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

10 April 2011 cold kitchen on sunday

when i came into the kitchen i helped william get some food on like the oxtail and the sweet potatoes, but i asked chef errol if me and Alon can work in the cold kitchen alone, and he said we may, me and alon were working like professionals, our station was always clean, the orders were always on time, it was just very hard to understand when someone calls orders, but me and alon got used to it and we were running like an A grade business, i enjoyed it very much,we made a lot of toasted sandwiches, salads and side salads

saturday 9 April 2011 hot kitchen

 I was in the main kitchen again and chef was in a good mood again today, I was making conference food and it was mostly about chicken,  I made chicken livers wrapped in bacon that was held closed with toothpicks and whole chickens on swords that we were going to spit Braai,

 but chef changed his mind and we just made them in the oven because of how the guests wanted it done, personally i thought it would have been a great idea and so did chef Errol, but as it is always said, the guest is always right.

 this is evidence of dishes made and how they were prepared
 in the process of cooking

friday 8 April 2011 in hot kitchen

On Friday i was working again, and i was in the main kitchen, working at the hot station and i was very productive, because i missed being at work, I really wanted to come back and i was so happy to be there, i still am. I made spicy chicken drumsticks, spicy chicken liver, a wonderful lamb curry that i got compliments about and butternut, I was also cleaning while i was cooking and had a great day at work and i couldn't wait for the next day of work, this is a roughly took picture of the chicken livers(right) and my lamb curry, the butternut and chicken drumsticks unfortunately weren't finished and i was so busy that i forgot to take a picture later on

13 -15 april weekdays working

I worked in the hot kitchen again making different dishes like crossoints and pizza's , I enjoyed the weekend because me and natalie were working together most of the time and we made guacamole, crossoints, tomato soup, gemsquash soup and I made 10 pizza's on my own for student lunch, in 10 minutes, which shows that mise on place helps a lot if you stick to your job. it was quiet the weekend but it was satisfying because there was business at least and we had fun

25 march - 4 april why i havent posted

i was unfortunately sent home due to an unfortunate event that happened on premises and that is why i did not post, all matters have been resolved and i am back at sondela continuing my work and further learning, my work will be caught up and i will be posting again shortly when i get back into the kitchen, i am working in the main kitchen this weekend and i will surely let everyone who reads know what i have done and what i learnt in the process