Staffing Announcements!

Sigh, one of the downsides of this business is turnover. I love teaching my staff and I've worked with some wonderful ladies, but I have to confess, the pay is low and the hours, although filled with interesting conversation and motivating work, can be long.


As many of you know I share a kitchen with La Perla Bistro/Prestige Events. I had the unique opportunity of grabbing one of their servers and turning her into one of my newest assistants. Mary Ann is currently taking baking and pastry classes at American River College, and although she's worked in the restaurant industry, she is still quite green, enthusiastic, but inexperienced. I'm a firm believer that the best first project for any of my newbies is to focus on one task, but do it over and over and over. The order for Saturday is perfect for this 350 sour cream apple tarts! So Mary Ann has been busting out 4oz tarts like a machine. God Love Her!!!


I was also contacted by a local high school student with an interest in being an intern. Fabulous! Cearra's first night was last night and I got her going on some organization projects. (Side note: Why is it that whenever business is hopping my organization goes to @(#$*#$(& ????) The supply shelf and the glassware shelves were her babies last night. I also gave her the full tour of the kitchen and covered the mine vs. their stuff. It'll really be a learning process for both of us. I've worked with green staff before, but they always had some sort of restaurant experience. At this point, the biggest thing going for Cearra is her enthusiasm and willingness to learn. I'll slowly add more and more responsibility, but I also want to give her a good sense of the big picture of the business. It should be fun!


One of the most important things I've learned is that any good chef is close to 50% teacher. I shared this little tidbit with Mary Ann and told her that to experience this fact, I was going to have HER teach Cearra how to make the tarts! Perfect! We were all out in the dining room together and I was watching them work and do show and tell. I have to tell you, it was VERY satisfying!


Tonight I'll teach the two of them how to make Italian buttercream (one of my favorite things in the WORLD!) and have them make and scoop some cookies.


The business is growing, slowly but surely! October is still going to be a hectic month, but with a couple of extra hands it won't be quite so nerve wracking! (I might even enlist my hubby to do a delivery!)

A Poem to Share To Be of Use - Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Spark!

I was reading Michael Laiskonis's blog the other day. He was discussing points of inspiration that had, over the years re-ignited his passion for food and pastry. This was a great idea! There are so many things that I get excited about that I thought I'd try to come up with my own list of life events that have created a fresh spark of interest in food. As he said, "I've had so many little such sparks that I've no doubt forgotten the majority of them. But off the top of my head, some grand moments, and some just slightly less so..." I couldn't have said it better.

• While living in Chicago, ordering squid ink pasta for the first time, and loving the color. (1997)
  

• Eating a Fran's chocolate dipped caramel with smoked sea salt and being blown away. (2001)





• Fried tofu in Taipei and realizing what all the fuss was about. (1987)


• Realizing that I was finally going to cooking school after wanting to go for 12 years. (2003)

• Icing a cake for the first time and asking the chef if that was REALLY how you were supposed to hold the spatula... it felt so awkward and really really wanting to do it the right way knowing that from that point on I was training myself. (2003)


• Making my dad a lattice stopped (the old fashioned way) strawberry rhubarb pie and him loving it. (2002)








• Treating myself and an old friend to dinner at the French Laundry as a graduation present from cooking school... and then being asked to come back into the kitchen. WOW! (2004)
• Eating gelato for the first time, I don't remember how old I was, probably single digits, but I distinctly remember I was in LA and my fabulous artist aunt and dad were there. (1982-83)
• Going to Cortez in San Francisco with my little 12 year old cousin and ordering the ENTIRE dessert menu... back when Karen Hatfield was still the pastry chef. (2004)










• Walking into the first kitchen that I was actually PAYING to be in and then realizing that I CAN make a living doing what I love! (insert stomach flip here!) (2008)


• Making puff pastry the first time. (2004)









• Having my Dad accuse me of never speaking English anymore ... alternately, commenting that he only understood every fourth word I said. hee hee (2005-9)


• The first time I had a lychee... I couldn't get enough! (1999)
  
  
  
  





• Seeing sugar cane fed into a crank and turned into juice on the streets of Sai Gon and then begging my hosts for some even though there was a risk of hepatitis! (1999)


• Smelling tea on the wind as I drove through the mountains heading to Da Lat. (1999)


• Asking to go into the kitchen at Woodhouse Chocolates in St. Helena and the owners actually saying yes! (2004)


• The first time I read an Art Culinaire. There after referred to as Food Porn! (2006)


• Eating honey comb... every spring until my stomach hurts. ( 1978)
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Remembering the smell and taste of bee pollen from childhood. (1978)
• The first and last time I voluntarily ate cocoa nibs. (2002)
• Being shown a picture of myself at age 4 rolling out cookie dough. Who would have guessed. (2007)
• Cooking halibut en papiote for my chef for his dinner and him being thrilled. (2006)
• Hearing a classmate saying that he loves peppermint ice cream and hates that he had to wait until Christmas for "them" to make it... and then realizing that WE were becoming the THEM! (2004)
• Discovering that famous kitchenware store in New York! (2006)
• Age 6-8, eating tamales for the first time and inhaling the flavor before eating... that corn steam will forever be in my memory.
• Discovering majool dates wrapped in bacon...dear lord! (2008)
• The day I inherited a robot coupe. (2008)
• The first time I ate sushi... age 27, San Francisco.

French Macarons - SUCCESS!!!

mmmmm, just typing the name of these little cookies is enjoyable. I'm drinking coffee and eating my experiment from last night. The first bake should have been at a slightly lower temperature, for a little longer. (perfect tops, lovely ruffled foot, but a little too chewy and moist on the inside) The second batch, well, I was cleaning (I have to confess... I'm such a bad lier!) and forgot about them, so they were a little too dark, but had a nice crunch and the over baking really added a nice nutty flavor. These are usually sandwiched with some sort of filling (coordinated with their color), but for family meal I just put out a lid of ganache and surrounded it with cookies. Of course Anna (our dishwasher and prep cook extraordinaire) got perfect little cookies that were sandwiched like they were supposed to be.

These are very finicky cookies and I have to say I haven't made them since cooking school, so now that I have regained my confidence and I'm thrilled! There really is no greater satisfaction than something turning out... followed by no greater failure than a flop. (I'm always pissy when things don't turn out, it's not personal, it's just me!)

Look for pictures of future batches. I'll be making more this weekend and playing with colors and flavors. Yea!

I would happily have this man's baby...

Just catching up on some of my favorite reading:

Michael Laiskonis

He just sounds like such a nice man, in addition to being a pastry genius. There is such a balance in this industry between being a nice person and being able to get the job done... all the while maintaining professionalism.

That being said, I have on more than one occasion swore at (or in the general direction) of one of my co-workers in the heat of the moment. Of course I regret it. Of course I would never yell at one of my employees. The more you submerge yourself in the kitchen the more you come to understand the real value of those people working to the right and left of you. I cannot do everything! I need help! (It's like a twelve step program for a pastry chef.) As much as I want everything to be perfect I also need to teach and work with my team to get us ALL to the finish line and have ALL of us be thrilled with the end product. Each event gets better and more well thought out, which is one reason I get so excited about every couple I work with!

Tune in next week for a redux of this weekend's tastings (all four! between tonight and tomorrow afternoon!) and the Gold Country Weddings show.