Bin 54 interview

I was invited to Bin 54 yesterday for a working interview for the position of Pastry Chef.

 This is my account of the evening:

 

I made Crème brulees, tempered chocolate and covered truffles, made an ice cream base (I didn't get to freeze it so as of now I have no idea how it turned out. This is a concern only because I used honey instead of sugar, which I have done before successfully, but not with this same type of recipe.)

A few other things included kicking myself for Still not knowing Spanish, and plating desserts for service.

I sat down with the Chef towards the end of the night to chat. The wait staff brought me a glass of wine, which was very nice. We talked for about 30 minutes, during which time I sipped my wine, while simultaneously becoming very aware of how little I had eaten in the last Oh, 8 hours.

 

He offered me the job, and I accepted.

 

It was while we talked logistics that the food to wine ratio really started to get out of hand. 

Now, I want you all to understand, I was not drunk.

I suppose maybe I would have been had I not been so incredibly, conversation drowndingly , nauseous. 

As it was, I was making every effort to breathe steadily and not make any sudden movements, while also trying to remain engaged in conversation, this alone is difficult enough, but I also had to have some sort of a plan, if it should happen that I could not keep it together. This, my friends, was terrifying.

The conversation came to somewhat of a close and I mentioned that I needed to get home to eat something, to which he replied that there was still 15 minutes left until service was officially over. No wait, THIS moment was the most terrifying. Go back into the hot kitchen and stand around with everyone for 15 minutes! That was not part of my plan.

I had to come clean. I told him I hadn't eaten enough and *hand to face in embarrassment* that I wasn't going to be able to go back to my station. 

Whatever he thought at that moment, he was perfectly kind, and asked what he could bring out for me to eat. I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain this, but the idea of having a plate of steak and mashed potatoes in front of me just then, did not sound great. So then he offered a crab cake, still no. Lobster ravioli, …umm can I take a rain check on that one?… but seriously I can't fathom eating that right now.

Uuuuhhhhg. I wanted to crawl under my patio chair.

I assured him that I just needed some water and went inside to grab my things.

Apparently I handled myself well enough for him not to change his mind.

He shook my hand, and said “see you Monday”.

-Christie

Jet Lag

We were scheduled to land in Salt Lake City by 8:30pm. Close to 4:30 am our internal time clock. I thought, this is going to be easy. I'll just go home and go to bed as if I stayed up until 4am (which I did technically and physically) and wake up in the morning ready to take on the world again.
When I woke up though, nearly full rested, I was surrounded by the darkness of night, and not the golden hue of the morning. There were no birds chirping... not even the crickets were making noise. What time was it anyway. My phone still set manually to Paris time agreed with my body that it was indeed time to get out of bed. 10:30 am. Wait what?... but what time is it really? In my real life, in the world I'm living in now? 10:30 there makes it.... um subtract 7 hours. 3:30 am... perfect. There will be no golden morning hue for another 3 hours at least. Welp. I guess all the other people I know that I have traveled internationally were right about jet lag... and I was wrong.
Phil is awake too. We try to stay in bed for about 45 minutes longer. Its no use, our bodies are restless, its almost lunch time for heaven's sake!

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

 

 

   These are Phil's favorite fall time cookie. I will admit that they are one of my favorites too. I've been thinking about making them for a few weeks now and as we are expecting a bit of snow later on this week I think I may have missed the mark on fall. Luckily it is still October, and pumpkin will be in vogue for at least 2 more months. These cookies are more cakey than say a chocolate chip. They are also pretty sweet,  but that can be adjusted by the amount of butterscotch chips that you add.

The recipe took some trial and error to perfect, but I couldn't be more proud of the fruit of my experimentation. The secret is in NOT over-mixing the dough.

Ingredients:

4oz      Butter

1 C      Sugar

1 C      Pumpkin Puree

1 tsp    Vanilla

2 C      All-Purpose Flour

1/4 tsp  Salt

1 tsp     Baking Soda

1 tsp     Baking Powder

1 tsp     Cinnamon

1/2 tsp  Nutmeg

1/4 tsp  Cloves

1/2 tsp  Ginger

1 1/2 C  Butterscotch  Chips

1/2 tsp   Pumpkin Pie Spice

Pumpkin Pie Spice (make this amount and save it in a small jar or just adjust the amounts for a single batch of cookies)

1/2 oz    Black Pepper

1/2 oz    Ginger

1/4 oz    Mace

1/4 oz    Nutmeg

Procedure:

- Preheat oven to 350 F. (bake time approx. 12 minutes)

  make sure racks are in the center of the oven

- Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer on Med. speed until light and fluffy

- Beat in pumpkin and vanilla

- In a separate bowl measure out the dry ingredients, sift them or use a dry whisk and stir it all together to make sure that the spices, salt and leavening are all evenly distributed

- Take the paddle or beaters out of the mixing bowl with the butter and pumpkin mixture (you will not need the mixer any more)

- In 3 additions, add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture by folding

- After the last addition, before all the dry has been completely mixed in, add the butterscotch chips

- Continue to fold together until all the flour has been mixed in and the chips are distributed evenly.

-Drop the dough on to cookie sheets in 1 1/2 oz portions (approx. 3Tbs)

  Really you can make them whatever size you want, but this is my standard home size

-Press each cookie down lightly with your fingers (these babies don't spread very much so they need a little help to flatten out)

- Bake for 9 minutes then check for doneness

- Flip pans around and bake for approx. 3 more minutes

 - The cookies should be very soft, matte in color, not glossy (glossy means doughy), if you bake these until they are golden on top they will be overdone

- Allow them to rest 3-5 min on the hot cookie sheets before moving them to a cooling rack