Pumping Food Out

11:32pm Thursday 12 August 2010 Sydney (gmt+10)

The day started out a bit slow. Lunch wasn't too busy. In fact, we barely did anything. Watching Anna balance on one leg was probably the most exciting thing that I saw.  So late in the afternoon I hopped across to the other venue to see what Rob and Ricky were up to.

They were trying out new pizzas. Last time I tried the Marinara Pizza. It was good, but not as good as the Lamb Sausage and Bocconcini Pizza that they put together. Yum! It's not bad, considering they don't have a pizza oven to work with, just the combi-oven. I wanted to hang around longer, but I had to go back in time for dinner service.

When I got back there were already a few dockets. For someone with little or no experience in the kitchen it would seem like a nightmare, and it is easy to lose your cool when you got so many orders at once. (ie. Gordon Ramsay) But the best thing to do is to put your pen to work. Organizing dockets and making the right priorities can save you a lot of time and a lot of headaches!

After going through the orders it's easier to see exactly what you need to cook and in the case of steaks you'd know which ones to grill for how long. Of course a well-done steak will take a lot longer than a medium-rare one. And while the well-done is slowly cooking in the oven then the one earmarked for medium-rare can be left on the racks to rest.

Resting is important, especially with steaks that are cooked more than medium. It relaxes the texture of the meat, making it more tender and it also helps the meat retain the juice. If you slice an unrested steak you'll notice that the juice will just leak out and halfway through the meal it will feel a bit dry and tough, while a well rested one will maintain its juiciness and soft texture.

And while they're resting that's when we set up their plates and figure out which sauces and stuff go where. It can be quite daunting especially when there are 8 different cuts of meat on the menu (ie. ribeye, new york, scotch, tenerloin) that can be cooked in 5 different degrees of doneness (ie. rare, medium, well-done) which can be served with 5 different stuff on the plate (ie. mash, fries, vegies, chat potatoes, salad) and 6 different sauces (ie. madagascar sauce, mushroom sauce, bernaise sauce).

Another thing to consider is that if there are non-steak items on the same order docket then we need to have them ready as well so we can send all the mains of a table at the same time. Like the Barramundi Fillets, grilled and served with fries, lemon and tartare sauce... and the Soft Shell Crabs with Curried Vegetables and served on a Hokkien Noodle basket. And also the Kilpatrick Oysters, which is really an entree item, but some people prefer to have their steaks with it. Coordinating all of them effectively, getting them all to come out at once,  require serious organizational skills, a lot of patience and a cool head!

Once we plated them all up and placed them on the pass we then need to coordinate with the food runner. We're lucky because Jessica's very good at it. Most of the time she'd know what's going where without me even telling her. But sometimes we need to show her which is which so that the correct item goes to the right guest on the right table. The steaks can be a real pickle because even though the same cut are cooked in different degrees they still look the same.

There are times when there are too many orders going out to the tables at once. And that is when we call Simon. Even though he looks after the bar he's still able to help. And having him around makes a huge difference. And once all the food is out, then that's when we could sort of relax in the kitchen... until we get new orders. Whew!