"I'm not shy when it comes to pie. Or any other desserts, for that matter."

My boss said that. A friend of his brought by pie this weekend and J wanted to share it with his staff today. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum.

Speaking of this weekend, it was our Grand Opening! Wahoo! After today, I worked about 50 hours over the last 5 days. We had over 200 reservations this weekend. Wow. Yesterday and today we were playing catch-up. But we're getting back to normal after our produce and proteins arrived today. (I got to inventory and sign for those deliveries. Exciting! Of course, I did have to put them away too. Not as exciting)

For the Grand Opening we had a traditional Chinese Lion Dance (Similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svz-n3QRymI ). We had two dragons that danced and marched through our restaurant. Fortunately, they didn't eat all of our food before we served dinner. Whew. Really cool.

Yesterday I was making a lot of filling for our Springrolls and our Potstickers. I made around 105 Springrolls and almost 1oo Potstickers. I tried finding a youtube clip of someone using two butcher's cleavers to basically grind up meat like I did yesterday. Chef M was laughing at me a little bit, but at least I was trying!

Speaking of Chef M, he made french fries today, just to snack on. He told me that he had a craving for McDonald's, but this would do. I'll say!

Going back a couple of weeks, TR was a part of a wine festival at the nearby Event Center. We brought three dishes to offer guests who were walking around visiting wine, food, and dessert booths. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet a couple wine sellers, other cooks and chefs from various local restaurants, and a lot of the people who've come in to the restaurant. Between the two owners and I, we served over 500 people! We were told that we had the longest line at the event. We heard nothing but good reviews from many people. Some people even came back for seconds!

Between that event and preparing hors d'oeuvres for Grand Opening weekend, Chef J told me that I might have a bright future in catering. An interesting thought, to be sure. An idea to put on the back burner, as it were. Or even a Sterno (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterno).

A final thought.
You know you're a chef when:
You can peel a potato with a chef's knife;
You can invent a delicious dish on the spot, using basically leftovers; or
You can work in a kitchen for 16+ years without cutting yourself but once.

I'm not there yet, but I've got some goals to shoot for.

Peace, Love, and Good Food,

K.

"What's the Portebella of your argument?" or My idea to be the Next Foodnetwork Star (C): Vicarious Living, a Day in the Life of a Prep Cook

Hello faithful readers!

Welcome back to Vicarious Living, my own reality blog show. In this episode, follow me through dinner with the head chef, adventures with desserts, and more delicious food, as I work (and eat!) my way through one Modern Asian Bistro's menu.

My Writing 101 professor at PLU was a vegetarian. She would often ask what the meat of our argument was. Then we reminded her that she probably doesn't have meat to her argument, but rather veggies of some sort. She decided that since she liked Portebella burgers. There you go. I was slicing mushrooms today and was reminded of that. Funny. To me at least.

In the next few days or weeks, I will hopefully be covering the following:
-New spices
-Experimenting with donuts
-Asian currys and Latino moles (basically the same throughout the respective cultures, but vary on recipe/cook/region/etc...)
-My favorite color of today: Red. Curry Red. (Bond. James Bond. Well, I think I'm clever...)
-Andy is to Billy as Kevin is to Kendall
-Moon Cake, with an egg yolk baked into the middle!
-Things that my boss said were beautiful: salmon cakes, corn fritter batter, dumplings, sliced mushrooms (Oh, and by the way, don't wash mushrooms with water. Rather, wipe them clean with a clean towel.)
-Whatever else comes to mind.

Often when my shift ends in the evenings, my boss makes me dinner. Tonight I had Beef Panaeng, a delicious beef dish made with the red curry. Yum! Since it was a slow evening, after cooking for me, he came and sat down to join me. We chatted, told a couple stories, and I told him about my favorite Mexican restaurant near campus. Fun times.

I messed up two batches of Creme Caramels this week. But it's all okay now. And I made the Passion Fruit Curl that goes along with the donuts. Fun. Oh, by the way, a curl, in this sense, is uncooked custard. Crazy.

Food is good. And food with friends and family is even better. I think you'd agree. Until next time, this is Vicarious Living, with Kendall your new, learning, hungry Prep Cook.

-K.