Righteous Baker

I have a little problem

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:09:00 +0000

With meat. Specifically with sausage.

I spend all day making muffins and other sweet treats, shaping bagels and breads. And my customers tell me of their problems with such items- the loaf of bread that doesn't make it home or the irresistible urge that forces them to eat the entire bag of pastries just outside the bakery door. Many of them wonder how I can work in such a toxic environment all day and not eat all my profits.

Well, there's a simple explanation for all that. I really don't look forward to tasting the sweets I make. Sure I get sweet cravings from time to time- but it kills me to be sure the buttercream is okay. It makes my teeth hurt.

Now, on the other hand, I can't walk past the hot dogs in the supermarket without salivating. They're gross, I know. They are bad for me and they always look better than they taste. In the store I stock only family crafted, small batch,lovingly raised pork. It is what I would eat all the time if I could. However, I have just sank my life into feeding everyone else's food problems- I must try to sell those buggers before I devour them blindly. So, when in Walmart tonight shopping for food coloring, when I spotted keilbasa on sale for $2.50 I couldn't resist. Throw it on the grill and eat it with mustard in a crappy roll from the market. If only I could live with the shame of eating the whole package.

New Digs

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:17:00 +0000

Just a peek at the new digs as it was just over a week ago.

Back in Business!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:01:00 +0000

ok folks!

Two years or so I started this blog because someone at a conference thought it was a good idea. Unfortunately it turned out to prove that I was miserable in my job, and that, at times, it was a pretty crummy work environment. I made very good friends at that place of work, and a few enemies too-all while working upwards of 80-hour work weeks on a lousy salary while gas prices and my property taxes soared. I felt other people should know about the kitchen I was working in, and how it looked physically, considering it is a historical hotel that has a 4 Diamond AAA rating that costs at least $100 per person per night to stay in. The cheap rooms have tattered bed spreads to say the least. I was once put up in a room after a long day of work where I had to leave the sink running because the pipes might freeze. This was an operating hotel room.

I have two last photos to post on this topic, because I just have to. The problem still exists today (yes I have gone back to fill in here and there on my adjusted pay - an hourly rate based on what my salary was- to help finish wedding cakes).

Let me say this also:

I had never in my life seen a cockroach until I worked in this kitchen. No big deal. But there were roaches around the kitchen at 10 am in full sunlight. It was gross. They lived under the ice cream cooler in the bakery, near the soda machines at the server station, and especially in the saucier area where all the soups and stocks are made for 5 restaurants. The problem was, it went on for over a year before it was treated. The resort has now fumigated the main kitchen 3 times that I know of.

That is why I stopped blogging. With all the facebook stuff going on, I was afraid people would actually READ my blog and I would get fired. Ya ya, freedom of speech and all that malarky - but listen. I gotta pay the mortgage. Lemme just say it was great to quit- I almost feel like gloating every time I visit, if I didn't feel so bad for all those folks still working there that are "stuck".

And now I am starting again. Another crappy place? Not for me... In the past year I've been cultivating that itch one has to scratch. My husband Jim and I have opened our own place. He's still working as a bartender at an awesome restaurant that has an awesome owner, awesome staff, and a bar manager that makes killer cocktails. And our marriage is surviving after many serious threats of it not.

We have fought, cried, thrown things, laughed and in the end it's been a good time. I'm still as broke as I was two years ago (probably broker on paper), but now I've got no one (well a lot less-there's always Jim ;)) to blame. The bakery has been open exactly 6 days. I'm having fun baking again.

Am I here now to brag, cop free advertising? Well, yah, but i'm also interested in sharing the adventure. Let's hope it all works and I can stop paying those shitty overdraft fees. Hopefully I'll be better about keeping in touch this time...

Cheers!

PS-

Upon scrolling through the old photos on my phone, I came up with one more nasty photo. Enjoy!

No executive steward

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Without an executive steward, or the person who's job it would be to oversee our dishwashers, the hotel's kitchen has not been as tidy as it should be. The position has been open for only three weeks and this is what our plastic storage room has been looking like.

Dilek makes rice pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:01:00 +0000

When we needed to make rice pudding for 300 people, I knew I could turn to our resident rice pudding queen. Although she's only been working in the bakery for 6 months, she continues to wow us with food inspired by her family in Turkey.
To make her rice pudding is easy.
Take leftover rice, add enough milk to cover. Add sugar to taste. Cook to soften rice. Make a cornstarch slurry and add to thicken. When cool sprinkle with ground cinnamon and enjoy!

Two ladies leave the kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:59:00 +0000

This week we lost two great staff members. Their absence will be felt daily as I see empty work stations, less toolboxes, and he void of their energy in general.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Banquet season is upon us

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:42:00 +0000

We have been having large groups coming in and out recently, so needlessto say I have been spending a lot of time plating the same dessert 400 or so times. Quite tedious!
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why line cooks annoy me

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:03:00 +0000

We have exactly three of these pots for our kitchen. They are our nicest pots: heavy bottomed and not all warped. And yet someone burned the heck out of come clam chowder. Yup, that's clam chowder in there!

