A Weekend of Brunch

The restaurant started brunch this weekend. Due to crummy weather Saturday, it was quite dead. In the kitchen, an extraordinary amount of dough was made, on top of a large amount of dough prepared the day before. Rather than using a dough with 10-20% old dough mixed in, the day started with 100% old dough -- dough that was made the day before and refrigerated in ball form over night. The pies came out snappier on the outside, more tender on the inside, and a more developed, complex flavor. As Chef A and the manager/owner's wife (let's cal her Mow) were discussing this revelation, I butted in by saying, I don't know if you want to know this, but the neighborhood's main competitor ages their dough in a fridge for almost 2.5 days.

So later that day, while I chopped an extraordinary amount of dried apricots for the scones on the new menu, Mow asked me more about my time a the main competitor's kitchen. The main reason they don't hold dough for so long, I explained, is because there simply isn't enough space in the fridges. Still, the result was clearly superior and I think Chef A is going to brainstorm with R on how to finagle the space. It was nice, I felt a new comfort with Mow, my wonkish interest in pizza legitimized me in her eyes a little. Starting to get to know the different personalities in the shop, getting more comfortable overall.

On Sunday, the weather was much better, as was business. The back kitchen was responsible for many of the new brunch dishes, but there were a few mini pies as well as a couple of baked egg dishes that the pizza kitchen covers. (With time, I suppose I may get my hands in these as well.) It was a relaxed shift, as much of the dessert-prep and dough already done; along the way, I watched as Chef C was topping the pies -- he had a certain deftness with balance and even spread with toppings. My own dough-stretching skills seem to be improving, and I can now roll a ball of dough into a tight sphere with one hand. Now I need to work to roll two balls with two hands.

ADDENDA:
The dishwasher was throwing up and bleeding through the nose and had to leave. Almost spent Sunday eve doing dishes, but fortunately someone else came to do the shift.

Ate crapilly on reflection, need some healthy fare tomorrow.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, banana, granola with good milk, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, 1 slice pizza, 1 piece flourless chocolate cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3:30pm, 2 pints of water

PM SNACK: 5pm, fancy orange soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, pork fried rice, wonton soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pumpkin donut, bagel with hummus, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, mini tarte flambe-like pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Slow period, rolled a mini pie, topped with olive oil, then a twirl of crème fraiche loosened with cream out of a squeeze bottle, some caramelized onions then thin batons of prosciutto. Charred nicely, the best lil' lunch pie I've had in a while.

PM SNACK: 3pm, ricotta cheesecake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, half a pastrami sandwich, half a plate of fries, pickle, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4.5
I can't believe there was a time I'd eat a whole sandwich and a whole plate of fries.

Slamming Dough

Everyone was feeling excited/nervous/edgy for tomorrow, the first day of opening early to serve brunch. That meant there was extra to do this morning, prepping for the additional egg dishes and French toast (using focaccia!), revising the menu up to the last minute, and Chef R working with the backroom kitchen staff to pump out rounds of brunchy salads and French toasts to the staff.

So it was down to C and me to make two huge rounds of dough -- for today and tomorrow, when we will be serving the whole menu, as well as a few brunch pies -- the carbonara has a raw egg dropped on it half way through the cooking.

We banged out a flourless chocolate cake, then Chef R sent me to the supermarket to pick up a cartload of groceries -- usually a list of 6 items would be a small handful, but when it's 10 pounds of potatoes, 4 pounds of brussel sprouts, 4 dozen eggs etc, it adds up.

We scaled and balled dough, which seemed to last forever, but I did notice that I'm getting faster without losing precision. Not a lot faster, but it's the upward trend we're looking for. C was over the moon because we were pretty much done with out prep, and focaccias and slice-pies coming out of the oven before 5, a rare event it seems in the restaurant and even more unusual because of the large amounts a Friday requires. I guess my presence is appreciated.

From service to close, the night flew by. I finished & plated/boxed pies for a while, but spent most of the time slamming dough, enjoying my increasing familiarity with how dough feels and acts, particularly according to temperature -- the warmer the dough is, the gooier and looser it gets, making it much quicker to stretch, but much easier to get too thin and tear.

