First week at the three star restaurant

Whoa...it has been a tough week! Physically, yes, but much more so mentally.

WARNING. THIS MIGHT BE A TL;DR TYPE POST.

When I came here for an observational trial 6 months ago I felt super confident and looked like it was going to be very easy for me. After all, I had worked in fine dining for a few years now. Well, I was wrong and now am very humbled. It feels like I'm trying to learn to walk again. 

Serve from the left and clear from the right, sauce from the right, learn 16 courses in intimate detail, learn every little detail about anything and everything from what the flowers are on display today, who hand crafts the plates, trays, who painted the paintings on the wall etc etc. 

Yellow chicken WTF?? Asian chickens?

I will dare say it has been the most challenging week of my working life. New country, new people, new everything. I guess this is what I wanted. To be the small fish again in a massive pond. I do work with some incredibly talented, passionate and hard working people though. The knowledge and the care that they put into this place is simply admirable. 

So this is how my week went. 

Day 1. Mostly observing. I was to learn the food and table & position numbers. Never really thought about it but when table numbers start with 0's (30,40,50 etc) it is confusing!! Start to learn people's names. There are like 150 employees. 

Intermission 1. Freedom tower. 

Day 2. I was allowed to 'sauce or tray follow'. As the name suggests, I got to follow someone to the tables with sauce and other items on a tray. Turns out there is little bit of an art to it too. Who would've thought. 

Day 3. All the days are starting to blend together by this point. I think I got to maybe even drop and spiel some food. Everything I do something I got a feedback on what I did wrong. This is starting to take a toll on my ego but I stay humble and try to learn from my mistakes. 

Intermission 2. The Empire States Building. 

Day 4. Kitchen trail. Basically got to be a commis chef for the day. Also the last day for James Kent, chef de cuisine. Also the day I was late. Of all days to be late, it had to be my kitchen trail day. FFS. Train schedule here seem to change every other day which can really fuck you up. I got fucked up that day. I basically got to peel like 200 carrots and scrub lots of stuff. Found out there are lots of Koreans working at the restaurant. This was a tough day too but it allowed me to see the other side. Must say though, I'm happy to be in the dining room. 

As it was the chef's last day all the staff went out for a drink. I wasn't reeeeaaallllyyy invited apparently because I'm 'too new' but I tagged along anyways and had a great night getting to know everyone. I got dubbed as 'beautiful unicorn' by Pam, I have no idea why lol 

Day 5. I can't remember. 

Intermission 3. Bacon & Egg McGriddle. Weird sweet & savoury combo. 

Had a day off yesterday. Turns out having two days in a row is a rarity. I miss my Sunday & Mondays off every week!! 

Day 6 was today. I felt much much better. I got to run and clear lots of dishes. Finally got my head around dropping food in certain order etc. I felt much more confident and could be myself with the guests little more. 

Also had a little surprise, Samba (Sam & Amba) are in New York!! I hadn't seen Amba since she left NZ so it's been a little while and was so good seeing them again. They are just such good people and I missed them a lot. 

Samba & Jae

Food adventure of the week was the famed Mission Chinese NY. Started in SF in Mission district and they do sort of a Chinese fusion type dishes. 

Dragon lamp at Mission Chinese. Pretty cool. 

I was originally going to go to Katz's Deli but I walked past this place and decided to leave that for another time. 

I ordered mapo tofu ramen and pig's tail dish.

Mapo Ramen

Pig's Tail

I felt like the ramen had too much spices. It made my mouth numb and it was unpleasant. When I got over the numbness though, it was tasty with rich pork broth. Pig tail was pretty good. Nice flavour, crunchiness. Although I felt like it was little too salty but then everything here seems to be too salty for my liking. 

So that's been my first week in NY. Sorry if it was too long and not enough photos - I've been working a lot ok?? I will keep you updated with more photos in days to come. 

Bye for now!