staff meal

[LaurieB]

Katie, If I send you my address and some leak-proof FedEx envelopes, will you share your staff meals?

Laurie

Edited December 1, 2004 by LaurieB (log)

[KatieLoeb]

Katie, If I send you my address and some leak-proof FedEx envelopes, will you share your staff meals? 

Laurie

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Laurie:

Since I qualify as "management" I can always order whatever I want off the menu, but I usually wait for staff meal both because I enjoy it, and because it sets a good example of frugality for the rest of the management staff .That doesn't always work though, like last night when I was driving myself insane with bank statement reconciliations that simply would not add up right no matter how many times I tormented myself or went back and redid the work. I ordered a big medium rare steak and mashed potatoes to drown my frustrations and eat flesh since it suited my mood.

Our daily specials always include an omelet du jour, some form of mussels, some preparation of fried calamari with an interesting dipping sauce, and a soup or two beside the other specials and the regular menu. Staff meals are usually a big salad, sometimes pasta, sometimes chili and sometimes a piece of protein that might be chicken or fish. It's almost always very good. The line guys take good care of us. Everyone tries to be my friend since I make sure the paychecks come out!

[chefdg]

GIMB, the new spot is great. I'm finally out of hotel kitchens and back with a family owned and operated place, much more my style.

Today we had chicken a la king, with leftover stuffing and mashed potatoes, one of the guys made some french fries with swiss cheese melted over them and we ate like caged animals. We also use a really good mexican hot sauce that I will have to get back with the name, but it seems to always find its way onto our plates.

Edited December 1, 2004 by chefdg (log)

[chefdg]

Croque Monsieur (sp?), with some homemade potato chips. We put a really good guacamole on the sandwiches that on of the cooks made from some local avocados. Oh, by the way the sauce I talked about in another post is called Valentina's Mixican hot sauce.

[fryguy]

Bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. Then Italian beef on a croissant with nacho cheese sauce and fries. Pepsi w/ grenadine. A bite of the new quesadilla on the menu. Thursdays are slow, so I graze my entire shift :-)

[get in my belly]

mmmmm heartattack sandwich monte cristo ive had that hot sauce before i love it :) hernandez the stuff in a can is my favorite you can find it in most mexican stores . i just grazed today and like fry guys day mine was slow too . weve got a couque mon senior at my 2 job it smells like dog food and tastes worst well till tomarrow

[LJFATS]

I made a spinich salad w/ grilled salmon, black beans, red onoins, red peppers, red and yellow tomatoes, bacon, avacado ranch dressing, and guacamole on the side. I brought it home and gave it to my preggo girlfriend. I had boiled peanuts before work (actally while setting up for dinner) and Taco Bell and Busch beer after work.

Which do you prefer, California avacados or Florida avacados?

[Pan]

Which do you prefer, California avacados or Florida avacados?

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How would you compare them? And then there are Mexican avocados, I believe.

[LJFATS]

tu shea(sp?), your right. I just recalled a convo. w/ a sushi chef who prefers FL avacados for the firmness and Cali avacados are better for guacamole. what are destingushing charactristics of mexican avacados?

[Pan]

what are destingushing charactristics of mexican avacados?

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I couldn't tell you, as I'm not a big avocado eater. Some things I'm just good at asking about.

[NeroW]

WARNING: LONG POST

Making evening staff meal has now been my responsibility for the past several weeks. When I first started, they had me make staff meal, and I hated doing it.

But now, I don't mind. I actually like it ( but don't tell anyone I work with, they will think I'm a freak ). Spending a chunk of the day cadging prep from people, asking for scraps, and "shopping at Stefan's" (Stefan is the garde manger) makes me feel like Milo Minderbinder, my favorite character from "Catch 22."

Of course, some days I have no time to beg, borrow, and steal, and I have to bust out the fryer: chicken fingers and curly fries, anyone? No? Then what about chicken fingers and waffle fries? Mozzarella sticks? Onion rings with hollandaise?

I am a big fan of "casseroles" (or other foods that can be baked in a hotel pan): lasagna, strata, tuna noodle, Bisquick-cheeseburger I also make quite a few quiches and frittatas. Quiches are easy because we have frozen pie crusts always on hand in case a member orders a quiche to go.

The staff loves miniature corn dogs so much that the General Manager will stand in front of the line, with a fork, watching me put up staff meal, chanting: "WE WANT CORN DOGS! WE WANT CORN DOGS!" They also love the larger-sized pancake-wrapped hot dogs that I used to fry for them, until the broiler cook ripped me a new one for making his fryer stink like syrup and I had to drop the fryer in the last-minute rush before service.

Kids' pizzas and "BBQ" chicken are also popular.

There is always homemade soup made by the morning saute cook (this is the best part of my job). When he makes cream of tomato, I make grilled American cheese on the flattop. Some weeks I will spend part of each day theiving food and stashing it for Friday's staff meal. Like cooked bacon, cold cuts, and bread. Then I make a club sandwich that I named after one of the waitresses: it's basically a turkey and bacon club with a grilled cheese and tomato on the bottom.

I always put out a tossed salad (shopping at Stefan's) and if I'm lucky, some cakes or individual tarts from the a la carte dessert selection (shopping at Stefan's again, thank God for pantry).

I have a pretty free hand with staff meal, but when there are leftovers, I have to use those. Some common ones: Roma pasta, prime rib, salmon with Pernod sauce, chicken a la king, rice pilaf, mashed potatoes, filet mignon, chicken oscar, etc. Your basic country club food. In the summer, it's ribs, bratwurst, hot dogs, and burgers, until I take pity on them and get creative.

