On Wednesday, I had a shorter production kitchen shift because I had a practical class at noon. I basically helped put together some ingredients for the demo and practical of a superior cuisine class. It took me a long time to gather all the ingredients and prepare them as the chef wants them to be prepared. I ended up messing up my apron and jacket (with grease, dirt and food stains), so I had to run home to get changed into my other set of (clean) uniform before heading to my practical class, where I made the failed miroir cassis (well, "failed" in the sense that the meringue in my mousse collapsed, as I mentioned in an earlier post).
On Friday, I did the full 6am-to-2pm shift in the production kitchen, where I learnt some catering skills. A classmate and I made 40 sandwiches with rustic bread. The fillings were either chicken salad or ham & cheese. Chef CP showed us how to organise things so that the sandwich-making was like an assembly line. He also taught me how to get all the ingredients ready and to estimate the quantity required for 40 portions, as well as some safe food-handling techniques. He told us we should only have enough cold ingredients (or meat/dairy products) on the benchtop (i.e. outside of the fridge) to complete 20 minutes of sandwich-making, everything else should be in the fridge or wrapped tightly to prevent contamination -- and that was an important HACCP (i.e. hazard analysis and critical control points) lesson for me.
I also learnt how to remove all the meat off a roasted ham, to sort through some air-dried herbes de Provence and put them in a container, and to peel and turn turnips (this is what Basic Cuisine students learn, and I get a chance to learn it in the Production Kitchen). I think this was one of the most interesting production kitchen shifts I had ever done. I came home happy that I had the chance to learn so many things.
