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.