So why does it annoy be besides the obvious? Because whoever made this mess just left it for a dishwasher to to take care of. If you burn your best pan this badly, please please please, just pur some hot water in it to soak. It will make the next person's life that much easier.

ACF Northeast Regional Conference -Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:31:00 +0000

The next few days is when it really gets interesting. We've just been warming up to the real conference, and it's about to pay off.

Saturday: There is nothing terribly interesting to go to, so I skip the am session and instead walk around a bit, find some Ibuprofen at the nearby Walgreen's, and manage to take some while juggling some Starbucks.

Time for Ed Leonard's demo lecture. It's a refreshing look at the classics, and it makes me long even worse for my own bakeshop again.

That evening we are scheduled to have a bus tour to Maker's Mark. Turns out to be like a 3 hour ride. The tour was cool and the barbecue was tasty.

There was plenty of bourbon to go around. I was pretty satisfied. Then the bused loaded up.

It took us over an hour to get out.

There were like 6 people without a commemorative bottle of bourbon. Sigh.

Check out what happened next:

That's right, our bus hit a street sign and got stuck in a ditch. Luckily there was an extra bus, and we managed to got onto it and head home. I think we were all too tired to complain by the time we got back.

Sunday: Culinary day. Yes!

I am late for the first bus so I hop on the second and away we go to the local culinary school. My first demo is by Jimmy Gheradi who talks about promoting yourself. A blog perhaps is a nice start? It was probably the best source of information I have gotten to go forward in a long time.

My second demo is a toque to toque and fails to keep my attention to well.

Next, it Bourbon 101 sponsored by Maker's Mark with their master distiller. What a good class. Jodi looks at me like I have 8 heads when I tell her I am off to drink more bourbon. What can I say, I love the stuff?

I'm a little bleary but excited for my first pastry demo of the weekend. Executive pastry chef Chad Durkin is presenting. He has just competed for pastry chef of the year. The topic is molecular gastomony. Not something I usually am into, but his presentation changes my mind.

I spend all afternoon researching restaurants.

No one at Chowhound .com has listed that half the city is closed on Sundays. We end up at Cafe Istanbul. It's so good I save a piece of baklava for my one employee from Turkey. I want to prove to her that hers is just as good.

Monday: Time for general session. Bo-ring, if you're like me and have the attention span of a fruit fly. Let's face it. There's a reason I work in a kitchen. There's a reason I worked in retail before I worked in restaurants. I can be social, work with my hands, and feel productive. Put me at a desk and no one around me gets work done. I certainly won't be.

My reward for this? A workshop on the careers of pastry chefs. Finally.

I've been waiting all weekend to be with other pastry folk, to ask questions and see how others are handling problems in their shops.

Derek Spendlove was leading the workshop. What a great guy. I've seen this guy judge before and it's on mark every time. I'm glad he's the certifying chair for pastry chefs in the ACF.

Luckily, I run into Chad Durkin again. He is polite to answer my questions about distributors and sources for the chemicals used during his demo the previous day. I manage to grill him about his shop and his methods. Turns out he works like 90 hours a week. Yikes. Then again, I think, I would work that much if I truly the loved the environment I was in and my food was selling.

That night is the Gala dinner. We get all dressed up and drink cocktails and see who we know gets awards. Mickey's brother wins educator of the year and we are all a little misty over it. We manage to lubricate ourselves enough to dance a little, and for some reason we need to hit the lobby for a nightcap, and more bourbon for me.

Tuesday: With only four hours of sleep, I am wide awake at 8:30. It's too sunny out. Jodi and I find some coffee, regain just a little conscousness and head out to check email. Our trip home is safe and less rowdy than our flight out. We are truly ready to get home.

It's a good thing these things happen only once a year.

ACF Northeast regional conference - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Friday Morning when Jon, Jodi, and I decided to head for breakfast, we were advised to try the diner on the lower level. Having read about Hathaway’s on Roadfood, I thought it may be a nice idea. It’s a good thing we were not in a rush.We ordered weak coffee, eggs, toast and the goetta. The place was clean and bright. Although it wasn’t too busy, we watched food sit in the window for quite some time. I thought for sure that Jodi was going to hop over the counter and start running food herself, when she caught the manager’s attention and told him to get the food out of the window.

When our food arrived, it was hot and cooked well. It’s not hard to cook a good breakfast, but to keep eggs from over poaching in the window – well, that just takes practice.

Time for the chapter president’s meeting. I have a hard time sitting still at all, never mind in a convention center for hours on end. I just need a little room to fidget, and I can be okay. Just don’t give me a click-y pen.

It’s a good thing we had a cocktail hour before dinner, we certainly needed a little down time.

Dinner Friday night was at Boi Na Braza, a Brazilian steakhouse nearby. There was a group of 12 folks. And then the meat gorging began.

ACF Northeast Regional Conference -Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:57:00 +0000

It's that time if year again, time for me to head out to the professional culinary scene, take a deep breath and ask myself, "What kind of rock have I been hiding under all year?".

