pigalls

On Saturday, June 16, 2007, I worked in the kitchens of Jean-Robert at Pigall’s. It was a good evening to work — the Chef de Cuisine and one of the line cooks were both out. Adequate plans for coverage were made, though — the sous chef from one of Jean-Robert’s other restaurants worked the “middle” (between fish and meat), I was there, and there were two high school-aged girls volunteering as well. It’s rare to see volunteers there because the kitchen is so small, but the girls stayed mostly out of the way.

Before service, I assisted with general prep. When Chef arrived, he pulled me downstairs to assist him (it was fun for me in a weird way to re-assign my mise en place to the high-school girls) with butchery & fish mongering. I worked my way (slowly, Chef would tell you!) through several skate wings and beef tenderloins. I enjoy butchery and fish mongering and have some skill at it (though I am a little bit slow, Chef would probably point out again, poking me in the ribs with his finger), and it was nice to give these skills a workout — not something I get to do often. An added perk was that Chef worked with me for much of the butchery. We had a good conversation while we worked, a rare luxury in such a busy kitchen.

After cleaning up from the butchery, I moved upstairs and shadowed Abby on Hot Appetizers for service. I helped with the soup and ravioli dishes, and helped Abby wherever I could. I didn’t start out the evening very helpfully — the first thing I did was drop a sizzle plate loudly to the floor (”it’s going to be that kind of night,” I thought). I messed up a couple other things that put Abby in the weeds, but she was cool and collected through the first turn. Or perhaps she was just relishing the quiet because she over-celebrated her 25th birthday the night before… I got my shit together for the second turn and feel like I contributed. Since morel mushrooms are in season, we sold a bunch of them — more than 20 orders, I think.

At one point during service, we ran out of prepared skate so Chef pulled me from Hot Apps and sent me downstairs to fabricate a few more. I busted them out, brought them up to Chef, and cleaned up. After service, Chef said that he was impressed that I jumped out, did what was necessary, and jumped back in.

After service, Chef asked if I wanted a soft-shell crab, which is currently on our menu. I said sure (it is bad form to say no when a chef offers you food!). The fish guy (Rob) told me that he’d cook it but I had to prep the crab. So, I followed the instructions Abby told me: “Step 1: Cut off the face with these scissors. Step 2: Lift up the skirt and cut out the gills. Step 3: Pull the tab (near the crab’s butt) and cut it off”. Abby has a hard time getting past the “cut off the face” part, but that doesn’t give me a problem. In culinary school, I went around behind the chef-instructor’s back and dispatched the lobsters of squeemish classmates. On Valentine’s Day (we call it amateur night) at the restaurant, I had to prep, dispatch, and par-cook 75 lobsters. The prep involved inserting a “booty stick” in the lobster’s, well…, booty (to keep the tail from curling when cooked) before dropping it in boiling water. After a few minutes, they were shocked in icy water and I broke down the bodies and cut their faces off for garnish.

Rob pan-fried the crab and served it with sauteed vegetables including fennel & fingerling potatoes and a caper buerre noir over top. It was delicious! I noticed that any time I’d turn my back on the plate, bits of the crab would disappear as my co-workers snuck samples. Fine with me.

After service was over, I helped everyone break down their stations and prepare to shut down the restaurant for their “weekend” — no service on Sunday or Monday. I was ready to go out for drinks, but owing to the over-celebration the night before, no one wanted to indulge, so I headed home, tired but happy to have helped out.

Upon reflection on the night, I feel like I passed a threshold in the restaurant with my participation during prep and service. I am not currently able to articulate what threshold it was exactly, but it feels like something very positive. I really enjoy working at Jean-Robert at Pigall’s.

I’ve worked at Jean-Robert at Pigall’s a few times this year, and noticed that I failed to blog those visits. Back on Saturday, February 3rd, I worked at the restaurant and cut the daylights out of my left middle finger (see this picture for a diagram of the cut) with a new knife. With the assistance of Raymond, I got bandaged up (well, DUCT-TAPED up), gloved, and went right back to work. I finished my shift; something I am proud of. Once I got home, Wendy was able to treat the wound, bandage, and look after it — it has healed with only a tiny scar. Honestly, I was hoping for a more substantial physical rememberance of that event!

On March 10, I worked again at Jean-Robert at Pigall’s. It turns out that it was a great night for me to work — one of the line cooks was on vacation, one of them went home sick (she was there when I arrived and looked like crap, so Chef said she could go home), and it was a moderately busy evening. As a result of my presence, there was enough staff to allow shifiting of responsibilities.

After quickly training me on the amuse bouche station (she’d completed all the mise en place for the station), Abby was freed to go work the apps station with Rob (who was covering for vacationing Sarah). Raymond ran the fish station for sick Amanda. With Abby checking on me, I was able to cover the amuse station for the evening. The amuse was an egg mimosa stack; a duck purse (cream cheese, duck confit, and duck liver wrapped in filo dough and baked); a small piece of toast, and pickled cucumber with a drizzle of sweet mustard under the duck purse and around the plate. A demitasse cup of rutabegga soup topped with chantilly cream and chives went along with it.

Another responsibility of the station is to begin the flow of order tickets from servers to the cooks, so once the servers took my amuse, I drew a line down the column indicating they’d been sent and hung the order ticket on the hanger bar on the line. From there, the order ticket moved to indicate what course the guests were enjoying, from cold & hot apps to their main dishes, then back to ‘my’ section of the hanger bar for desserts. I moved Karen’s awesome desserts down from the window to the pass table for Chef’s final examination before it went to the dining room. By keeping an eye on the tickets, the diner’s progress through their evening can be tracked at a glance — I had a couple friends celebrating in the restaurant that evening (hi Doug & Kevin!) and I was able to monitor their progress easily.

