30 may - 5 june 2011 venison and deep cleaning

30 may - today i went to work waiting to find out by chef what he wanted me to do and he took me to the back to fetch a whole rooibok carcass, that he let me cut up and 2 nyala hips, this i cut up everything to make a pot roast and the bones and the rest of the offcuts were used to make a stock, which was turned into a soup, our pot roast was half cooked, the nyala finished quick and was fully cooked, but the rooibok was only half cooked because of the toughness of the meats, and Adrian (proficiency) helped me throughout the whole process.

31 may - we finished cooking the venison for the pick and pay conference and we started cooking the fond blanc(brown stock) which was later made into a soup by kieron, today was quiet again, but the conference made the whole day busier, so i enjoyed it.

1 June - we prepared for vleisvreters, i made rice, boiled chicken for the chicken mayonnaise, made roasted chicken and a venison stew, which was all meats that were left over from the function.

2 June -the whole day we did a few orders and consisted mostly of deep cleaning the rest of the day, we also packed and cleaned the back fridge, freezer, dry store and i did the inside fridge by myself from top to bottom, it was a hectic cleaning day, but i did do a few things like blanching mixed vegetables etc

3 - 5 June - off weekend

27 - 29 may 2011 uithoe ritte at caravan park

27 may - i worked in the main kitchen at vleisvreters again, i made mixed vegetables, butternut and did temperature checks for the kitchen, there wasn't much to do and their wasnt much guests the weekend again, it was very fun, even though i went home a bit later than usual, but such is life

28 may - i woke up and went to caravan park at 4:30 in the morning, i was tired and extremely cold, but after 2 cups pf coffees and a rusk i was ready to start the day, we served, breakfast rolls, boerewors rolls, vetkoek and mince, potjie and pap and we had the whole caravan parks field full of people, it got a bit hectic at sometimes, but it was very fun and all of us liked it, it was me, Alon and Zamiane working there with chef Errol, we only went home after 5 and we were all exhausted, but satisfied with our work done.

29 may - today was quiet and i asked chef if we can do anything, but he said i must just clean and do standard recipes, so i kept on doing that because he wanted to keep the special stuff for monday, so it was very quiet, and having a quiet day slows you down dramatically, but i kept working and the day went past very fast.

the weekend was very fun and we experienced changes in our daily schedules, which made  it all more fun to work, this is why Sondela suits me, peace out !!!

23 - 26 may 2011 bonus function, guest house and caravan park setup

23 may - today chef Errol wanted to make something different, so i asked to help with his idea, we made mini cheese loaves, which was a made up bread recipe with a lot of cheese and paprika, i also got to use pommes(potatoes) today and i made pomme croquettes, pomme dutchess and they were all shown and explained briefly to me

24 may - this was the day of the bonus function and i had to make 3, 30 litre pots of mielie pap, we served the staff after their singing expedition and i made some of the student lunch which consisted of deep fried samosas and chips, the rest of the day was small orders and cleaning

25 may - i set up the caravan park with Alon today, we set it up so that we don't forget anything and there were a lot of people in the kitchen, so we took all the big equipment there, put up the dividers, the net and the seil over the roof so that no dirt and debris will come in from the roof or the sides when the horses start their races, we took all the grillers, flat top, tables and gas burners, that was the end of our day. we also took all our stock to the guest house for the next day

26 may - me and Alon started work at 5:30 in the morning, it was really cold and just for interest, we didn't want to get out of a warm car, but it was the first time working at the guest house and we were very excited, we got there and Alon chose to be in the hot kitchen the previous day, so i did all the cold foods, which consisted of freshly made juices, fruit platters, and pastry platters, with a selection of butter, whipped creams and mozzarella cheese. I was finished first, so I decided to help Alon, i helped with his poached eggs wrapped in smoked ham and his plating, it was really fun and we enjoyed working with chef Errol and chef Steve.

16 may - 22 may 2011 offal and lemon week for me

16 may - I packed the fridge and freezer today, this day also consisted of a test that i recieved 85 % for, it was a 3 hour test and I thought I did very well, the rest of the day we were off.

