my parents saying that they would not sue the restaurant if/when I hurt myself, I was just planning on having them write something on a spiral sheet, but on my way there my father that that it was a better idea to run to his office (with ten minutes till I was supposed to be there) and wrote something that seem to come from a lawyer. by the time we got out of his office we had five minutes left, luckily my father drives a slick black jaguar and was able to speed me there, right on time. when I opened the door the first person that I talked to was one of the chefs, troy. they kitchen was one of the smallest I have seen, with about two and a half feet in between the line and the pass, and a small back room for prep. after talking with troy about what I was expecting and about what I was going to do. after talking with troy he handed me off to a man named mark (or Marco), He was in charge of pantry. I was helping prep mostly, but I also paid close attention to the dishes.
After about the clock hit 4:00 Mark left for school (he attends the UVU culinary arts program). soon after the other pantry chef Vance arrived. I continued to prep and clean, still just getting used to the kitchen and the way it works. I left at about six - six thirty, due to the lack of things to prep by the end of the day.

I went in every day at about 9:00 - 9:30 AM, leaving around six. I later met the other chefs.
there is Romero, a Hispanic man who works the main line.
there is also Cameron, he works the grill, For some reason I feel that he is the one that i need to impress, don't know why though.
there is Emilio the dishwasher, he is from Mexico and dose not speak a lot of English, listening to him talk to the other chefs I have picked up a little more Spanish, but they are all insults.
and finally there is peter, the other chef and owner, the first thing he dose when he comes in is greet everyone in the restaurant enthusiastically, he is a very happy person and seems to be a great chef.

The kitchen dynamic is strange to say the lest (in my opinion that is a good thing) and seemingly random times the kitchen staff may make some sort of animal sounds or cartoonish laughter. There is also a surprisingly lot of ass-grabbing, between the men. I guess the small kitchen dose stuff to you, it is all playful though (no homo).

I have loved my first week at the chefs table, i am so lucky to have gotten this.

FINALLY!!!

Yesterday was the first day of august and at the beginning of the summer the Chefs Table told me to call back in august. So i picked up the phone at a slow hour of the day and called, but the chef was unlivable. The waiter said that he wanted my contact info and that was probably the best news i have herd all summer, not that that ment anything, but the face that they didn't say no, I gave then my e-mail (witch is the best way to contact me due to me not having a cellphone.)

Today I woke up to do the thing I hate most in this world (and if you read my last post you would know what I am talking about, but if you did not I am talking about yard work) so after I got home I was pretty tired and a little bit angry, I picked up to liters of Cokeacola and walked to my computer and as always I checked my face book and e-mail, as I was looking threw my e-mails I say that a chef troy had e-mailed me, and this is what it said:

Ethan,
Sorry I didn't have time to talk to you today. I would however like to have you come by the restaurant so I can meet you. I think you would have a great learning experience here at CT.
Would this be an official internship? or just you bettering yourself skills wise?


Call me on Tuesday if you get a chance.

Thanks!
Troy

I was slap jawed, the chefs table! one of the only fine dining restaurant in the Provo/Orem area sounds like they want me to work with them! yes! My emotions instantly turned into joy and excitement!
I could not get My hopes up to high though. I read the e-mail at about 1:30 PM, I did not want to call in the middle of lunch service. so I waited till 3:00 PM. I was almost instantly connected to chef troy, And the words that I wanted to hear most was said in that phone call "you can start tomorrow". I was amazed, his only concern was insurance stuff, and all I have to do get my parents signatures saying that it is not the chefs tables fault if I get hurt.
So I start tomorrow at 9:30 AM! I will have a lot to tell you about when I get home.

so in summary: The summer just got better.



It was like a wonderful late birthday present (which was a couple of days ago).

Sun, Yard work and kitchen Withdrawals.

As it sounds I am still unemployed, actually... worse, I am doing yard work, YARD WORK. I have yet to find anything that I hate more then yard work. I am doing it so I can take that internship with chef Kieffer, but that has come to a standstill, he was supposed to send me some insurance forms, but that was about a month ago we have not come in contact seance. This summer has made me depressed to say the least, It looked like that pizzeria 712 was looking real good, I got some face time with the sue chef and he sounded really optimistic about letting me work there, but when I call the head chef he told me to call back late august. I have even gone to almost every single Japanese restaurant in Provo/Orem and told them I will work for free, but still nothing. I really want to quit doing yard work, but I am afraid that chef Kieffer will contact me, but if I have no money I will not be able to go, so I continue to persevere looking for any way to work. as I said: I am having kitchen withdrawals.

