Lunch!

Today we had a lunch for 30 people. I only got two of the courses. The first one was a deep fried squash flower on top of a little mixed greens, and a sauce that tasted like tomato soup with garlic infused milk mixed with it.

Just the sauce

Completed plate

The second course was seafood. It has mussels, clams, squid, and shrimp. I think that was all there might of been more in it but I don't remember. 

Well thats all for now! Nothing too exciting has been going on. I'll put pictures up of my resturaunt tomorrow.

An Italian Christening

Tonight was the owner of Giardiniello son or grandson's christening. There were a hundred people there, and probably just as many courses. Maybe not a hundred... but they started at 8 and when I left at 10:30 they still weren't done. I'm not sure how Italian courses go, so I'm just putting them up as they were put out.

First

This is the beginning of the first course. Its seviched salmon on the left, and on the right mixed greens, a toasted bread circle, and seviched anchovies. The anchovies are marinated in wine, vinegar, water, and salt.

This is the finished plate. The salmon got topped with mixed greens and fennel, and the anchovies with a few dried flowers. I'm not sure what the line in the middle is, but both the salad and anchovies got dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. 

This also went out with the first course. It is a fried dough with rosemary and parmesan and other things, but I didn't see what all went into it. It was really good. 

This was the second course out. From left to right is seared tuna, an eggplant roll-up, and fried anchovy. I've talked about making the eggplant and anchovy things before, and thats them! The eggplant is topped with marinara, parmesan cheese, and a piece of basil. There is a balsamic glaze decorating the bottom. 

Third course out. Its just a simple gnocchi with tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella. 

Fourth course. Its half a squash flour on the plate with pasta on top. The pasta is hand made. The sauce is pureed zucchini, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, and zucchini pieces. We make this a lot of lunches and dinners.

The fifth course was a seafood risotto. I didn't get a picture of it though. It had mussels, clams, and squid in it.

I left before this was served so I don't know when it went out. It has a potato bottom and shrimp. I'm not sure what went into the potato, but it was par cooked, and then taken out and the shrimp was added. The shrimp head is empty it was just a decoration. The shrimp tail part had parmesan cheese and olive oil. It looked really delicious.

Well that is what I did today! There was a hundred people at the dinner, so we were constantly plating and getting the dishes ready. 

That's the first hundred plates that went out. The guy walking up is my sous chef Jack, and the guy plating is the main chef Giovanni.

Italian Independence Day

Happy Festa della Repubblica everyone! Lucky for me I woke up unaware of Italian version of the 4th of July, and went to get my 9am bus that wasn't there. After some internet research I found out that today is the Italian independence day, therefore making the bus schedule all different due to the holiday. 


So, now onto the staff meal! I suppose in the spirit of the of Independence Day we had hamburgers, french fries, and of course pasta. "Hamburgers and french fries?"you might be thinking, but it was still fully an Italian meal. The hamburger was made with rosemary, garlic, and panade (milk and bread mixed together). It was also just a straight hamburger patty. No bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, or condiments. And no condiments with the french fries. 


That pretty much summed up all the days activities. I'll try and figure out if I can put up pictures to show you my resturaunt. 


Ciao!

Working at Giardiniello

So I just realized I accidently deleted my first two posts. So I'll just go back over it!

I'm working at Giardiniello in Minori, Italy. Their website is http://www.ristorantegiardiniello.com/ if you want to check it out! The picture with two guys in it on the website is the owner of the restaurant and the executive chef. They both are named Giovanni easily enough.

There are five people in my kitchen. Giovanni is the executive chef, Jack is the sous chef, there's a guy who they call Fireman, another chef who's name I don't know, and the pizza guy. Out of them only Jack speaks a tiny bit of English. Fireman will always come over to me and say whole paragraphs and I just look at him and have not a clue what he's saying. Its a good time.

I'm living in Amalfi so I have to take the bus to work (which is an adventure in and of its self, but I'll tell you about that in another post!) I take the 9am bus and get there sometime between 9:10 and 9:20. I'll usually get a cappuccino next door to my work and then go in around 9:45 or 10.

The morning time is prep. I like the prep time in the morning. I do stuffed shells which is ricotta, smoked mozzarella, parmesan, and salt and pepper. I have to pipe them into shells so I've been getting better at piping. We also do these eggplant roll up deals. Its slices of deep fried egg plant, sprinkle of parmesan, a little tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, and a piece of fried fish. All of that gets rolled up in the eggplant, and then you roll it the other way (to cover open area) in another piece of eggplant. I have also made these anchovy things. Its a anchovy that is split open and back bone removed, a piece of smoked mozzarella, and another anchovy. Its smooshed together into a little anchovy and mozzarella sandwich, breaded, and later fried for service. During this time prep I also remove the pin bones from fish fillets, shell shrimp, and clean mussels.

I leave around 2 and catch the 2:10 bus back to Amalfi. I either take a nap at home or go to the beach and nap. Then I get the 6pm (or 18:00 here) bus and get to work around 6:30 for staff dinner. The food is always so good I love eating staff meals. I'm not there too long for dinner so I usually finish some prep if there is any, or finish dishes and run them to the window. I leave around 8 to get the 8:30 bus and am home at 9! My days have been pretty easy so far, and I like it a lot.

American Girls

Sous Chef Jack: You don't eat a lot
Me: Really? I don't know.... (not too sure where he's going with this if its bad or good)
Jack: Ya. Most American girls eat a lot. Very fat.
Me: hahaha oh ok

Conversation over staff lunch
Owner of restaurant: Do you have a boyfriend?
Me: Yes
Owner: How many?
Me: One
Owner: Oh really? Most American girls have 3 or 4 boyfriends in America!


Apparently Italians think American girls are fat and a bit promiscuous