Apprentice dealing with pastry chef

[Almondmeal]

Dear Pastry chefs out there,

Today, I was given an important job to laminate croissant dough. And as an utterly inexperienced apprentice, I am not sure if what I just did at work would hear my chef's furious bellow tomorrow when they see the baked croissant in the morning. This is what happened, as I was told to laminate the dough with the butter, I realized that the butter was a little bit too soft, hence, I put them back in the fridge, but barely long enough for it to stiffen up a little. But because my chef wanted me to hurry up and finish the job, I reluctantly had to make do with the soft butter. As I folded the dough over the butter and rolling them through the roller machine, I realized that there were bits of butter uncovered by the dough which to my logic, would mean that the dough are not properly laminated which means that when they are baked, there would be parts without dough but only butter and probably means an uneven lift. This appearance are still visible even after I;ve done the Third fold but had to wrap them up and store in the blast chiller until the night chef comes in to make the croissant for bake off tomorrow morning. I am wreck nervous and I am hoping if someone out there could tell me if this would immensely affect the outcome when the dough are proofed and baked. I really want to just keep my job! Anyone out there?

[AAQuesada]

It's hard to know with out seeing it. My guess is that as long as the chef getting the dough is experienced and show through is not too much you'll be okay. Be confident, chefs can smell fear

I might go up the the person who worked the dough and ask them so how was it .. followed up with I was worried because.. and .. do you have any advice for the future. Show you are interested in their opinion with out being too scared..

And take the following advice with a big pinch of salt. But I have found sometimes, when a chef say's to hurry up! (in the nicest possible way of course) you need to say 'Yes Chef!' and completely ignore them and do the job right. Of course you need to read the situation but in the long run if you are doing something the way he/she taught you.. it's better to put your name on a quality product. (after you clock out first of course). You'll end up with more respect than being the person who hurried and did a half ass job.

As always YMMV

[teonzo]

I agree with AAQuesada.

When you are an apprentice, you must remember you are learning, so there is no shame in making something wrong.

But the worst thing you can make is being silent with your chef. If you are unsure about something, then ask: you are there to learn, so your chef doesn't expect you already know how to do everything. If you made a mistake, tell it immediately to your chef: chefs run the global organization of the kitchen, so if there are mistakes they must be corrected as soon as possible.

If an apprentice makes a mistake, then a chef got angry at level 1. If an apprentice makes a mistake AND doesn't tell it to the chef, then a chef got angry at level 10. You are not supposed to be perfect, but you are supposed to tell to your chef whatever is going wrong: this is an importal issue for working in a team.

So, instead of coming here hoping for some assurances, it was much better going to your chef and tell him/her what went wrong. If a mistake were made, then being silent will not change it. But if you keep silent, then it's impossible to correct the error in time.

When you are working as an apprentice, you must remember that you will make a lot of mistakes. The important thing is trying to limit them, the best way to succeed in this is asking to your chef and telling to your chef. If you are hoping to never get bad words from your chef, then it's just an illusion. You need to get used to it, and don't fear to face an angry chef telling him you made a mistake: if you keep silent, you make an other additional mistake, and this one is worse than the first, cause it affects the global organization of the kitchen.

When a chef tells an apprentice to get faster, then he/she is meaning that you need to focus on your job to try to get better and better. Apprentices are always much slower than chefs, it's normal, but they need to speed up as soon as possible. He is not asking you to be as fast as him in few days, he is asking you to make your best efforts to learn this job.

About the dough, if the butter surfaced, then for sure the final result won't be perfect. It depends on how much bigger are the spots with the surfaced butter. Once the butter surfaces it will always be visible.

Teo

[JeanneCake]

Most chefs understand that an apprentice or new hire with little experience will need more guidance and supervision at the beginning; I hired a new culinary graduate last year who is coming along slowly but surely. Another thing an apprentice needs to know is that you don't know everything at the start, you must ask. When you saw the butter at the surface, it would have been a good time to find someone and say "this is the first time I've seen this. How can it be corrected? What caused it? How do I prevent it next time?" This way, a potential mistake can be a learning experience and it gives the kitchen time to plan to remake the dough, or do something else if needed. And you have the benefit of knowing what happened and why, and how to not let it happen again or how to fix it if it does.

[Jeffery C]

Intelligent people admit their ignorance. those who do not admit, remain stupid.

[Chris Amirault]

Intelligent people admit their ignorance. those who do not admit, remain stupid.

And then, after a while, get fired.

[Almondmeal]

I am having a break now from work and is just logging in to read yous advice. I came to work 45 minutes early this morning to get myself ready for the lashings and also to make it up to the chef if anything went wrong. My heart was pounding and I couldn't hear my own mind. - started washing up for the vegetables for the sandwich while waiting for the rest of the big chefs to come in. And I even checked the proofer where the croissants are stored in waiting for the bake off. I didn't know what I was looking for for if its a bad dough, I wouldn't know. Chef started coming in at 5 am and oven were turned on and I see the croissants being rolled in to it. Heart still pounding, I asked my chef if the dough was okay, he tiredly shrug and said it looks fine. Croissant came out ok but I'm still not sure if it could be better. I have learnt a great deal since last night and I could not sleep, I would always stop to ask whenever I sense something is not right instead of going for it! Thank u so much for the good advicem today I took up yous advise and asked my chefs question though it may be annoying for them. I wanted to tell my chef my cowardice decision yesterday, but since the dough came out fine, I decide not to infuriate them with unecessary comment. Hope this is not a bad thing to do. I feel horrible still. Got to go back to work. Thank u again!