Succinct & focused;
these are how the directions were relayed to me for breaking down local squid:
mise-en-place:
- Arrange three containers on ice; one for tentacles, bodies, guts and scrap.
- Have a cutting board, a paring knife, and a bench scraper.
- Left hand: place one squid on cutting board, face up and fins down.
- Right hand: make cut below eyes to remove tentacles.
- Squeeze out beak (like popping a zit,) and place in scrap container.
- Left hand: hold squid at the top point of body.
- Right hand: scrape (with blade) the outer skin, squeezing out guts along with it - at the open end, catch the skeleton (plastic) with your blade and pull it out. place in scrap.
- Left hand: flip squid over so fins are facing up.
- Right hand: scrape off remaining outer skin along with fins and place in scrap.
- Place tentacles and cleaned bodies in their respective containers. Scrape cutting board clean of ink and squid parts.
- Repeat until the case of squid is empty.
- Re-wash, pat dry with a towel, place squid parts in refrigeration on ice.
Up until 5:00, this is how my day went. Job after job, issued with clarity and intent. "Make falafel mix, cut fennel, dehydrate beef tendons, butcher chickens, cryovac pickled onion, clean squid," etc. The chef did not stutter-step once through any of his instruction. All the while, the restaurant carried on. The pastry chef experimented with a new Thai Tea Panna Cotta, the bar manager waddled accross the kitchen with a hot 30-gallon stock pot full of ginger beer he was brewing, the sous chef cut rock cod fillets by the sink, and the cooks bullshitted with the dishwasher in broken Spanish about last night's service.
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| Pablo's Ginger Beer |
Staging can be a beautiful thing when you take the liberty to just stop and observe. Prepping away in the back kitchen, I heard one voice rise above the clatter of the pre-service scramble. I put my knife down and craned my neck out of the doorway to get a glimpse of this chef at work. The garde-manger cook who was unsure of the new soup change was being given a step-by-step on its new plating as conceptualized. Instructions which I assume were not to be repeated, so attention better be paid. This chef made sure his vision was executed as he intended through the hands of each cook there. Every detail was important, every detail represented his standard of quality. For that, his directions were delivered with clarity and efficiency. No recaps necessary, as every component was called back with a "Yes Chef" to signify it was understood. This confidence and self-awareness in management is a trait I hope to one day adopt.
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| The Pass (plates about to be delivered to guests) |
Dinner service began: After finishing up the jobs I was given, I was permitted to step out on to the line among the pretty people which patronize this ultra-hip dining room. The restaurant is designed so that the immediate cooking and plating is done at the bar-style showcase kitchen, which is also the most prominent feature of the dining room. Fluorescent light shined down from beneath the guest's bar top on to the delicately arranged mise-en-place and plating space for each station. The cooks dance between this work surface and the beautiful plancha and french flattop against the wall behind them. Conversations were held between the kitchen and bar-side guests; about food, about their Friday, about what brought them there that night. Despite this guise of frivolity, composure is required at all times in such a vulnerably exposed work environment. When trying to function in a space like this, you become
obsessively aware of your appearance and movements. Your towel and apron should remain clean, while keeping a close eye on the consistent location of your squeeze bottles, forceps and knife. With out having to spin around in circles looking for your lost tool, you will be able to follow you muscle memory through service.
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| The Line (Garde-Manger Station) |
Mastering this work style with religious devotion will ultimately lead to the attainment of "skills" or "economy of movement." (Anthony Bourdain) This trait was evidently apparent here. Even on a Friday night, service was calm and composed. Though the concept is a "feed your neighbors," casual dining style, the food was beautiful. A line was coy-fully walked between Michelin-standard food and burgers with french fries.
*A few stars in my opinion:
* Stone fruit: Peach, pluot and plum with vanilla yogurt provided a sweetness which was kindly offset with bitter cocoa nib, coriander oil and sorrel leaves. One of those dishes that makes you go, "Damn! I wish I thought of that!"
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| Stone Fruit |
* The soup: A "forest-like" arrangement of charred beach mushroom, pickled beach mushroom, bitter leaves, sliced yellow and purple potato, all presented in a hand-thrown ceramic bowl and than sent out with a medical beaker of cosmic-looking potato and bitter greens soup. This soup was to then be poured table-side by the server.
* The pork chop: cast iron- seared, turned over every thirty seconds in the pan to promote even cooking and distribution of moisture. F- YEAH !
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| Melissa's Thai Tea Panna Cotta |
It's 8:30 in the evening and the sun is setting. My writing hand is getting shaky as I sip the now cold, bottom inch of my coffee. That Starbucks is strong shit. The rain dissipates and I have a clear view of the Bay Bridge. The new bridge lights cascade down the suspension cables. As they shift and blink at staggering rates, the lights seem to be reacting to the traffic, or the wind, or some external trigger. Pretty cool. It is interesting to think that this light show may have been written off as an artistic, romantic but unnecessary investment.
As I spend more time in the kitchens, clubs, galleries and streets of this town, sharing cigarettes with tech geniuses and immigrant dishwashers alike, it becomes more clear that maybe this art IS necessary. It is a display of someone's perspective and talent, for you to take in and react to. If you look, it is everywhere in this city. Without this spark of creative energy, scientific or classical thinking might never have wings to get off of the ground. It is the creativity in the facades of buildings, the murals on the street, the bridges we drive, and the food we eat which furthers free thinking in all parts of our lives. Who knows, it could be a restaurant's dish which plants a seed crystal in someones brain, allowing them to approach their work in a new way. Allowing them to create something brand new.
Seventeen kitchens to go. Lets come back to this thread down the road...
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| Chili Pepper Rock Cod |
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