Five Things I Learned at Work this Week Vol. 12

This week was a slow one, with very few reservations and lots of time to prep, and even more time to think while doing so. It's good to have weeks that are a changed pace from the one before, and the one that will follow, but I've noticed I appreciate it more when it's an increased pace rather than a slowed one. Late summer ease I suppose, but I don't want it. On to the week...

Monday, August 4th: Parma prosciutto pigs are fed the whey from parmesan cheese production, while jamón ibérico pigs are primarily fed acorns, both affecting the marbling, tastes, and textures of the prosciuttos. I pointed out the impressive marbling in a piece of parma prosciutto as I was slicing it, which is when my chef taught me this.

Tuesday, August 5th: My chef brought me a belated birthday present today, the book “The Art of Fermentation” and a large mason jar with a self-burping lid and helix coil inside. The self-burping lid is because when pickling, you need to let out some gases to prevent the jar from bursting. The helix coil is so all of the vegetable remain submerged in the pickling liquid.

Wednesday, August 6th: Cold butter helps fix broken sauces when you’re working over heat. I was working the pasta station tonight, and getting frustrated when the cheese broke in my carbonara and capelletis. That's when one of my cooks—a classically French trained one, of course—told me that adding a couple pats of cold butter helps bring the sauce back together by cooling it down a bit and then creating an emulsion. Genius.

Thursday, August 7th: An airtight seal is extremely important when pickling something because fermentation creates bacteria—good bacteria, but you need the airtight lid to ensure there’s no way for negative bacteria to enter the fermentation process.

Friday, August 8th: There are special thermometers for sugar work that can read higher temperatures than the average thermometer. Sugar work requires extremely high and extremely precise temperatures. For this reason, candy tables have warm water running through them to maintain a constant temperature. I want to see one of those.