Sunday, October 19, 2008

VIP Dining

Ending the busy work week in a bustling, chaotic, time sensitive professional kitchen may be too much for some people. I find it exhilarating and I always look forward to my nights behind the scenes at L’Ecole.

That very evening I had three guests dining at the restaurant – friends that have supported my new venture and have been wonderful followers of my blog. I alerted the expediting Chef that a VIP table was coming in for dinner and to please ensure they have a wonderful dining experience. Ret, Mimi and Andy arrived for their reservation and in between the appetizer and fish course I was able to sneak out and see how everything was going. Moving from the brightly lit kitchen to the dim lights of the dining room – it took me a couple of seconds to be able to focus. The waiter pointed me in the right direction and I arrived at Table 22 to find my VIPs.

My guests all seemed excited and ready for the evening’s dining excursion. I was so happy and proud to be a part of their experience. I had to know what everyone ordered and was thrilled that each one of them ordered something different off the prix fixe menu. After chatting for a few minutes I had to excuse myself to get back into the pastry kitchen to finish my work.

That night, I prepared the dough for the tangerine tarts, the cream cheese/goat cheese filling, I worked on part of the chocolate custard for the brioche bread pudding and worked on putting it together with Chef Alain and Ashley.

Nearing the end of the night, I saw the dessert order for Table 22 come in and noticed Ret & company ordered three different desserts – well with four desserts on the menu, I had to make sure they also received our toffee pudding so I marched it right out to the table to surprise them.

Again, I was met with faces of delight and compliments and I thought, what a wonderful way to end the work week.

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