HI all sorry there has not been much news but I did not start at the Patterson club when expected. Here is an update that I sould have posted a couple weeks ago but did not get to it.
Well to say the least the first three weeks at the Patterson Club were a lot crazy and somewhat scary. As we did not have a chef the first week we were being directed by the two sous chefs. There was a lot to get done but without a menu to work on we really could not prepare any food. We also had a problem when we started up the stoves and ovens the gas pressure dropped and they stopped working. This gas problem was not fixed until Wednesday of week two so we were not able to cook in the main kitchen until then. We were able to use the stoves in the downstairs banquet kitchen on a limited basis so we started some beef and chicken stock as well as some tomato sauce. On Tuesday of week two we started some onion soup, seafood chowder and a vegetable soup for the soup of the day as these are standard Patterson Club fare. With a new chef starting on Tuesday of week two and the new club house opening on Friday night to about 60 people in the dining room then about 160 on Saturday night and then lunch and dinner on Sunday things were a little hectic. We spent long hours every day of that week just working to learn the new chef’s menu and prepare the required ingredients to open for service on Friday night. One thing that made to preparation of the sauces and food items was that the Chef did not provide recipes for our use to prepare from the Chef only provided a list of the ingredients in each thing, we needed to work out from a visual and taste stand point how much of each ingredient was needed to make the item. Friday night at five o’clock the chef cooked and plated up the first of the entrée’s. This was the kitchen staff’s first look at how the Chef wanted the food cooked and plated. Considering the little amount of time we had to learn the menu and as we were seeing the presentation of the dishes for the first time service on Friday night went fairly well. I worked the sauté station with Kevin my responsibility was to cooked the starch and vegetables, sauced the plates, placed he protein and added all the assorted items that went onto each plate before it went into the service window. I also keep the station fully stocked with supplies and when time permitted I took the protein out of the cooler drawer and set them up for Kevin to cook. Week three started off the same as week two with me working with Kevin on the sauté station we spent the first couple days preparing all the items we would need for service. The Chef made a slight change in several of the sauces from a puree to an emulsion so we discarded the old purees and had to made emulsions. On Friday night of week three there was a dinner for the men’s golf opening day event and we had to not only serve dinner in the dining rooms but prepare for a banquet of 150 men in the down stairs banquet room. I helped set up some of the food for the dinner but as the start time approached I changed modes as I was asked by the Chef to do a scallop sauté station out on the patio during the cocktail hour of the men’s diner this required I set up the station with everything I would need to sauté scallops to order. There were several hot purees and several cold emulsions to be served with the scallops. Once the cocktail hour started and several members found their way out to my station things got very busy for about an hour or so. Once the members moved inside for the diner I cleared my station and when into the kitchen and assisted the chef and others in putting out the entree and dessert courses.