Wearing the Coat!

Okay so let me start off by saying...I'm sorry I'm so bad at including pictures on this blog! My digital camera no longer takes a charge buuttt since I've been getting a few hours of overtime pay each week I plan on buying one soon...

So last night I got to "wear the coat." I thought was a funny expression given that it was SO hot standing on the hot side of the line that I would have much rather been "wearing the bathing suit" while making everyone's dinner...but that's just me. We were really slow for a Thursday night so I asked Chef if I could learn the hot side of the line, to which he responded with a sinister chuckle...color me nervous! It also didn't help that we had a table come in for a late lunch so I had like...20 minutes to set up the line for dinner. Talk about an adrenaline rush!

I found working the hot side difficult. Chad, I know you are reading this and I have to say I have a whole new level of respect for anyone who could do that for a living. My first ticket had two fish entrees on it, grilled mahi mahi with orzo pasta that was tossed in a broken olive vinaigrette (basically a tapenade with too much olive oil), seared local squash, cold pepper salad (basically a panzanella but had sliced banana peppers in place of the bread) and the broken olive vinaigrette as garnish. The whole idea of this dish was to use local ingredients..."farm to table" as some would say. The mahi was actually caught wild here in Myrtle Beach and delivered to the restaurant that morning and the squash, banana peppers and tomatoes were all locally grown as well.

I learned the first thing to do was to start cooking the proteins, because they usually take the longest. Chef taught me that when you have fish on the grill, you know it's ready to be flipped when you can lift it with your spatula and it doesn't stick at all. Once you start the protein, you move onto the item that takes the next longest to cook...the squash, which we just did on the flat-top griddle for some color. The orzo was already cooked so that really just involved reheating it in a skillet and dressing it in the vinaigrette until it was heated through. I've been practicing my technique with the frying pan...you know how chefs can look all cook because they can toss things in frying pans without using any utensils? Yeah, well I'm getting there.

Once all of my ingredients were cooked I was ready to plate. I was feeling pretty confident about all this until three more tickets fired through and then I had to start on those. What was most difficult about working the hot side for me was to think so far ahead so that when the servers told me their tables were ready for the meals, I already had a head start on the dish. Now I know what the other line cooks mean when they're always talking about prioritizing and not knowing which things to start with and which things they can hold off until the end. That's the great part of being an intern though, I don't have as much responsibility on my shoulders so my mistakes are more forgivable. One of them told me the trick to being efficient on the line is to work as diligently as possible while cooking the food, but taking the extra minute or two to plate the dish. We all know, WE EAT WITH OUR EYES! To put it lightly, by the end of the night I was REALLY missing my cold side and getting to assemble salads and soups. I'm not sure the hot side was right for me, maybe with more time and more practice, but I'm looking forward to impressing my friends with my new fish-grilling skills!

Do you guys want me to blog about IFT and my culinary experience in New Orleans? I know it really has nothing to do with my internship...but I do plan on eating lots of cool Cajun cuisine while I'm there...

Bon appetit!
JoAnna