Thursday May 19th, 2011
Today I got to the kitchen at 8 and was pretty excited yet nervous about what was yet to come: serving dinner at Mike Henriques's house for his family, his advisory as well as the Annex girls. I started by looking at the recipes and then gathering the ingredients for them. I kept coordinating with Betsy to see what ingredients I needed from the kitchen and what she helped me buy. For the dinner, I did beef stroganoff for an entree and my grandmother's angel food "crunch" cake for dessert. That was what I originally planned at least. However, I found out that one of the members in Mike's advisory was a vegetarian and one member of the Annex girls had a gluten intolerance. Therefore, I had to make two extra dishes. A lemon pasta dish for the vegetarian (and Betsy who also told me she didn't eat beef as I was cooking the stroganoff) and a chocolate pudding (it should've been but due to time restraints it turned out to be more of a chocolate drink) for the gluten intolerant girl. After I gathered the ingredients, I baked the cake so I wouldn't have to do it later (I'm so glad I did that in the morning). That took a couple of hours. After I did that I looked at the other recipes and prepared most of the ingredients. For example, for the stroganoff I had to have a dozen diced shallots (I used onions instead). So I took some onions and diced them up and put them in a container. I did this for most of the other ingredients. The things that had to do with measuring creams and butters, I left for later. As I was doing this, I couldn't do anything for today's lunch. The kitchen managed to get lunch out in good time. It was really good as well!
By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was at the Henriques's place preparing the sauce for the stroganoff. That didn't take very long, but by the time 5:30 came about, I was panicing like there was no tomorrow as dinner was suppose to start at 6. I finished the sauce for the stroganoff, started cooking the rice about a half hour ago and was doing the "crunch" topping for the cake. I still haven't cut the beef or started either the lemon pasta or the chocolate pudding!! Luckily, Mike and Betsy were around the kitchen and they saw that I was struggling. They immediately came to my aid and were extremely helpful in making sure the other tasks that I had to do were done. I only said three things but making the lemon pasta and the chocolate pudding requires many smaller steps such as boiling water and then the pasta for the lemon pasta or heating the cream for the pudding. It was kind of crazy at the end as we rushed to get everything done. In the end, dinner started around 6:30 (probably later.... sorry guys!!) but everyone said the stroganoff (or the pasta for some people) was really delicious. While everyone was having their entree though, I was in the kitchen finishing up the cake by whipping up some whipping cream and lavishing it on the cake topped with the crunch "dressing". That took a while too. By the time I was done with that, it was around 7:15. Everyone also said the cake (and the pudding for the person that had it) was delicious. I was extremely happy with the repetitive positive comments that people said to me as I sat down with them at the dinner table and ate my dinner. By the time I cleaned up, packed up and got back to my dorm, it was around 8:00 and I was extremely exhausted by the amount of work done this morning prepping and this afternoon/evening cooking. Who knew that my work day would last for around 12 hours!!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Week 2: May 16th-20th, 2011
Wednesday May 18th, 2011
When I got to the kitchen at 8 today, I was surprised to hear that Nate wanted to talk to me. So he pulls me aside and tells me to make a soup for lunch today. In my head I was like, "Is he crazy?! I've never made soup before." Not to mention the fact that I was also freaking out just because I had to make something for the school based on my own decision. Luckily I found a recipe in my Chinese cookbook that I had with me. It was called, "Cantonese Egg Flower Soup". I knew this was a classic Chinese soup that many Chinese people and foreigners enjoy. I went about getting and preparing the ingredients which didn't take that long. After that I began making my first ever soup! Before I knew it, I had a pot of decent looking liquid. When I went to try some of the soup, I discovered it was really salty. I tried to mix it with more water but to no avail. The soup just wouldn't be any less salty. I asked Nate and Kevin to try some and they said it was fine. I reluctantly went along with their judgement. I mean, they do have many more years of cooking experience than I do.
As I watched people pile food onto their plate during lunch I saw a couple of people try my soup. I was pretty nervous as to what people would say. To my surprise and delight, everyone said they liked the soup. I was extremely relieved when I heard that. My first ever soup was a success!! Yes!!
After lunch it was the usual routine. Helped Nancy and Deb clean the outside then helped Steve do some work. This time it was putting two pans of chickens onto bigger sheet pans. I also learned some interesting terminology from Erin and Steve. Though I think it would be inappropriate to write it up so yeah.... I guess what happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen.
