First buffet

On Fridays instead of a la carte ordering off the menu, we present a buffet. This was also my first day as one of the "rangers," one of the five people stationed on the fryer or range who are responsible for cooking the bulk of the food. For the buffet, which had a Minnesota theme, I prepared two pans of Hot Dish with Crispy Potatoes, and Beer-battered Walleye. The hot dish of course was prepared and baked ahead, while I had about 45 pieces of walleye ready when the buffet opened and then [attempted to] keep up with demand until I ran out of fish. It was a different experience than the other nights. We were pretty busy, and it was pleasing to look out and see a dining room full of happy people. Someone actually sent back compliments to the chef for the walleye. And Chef said this was the first class that was ready to open their first buffet on time since he’d been teaching.

Tonight I am Ranger 4, which means I will be responsible for poached eggs and for pasta carbonara.

Almost forgot: last week during the second day breaking down beef in Meat Fab, I worked on the blade chuck, the other of two large chuck chunks commonly delivered from meat packers nowdays from the one I worked on previously. This one had the flatiron steak in it, along with several other muscles. Chef paid me a compliment by saying I was doing very well, that he could hardly believe I hadn’t done this before. Felt good about that.