Chef R pointed out different flaws I was producing in the dough throughout the night, but at the end she complimented me, saying that I was a huge help and felt I was 'clicking' in well. I've had so many horrendously horrible managers in jobs with tons of layers of management -- who would have thought such a good one would appear where there is almost no level of dedicated management?

ADDENDA:
Ate weirdly at the restaurant, but that's because odd food presented itself. Up until now, I was in the non-anchovies camp. I got over any strong negative feelings in c-school, where fish like anchovies and fish paste were discovered to be miraculous flavor enhancers that could make a dish. (Anyone who won't eat anything with anchovies in it, despite them being finely blended or diced, is an IDIOT.) I sampled a pie with the traditional strips of anchovies and it's very strong fishy/salty flavor was....not bad. I had a second little slice and enjoyed the fishy flavor more, the salty blast a little less. Interesting.

BREAKFAST: 8am, whole wheat English muffin with homemade hummus, water, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11am, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, black cherry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, 3 pieces of french toast, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Chef R was experimenting with the new brunch menu, giving it out to the staff.

LUNCH: 5pm, 2 square slices, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
So much better than frozen!

PM WATERING: 7pm, quart

PM SNACK: 9pm. 2 small slices of sardine pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pie sent back from customer, divvied among us workers.

PM WATERING: 9:15pm, quart

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small square of ricotta cheesecake, ginger ale, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Kitties don't like my oatmeal bars. Stupid kitties.

This morning I took my mountain bike to the trails in Van Cordlandt Park in da Bronx. I took two donuts with me from my local gourmet donut shop. (Yuppie -- who, me?) After a long subway ride, once I got into the park, I paused for a moment of donut appreciation. Eating fresh artisanal donuts on a crisp fall day in the middle of a forest, there is nothing quite like it. Don't know if it made me feel closer to nature or closer to donuts.

ADDENDA:
While riding my bike back from the deep forests of the Bronx, I met stray kitties in two different neighborhoods. I offered both a piece of my oatmeal bar (the only food I had on me), but neither had the slightest interest.

BREAKFAST: 8am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, 2 good donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, WF sports drink, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, homemade spinach pasta scraps with sauce, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The variable sizes and shapes (and particularly thicknesses) really brought the point home about how important the shape of pasta is, how it creates the relationship with the sauce.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade oatmeal bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Still think it's too sweet, but the butter/brown sugar/hint of rum flavor is pretty friggin' great, despite that.

DINNER: 6:45pm, frozen pizza, homemade vanilla ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
I cooked this exactly to box spec, which allowed for a pizza stone. So how was it?

In a word, crappy. There is pretense to healthiness -- the uncured pepperoni and an unknown percentage of whole wheat flower in the crust. While the ingredients list doesn't have 1,000 ingredients that I remember from the frozen pizza of my youth, it's still 3 servings per pie -- which means I just ate 1000+ calories and over 80 grams of fat. Let's not talk sodium. No, this is not healthy.

So if this is not healthy, I'd hope it would give me some visceral pizza pleasure. The crust tasted stale and cardboardy, the cheese was totally anonymous despite the listing of smoked provolone after moz, but the sauce had a nice level of sweetness to spice, provided by a little paprika. Still, taken all together, it tasted a lot like....a frozen supermarket pizza. Which is to say, crappy.

What does one eat before jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge?

Got my cook on this morning, since my only obligation was attending a staff meeting at the restaurant at 3pm. My goal was to do a batch of mushroom tomato sauce, and make hummus and pumpkin ravioli. First two got completed, but I didn't have enough time to cook the pumpkin filling and make the spinach pasta dough.