When I got to the kitchen at 8 today, I was surprised to hear that Nate wanted to talk to me. So he pulls me aside and tells me to make a soup for lunch today. In my head I was like, "Is he crazy?! I've never made soup before." Not to mention the fact that I was also freaking out just because I had to make something for the school based on my own decision. Luckily I found a recipe in my Chinese cookbook that I had with me. It was called, "Cantonese Egg Flower Soup". I knew this was a classic Chinese soup that many Chinese people and foreigners enjoy. I went about getting and preparing the ingredients which didn't take that long. After that I began making my first ever soup! Before I knew it, I had a pot of decent looking liquid. When I went to try some of the soup, I discovered it was really salty. I tried to mix it with more water but to no avail. The soup just wouldn't be any less salty. I asked Nate and Kevin to try some and they said it was fine. I reluctantly went along with their judgement. I mean, they do have many more years of cooking experience than I do.
As I watched people pile food onto their plate during lunch I saw a couple of people try my soup. I was pretty nervous as to what people would say. To my surprise and delight, everyone said they liked the soup. I was extremely relieved when I heard that. My first ever soup was a success!! Yes!!
After lunch it was the usual routine. Helped Nancy and Deb clean the outside then helped Steve do some work. This time it was putting two pans of chickens onto bigger sheet pans. I also learned some interesting terminology from Erin and Steve. Though I think it would be inappropriate to write it up so yeah.... I guess what happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Week 2: May 16th-20th, 2011
Tuesday May 17th, 2011
As I said in my previous blog, I was pretty tired at the end of the day. This caused me to inadvertently sleep through my original 8am start time. I instead got to the kitchen at 9am to start my day. The first thing I got to do was prepare the salsa for the fish- specifically haddock. The salsa had: chopped tomatoes, diced spring onions, ginger and onion. These ingredients were topped off with some garlic, salt and pepper. Shortly after I finished the salsa, I placed the haddock on a couple of trays and left it on the side for a while. As I was waiting for the time to past by, I learned how to clean the grill and then helped Nancy peel a large bowl of beets for the salad bar. Around 11:30, I put the haddock into the oven and cooked it for about ten minutes at around 300 degrees! As it was cooking I had a little taste of my salsa. I decided I wasn't happy with the taste as I thought it lacked something. When the fish was done, I also discovered that it was dry as well. So I figured I had to add something that would make the fish less dry and the salsa somehow tastier. I decided to add some lemon juice to the fish. This was a bold move as I could have potentially ruined the entire dish. I was confident with my decision though and proceeded to squeeze some lemon juice onto each piece of haddock. It was then topped off with the salsa. However just because a dish looks good doesn't mean that people will like it or eat it. I initially had fears that the fish wouldn't be eaten, as it wasn't one of the more popular dishes in the dinning hall. As lunch progressed though, the number of pieces of haddock grew smaller and smaller until by the time lunch was over, there were only a couple of pieces left. I was pretty satisfied with my efforts in trying to enhance the dish.
The afternoon was pretty much similar to my previous afternoons. I helped Nancy and Deb clean the main dinning room (I cleaned the hot line) then I helped Steve do a bit of prep work. I chopped some zucchini for veggie dish during dinner and diced some red onions. By the time I was finished with that it was 3:10. A pretty good day of work.
Last note: Due to my tiredness, I wasn't in the best of moods today. Barbara wanted me to write in my blog that I didn't smile today (not that I smile any other day). There you go Barb!! I hope you're satisfied with that... enough said.
As I said in my previous blog, I was pretty tired at the end of the day. This caused me to inadvertently sleep through my original 8am start time. I instead got to the kitchen at 9am to start my day. The first thing I got to do was prepare the salsa for the fish- specifically haddock. The salsa had: chopped tomatoes, diced spring onions, ginger and onion. These ingredients were topped off with some garlic, salt and pepper. Shortly after I finished the salsa, I placed the haddock on a couple of trays and left it on the side for a while. As I was waiting for the time to past by, I learned how to clean the grill and then helped Nancy peel a large bowl of beets for the salad bar. Around 11:30, I put the haddock into the oven and cooked it for about ten minutes at around 300 degrees! As it was cooking I had a little taste of my salsa. I decided I wasn't happy with the taste as I thought it lacked something. When the fish was done, I also discovered that it was dry as well. So I figured I had to add something that would make the fish less dry and the salsa somehow tastier. I decided to add some lemon juice to the fish. This was a bold move as I could have potentially ruined the entire dish. I was confident with my decision though and proceeded to squeeze some lemon juice onto each piece of haddock. It was then topped off with the salsa. However just because a dish looks good doesn't mean that people will like it or eat it. I initially had fears that the fish wouldn't be eaten, as it wasn't one of the more popular dishes in the dinning hall. As lunch progressed though, the number of pieces of haddock grew smaller and smaller until by the time lunch was over, there were only a couple of pieces left. I was pretty satisfied with my efforts in trying to enhance the dish.
