32 Hours But Who's Counting?

Most of yesterday's prep is crossed off - although some is not done, just eliminated from the menu, due to the cook shortage.  That being said, we are extremely grateful that the other cooks are helping to fill that gap: Mary and Marlena have been staying late after lunch service, along with Angie, and Rodrigo has been coming in at noon to work Brian's abandoned spot on the line.  Even Megan, with her hectic "real" life, has managed to get here earlier than her usual time.  We are really thankful to them for stepping up to the plate.  Kevin is lucky to have such a hard-working (remaining) crew.

Here's what greeted LaVonte when he showed up early this morning for his shift - the result of Kevin's early morning kitchen operations.  As per usual, no one works harder or longer than the Chef.  The past two mornings have seen him stretch up out of Bed at 4AM ("Six hours is plenty of sleep.") to arrive at BT by 4:30 and get cracking on that list.  Today and tomorrow are the biggest days - and of course last night we were very, very busy, so there's all that prep to do for dinner service tonight.  Will it ever end??  Yes, that is the beauty of it - New Year's Day will be a very slow one for the entire BT kitchen crew, and they will probably be very happy about that!

Oh, and what, you may wonder, am I doing to help out this year?  Besides fretting?  I made the honey spiced almonds!  Plus I'm going to help Angie put together the trifle.  Not to mention all of this historic documentation, eh?

Carry on!

55 Hours But Who's Counting?

 

Yesterday's NYE prep list is fairly well completed - a few jobs that were left for day cook Brian, who has decided that this is the week he no longer works here.  Granted, he has not informed us of this decision, it is based solely on text messages he has sent LaVonte, combined with a DNS yesterday and this morning.  Great.  Nothing like being down a man for the week before NYE...  Oh well, onward and forward, everyone else will be picking up the slack and the Show Will Go On!

The pate looks good...it is now "tempering" in the walk-in.

And Angie's poached pears look good too, for the tart.

What fun! eh Kevin?

Happy New Year!

For Kevin, Christmas Weekend, as lovely and relaxing as it is (and was) is also about getting ready to get ready for New Year's Eve.  He spent his fair share of time doing a little actual prep work,  but mostly making sure he had a prep list ready for his crew to attack on the return to work on Tuesday.  Here's his list for the week leading up to Friday night:

We will be documenting the progress - there will be crossing out at things get "Done!"
He even has a plating chart, for aiding Kevin and Rodrigo on the line:

How organized is that?  Now, don't forget, all of this is subject to change and market availability, and success in prep - if the crispy ham gets over crisped we may find a substitute in bacon, or whatever.  Meanwhile, the race against time has begun, and guess what?  We already have a cook calling out for today.  Great.  

Meanwhile, here's hoping all of you had as wonderful a Christmas Weekend as we did, and that your New Year holds a large measure of joy and health and happiness!

Let the prep work begin!

December 1

We all agree it is hard to believe that the first day of the last month of the year is here...already.  Perhaps the reason some people really push the Holiday Season - trees up, house decorated, gifts wrapped - is so they can slow down the month of lights and make it last a little longer, before entering into the true depth of the long winter months that follow.  I'm all for that.

For Kevin, the beginning of December marks his deadline for having his New Year's Eve menu written and planned.  He wants to have all the details hammered out by the end of this first week.  He's got the menu written, except for some final tweaking.  He's been working on it for over a month already.  New Year's Eve, to him, is the showcase event of the year, where he gets to pull out all the stops  and present an evening of food that challenges his creativity and sparks enthusiasm in his dining clientele.  His restrictions?  Costs of course: it has to be priced within the reach of our customers' willingness to pay for the extra labor and higher food costs such a menu entails.  And that labor must be able to execute the more complicated prep work that goes into the  varied special presentations.  Kevin has to plan out who can do what, and if there is no one who can do that, then that is not going to be on the menu.  The menu will most certainly involve prep strategies that are foreign to some of our cooks, plus ingredients that might be entirely new to others.  It's a recipe for disaster for a less experienced Chef.  And we have had some disasters, trust me.  But for the most part it is a very exciting event, both for those preparing for it and for those enjoying it out in the dining room.  As soon as he will let me, I will post the advance copy of this year's menu.  

