In The Kitchen
I had my “stahge” at Restaurant II on Saturday, the fine dining, modern australian, multi-award winning restaurant and it was a bit of an underwhelming experience. Not that it took the wind out of my sails, at all, but I didn’t get to do anywhere near as much hands-on stuff as I would’ve liked. As they were unexpectedly down a cook and an apprentice, the remaining 4 cooks and 2 apprentices were working the dinner service overtime and perhaps if they had been around I would’ve been able to do more as it would’ve been less frantic. As it was, I was involved in prep, asked a lot of questions and talked to people pre-service and at the very start of service, then I basically backed the fuck up and let them get on with it as the orders flooded in from their booked to capacity floor.
During prep I got the most out of the visit as apart from the owner/exec chef who I know pretty well, as well as a junior chef who I also knew outside of the restaurant. I watched him prep a lot of the entrees like making potato gnocchi from scratch etc. I also helped out during this phase, prepping some veggies and organising the kitchen so that all the chefs had their “mise en place” (their shit in order, basically).
I spent about an hour with the owner going through produce and this was an amazing part. I got to try fresh truffles and a ton of weird herbs I’d never tasted before, as well as him walking me through how they order their larder, their methodologies for stocks and demiglace. We talked about how the quality of the ingredients was amazing and how it makes a chef life so much easier when they have top notch shit like their larder was packed with, then it’s a case of making the most of the ingredients while still allowing their original quality to speak. He talked a little about combinations here which was interesting.
Then as the dinner service began I got the most out of standing with the “head chef” as he worked the pass, cooked the meats/fish and called the orders. I watched how he managed his time, 3 little electric timers were set for 3 or 6 minute bursts as he sealed, ovened, rested, then re-ovened meats. The two other chefs worked the garnishes, plating and saucing of the mains. The two apprentices were busy with the entrees, so I got up and watched them grilling quail, griddling scallops, preparing little salad bowls with individual vinaigrettes and so on.
Being such a swanky place, a lot of attention to detail was put on the plating and the visuals of the meal. Veggies were trimmed and carefully positioned. Sauce was drizzled. Meat was heaped on top of artistically sculpted towers of potatoes and so on. I was involed in plating the Bread & Savouries (a canape of a mini-cone with a mixture of perch, roasted eggplant, tahini, yogurt and some herbs, dusted with dukkah) which involved arranging their fancy breadrolls/bread with little slabs of butter and then the canapes in little shot glasses.
After about three hours of watching dinner service and helping wherever possible, I decided to bail. My involvement had primarily reduced to observation and despite having learned a bit, it was too hectic for me to ask questions, or get in the way much, so I figured it’d be best to bow out. If anything, as I explained to the owner as I left, I felt frustrated by not being able to help out and get more involved as the atmosphere was really inductive of productivity, the friendly banter really cemented the solid group effort and they worked pretty harmoniously at getting the food out. He sympathised and suggested that I come for a midweek day sometime, unfortunately that doesn’t really suit me much with my work-life schedule.
Much of the entertainment value came from the waiting staff having various comps as to how could push their specials first and the banter between exec/head chefs and the juniors/apprentices was excellent. And yes, there were one or two Gordon Ramsay-esque bursts of swearing and a hilarious discussion regarding some diners in boardies and singlets (in a fine dining joint) and a diner’s reaction to the dukkah on the canape. Much of the rest I actually was already familiar with over the past few weeks of watching Kitchen Nightmares etc, and what Ramsay says about ‘what a good kitchen needs’ was present here. The chefs communicated. Quality was controlled. The waiting staff were efficient and there was the minimum of fuss and confusion. Shit got done and the food looked fucking amazing.
As a bystander, yeah, it looks like a fucking hard slog. The junior chefs were pouring sweat after 2 hours of dinner service and there was easily still another 2 hours to go. The plating was a meticulous affair that must occasionally get frustrating. Sometimes an order went haywire and someone got a bollocking, but generally, the kitchen was very well run, the atmosphere was friendly, the attitude was professional and the food being produced was always paramount to everything. Even when they were at their busiest and frantic, the look on their faces as they got the food onto the plate and arranged it “just so” was quite inspirational. These guys clearly love what they do. Of course, I have no idea whether it’s for me or not, but I’m unlikely to find out anytime soon. I definitely wasn’t put off, but I definitely had an easy night of it too. So I guess the future for me is some culinary school nightclasses and the odd stage once in a while to test my resolve. We’ll see where we are by the end of the year.
FYI: my review of II in this blog.
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