So in summary: This summer is turning out pretty bad.

My personal "Farm to Fork"

In my last post I said that not much was going on for me, but then the next day something did happen. well... I have chickens in my backyard and I love to use there eggs for all of my delicious food, but every year we get a rooster in our new batch of chicks. it had been a year sense we got a new rooster and out of no where my dad said this: "Lets kill the rooster today". At first I thought that he was joking, but after a couple of seconds I realized that he was most defiantly not. I was okay with the idea because we had done it in the past (I had not personally done it). By the time I caught the rooster, my father had already gotten a large pot of water boiling (to help feather it). we had two roosters and my dad had "Chopped" the first one, and then it was my turn. I was holding it by its feet, after a couple of seconds it became docile, I laid it's neck against the log, it did not take long for me to raise the hatchet and to hack at it's neck, but it did not just cut threw, I had to hack about five times until the neck was only being held on by some skin. I looked down at my apron and it was covered in blood. Some people say it was odd that I named the roster before I killed it, But I guess that is just how I roll.
After that I feathered it, took the guts out (I will spare you the disgusting details) and Broke it down, It was amazing, I was chasing it around the yard a half a hour ago, now it was just two breasts, two legs, two thighs and two wings. Now I was out of Ethan the Butcher mode and was in Chef Dutcher mode. I had decided to brine it over night (so it would get extra moist). I looked to see what is in my pantry, and decided that I should make Italian herb Chicken breasts, and buffalo wings. the wings where fine, defiantly not my best work, but the breasts where great, the bread crumbs where home made and the herbs I put in was delicious, I even fried it in clarified butter. My father thought that it was wonderful.
I fell that doing this is important, I always knew where my food came from, but there is a whole new depth of respect for my food now.



Me right before I Chopped "Rudy"

Never take yourself too seriously.

I have not posted in a little bit because not a lot has been happening, the general, going to culinary school, cooking dinner, so on and so forth, but if there is any thing a can post on it is the best/strangest time I have ever gone looking for a job. In a nutshell myself and a couple of other students (from my high school) burst into a restaurant dressed like pirates... yes I know, but hear me out. It all started at school we where doing a skit about pirates and afterwords one of my frends yelled out "LETS GO GET A JOB A PIRATE ISLAND PIZZA!" and at the time seemed like a great idea, but I was not open yet. so we waited till the restaurant opened (acting like pirates the whole time) and drove over there. when we got there we opened the door and all yelled "AARRRRR", the hostess seemed surprised and amused, I walked up to her, looked at here and said "Arrrrr ye hire'n" and that was when she started to laugh. they did say that they where taking applications, so we grabbed some a left because none of us remembered our SS#. we we came back we did pretty much the same thing, made a lot of noise, dropped the applications off and left as I said before, Never take yourself too seriously.

Internship, It is looking good.

Well, today is Sunday I met with Jason Kieffer and it went great! We mostly just talked about what sort of things that I would be doing if I do intern there. It was great, The cafe was all about using fresh ingredients from local sources and making it from scratch, even the stocks and to be truthful MATC dose not exactly make all of there stuff from scratch, lots of frozen breads and pastries and having somewhere that has the same philosophy as I do is wonderful. I am extremely exited for this to work out, but there is always a downside... Gas. If this dose work out then I will be doing yard work, so I can do more work, but lucky Chef Kieffer talked about maybe making it so that I can get paid a small amount for working up there, And if that will pay for gas money, then I am ecstatic! It looks like I will be starting in the summer after school starts. I will post more as I find out more.
But today I had another adventure, as I was trying to get home I got lost, which I am notorious for. long story short I was in Utah... and I ended up in Wyoming. it was not good. now hopefully my parents wont read this because they don't know that I got that lost.

So that was my day, I am so happy I am finally moving forward, I have felt like I have been floating in a stagnant pool for a while. My culinary career starts now.