Internship: Day 16, 11/30/05

I missed my usual Monday due to travel delays in Ohio, but returned this Wednesday much refreshed from the holidays. Lunch was still pretty slow, so I spent some time at the grill station grilling bread on over the huge wood fire grill, and then on the sauté station learning to make and plate the bouillabaisse. T and I also experimented with the sweetbreads to perfect the cooking technique—apparently they’ve been somewhat undercooked. The sweetbreads are sautéed with jerusalem artichokes, pickled pearl onions, and herbed remoulade. It was only the second time I’ve ever tried sweetbreads—the first time was at Lola Bistro in Cleveland, OH, and I thought they tasted like liver, which I hate. I liked this dish much better.

After service, I prepped the butternut squash soup: butternut squash, carrots, onion, celery, apple cider, brown sugar, and butter. I put it on a burner up in the pastry kitchen, and got to taste fresh batches of eggnog and buttermilk ice cream while I was at it. Delicious!

Before leaving for the day, I drained the new batch of sweetbreads and set them up to be pressed under a weight to release the liquid.