The First Stage in a Theater of Changes

Today was my first day of school which turned out to be both exciting and boring at the same time. My instructor gave us our introduction to Sanitation 101. It was pretty droll and he pretty much outlined the entire first chapter for us which was less than riveting, to be sure. Especially since he has a pretty monotone voice. It was all a bit strange because to listen to the man you'd think that he was short his morning coffee, or a hug, or maybe both, but then he kept saying things like, "I know it's sanitation but get a little excited about it guys." I kept thinking, 'I will if you will, Chef!' Ce la Vie!
The good news was that we got out of class early. This was fairly serendipitous for me because I had a stage (pronounced so that it rhymes with 'pause') line up for right after class. It was at a really cool restaurant whose name, as advised by my sister, I will not name here. Their whole concept is that they create menus based off what is in season, and if something is going out of season, they preserve it. But wait! There's more! They make their own bread, and all they're pastries are from scratch, they use their own roasted tomato sauce in dishes, they don't buy that precanned, they get in whole cow, pig, and even lamb carcasses and break all the meat down off of that instead of buying cutlets, then from that they make their own sausages, cured meats, and even salumi! It really is an incredible place, even the scraps that they don't use they compost so that it all goes back into the earth for the next harvest. It really is a really interesting idea for cutting down on food waste.
Anyway, I had the privilege to stage there for them thanks to a good word from a family friend. It was so different from anything I have ever experienced! The kitchen was huge, for starters. It spanned two floors and then some in the back. They had two walk-ins one for just produce, one for just proteins. Then they had a whole storage area for all their canned products, of which there quite a few, then they had a spot just for letting tomatoes and other fruits, like peaches, chill out until they were ripe and ready to be used or preserved. They had a whole pastry section with at least four employees devotes to just that and then five or six night crew guys for the line, three dishwashers who were always busy and countless moving parts. They also have a whole brunch crew, I guess, and they're saying that they are going to be opening up for breakfast soon, too.
The guy who I staged with was very patient with me, (he actually reminded me of a guy I used to know in London who we all called 'Fierce Pierce'. They matched all the way to the tie-dye bandanna on his head. ^_^) it really did feel like my first day at Union four years ago. I felt like I knew nothing simply because of how differently their kitchen ran. I worked on the hot appetizer station which was a lot of fun and my stage partner started out the night by letting me do one dish by myself, then it became two, by probably 8 he let me work the station pretty much by myself. He still was looming over my shoulder and corecting and refining the things I was doing.
And they kept feeding me! There was a staff lunch before they opened for dinner, then they kept making me dishes to try, partly because they were bored, partly because that's just what they do for people who stage. Here are all the things I ate tonight:
-Crispy Carnaroli Rice- brunkow cheese curds, smoked spring onion vinaigrette, pickled summer beans, three sisters pea shoots.
-Local Lettuce- basil pesto, fennel, whole grain croutons (they left these out for me because I'm glutarded), pickled tomato vinaigrette, mouton frais.
-Pan-Roasted Diver Sea Scallops-arugula, piperade, housemade lomo
-Crisp Slagel Family Farm Pork Shoulder Confit-fried chickpea panise, house summer giardiniera, curry yogurt, cucumbers, fresh mint

And a couple other sides of stuff, plus homemade chocolate ice cream, and I got to try a lot of the little components from my station. Speaking of which, here is what I was in charge of making tonight:
-Crispy Carnaroli Rice- see above
-Growing Power Russet Potato Gnocchi- slow cooked kale, bacon, sweet corn, pickled green tomatoes (which were incredible just by themselves)
-Whole Wheat Cavatelli- sweet and hot peppers, juliets (a kind of tomato, I learned that tonight too), garlic, onions, basil, Parmesan
-Local Tomato and Smoked Apple Butter Tart- prairie fruits farm moonglo cheese, klug farm summer apples, sorrel, sweet onions

All in all, it was a big night for me. I think I did okay. I felt really lost at first and I don't usually talk much when I'm just starting to get the hang of something, but I took the advice given to me, asked a lot of questions about what I was doing and what was happening around me, gave it my best shot, was honest with them about everything, held my head high, struggled to not apologize but just say okay and try to make it better for the next dish, and just tried to focus on the fact that I was being allowed to play in this amazing kitchen with some pretty decent guys, who you could tell were putting a lot of pride and heart into every dish that they were plating, while relishing the fact that they kept giving me all this exquisite food all night long. The sous chef and I talked afterwards and he asked me what I wanted, whether it was an internship or what. I told him that I would love to work there for them and he told me about some positions that they might have available because they were opening for breakfast. I'm supposed to call him at noon on Wednesday. So I'll hope for the best but I won't hold my breath. Tomorrow I have to go report back to the career service guy that I talked to on Thursday last week after orientation and probably hit up the wanted postings on the school site.
Anyway, it's late and I have school bright and earlyish tomorrow morning that I can't be late for! Goodnight!

This is a picture of me in my uniform for my first day of class. As dorky as it is, tradition is tradition. ^_^