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)