I spent my whole day at school today.
I was Bonnie’s buser again, today. I also helped deliver plates for Joe. AND I served a guy first – and I admit my mistake, but I blame Joe! LOL! I was able to step up and be server for Bonnie while she fabricated her chicken for a grade. Today the chairs got polished.
The Eta Sigma Delta Honor Society Induction was today.
Today, I’m a buser – I decided to hook it up with Bonnie. We worked well together. We had the six top and it went smooth! Busing wasn’t bad at all – clearing and resetting the tables. We also prep the tables for night time service – replacing the sugar caddies with the candles.
BEGIN RANT
I really wish my classmates would just show up every day! They are paying for this education! I know some classmates have excuses and I know things come up. BUT – all too often…the excuses are, I needed a Halloween costume, it’s my birthday, etc… I’m here every day, actually, I’ve never missed a single day. I do what is expected of me, every day! I also have to do what is expected of YOU when YOU decide it wasn’t necessary to show up! I am dedicated, you are not! I don’t care that you have waited on tables for years and years – yes, word gets around Ventana.
END RANT
I’m a server again, today. I wish I could remember how today went. I’m old, what do ya want! LOL
Today I’m a server, serenity now, serenity now. Remember, I have never worked in a restaurant. I wasn’t nervous, if fact that is what worried me. My first table was a family of four. I fumbled a few times – trying to leave a spoon for the muscles they ordered. The father had his blackberry in the exact spot. I made a joke and said, this wasn’t covered during our pop quiz – they laughed. They ordered dessert and left a tip. I also think they snaked my pen…
Today we prepped for the Ronald McDonald House. We also prepped for our BOH. I needed to leave early for an interview at 3M. The interview went well.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve staged at a few places. I actually applied for two pastry externships that I thought would be interesting. I’m not going to use the names of the restaurants. But, here’s a little something I will share about them.
The 1st one was ok, and I mean just ok – I was told I would be doing something completely different on the phone and when I got there…I made muffins! I don’t know about you, but I’ve made a ton of muffins in my life – and I can follow a recipe, when it is right! That’s right; I found a mistake on their recipe! I got to mix muffins with a hand whisk, a medium size mixer and the mac daddy mixer…that should have been on wheels (my back is still suffering!) The kitchen was unorganized – that’s not a good thing for anyone that suffers from OCD. I had to move my bowls several times to different tables during the four long hours I was there. Why? Well, because I don’t work there and I was in the way. I wasn’t impressed with this bakery – actually I was horrified!
And the 2nd place is a well known restaurant here – everyone wants to stage or extern with them. That is everyone but me; I will not be intimidated! I was told by the person I was staging with that “they don’t like to see you leave on time!” - Well excuse me, I was asked if I could be there from 9am-1pm. Not, can you be here 9am until the sun goes down. He also went on to say, “you need to show more of a commitment, before they’ll accept you as the extern!” That translates to…you need to stage here every day for the next three weeks and they still may not accept you as the extern. And yes, as you may have guessed, when you stage, it is free work for that restaurant. And this extern was an unpaid externship, too! And the icing on the top of this stage was when it was time for me to leave, and the person I was staging with says, “Let me see if the chef wants to talk to you before you leave” – but – “stay here, he’s weird about people approaching him?” Ok, so now the “chef” doesn’t want to be approached. The person I’m working with says, “No, he’s good!” I walk over there to pick my bag up, and I say good bye to him – and I wanted to add KMA. Maybe someday I’ll tell you who this person is –
So, that is two different stages I did – and I feel like I wasted my time! Oh, I didn’t waste their time, because they got a lot of work out of me for free. I’ll never see those hours again! ha
Thursday and Friday, I was the back waiter in Ventana. I was in control of the tea, coffee, cokes, and bread. We were not too busy on Thursday, but Friday, kicked our ass! We had no reservations and it looked like it would rain all day. I had to open several bottles of wine – have I mentioned that my thumb has been acting up and opening wine with a jacked thumb hurts! I enjoyed being the back waiter, it was just busy enough.
I started off as the host – we were busy today…a lot of walk-ins! For never having worked in a restaurant…I think I did pretty well. And thankfully the phone never rang.
Today was our first official day as front of the house. I’m now wearing a white button down and a black tie. Our restaurant is closed on Monday’s. So today we watched a short video on the front of house operations. The video was interesting – except I have questions… Why doesn’t LCB have teaching videos? And probably because the video was from the CIA, they serve from the right, right?
Today we held our first banquet – something called Student (something of other…I’ll ask and update to correct it) LOL!! – This is a time that the new students come in the restaurant and enjoy the food production we prepared. It was so sweet to see so many excited faces, newbie’s to Le Cordon Bleu, we were those excited faces not too long ago. We are still excited! Being a part of the Le Cordon Bleu family has been an extreme pleasure for me. We’ve worked so hard to be here in the restaurant. Today we heard again, how many students make it this far, I think the number is something like 60% make it to Ventana. I know we had six drop from my class alone. We were also reminded if you show up for class, you will pass. Listen to those words – show up, you are paying for this education! You miss so much when you are absent! And trust me, this coming from someone who hasn’t missed a single day – but had friends miss days, due to all types of issues. They usually missed productions that were part of our final practical!
Yesterday was a huge prep day –
I made the rice pilaf for the banquet – two full hotel pans. And in the process managed to burn my fingers – on both hands! Yes, I was paying attention, but for some reason my mind still thinks that certain handles are still ok to touch, even if they are IN.THE.OVEN! Making rice pilaf is easy – and it is something we made a lot of while we were in the kitchens during our class productions. But, usually not in this amount! LOL
I volunteered to serve the Tomato Soup – it was served in white coffee cups with a crouton topped off with pesto. It was very simple, yet very elegant.
At the end of the service, one student – only one student walked over and shook our hands and told us that he very much enjoyed the food…even though he did not like tomato soup. He was very polite!
We laughed so hard today in Ventana – we’ve all been discussing where we’d like to extern. I admit, that I did start this conversation – but I didn’t mean for it to go in the direction it went. Yes, it was funny! I started off the conversation by saying I’d like to extern at Hooters, and well – it went downhill fast after that! I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time!! I’m gonna miss my new AM Ventana friends!
I just wonder if anyone from Le Cordon Bleu has ever applied to extern at Hooters, Twin Peaks or the Landing Strip...
It is Friday, our first week in Ventana is complete! And tonight, we're going to eat dinner at Ventana. We surprised our PM friends - had a great time! The food was wonderful and so was the service!
