The Chefs at the Capital Hotel are the most respected people on the premises as they are given respect by the internal and external customers. The term "Chef" is used more often than the name of the chef, except amongst themselves. This being said I believe my instructor/supervisor for the banquet kitchen was Chef Mark. Immediately I was put to work cutting pita chips in half to prep them for frying. Afterward I fried them to make the chips. I never once felt as if I was being made to do something minuscule or unimportant/away from what was needed. I talked with the other cooks, to see what they did with their time off. I found that the general answer was "sleep". This was just a defensive answer they were giving me; they later revealed what they really did in their free time. Turns out they are normal functioning members of society. This kitchen was the most diversified group that I have ever seen. The Capital has done well to get such a staff together.
My second day I had a significantly different experience from the first. I ,more or less, chose from which of the events the banquet staff was hosting that evening I'd be working by making the 50 salads to go with it. I cut the lettuce plated it, cooked and cut the bacon that went on top of the salad. Then I sliced the cherry tomatoes that I then strategically placed on the salad. Next I was asked to get the salad dressings for the salads from the CBG, Capital Bar and Grill; I worked there later. When asked if they had the dressing they told me I'd have to make it myself. I was given a recipe and sent on my way. The things I needed were literally everywhere but where I needed them. I spent an hour looking for the things that the recipe called for. When it was all said and done though, I have made ranch and blue cheese dressings from scratch. Then came the actual dinner. I was working with Tiffany for the evening at a high school reunion. We were the two cooks in charge of the kitchen. She created a blueberry lemon sauce to cover the grilled chicken that Chef had prepared the outside of for us. I popped the vegetables in the oven along with the chicken, to actually cook the inside. When the time to plate it came along the food flowed from the pans onto the plates in a wonderfully simple manner and we created our masterpiece for the night. Our guests ate every single morsel.
Capital Bar and Grill
When beginning work at the CBG, Chef Zach was my supervisor and each day he had a list of things that I would prepare. Knowing I would be doing prep work for the entirety of these two days I went a bought myself some good knives so that I wouldn't have to continue to borrow from other cooks. For my first day the list from Chef included, Pickled Beets, Slicing aged meats into super thin slivers, Cutting and weighing blue cheese, Beer cheddar, and Goat cheese into 1 oz portions. Other prep was done, these are just the major items.
On day two I did something special. I suggested that instead of throwing away the pineapple cores that we fry them and sell them as a bar food. Upon this suggestion the line cook, who sadly I can remember everything about him except his name, prepared them and we had the servers try the product. Their response was very positive. They told me I'd fit in just fine around here. This was the second thing that happened on wednesday. First, Chef had me prepare potato cakes. The big-time consumer for my night was the prep for the beer mustard. I converted a recipe to 20 times it's original quantity. As part of that I cracked and separated egg whites from 140 yolks. I'm afraid most of the prep work is quite boring otherwise I'd share the intimate details here with you. All-in-all this was a positive experience and my respect for kitchen work has only intensified.
*After every picture taken my hands were washed, therefore not many pictures were taken; they interrupted my work!
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