Blow Torch (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Creme Brulee)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Nicolas Steenhout wrote:

> My best memory of it is when my manager walked into the kitchen and asked
> me: "How long would it take to prepare meringue?".  For some odd reason, I
> knew exactly what he was talking about.  We had a wedding party, on top of
> the regular folks we'd serve in the dining room.  75 or so people in the
> party, nearly 200 in the dining room, 5 of us in the kitchen, counting a
> dishwasher.  And so the idiotic manager had neglected to include the Baked
> Alaska the bride had requested, on *all* the prep papers he'd given us...
>
> And so I sent someone to the local equivalent to 7/11, to purchase frozen
> sara lee kind of cake.  Someone else to scoop ice cream from the (closed at
> that hour) ice cream stand we had, into metal bowls.  Meanwhile, I started
> the meringue, thank the gods I used to keep egg whites in the fridge.  Cake
> arrived, scrap the icing, remove ice cream from bowl, patch cake on ice
> cream, spread the meringue over cake.  Pull the blowtorch (or whatever it
> is) and brown the meringue!  That is the moment the groom picked to poke
> his head in the kitchen, with bits and parts of meringue that flew all over
> the place from whisking the thing.  I had meringue all over my face, hair,
> uniform (which had suffered a fairly busy night on the line).  I had the
> torch in my hand, lit, and I suspect I had this manic smile and wild look
> in my eyes, running on pure adrenaline.  Groom came in, saw my face, said a
> few *quick* thanks and disappeared back out...  Baked Alaska for 75, in
> under 20 minutes...
>
> Ahhh, good memories... :-)

Twitch... twitch... and to me it just dredges up memories of standing in
the walk-in freezer with my coat on, scooping out cinnamon ice cream (I
forget the other flavor) for 600... in the way of similar
problem-solving all I can offer is the occasion when I found the exec
nearly in tears two minutes before service when a huge batch of braised
escarole turned out to have been unwashed, or insufficiently so, because
it was full of grit. He reminded me of Gene Wilder in "The Producers":
"No way out... no way out... no way out... no way out..." etc.

Yep. I did it. It was horrible. I drained off all the liquid into a
separate container, allowed it to settle, washed that cooked escarole in
water as hot as my hands could stand, drained it again, poured the
original liquid over it again, reseasoned it, and you _almost_ couldn't
tell the horrible indignities to which it had been subjected.

And then, of course, there may be bards, troubadours and jongleurs on
this list who can sing the tale of Adamantius In The Convection Oven...
;  )

A.
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98