17 may - we worked outside making offal, which is all the

 internal organs and edible meat inside the cow, 

we all needed to make something different with our parts, me,

Francois and Bianca worked together and i got a heart and

Bianca got kidneys, she made devil kidneys, which is shallow

frying the kidneys with a lot of chilli, i made a heart stew, 

which consists of cubed and cleaned heart, origanum , red wine 

and many different sautèd vegetables, many of the students liked 

the heart and even Mel complimented my dish, it was very fun, we

all had different parts and after that we cleaned up and went home

18 may -everyone was off because of elections

19 may - I was sent to the academy kitchen today to work with lemons, we never had a chance to make different lemon dishes or products, so chef gave us a chance to make different products consisting of lemons, I made lemon, caramel and vanilla syrup, which was bottled, i also made lemon curd as well as a lemon marmalade, all these products were bottled for future use.

20-22 may - I was on my off weekend and returned home

13 may - 15 may 2011 weekend working schedule

13 may - i worked at vleisevreters this weekend and i did carving again, it was a typical Friday and it wasn't very busy, everything was very quiet, but i did talk more to the guests, because we didn't have much to rush about, it was enjoyed by all and we didn't work so late this weekend

14 may- i made Coldert today, which is butterflied fish fillets, pannèd and deep fried in hot fat,

thereafter you boil snails in a bèchemel sauce, or a basic cheese sauce and you add this into the butterflied deep fried fish and gratinate, serve with 2 garlic clove stalks and capers.

15 may- very quiet day, nothing much happened, only a few orders of burgers, beef stroganoff and some small dishes, so the whole day consisted of cleaning and packing the fridge. 

9-12 may 2011 week back at sondela tambuki function

9 may 2011- theory day

 10 may 2011- starting preparation for Adriano's Tambuki function where all the senior management will be served by our student chefs to see what we have learn't and how we are doing at Sondela with our studies, we took all the big equipment there, like the grills, tables, gas bottles, and the grids

11 may 2011- this is when we packed and prepared all dishes for the Tambuki function, here is a picture of how I prepared the fillets, me, Alon and Armand were in charge of the main course which was fillet stuffed with bacon, scalloped potatoes, lamb shank, lamb neck and mixed vegetables. Which was prepared on this day


12 may 2011- we finally started with the Tambuki function for Adriano, were we made the main course for him and management, here are photos of how Tambuki looked when we finished setting it up and us making the foods in our white chef jackets

2 may - 5 may 2011

2 may-on this day me and kieron did mise on place for the hot kitchens ingredients and we made pancakes for the rest of the day, now and then there was a delivery and I went out with chef to re-pack and store the foods

3 may- theory day

4 may-we went on a road trip with chef today. we went to the Chinese market, Binun's and Makro for equipment, ingredients and to show students different types of cultures






5 may - 8 may 2011 was an off weekend for me, that day all I did was theory

29 april - 1 may 2011 weekend of a new month means new beginnings

29th i made gemsquash with cabbage and cheese filling, we were preparing for sunday lunch, i also got the beef roll, lemon and herb chicken, beef lasagne made from scratch, roasted potatoes and the venison potjie ready, i worked at meat lovers buffet that night.

on the 30th i was in main kitchen again making student lunch, which was an extra beef lasagne from the previous day that wasn't used, and i was given the chance to make pizza's even though chef was very skeptical because the previous time 3 people made pizzas for lunch, they screwed it up and took too long and all the students complained, but i used the principle of mise on place and i made all 10 pizza's on time and on my own

1 may 2011 - i worked at Sunday lunch busy with the conference guests, we made the foods which were the gem-squash, roasted potatoes, butternut, Peri-Peri chicken and beef slices

the weekend was quiet, but we kept doing work, because there is always something to do in a kitchen.

23 april - 29 april we were shown all new plating ideas

on the 23rd i was doing mise on place for breakfast in the kitchen, in case outside might need back up, i was doing breakfast all day in the hot kitchen as well as deep frying, microwave cooking, shallow frying and making foods for guests like vetkoek curry mince, burgers, hot dogs, chefs salad, avocado rits and snails in choux pastry.these were the new plating ideas(the last 3 mentioned).

