Saturday, July 05, 2008

It must be time...

It must be time for everyone in the Pastry World to get a new job. There are several people in my current shop (me included) and others I know who are either looking or leaving. So if that is the case: everyone stand up and shift to the left. I think that would help us all immensely. It would be something new and exciting.

Here's how you know it is time to leave (or just a really funny story): This week we had to make "creme fraiche" gelato. What this really means is....take ice cream base and add sour cream. Yup, SOUR CREAM! Which I have never understood, because purchasing actually has creme fraiche available. But whatever, I am not the Pastry Chef, so we do it.

One of the girls in the shop is...how to put this politely, not lazy, she is a SHORT CUT sort of person. If there is a way to cheat the system she is on top of it. I explain to her to take the ice cream base and burr mix a specific amount of sour cream into the base. About ten minutes later as I am about to take a trip up to purchasing I happen to catch her at the ice cream machine. She is SHOVING spoonfuls of sour cream into the top of the machine.

I stop her and ask her why she didn't burr mix it in to the base like I had asked her. She said, "I forgot and I thought this would work." Um. NO! I tell her to take it out of the machine (which was already spinning the base) and to mix it together. I think I got the eye roll. I can't quite tell what is worse. The fact that she didn't stop the machine the SECOND that she realized she forgot the sour cream, the face that she forgot it in the first place, or the fact that she was shoving utensils into the top of the machine while it was spinning.

Thank God we still have the grate across the top or oops, no utensil or perhaps no fingertips. She will be leaving within a few weeks, but I will always picture her shoving sour cream into the machine with it all over her hands and having it bubble out the top and down the side of the machine. Classic.

3 comments:

-Tim said...

I like it... musical chairs in the pastry world. 10 pastry trained chefs in GR and 9 jobs (or so it feels like) "Everyone take a step to the right and the odd one out moves to Phoenix."

Glad your sticking around, love.

queenofsheba said...

A shortcut kind of person, eh? I HATE that. But hey, I got to be dish girl for my first day and they still want me back despite splashing myself constantly so positive things can happen anywhere!

Jay Medenwaldt said...

I guess it helps to do the MCAT with your left hand (non-dominant hand) so you can write with your right hand. Supposedly this saves time because your not going back and forth between pen/paper and the mouse.