The tomato sauce was a bit experimental, aided by a food processor for the first time. Previously, I was sticking close to the Batali recipe, but now, well, why not just go do what feels good? I remembered what my dad would throw into his sauce, and worked from there. A diced onion softened in olive oil, with the addition of diced Italian cooking peppers. A pinch of salt, then a mess of finely minced shitake and portobello mushrooms, cooked down. One can of whole tomatoes mushed by hand, then another can of whole tomatoes blended to smooth. One bunch of oregano, minced. Two heads of mashed roasted garlic, right out of the oven. Simmered on low for an hour, threw in a cup of minced parsley. Salted to taste. Cooled, put into containers, then into the ice box.

While simmering the sauce, I split a pumpkin, cleaned it, smeared it with maple syrup, and cut side-down into the oven for an hour (along with the foil-wrapped garlic). Took a half container of spinach, threw it in boiling water for 60 seconds, then into an ice bath. Puréed the shocked spinach in a blender with a little water to smooth, then took 3.5 cups of flour and made a well, into which 4 eggs and the spinach liquid went into the middle. After about 15 minutes of hand mixing and kneading, the dough was ready to rest in plastic. Using my new pizza dough balling skills, I rounded it nicely, like a nice lil' green sphere.

Simmering, resting, roasting. Threw all the hummus ingredients in the food processor -- 2 cans of drained chickpeas, half a container of tahini, juice of 1.5 lemons, one head of roasted garlic, olive oil, a bit of salt. Let it go for a while, tasted it, added pinch of salt and a little chickpea liquid, then finished it. Packaged into the fridge, then on I went.

Scooped the pumpkin out of the skins after cooling, and into the food processor unil liquid. Spread out on a baking sheet then put back in the oven for 10 minutes to dry. Once out, into a mixing bowl with a bit of marscapone, Parmesan, cinnamon, nutmug, and melted butter that I hit with balsamic and maple syrup as it was browning. Mixed, tasted, salted, refrigerator.

Once again, a mountain of dishes faced me. My wife, after working in an office all day, probably wouldn't want to come home to that. So, despite not having an industrial dishwashing machine on hand (or any dishwasher at all), I got it all done and out of the house on time.

After the meeting, I was at K's house way uptown, and we were just loungin' n' talkin', comfortable and neither of us especially wanted to leave the apartment. So I made refrigerator soup -- soup with whatever was in the fridge. Into boiling water went a few rough chopped peeled carrots and a single white potato. Two yellow peppers I roasted on the burner. Once the carrots were soft, into the blender with some of it's water, milk, olive oil, butter, diced garlic and ginger, salt, pepper, a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon, a blurb of molasses. Sliced a bagel thinly, some olive oil and salt and onto a baking sheet to crisp and brown. Soup well blended and seasoned, garnished with the smokey diced yellow roasted peppers. Bagel chips came out surprisingly good, the soup was pretty nice.

When I got home around 9:45, banged out the spinach pumpkin ravioli (6 portions of 8 raviolios, 2 portions of spinach linguine, a large portion of scraps which will make a good meal -- why did I throw out these pasta scraps till now?!)


ADDENDA:
On the way to the restaurant, as I was riding my bike over the Brooklyn Bridge, I came upon a scene of a man teetering on the edge of the bridge, with the intention of flinging himself off. A helicopter hovered on the opposite side of the bridge, cops blocked off traffic in both directions, and police boats stood by in the harbor. I number of cops, with ropes clipped to the handrails, slowly approached and spoke to the man.

My first reaction was sympathy for this poor fellow -- what dire straights he must be in to get to this point, or perhaps he's mentally unbalanced, or both. Does he have parents, children, loved ones who will be harmed by his actions? My second reaction was curiosity -- did he eat lunch today? And if so, what? What does one eat before jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge?

And thirdly was guilt -- here I was, gawking at this stranger's awful ordeal, rubber-necking and being idly distracted along with all the tourists and ne'er-do-wells.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, organic chex with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
In the midst of cooking, was going to finish the salad for breakfast, but it went all stinky.

AM TASTINGS: 9am-1pm, a few spoonfuls of hummus, a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce, a spoonful of pumpkin ravioli-filling, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, cup of good hot chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Chef R made it for everyone at the meeting.