No matter what I do, there are some FOH (and I will single out the FOH since it is them who complain, because they can't cook for themselves) who piss and moan about every single staff meal. They piss and moan, but they don't eat before they come to work

It used to really bother me, every single time. Now, it only hurts when I have spent an hour out of my prep time to make something good, like a fat lasagna with individual garlic toasts on the Chef's best white rolls that I had to beg for. I think there are certain girls who do it just to be mean.

I don't know if they understand how much time goes into staff meal, or how hurtful it is to be ridiculed for your efforts to make sure everyone goes into service with a full stomach. I almost lost it with one girl who screamed laughter into my face when I brought up the subject of Lent. When Lent comes, I want to try and be sensitive to that, at least on Fridays. I will spend extra time making sure that those who chose to observe Lent in a dietary fashion will have something to eat. Well, this biatch laughed in my face.

That's when I eat my staff meal out on the loading dock.

[LJFATS]

I had in no preticular order from both jobs: black bean and ham soup, andoulie wrapped in puff pastry w/ musterd, mashed potatoes, creamy cheezy grits, toast point w/ goat cheese, toast point w/ gatain swiss and then goat cheese, pulled pork, and pizza shell rolled up w/ pulled pork, red bbq sauce, romaine w/ ranch and mozzz (didn't like it, still in my fridge). For dessert I headed for the mountians, Busch.

I ate well i guess.

[get in my belly]

hey fats

nero i feel ya man . ungreatfull heathens the vegis never happy when theres meat the meaties never happy when its vegitarian i dont eat pork i dont eat red meat its too greasy tooo much cheese blah blah blah blah oh did i mention it was free eat it or dont you do have a choice .

today so far was a cream cheese plunder love those austrians

[get in my belly]

well it was sunday yesterday and thats usualy eat what you want because the day sux all around day.had some chips and bernaise then a bowl of bean soup with shrimp cheese and bacon added to it then oops HOW DID THAT STRIP STEAK GET MISS FIRED ummmmmmmmm well dont want it to go to waste we all gathered round and ate it until it was compleatly gone. it was really good then some hawian pizza the oven guy made mmmmmmmm

also heres a little info about avocados http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekl....htm?once=true&

[get in my belly]

merry day all ive been away for a bit dealing with finding a new job so havnt had time or will to post . last night was awsome the mexican guys brought in some tamalies and tacitos guac and salsa verde mmmmmmmmmm ive eatin alot of mexican food these guys are good tamalies were chicken mole sent to him from his mother and i felt honored that i was able to partisipate in such an event we all snuck in some caronas and had a few while we broke down was a grand christmas with my culinary family love light and happiness all ((((((((((egullet))))))))))

[get in my belly]

hey benito ..... what up juanito ........jew know what we had last night for comida . a la mi casa way........i duno tell me dude and befor you do know that i hate you hehehehe ............ we had tomales and menudo ......... and ya didnt bring any in did ya ...........manyana benito . i hate that little guy sometimes he pulls my stomach strings and never satifies my soul :)

well last night was sunday we all grazed like poorly fed cattle main course was chicken strips on a bun with tarter sauce :)

[chefdg]

Today it was like Mexico meets Italy, pico with speghatti noodles and bread. It was almost to spicy for the line cooks to eat. A little beurre blanc and parm cheese on mine rounded out the worldly flavors.

[get in my belly]

good to here from ya chef d .o . double gee tonight was some pizzas with toms avo ham and lotsa matsa happy new year kids nuttin but love - get in there BIMB

[get in my belly]

sooooo i got laied off of my morning job and found a new one with a friend at subway so im embarised to tell you what i ate at work am and they changed the eating policy at my second job so there is never really a family meal its like we all just microwave our meal and eat by the tv on a tray when ever we feel like it . god the frigin power tripin dips at subway they feel so inferior in there daily life that there little corner of the "culinary" world is there only release i laughed so hard in the assis "managers" face when he started stressin bout pre packaged food and pre cut vegis well tonight was a big salad and some garlic bread

[chefdg]

Bummer GIMB, we had speghatti again with some nice fresh pico, I also tasted the grilled salmon with leftover rice that was smothered with leftover calvados and coconut butter sauce which I made and I have to say that I really f'd it up. Instead of grillin the salmon until almost cooked putting it on hot rice and topping it with the sauce, I pregrilled the salmon, put it in hotel pans with cold rice and hot sauce poured into it and then baked the intire thing until all was hot and cooked. Big friggin mistake, the sauce broken and the salmon was dry and overcooked. It was for the staff anyway

[get in my belly]

yeah sauce breaking is always in the back of my mind but sence it was the staff i would have purred it and made a salmon stew hehehehehe well today we revolted and made a pasta that was actually really good .some tomato sc , roasted toms , lotsa parm , and tons of mushrooms . then some garlic bread on bageuetts . till latters

[chefdg]

Fish burritos w/o beans, maybe they were fish tacos. They were good either way. Oh yeah, they were topped with some really good fresh pico. I really like working with Mexican line cooks.

[LJFATS]

Sweet and sour chicken. left over strip steak. mashed pots.

[get in my belly]

tonight was a chicken mushroom and tomato pasta with alfreado cix stock and dimi then some fett and parm yummy . lovvvvvve yalllllllll .

[LJFATS]

Job 1. creamy tomato soup

Job 2. baby backs, slow smoked w/ a musterd vinigar sauce, I brought from job 1. maryland style crab cakes. snow crab clusters (no butter, i was kinda full but just wanted to keep eating and butter woulda slowed me down). and I picked at mashers.