The afternoon was pretty much similar to my previous afternoons. I helped Nancy and Deb clean the main dinning room (I cleaned the hot line) then I helped Steve do a bit of prep work. I chopped some zucchini for veggie dish during dinner and diced some red onions. By the time I was finished with that it was 3:10. A pretty good day of work.
Last note: Due to my tiredness, I wasn't in the best of moods today. Barbara wanted me to write in my blog that I didn't smile today (not that I smile any other day). There you go Barb!! I hope you're satisfied with that... enough said.
Week 1: May 9th-13th, 2011 Weekly Reflection
During my first week in the kitchen, I experienced a wide variety of jobs that were a part of kitchen life at Proctor. Although I was often involved in the making of many dishes (mostly preparation work) such as the pizza on Friday or the rice pilaf on Thursday’s Earth Day, I still did non-cooking related jobs such as cleaning the main dinning hall after lunch and cleaning utensils in the dish room. Those jobs as small as they are, are just as important (well not quite, but still pretty important) as cooking the food itself. If we didn’t clean the dinning hall, students and staff would be eating in a dirty dinning hall with leftover meats and other garbage strewn all over the tables or at the deli bar. For me at least, I would like to eat in a clean dinning hall as I’m sure most everyone would. From doing these jobs, I’ve learned the importance of teamwork. In a place such as a kitchen where everyone is trying to get things done to get meals out on time, teamwork is absolutely essential in getting everything done successfully. If you do your part, people are more than happy to help you when you are struggling.
I think the biggest eye opener for me this week was that the amount of work you put into preparing a dish is five times more than the time it takes for the dish to disappear in the dinning hall (most of the time). For example on Friday, I started work at 6:30 to make the dough for the pizza and took the last tray of pizzas out of the oven at 12:30. By 1:30, most of the 800 pieces of pizza were eaten. Watching all your hard work disappear in a flash really was a shock for me. As a student I probably would’ve never realized it took that long to make the pizzas. I would just come in, grab a couple of slices and eat. When people come and eat in the dinning hall, I hope they think about the amount of effort it takes for the kitchen staff to make all the food that they do before they complain that the food is terrible. Working in the kitchen has definitely made me more conscientious about not wasting food (not that I do waste food to begin with).
I think one of the benefits of being a student at Proctor and now an employee of the kitchen allows me to have a clear understanding of what the dinning hall food is like from the student’s point of view and the kitchen’s point of view. I know from sitting around kids in the dinning hall that many of them don’t like the food. Everyone has their own reasons, but it’s usually because the food looks disgusting. Whenever I hear someone say that I ask them, “Why do you judge the food based on what it looks like? You haven’t even tasted or smelled it yet!” The usual answer to this is, “Well, it still looks gross so I won’t try it.” Ever since I came to Proctor, I couldn’t understand why students are so narrow minded with the food in the dinning hall. I know it’s not five star cuisine, but for a small boarding school in New Hampshire I think the food is pretty good. Whenever people from home ask me what the food is like here, as an example I tell them we get eggs, pancakes, potatoes of some sort and other breakfast things, for lunch we get Sloppy Joe’s, pasta, pizza and for dinner we have fish (sometimes salmon), sometimes roast beef and sometimes Seafood Newberg. I also tell them we have a salad bar for lunch and dinner. By the time I’m done, they’re all usually shell shocked. How many boarding schools serve Seafood Newberg? Not many.
