Second buffet

Last week I worked my way up the range stations, from Ranger 4 to Ranger 1: poached eggs and pasta carbonara; omelets; fried eggs and warm spinach salad; meats and potatoes. The first day, when I was Ranger 4, Ranger 3 was absent so I was assigned double duty. Normally (i.e., for a person with line experience) this would be no big deal; two experienced people could cover the whole range. However, that was my first night on a line, so it was a bit more exciting for me. Most of the difficulty came with keeping track of orders, since both the pasta and the omelets would frequently be ordered with special subsets of ingredients. But I’m pleased to say that by Thursday, when I was Ranger 1, I was keeping track of the orders much more easily.

In meat fab we broke down a half pig and a lamb.

Friday was our second buffet, with an Italian theme, and I was sous chef. I made Hollandaise sauce and a roasted garlic Alfredo sauce, then cooked pasta– a lot of pasta– to order on the buffet line from our omelet mise.

Monday I will be chef (of the day), calling out the orders and running the pass, Thursday I will be host in the front of the house, and Friday I will be steward, which mostly means dishwasher. We don’t have class Tuesday and Wednesday. Nice to have time off but it kind of breaks the rhythm. Then the following week I will be responsible for the Special of the day. So far these have been nearly invisible– I don’t know what people have been doing. I know one person made crepes but due to a marketing failure none were sold. I’ve already planned the dish concept (an herbed lamb hash with egg and a small serving of the warm spinach salad), how to prep it, how to make it during service, and the printed menu inserts so we can actually sell some of it.