The ACF, or American Culinary Federation regional

conference is a chance for me to meet up with old friends around the region, see what's happening, and

to find the most influential people in my field - and then to latch on to them and ask as many questions as they can tolerate me for.

This year proved no different.

I have taken to traveling with fellow chef Jodi Holihan.

She's a riot. An Ethel to my Lucy so to speak. A culinary instructor and a fabulous caterer on the side, her energy rivals mine. I muster it up to let it all out on one weekend. She just emulates it naturally all the time. We are both chapter presidents of the organization in our areas, and it's great for us to share our frustrations and how to overcome them.

This year however, we shared our travels with Mickey Beriau of White Cliffs Country Club, Jon Willis of Abenaki Country Club, and Jerry Bonsey of York Harbor Inn. I think the entire plane learned about tri tip steaks and planning benefit dinners as we listened about this one's next special dinner menu, or that one's next fundraisers.

We hit up JeanRo's Bistro for dinner. We all

had a good time, and the food was tasty, except for the salad greens, which tended to be way over salted.

The tuna nicoise

Roasted beet salad

Charcuterie Plate

The duck confit with poached duck egg and frisee

Roasted salmon with horseradish crust and caviar lentils

Butter poached shrimp with vegetables

Chocolate Pots du creme

Jon and I wishing for more tarte tatin to take a photo of...

I got to go to Blackberry Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Somerville) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:45:00 +0000

After a particularly long day at work, I decided to apply for a new job. When I read about the Pastry Chef position at Blackberry Farm, I just had to apply. So when I got home, I spiffed up my resume and mailed it out. About three days later, I received a phone call from their staffing coordinator asking when I could take some time to talk to her. After an initial interview, and a chat with Executive Chef Peter Glander, I found myself in the airport heading for Knoxville.

I had never been that far into the south before, much less been picked up by a hired car. I had never even flown with my knife kit. My days leading up to the trip I was frantically taking notes on my recipes, practicing my chocolate tempering, and wondering just what was in season down there. To my coworkers, I must have been acting a little crazier than usual.

When I arrived, it was marvelous. The property was just as beautiful as the website had promised. The staff was courteous and everyone called me "M'am". My agenda was ambitious: a pre dessert, three plated desserts, petit fours, an

d a chocolate - all for a service of six people.My room was a sweet little cottage called "Ruffed Grouse".

It was decorated so well and I had a great time perusing all the information in the guest book.

I got to have dinner on the property two nights, once in the main house, once in the Barn (the restaurant I was interviewing to work in). The service staff were all kind and knowledgeable.

I did notice a few things that made me recognize the place is not without flaws:

1. There was quite a bit of lint on the wine glasses on my table.

2. There was a hairline crack in my amuse plate

3. The butter cream on the top of the cake I was served for dessert was cold and therefore hard.

I was feeling pretty good. If this was what this place was all about, I was about to know everyone's socks off. It had been a while since I had been able to cook my own food, and I was chomping at the bit to get back to it.

The next two days were a whirlwind. I can't say exactly what I did when, but I felt good about my food - despite the fact that I changed my mind about a million times.

My final menu consisted of:

Pre dessert: "Sugar on Snow": Maple syrup cooked and poured over a lemon scented vanilla bean granita.

Reason: It was the start of sugaring season here in NH, and I thought it would be a cute tongue in cheek of a palate cleansing course.

Plated 1- Chocolate Caramel Pave with braised apricots and Jack Daniel's Caramel

Reason: This was a best selling dessert of mine when I was working at the inn. It has good flavors and it is a nice dark wintery chocolate dessert.

Plated 2- Sheep's yogurt panna cotta with Blackberry Farm Honey, buttermilk cake, and roasted rhubarb

Reason: Peter had given me the yogurt to use, and I liked the tanginess so much I thought it should shine through.. The rhubarb they had was fresh and pink. I like to roast it with vanilla bean, sugar, and butter. That's it. The honey was light and had a nice mouth feel. I thought it was a nice balance of textures

Plated 3 - Steamed apple, Marconas almond dacqoise, saigon cinnamon ice cream, and apple butter.

Reason: Again, the apple butter was something Peter had given me to use. I love marconas. The steamed apple was a trick I learned in a class in Chicago a few years back. I liked it, but I think it could have been better.

Petit Fours - Canneles, Mini Buttermilk pies, Milk Chocolate orange fudge

Reason: I ran out of time. Canneles are kind a signature of mine here in NH because no one really makes them.

Chocolate - Chocolate Caramel Lemon Truffles

Reason: They were rustic and my timing was tight. I had the ganache left over from my pave, and I could easily add lemon to it to make the flavor brighter.

All in all, it was a good experience. It was amazing food and amazing people.

I don't think I will be offered the job. I sent out a thank you and emailed Peter to a limited response. I know he will not make the final decision on the hire, but it is hard to put your heart out there and here nothing. My only lament is that I would like to know how to improve my skills for the next place.