One of the frustrations I have experienced since starting senior project is that since I told the whole school in assembly I would be working in the kitchen, many people often come up and ask me “What’s for dinner?” or “When are they going to have___?” or “You should have____ more often.” This gets pretty annoying after awhile because although I work in the kitchen, I have no say in what the kitchen buys or extremely little say in what they make. I just do what I’m told to do and that’s that. People also have to remind themselves that there is a budget for food and that limits the kitchen to what they can prepare and serve.
For my first week in the kitchen, I would say I have a pretty good idea what it’s like working in a place like Proctor’s kitchen. Being able to do a variety of things certainly helps that. Next week, Nate and Kevin are allowing me to prepare a few dishes of my own for some of the meals. I still however have yet to decide what they will be, but it should be good nonetheless. Although I’m nervous about preparing my own food for the school, I think everyone will support me. I just hope the dishes live up to the students and the faculty/staffs’ expectation.
Overall, I liked what I’ve accomplished during my first week. From scooping cookies and peeling potatoes on Monday to chopping vegetables for the quiche and almost completely preparing the pizzas by myself by Friday, I’ve learned something new each day. As I begin my second week of senior project, I hope it will be as exciting as this first week.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Week 2: May 16th-20th, 2011
Monday 16th, 2011
Today would prove to be a pretty easy day. Since Nate has his day off today, I got to come in a bit later. When I came in at 9, I was assigned to Erin who was in charge of the cold foods such as salads and deli meats. She asked me to help her peel a panful of carrots and then peel and slice up another panful of cucumbers for the salad bar. By the time I was finished with that, it was around 11. Erin then asked me to help her cut about seven cantaloupes into small chunks for the fruit salad. This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed learning how to peel and chop a melon effectively. By the time I was done with this, it was already time for lunch.
After lunch I helped clean up the main dinning hall by cleaning the soda station. After this, I helped Steve peel 20 sweet potatoes and de-bone probably around 100 chicken drumsticks. This took an incredibly long time, but after about two hours I was finally finished with the drumsticks and for the day. Even though I didn't do much today, I was still really tired. I hope I have enough energy to continue tomorrow.
Today would prove to be a pretty easy day. Since Nate has his day off today, I got to come in a bit later. When I came in at 9, I was assigned to Erin who was in charge of the cold foods such as salads and deli meats. She asked me to help her peel a panful of carrots and then peel and slice up another panful of cucumbers for the salad bar. By the time I was finished with that, it was around 11. Erin then asked me to help her cut about seven cantaloupes into small chunks for the fruit salad. This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed learning how to peel and chop a melon effectively. By the time I was done with this, it was already time for lunch.
After lunch I helped clean up the main dinning hall by cleaning the soda station. After this, I helped Steve peel 20 sweet potatoes and de-bone probably around 100 chicken drumsticks. This took an incredibly long time, but after about two hours I was finally finished with the drumsticks and for the day. Even though I didn't do much today, I was still really tired. I hope I have enough energy to continue tomorrow.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Week 1: May 9th-13th, 2011
Thursday May 12th, 2011
I just realized that due to the website problems, I didn't post my blog for Thursday yet. Anyway here it is.
Earth Day!!! The day when everyone does something environmentally friendly! In the kitchen, we were busy preparing all vegetarian dishes (on the hot line that is). The first thing I did when I came in (after washing my hands) was to dice the onion, carrot and celery for the brown rice pilaf. After that I proceeded to cook the veggies and finished making the rice pilaf. The amazing thing about this dish was that it was entirely made by me. I followed Nate's instructions but he told me to add however many handfuls of different herbs I wanted. That was pretty amazing. I got to customize a dish for the whole school! The better thing about it was latter on during and after meal time, many people came up to me and told me the rice pilaf was very very good. I was very happy and proud of myself. Upon finishing the rice pilaf, I started to make a cheese polenta. Nate normally uses (I forgot what) cheese(s) but I decided to go with a plain parmesan polenta. I also got to make this dish by myself and people said this dish was really good. Those two things were my main events for the morning. For the rest of the morning, I just helped Kevin cut some tomatoes and shred some lettuce for the re-fried beans and chop spring onions and tofu for the miso soup. Even though they're were people who were disappointed that there wasn't any meat out (on the hot line), the majority of the people really liked what we served for lunch.
After lunch I helped Deb and Nancy clean the main dinning hall and then helped set up the area for the stir fry section. I know everyone will love it! After that, Barb told me to take the rest of the afternoon off but to be back in the kitchen by 4:45.