DINNER pt 1: 5:30pm, slice of streetza, chocolate pound cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From a crap joint called "Cheesy Pizza", believe it or not. Not very good.

DINNER pt 2: 7:45pm, carrot soup with bagel chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 9:30pm, quart

Exploration in the Freezer Case

I've been eating a lot of high-end pizza lately due to my time in the restaurant. How amazing it would be to eat that kind of pizza in the convenience at home, without the expense and time of delivery. Obviously, I'm not the first person to think these things. Today at the market while finally restocking my kitchen, it occurred to me that I hadn't really bought any frozen convenience food in quite a while. It used to be a good 1/3 of everything I got -- frozen White Castle burgers, burritos, breaded fish and chicken, Asiany snackie things, the whole gamut. But the main contender was always the frozen pizza.

And they all kind of sucked. But even pretty crappy pizza isn't THAT bad. So in the name of having some comfort food around the house for B while I spend some late nights at work, I went through the frozen pizza aisle and selected a handful of brands, from the Wholefoods house brand up to a chi-chi Wolfgang Puck number. Over the next few weeks I'll give them a try and critique them here.

ADDENDA:
Used up the last of the pancake mix in the freezer, which I made pre-c-school. Tasted pretty good, I mixed it minimally, came out the lightest and fluffiest yet....but misses that certain pancakey flavor we achieved in class. Next time I make the mix, gonna riff on the school recipe.

AM SNACK: 7am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, pancakes and bacon, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 5:45pm, veggie burger and a little salad with fries, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, vegan apple crumble cheesecake, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 9:30pm, quart

I would have called-in drunk, too.

Chef A is the third and final chef I had yet to work with. He a skinny bearded fellow with glasses similar to mine, probably around the same age. He works weekends and Mondays, and has his own catering company. When I came in at 1pm, Chef A hadn't arrived but the owner was in, flittering around the kitchen.

I went straight into it, calculating how much dough we needed then started to collect the mise. Chef A showed up around 1:30, doing his thing. He reviewed my calculations, teased me a bit about measuring in lbs and not kg on Saturday (!), then made the dough with me. Both Chefs R and C have their own little details and flourishes on how they make this crucial component, and Chef A was no different. After resting for an hour, he said it was good dough -- in response to his teasing, I said that I make many mistakes....once.

Spent the afternoon rough-chopping all sorts of root veg for a soup, then scaled out and balled a mess of dough. At some point, there was a kerfuffle because the dish washer for the evening called in "sick," but judging from his history and habits, it was assumed he was alcoholically derailed. Chef A jokingly asked me, "how are you with a dish washing machine?"

At around 5:30, Chef A asked me to fill in on dish duty -- no other washer could make it in. He said he knows it's not my job and I'm not getting paid to be there, but they'd pay me the going rate for a dishwasher. I really did not want to wash dishes all night, but I really did want to be a valued part of the team; so I said yes, whatever needs to be done I'll do it. The South American kid with lots of tattoos and minimal English gave me a semi-sign language tour of the dish station and where things go. And then I was off washin'.

Way back when, I had a friend who was connected to the 'zine culture (pre-blog) because she was a manager at Kinko's. She had a friend who traveled the country working as a dish washer, and writing about life. It's dirty, wet, and low-paying, but dishwashing jobs are easy to get. And calling in drunk may piss people off, but doing so won't get you fired!

I was bummed not to be in the kitchen. But when I actually got into it, I didn't mind it -- mindless busy work, allways something to do. I think the one thing I hated about all the staff positions I've held in graphics was all the down-time, being left to my own devices to look busy while glued to a desk. Before I knew it, the restaurant closed, my new friend in the back offered up any pasta of my choice, I ate with the front of house peeps. Did some mopping and exchanged kind words with Chef A and others. And then I was off riding home with some wet cash in my soaked pants. Too bad I didn't have any advance warning, I would have worn my rubber pants.

ADDENDA:
According to Wired Magazine, blogging is dead -- there is too much driftwood produced by media outlets, skammers, and nincompoops. The new hotness is...twittering. Restricting myself to 140 characters....could be fun but....that's not really writing. I'm doin' this for myself as well as the reader.