The Aftermath

Whew. That's all I can say. We were all exhausted after last night's full throttle escapades. Of course, not everything was totally perfect, and not everyone was totally happy, but I think overall it was a satisfactory production for the majority of our guests. A lot of my pictures came out blurry - too rushed - so I only have a couple of the final product to record here, but the food looked delicious - that veal chop with those chanterelles, oh my! There were some issues with the ribeye steaks - fat and gristle issues - and there was a major issue with the garnish of mussels not being put on the mussel soup (!!oops!!), but I didn't get too many complaints up front. I'll follow through when I see some of our guests on their next visit, to get some honest feed-back, but I hope everyone had a good time and enjoyed their meal. I wish my pictures had turned out, because the plates were simply spectacular. Kevin and his crew pumped all night long, and I'm sure they thought it would just never end, with the stress being palpable and the pressure very heavy on the line. It is simply amazing that they could pull it off; they should be very proud of themselves. I know it was very difficult. As for the floor crew, they were very professional and just took care of business the way they always do - I didn't seem to have to worry about a thing and could just do the things that I needed to do myself. That was wonderful too.

So, out with the old year and on with the new.
Let's hope it's a good one.

The oyster boat.

We started out with the St. Brigid's Farm tenderloin,
with dauphine potatoes and broccoli rabe.

Here's the snapper with those celery root crisps.

Two of the desserts - the very appealing Bouche de Noel,
and the very popular Brandied Cherry Sundae.
I am disappointed the rest of the photos
were basically worthless...

The night is over, that's all I can say about this picture.

And best of all, for Kevin especially,
was the arrival of these surprise guests -
his brother Tom with his wife Jean!
What a Happy New Year!

To the Wire

Well, my job is done - as you can see, the dining room
is all decoratedfor the grand
New Year's Eve celebration, slated to begin in just 90 minutes.
Whew, I'm exhausted...

Meanwhile, what has that kitchen crew been up to?
Wow, people have been working really, really hard
today to have this entirely new menu ready by 5:30!

Shallots wait to get roasted.

Potatoes wait to get filled with oysters and bacon.

First the oysters...

...then the rest is folded in and will eventually
be baked in their Idaho boat.

Chris and Angie are making the dauphine potatoes.

It's a real production line.

What a great crew!
Front row, we have Angie, Megan, Chris and Kevin.
Back row, Erika, Kevin, LaVonte and John.
Thanks everyone!

Next year we'll see how it all came out!
Meanwhile, here's wishing us all a Happy and Healthy 2010!

The Countdown Continues

The two nut and cranberry tart looks very festive.

Here Kevin shows Chris how he wants the potatoes "smashed".

Very gently smashed.

These are some potatoes that will absorb some sauce, eh?


The brandied - since July - cherries will be served with vanilla ice cream.

The knobby celery roots will be peeled and sliced and...

put into the deep fryer to become...

celery root crisps, garnishing the Snapper.

The Salmon will have this lobster stuffing.

Back later with one final post before the clock strikes 5:30!

8 Hours But Who's Counting?

It wasn't very pleasant to wake up to a layer of white stuff already on the ground, with that nasty, dreaded triumvirate known as "wintry mix" predicted to follow. It should be hassle free by the time our guests are scheduled to begin arriving. We hope.

Kevin's prep list as of 7:30 this morning shows some improvement - Tuesday has only one job left on it; but he has added a fourth column...

Megan preps mussels for the soup course.

The little brioches turned out great! They'll be going with the foie gras course.

This morning Angie is putting together the double nut cranberry tart.

At the same time, Ericka is making crepes for the brie/mushroom appetizer.

We'll get a few more pictures in as the day goes by, so stay tuned!

The CountDown to New Year's Eve

Twenty six hours to lift off for NYE and the energy in the kitchen is at high speed.
I lead the pack with a desk that says "totally organized"....

Kevin's prep list as of 9AM this morning.

Some of the St.Brigid Farm ribeye steaks.

Kevin has tools he uses to prep the St. Brigid Farm veal chops...

Little brioche loaves in formation.

Finally they are left to rise. We hope they rise...

Big bowls and tubs of prepped ingredients that will be used somewhere.

Angie is making Yule Logs for dessert - those are the marzipan garnishes, drying in the office.

She's icing them now, with mocha buttercream.

I think she's making four. They are her specialty.

The view through the kitchen.

The prep list at 3:30 this afternoon...some progress made, eh? It's a very stressful few days in the kitchen, with so much extra special prep work to be done for the extra special menu. We have notes from previous years, which help to give guidelines, but it's still a year later and a totally new staff, except for the two Kevins and LaVonte. All new garnishes, some new sauces, many new presentations. The menu will be tweaked somewhat, as the hours go by - already the black pepper brittle that was going to garnish the beef has gone bye-bye - but for the most part it is laid out for all to see. We are just about fully booked - just a few tables at 5:30 and 9:00 left.

Can't wait to open that champagne!