First of the Season Strawberry
Yesterday was absolutely sweltering. It’s like summer came early… beautiful for spending the day at the beach but miserable in a kitchen that generates heat, traps heat, and absorbs heat from outside. I was whisking butter on the hot line during prep and Fish Guy teased that I was melting faster than the butter. It was intense. Everyone, Chef included, found excuses to go to or work in the walk-in, our only access to sweet, cold relief.
Prep was relatively light. Tuesdays are hit or miss; whomever covers for me on Sundays and Mondays never ends up leaving a prep list, so I spend the first few minutes inspecting my lowboy fridge and the walk-in to check on the status of my mise, looking for things to do. I decided to make a full recipe of chicken liver mousse terrines and poached potatoes for making a salmon terrine the next day. Luckily I remembered the shortage of the smoked salmon terrine because I had texted my order to Sous Chef J on Monday to ask for the potatoes.
Service was surprisingly busy today, at least for me. I had eight charcuterie boards, more than I had all of last week and more than I get on the average Saturday night. Even Chef had to laugh every time he saw one of those tickets come in. “It’s a Charcuterie Day!” he announced. Despite the influx of orders, he didn’t yell at me once; somehow I managed to deliver my food in a timely manner every ticket. After the first four orders, I almost ran out of drippings but luckily made more during a brief lull. The new batch had just barely set when I had another charc board on order. Perfect timing!
I’m not looking forward to prep today (Wednesday) as I have a ton of work to do. I’m having an order of duck breasts delivered to start marinating the next batch of duck & walnut pate terrines. Plus, the smoked salmon terrine always takes me a long time. Oy. On top of that, there are two garnishes that I need to replenish – the balsamic poached pears and the orange marmalade. Luckily those two are a bit lower priority and can be pushed to tomorrow if needed. Honey Bunny pointed out that Wednesdays really are Hump Days for me, as I have the Late Night shift also. It’s going to be a long day…