BREAKFAST: 9am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12pm. BLT on rye with fries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really need to get groceries. Just not a lot in the house that wouldn't require a solid 45 minutes of prep and cooking. Went to my local diner, where I used to eat as a treat every weekend -- now, I can barely stomach it. The bacon is sooo industrial and salty, the fries so generic and soulless. Still, it was cheap-ish, fast and convenient.

LUNCH 2: 5:30pm, margarita pizza, black cherry soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, small spag & meatballs, root beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had a half-sized small portion, which is still pretty big.

In Search of a Slice

On Saturday I did a 'prep' shift in the restaurant from 11:30-6, which was definitely more intense than everything I've done there up to this point. First thing, a group of 20 Swedish dentists came in for a private party -- C and I banged out 20 pizzas for them without a hitch, we had dough prepared yesterday and it was predetermined what they'd be getting.

However, everyone ordered dessert and all of a sudden the restaurant was out of all the desserts -- all of which are made on premises by the pizza chefs. We had to call in the owner's teenage son to help with pulling 20-odd espressos. And we needed to make dough for a Saturday night, which is a large double batch. And tonight's special pizza had pumpkin to be roasted.

I helped C measure out the dough stuff, then I got to work making a ricotta cheese cake, then the tiramisu again. Unlike with Chef R, there was a lot to do in little time and C couldn't really watch over my shoulder to direct me. After a few hours, the 3rd chef came in: A, a bearded fellow with a blunt manner. Chef R is the manager/chef de cuisine who does cook but is half out the door in management while Chef A seems to be the main cook, C the 2nd string, and now there's me: the semi-competent apprentice!

During the shift, ingredients ran out a few times. So I had to run to the nearby supermarket to stock up. It was constant turmoil until the minute I left. Fortunately, it was quiet for the first hour, and it was relatively easy to escape.

On the way home, biking from Prospect Heights to the Lower East Side, I blasted the Pixies on my iPod and let the waves of stimulus just work itself out of my head. It was a feeling similar to the combination of weariness and exhilaration after riding a hard 100 miles on a bike, minus the ass pain and angry shoulders. It's a good feeling. I dig it.

ADDENDA:
Sunday, I woke up early and rode about 54 miles on my bike, encompassing the ride up to the Bronx as well as the Tour de Bronx itself. It's a free ride, and the economy showed its effect -- no free t-shirts and miserable food at the rest stops. Some rest stops were giving away this newish 'fuze' beverage. The labels made all sorts of claims but the taste was just overly sweet, slightly syrupy. Whatever.

I pretty much skipped the rest stops and by the time I was in the northern end of the Bronx, I started looking for a slice joint to get something in my belly -- when riding distance, you should eat before you get hungry, and I was on the edge of losing my steam. The neighborhoods around Eastchester were pretty working class, and every trafficked intersection had lots of fast food and Chinese takeouts...but no pizza. How can a neighborhood not be sprinkled with slice joints? When I finally got to an elevated subway station, I knew instinctively there HAD to be a slice joint near the entrance. I looked around and indeed, a block away was pizza. Sometimes it's great to live in the city in which you grew up.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex, good milk, quart of water, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 2pm, mini margarita with caramelized onions and mushrooms, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
No time to eat this, had to grab bites while measuring ingredients for dough and making assorted desserts.

DINNER: 8pm, Chinese brick, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
I've learned two things to handle the take-out brick -- be hungry enough, and don't get the carb combo. A lomein and fried rice, deadly; broccoli & protein and fried rice, much more manageable.

SUNDAY:
BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, 2 good donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 1 "granola" bar, bottle of fuze, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, slice pof pizza, bottle of gatorade, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 4:30pm, eggplant parm hero, bottle of cream soda, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, handful of hot eggy cakes from vendor in Chinatown, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, ear of corn from street fair, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, kimchi, kalbi, white rice, smore, vanilla ice cream, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a Japanese BBQ place with various HVSs.