2nd Day - Front of House - Ventana

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.

1st Day - Front of House - Ventana

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?

Back of House - getting caught up

Grill - wasn't busy at all - thank god! I prepped four portobellas ahead of time - just in case.

Three orders of lamb and one order of ribs! That's it, I admit, the grill and I need some work...

Sauté - Is a busy station! I was much busier on sauté than the grill! I had no issues with the trout! Look out, I can sauté fish! The same trout dish was very similar to my International Trout final!

But sautéed chicken... I know how, yet it still stressed me out! I watch Hell's Kitchen! I never wanna serve under cooked chicken! I really enjoyed the sauté station! And out of all the dishes, I believe you get more for your money when ordering the chicken!

Garde Manger - did this station twice and again, I enjoyed this station!

Dessert - thank god I couldn't afford the P and B certificate at LCB! As much as I love baking and as much as I loved our 14 days in Pastry and Baking... I've realized, it's not for me! It took me two stages in two different directions to come to this conclusion. OMG, I never wanna be that sticky! Not even in the real world - BUT, if needed I can step up and preform as a pastry/baker - dessert plater person.

Lead - oh what fun, that is after I called to fire the first tickets...before they received their salads! Sorry, hope they enjoyed their food! LOL!! Once I was shown the correct way - it was fun!

My final day back of house was on the fryer - I enjoyed the fryer.

It was also my last official day of wearing my Le Cordon Bleu uniform - a bitter sweet day.

Next week I move to the front of house - with a white button down and a black tie!

12th Day - Ventana

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!

6th Day - Ventana

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...

5th Day - Ventana

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!

3rd Day - Ventana

So, today a couple of people were absent and I was going to be sent to the grill – and just as I’m asking the person from yesterday for help, I got sent to amuse bouche. Amuse what? OMG, I do not think on the fly – I can’t, yet. Amuse Bouche, simply means, one bite, or small bite. Sounds easy enough, right? Again, my mind was not wrapping around this one bite thing! I know I asked, what is here to whip up with a concerned look on my face. Please don’t take the looks on my face as…I’m lost. I’m not; it is just me processing ideas. I’m really ok; I’m not giving you a “lost dumbass in the kitchen look”… I’ll figure it out. I know, the looks on my face have scared off a few chefs – they ran from the kitchen screaming, and none has heard from them since. I’m guessing they are sitting on a bamboo lounge sipping on a mai tai on an island far from here. I wish they’d reply to my friend request on facebook!

Today, I had to whip up an amuse bouche – so on the fly, I came up with Italian sweet sausage, goat cheese with heavy cream, sautéed red onions ( I should have pickled them…) minced parsley and zested lemon. I don’t eat sausage, so I have no firsthand experience on if they tasted as well as everyone said. But, thank you to everyone that did taste test them for me!