Five Things I Learned at Work this Week Vol. 9

Monday, July 7th: My chef actually hides his most sought after equipment in the ceiling. I was told to use a “Parisienne” scoop for the ice cream plates for a BEO. When I asked my chef where the small ice cream scoop was, he retrieved a slew of kitchen utensils from a ceiling cut out in the walk in. I thought Anthony Bourdain was joking when he wrote about that.

Tuesday, July 8th: The three types of meringue are Swiss, Italian, and French. Someone made a joke and said, "Ask a pastry chef the four types of meringue and they’ll tell you there are only three. Then say, 'No, there are 4. Australian, the boomerang.'" I didn’t understand the joke until I said meringue and boomerang out loud, back to back.

Wednesday, July 9th: I've noticed that music helps me work faster, but for some reason I don't always want it on.

Thursday, July 10th: My chef brought me the book “Six Seasons” by Joshua McFaden. He said it’s one he swears by, a vegetable bible of sorts, similar to Vegetable Literacy. I can’t wait to get into it.

Friday, July 11th: I learned about gastriques today. From my understanding, they are a sauce made of caramelized sugar, deglazed with some sort of acid. They're quite finnicky because if you have just one undissolved sugar granule, it will cause the other grains to bind to it, creating large crystals and causing the gastrique to solidify.