I just realized that due to the website problems, I didn't post my blog for Thursday yet. Anyway here it is.
Earth Day!!! The day when everyone does something environmentally friendly! In the kitchen, we were busy preparing all vegetarian dishes (on the hot line that is). The first thing I did when I came in (after washing my hands) was to dice the onion, carrot and celery for the brown rice pilaf. After that I proceeded to cook the veggies and finished making the rice pilaf. The amazing thing about this dish was that it was entirely made by me. I followed Nate's instructions but he told me to add however many handfuls of different herbs I wanted. That was pretty amazing. I got to customize a dish for the whole school! The better thing about it was latter on during and after meal time, many people came up to me and told me the rice pilaf was very very good. I was very happy and proud of myself. Upon finishing the rice pilaf, I started to make a cheese polenta. Nate normally uses (I forgot what) cheese(s) but I decided to go with a plain parmesan polenta. I also got to make this dish by myself and people said this dish was really good. Those two things were my main events for the morning. For the rest of the morning, I just helped Kevin cut some tomatoes and shred some lettuce for the re-fried beans and chop spring onions and tofu for the miso soup. Even though they're were people who were disappointed that there wasn't any meat out (on the hot line), the majority of the people really liked what we served for lunch.
After lunch I helped Deb and Nancy clean the main dinning hall and then helped set up the area for the stir fry section. I know everyone will love it! After that, Barb told me to take the rest of the afternoon off but to be back in the kitchen by 4:45.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Week 1: May 9th-13th, 2011
Friday 13th May 2011
Today I woke up at 6:10 and got to the dining hall by 6:20 to start my day in the kitchen. We were going to have pizza for lunch and so Nate and I had the wonderful job of making the dough. The pizza making turned out to be the only thing I had to do for the day. We used three gallons of water and a lot 45lbs of flour. Three gallons!! That's enough water to wash my hair and rinse my body!! (I don't exactly know this, but I'm just guessing.) Anyway, we mixed the dough into a clumpy big ball of goo. Once that was done, we let it sit on the side for a while and Nate told me to start and grate the box of mozzarella and a tube of provolone (the provolone wasn't in a tube. It was just in a circular wrapper). After I finished this the yeast in the pizza dough had taken effect (we left the dough near the oven) and it had rose by quite a bit. As Nate folded the dough onto sheet pans, I sauced the dough, put the cheese and whatever other ingredients that we needed onto the pizza and set it aside. Once a group of around five trays were done, we put them in the oven and let them cook. We repeated this step a couple of times until we had seven trays of cheese and pepperoni pizza and three trays of tomato and basil and hawaiian pizzas. That gave us about 800 slices of pizzas. That's a lot of pizzas!! Except all of those pizzas were gone by the end of lunch. Bye-bye to six hours of work in about one hour. Soon after that, lunch started and Nate and I were busy once more, bringing food out of the kitchen and empty trays into it. After that, I had lunch and then left for the day.
Today I woke up at 6:10 and got to the dining hall by 6:20 to start my day in the kitchen. We were going to have pizza for lunch and so Nate and I had the wonderful job of making the dough. The pizza making turned out to be the only thing I had to do for the day. We used three gallons of water and a lot 45lbs of flour. Three gallons!! That's enough water to wash my hair and rinse my body!! (I don't exactly know this, but I'm just guessing.) Anyway, we mixed the dough into a clumpy big ball of goo. Once that was done, we let it sit on the side for a while and Nate told me to start and grate the box of mozzarella and a tube of provolone (the provolone wasn't in a tube. It was just in a circular wrapper). After I finished this the yeast in the pizza dough had taken effect (we left the dough near the oven) and it had rose by quite a bit. As Nate folded the dough onto sheet pans, I sauced the dough, put the cheese and whatever other ingredients that we needed onto the pizza and set it aside. Once a group of around five trays were done, we put them in the oven and let them cook. We repeated this step a couple of times until we had seven trays of cheese and pepperoni pizza and three trays of tomato and basil and hawaiian pizzas. That gave us about 800 slices of pizzas. That's a lot of pizzas!! Except all of those pizzas were gone by the end of lunch. Bye-bye to six hours of work in about one hour. Soon after that, lunch started and Nate and I were busy once more, bringing food out of the kitchen and empty trays into it. After that, I had lunch and then left for the day.
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