Cheese, pates and chicken, oh my!!!

I spent my second day working at the yacht club by arranging gourmet cheese and pate trays, and then making Poulet a la Provencale for their Tour de France dinner. The cheese trays were fun, as I got to sample some pretty amazing cheeses- Saint Andre, Morbier, Agour, Bleu Arvinge (sp??) and Port Salut. I adored the Saint Andre, it was much like a Brie with a sharper and more tangy taste. The Morbier was a stinky cheese, not my fav, as was the Bleu……a VERY pungent bleu. The Port Salut was pretty good, a soft texture with a slight bite. Agour was similar to a very firm Swiss style, very crumbly and sharp with little aftertaste. My chef friend gladly gave me more information than I needed to know about those cheeses; he amazes me with his brainiac food knowledge. All day long I was enjoying listening to him talk about the foods being prepared for the French dinner, and was continually amazed and awed by what came out of his mouth. That’s why he’s paid the big bucks, but you could also tell that he just LOVES the subject of food. My kinda guy. Then I made up some Pate trays, and felt like I was playing with gourmet dog food. I have tried Pate, and had some decent ones, but it’s not at the top of my list for gloriously fanatical consumption. I got through that task quickly. Then Tim gave me a recipe for a chicken dish, a huge tub of cut up chicken and said “Can you handle this?” It was actually a pretty simple production, browning off the chicken, then browning onions and garlic, adding tomato product and a multitude of fresh herbs, and a long braise in the oven. Gathering the ingredients was the most challenging since I am not very familiar with where everything is in his kitchen. I am sure by the time I am done on Friday that I will be completely knowledgeable on the layout, just in time to never be in there again. I stood over the stove browning off the equivalent of 8 cut up chickens, in the hottest part of the kitchen on a searing hot day. Man, I love the feel of sweat running down my cleavage! The dish wasn’t too hard to get together and into the oven, I just kept my fingers crossed that it turned out OK. I may never know.

It’s been fun to be in a big commercial kitchen, utilizing the skills I spent 18 months honing in school. I had it good there, I get in and get out without any of the insane and crazy stuff going on. It gave me a good dose of the reality of it, and I find myself quite torn with wanting to continue on, work and learn more, and yet also to never be a part of the chaos, stifling heat and frantic, scurrying pace. Maybe it’s good for me to get a taste of it; to be able to know that I could do it, that I can get by if I really wanted to work in a kitchen. Tim’s kitchen is amazingly organized and runs like a well honed machine. Everything is in it’s place, labeled, marked, organized, clean. I loved how it was set up, and I loved seeing him in such a different light. I would work for him in a heartbeat, and I don’t say that lightly. I guess I will see where the wind blows me in my career path.