I also had responsibility for any cheese courses that were ordered. When a cheese order came in, I set up a long rectangular plate with 5 different types of cheese (including a spoonful of Epoisses de Bourgogne, Wendy’s favorite), a quinelle of pear chutney in one corner, and a blob of a citrus-rind-y dice in the other corner, and a drizzle of port reduction down the length of the plate. Cheese plates are served with three types of toast in a ‘cup with ears’ on an underliner.

Stationed where I was, I was elbow-to-elbow with Jean-Robert for the whole evening. He was in a good mood, and since it was a moderately busy evening, we had the opportunity to chat, which was very enjoyable. I also got to observe him finishing each plate and saw the care and detail he puts into each and every plate that goes out. He also allowed me to call in a bunch of orders.

It was a good night, but I was tired at the end of the shift so I cleaned my station and only had one beer before heading home.

Jean-Robert absolutely insisted that I post this picture of one of Cincinnati’s warmest, friendliest, and (generally) best-dressed people in a costume for a fourth of July party. The individual in question was careless enough to allow this picture to fall into my hands. Please excuse the rather low quality of the picture — it was scanned from a picture printed on a color printer. Perhaps the owner of the original picture would be so kind as to send me a high-quality digital file so I can replace it? That way, it would be easier for curious viewers to see the long flowing locks, the dog collar, the leopard skin pants, the studded belt, and the fur-lined jacket. And is that a lip-ring?  Would anyone care to guess who this character might be? (click the picture for a larger view)

After work tonight, I headed over to Pho Paris restaurant because I’ve been invited to join the planning committee for the 7 Days for SIDS events that take place every June. Being invited to join the committee is very exciting for me. I’ve worked on the event for the last two years, and am happy to be able to help in this new capacity.

The meeting was short but informative, and helped me in the ongoing process of getting up to speed.

After our meeting ended, I left to go join the rest of the gang for HAPPY MOUTH, which you can read about here…

Since I worked at Jean-Robert at Pigall’s this evening, my dinner was the remains of ‘family meal’ — barbecued chicken. It was a simple meal because the official mealtime was over, but I was grateful for the food since I was hungry!

After working at my day job, I headed down to Jean-Robert at Pigall’s to work a party with Raymond in the third-floor kitchen. The atmosphere in the main kitchen was very different than when I work on Saturdays. Saturday nights are very busy at the restaurant, and everyone is extremely focused. On Wednesday, we’re not quite as busy so the mood and tone are a bit lighter; still focused, but lighter.

I enjoyed working with Raymond and having the chance to converse with folks in the kitchen — Mike, Amanda, Sarah, Abby, Karen, Rob(bie), Jeremy, Emily, Luke, and Raymond. Did I forget anyone? I don’t think so… Ah yes! The two guys in the dish tank. That’s everyone. I’ve mentioned everyone.

I finished the party and hung around for a bit before heading home for the evening. It was still early — only 9:30.

For the first time in about 6 weeks, I worked at Jean-Robert at Pigall’s. For the first time in far too long, I stayed all the way through service instead of doing prep and leaving, which has been the style for some time owing to my schedule. And, or the first time ever, I hung out with the gang after service as well.

I arrived at the restaurant at 1:30pm and was greeted warmly by Raymond who was working hard in the butcher shop. Jeremy came downstairs and presented me with my own Jean-Robert at Pigall’s chef’s jacket — with my name embroidered below the restaurant’s logo. I am the only non-employee ever to receive such a jacket. I switched out of my generic chef’s jacket and into my new one. Suddenly, everything changed — I feel like I am truly part of the team, and am very, very happy and proud to be so.

We moved into prep mode, getting everything ready for the evening’s service. My general approach is to speak with Jeremy, the chef d’cuisine, and find out who needs the most help and then do whatever I can for them. I bumped into Luke in the cooler and commented to him that his back must ache working day after day, because mine was killing me after only a few hours. In his trademark deadpan delivery, Luke simply said to me, “Andrew, I’m young” and walked away. I’ve never felt so old.

I made raviolis, parsley puree, cous cous purses in phylo dough, and more. After getting cleaned up from prep, I was invited by Jeremy to work on appetizers during service. I helped with opening oysters, painting plates for various dishes, and more (quenelles, my long-time nemesis, were flying off my spoons onto plates — looking great).

As service heated up, Jeremy moved me over to work the fish line with Amanda, who was getting slammed because everyone seemed to order fish tonight. She trained me briefly on what to do, which mostly involved setting up items as orders came in, searing off proteins (scallops, red snapper, black bass), and working garnishes as they were called for pickup. Amanda and I had a good time while keeping ourselves out of the weeds (too deeply). I really enjoyed working the line. During half-time (the eerie eye-of-the-storm quiet time between seatings), Jeremy and I discussed moving me to the meat station, but decided against it because fish got slammed again the in the second half. So, I worked with Amanda again for the second half. I feel a good rapport with her; I think we work together well.

After service, I was feeling pretty tired (and my back was hurting) but I hung out (sitting on my butt, a glass of wine in hand!) while the gang did a quick-but-thorough cleaning of the kitchen. I accompanied them to O’Malley’s in the Alley, a bar just down the back alley from the restaurant for a few drinks before heading home.

It was a very good evening.