On the 24th I worked in hot kitchen preparation area, making pizza's, flat-bread, pepper paste and a herb tapenade. for the spicing and marinading of raw products for extra flavour.

on the 25th i worked at caravan park doing welcoming for the first time ever, I was nervous because no one helped with the preparation for the equipment or ingredients, but it wasn't that bad, because anything i forgot, the f&b bakkie went to fetch, even for more pancakes or cinnamon.

26th we did breakfast and the specials again, which were the new plating ideas that were sold to the guests. we also prepared for the meat lovers buffet

on the 27th i worked at moselesele with zamiane, we didn't do much, because everyone was leaving so they didn't want us to make anything special, we did microwave cooking and that was about it, but we did deep clean a lot and we were off the rest of the day.

28th, I did stock in the main kitchen with chef for the first time that he taught me how to do, i worked with over R45 000 when taking stock, after doing stock which is a very long process, me and alon were taught to make kingklip stroganoff, which is cutting fish into goujons, kingklip stroganoff is basically shallow fried kingklip and prawn tail made in a bechamel sauce, with thyme, a tamarind and placed on pasta( like tagliatelle) and served with rosemary on top.



that was my week till friday  which is posted on another post

19 - 22 April 2011 working weekend and the academy kitchen

 i made a 2 genoese sponges with alon, it was a long time since i was in the academy kitchen and i enjoyed the quietness as well as calm cooking day, and the following day we made chocolate mousse for the sponge cake, we cut the sponge cake in half, and filled it so that it has a soft center, we garnished it for main kitchens desserts.on the weekend i made tomato and qemsquash soup with Natalie, and on the 22nd, i was working outside for the caravan breakfasts, which i made eggs etc, this was followed by a new plating of snails in choux pastry with garlic sauce.

these are photos of us setting up the breakfast kitchen on the 21 and of me and alon making the genoese sponge and it takes long and hard whisking work to make a sabayon.

this is after we baked the genoese sponge and what the final product looked like in the steak and kidney dishes

 this is the measured ingredients of the chocolate mousse that was being made on the 20th for the filling of the genoese sponge

 this is kiwi coulis made also on the 20th by boiling kiwi's (e.g. 1 kg with 500 g of sugar) and then cooling when finished as well as bottling

 a balsamic reduction also done on the 20th, used for flavouring dishes and seasoning meats, it was made by reducing balsamic vinegar by half with maraschino cherries, and fresh herbs to make it intense and thicker

 this is the genoese sponge that was filled with chocolate mousse for the main kitchen, is was split and chocolate mousse was piped into the middle

 this is also a photo of the genoese sponge with chocolate mousse filling.

 this is the chocolate mousse made for the genoese sponge

this is gem-squash soup that i made with the second year(natalie) for the meat lovers buffet







a vegetable soup was also made for the buffet, both were used for different flavours and people could choose which they wanted

14-17 march academy kitchen and hostex

On monday the 14, we tourned a pomme(potato) the whole day, we had to learn the different cuts and peel potatoes as well, me and kobus had a competition peeling, we both tied in the competition, which was satisfying. we also boiled and deepfried the potato shavings and the left overs that we cut into julienne. we deep fried them in a birds nest. on the 15th of march we got ready to go to hostex the next day, on the 16 th we went to hostex te whole day for a convention, where there were many cheffing students and new technologies for a kitchen and hospitaliy, we went there to see all the gadgets and learn about chefs and what they do, i enjoyed walikng around at hostex and i thought it was a good learning experience

 here are pictures of all equipment and commodities, made and sold to customers like food and beverage companies, or chefs, knifes that can be bought here, i bought two of these colour coded knifes, one purple chefs knife and one lime paring knife

 here is a picture of a chef cutting wrongly and with latex gloves, which isnt always so sanitary or hygienic

 these are cooked foods and products for the market(above and below), on the right is a chef who is explaining the food items being cooked behind him, they ask questions and give away prizes, these are all food demo's for the public, which promotes their business.

these photos are of us riding to hostex (left) and storage equipment (right)