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Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Southern Highlands Golf Club
This week was a very popular week for golf invitationals in Las Vegas. There was the Michael Jordan Invitational at Shadow Creek and the Governor's Black Tie Invitational at Southern Highlands. During the last four days I had the opportunity to work in the kitchen during the Governor's Black Tie Invitational. It was a great learning experience and the best part, it PAID!
On the first day I did a bunch of different things. I started out cutting and grilling various vegetables. While I was in the middle of grilling though I needed to be kicked off so that the normal lunch could get cooked, so I was moved to peeling cippolini onions. I did that for a couple of hours and then I got rough dice a bunch of tomatoes. Once that was done I got to learn how to use a new machine in the kitchen, a deli slicer. I spent the remainder of the day slicing various meats and cheeses. I really enjoyed doing that even though my arm was killing me by the end of the day.
On the next day I came in and was told to small dice fourteen onions. I went to work and around the eleventh onion Chef came around to check on me and told me I needed to make them smaller. I said ok and then before I had a chance to ask how much smaller he was showing me that he wanted them really small. Like a completely different cut small. I was really annoyed with this for a while because I did what he told me to do in the first place. I started to mince the remaining onions and he informed me that I would need to go back and mince all the other onions as well. After a couple of hours I finally finished. Once I was finished with that I was paired up with one of the regular employees. She had a long list of things to do and my job was to help her out with her list. The first thing on her agenda was to get the orders out for the Spa. She showed me real quick how to make the sandwich platter and then I went to work. I made three turkey sandwiches, three roast beef sandwiches, three ham sandwiches, one tuna salad wrap, one chicken Caesar salad wrap, five chicken salad cups, and five potato salad cups. Meanwhile Noreen worked on the dessert trays. Once that was all plated and headed to the spa we were asked to build vegetable platters and meat and cheese platters. Noreen asked me to design the vegetable platter and then get it approved by the chef. I made up one and then talked to chef. He liked it and asked me to do four more just like it.
While I worked on the vegetable platters Noreen was working on the meat and cheese platters. I managed to finish up on my platters sooner so she asked me to finish cutting the cheese for her platter. Once all the platters were wrapped and stored we had to get started on Bruschetta. I started to fine dice dozens of tomatoes. Once they were all diced Chef and Noreen worked on the seasoning and I plated up a couple of trays of Hummus and pita chips. Then the day was thankfully over. I was so tired. But I still had two more days ahead of me.
On Friday I pulled up to security and was informed that I was not allowed to park at the clubhouse. The security guard then told me that I had to park at the spa and a shuttle would be by to take me to the clubhouse. Once I parked at the spa James arrived and we both waited for the shuttle. We quickly realized it would not be arriving, so we started the fifteen minute hike to the clubhouse.
When we finally got up to the clubhouse Chef informed us that the shuttle didn't start up until 3:00 PM and that we could have parked at the clubhouse. Oh well. Then we went to work. I was told to work with Noreen again which I was thrilled about. I went over to her station and asked her what was on the agenda for the day and she informed me that I would be on my own. The sous chef Eric was there and said I would be fine on my own. So Noreen gave me the run down and I went to work getting the orders ready for the spa again. Around 12:00 PM I finished up with the orders and took a short lunch. When I came back I went to work on some more bruschetta, then I sliced some blood oranges. After that Chef asked me to shave asparagus in the deli slicer. That was really weird because the first slice was just splinters and then curled ribbons came out. After I finished that James and I made a fruit platter and a couple of fruit baskets. I was thrilled when Chef said to go home because my back was killing me. When we headed out to catch the shuttle we were told to head over to the cottages. After a couple of minutes James decided to walk down on his own to grab his truck while I waited with the tools. Shortly after he left the shuttle appeared. I waited patiently outside of the cottages until James came back to pick me up.
Today was my last day and once again I was with Noreen working on the orders for the spa. We finished that up pretty quickly though since it was the two of us working on it. I did sandwiches and dessert trays and Noreen did salads and fruit platters. Chef said we could go home once we were done but Noreen said she was going to stay to make some dressings. Since I had never made dressings before (minus Ranch) I offered to stay and help. Noreen had me make the Chinese Chicken Salad dressing. That was such a good dressing, and easy. I pretty much just through everything into a blender until it was well mixed. After finished up the dressings we stocked our station, cleaned up and then headed out at 11:00 AM.
On the first day I did a bunch of different things. I started out cutting and grilling various vegetables. While I was in the middle of grilling though I needed to be kicked off so that the normal lunch could get cooked, so I was moved to peeling cippolini onions. I did that for a couple of hours and then I got rough dice a bunch of tomatoes. Once that was done I got to learn how to use a new machine in the kitchen, a deli slicer. I spent the remainder of the day slicing various meats and cheeses. I really enjoyed doing that even though my arm was killing me by the end of the day.
On the next day I came in and was told to small dice fourteen onions. I went to work and around the eleventh onion Chef came around to check on me and told me I needed to make them smaller. I said ok and then before I had a chance to ask how much smaller he was showing me that he wanted them really small. Like a completely different cut small. I was really annoyed with this for a while because I did what he told me to do in the first place. I started to mince the remaining onions and he informed me that I would need to go back and mince all the other onions as well. After a couple of hours I finally finished. Once I was finished with that I was paired up with one of the regular employees. She had a long list of things to do and my job was to help her out with her list. The first thing on her agenda was to get the orders out for the Spa. She showed me real quick how to make the sandwich platter and then I went to work. I made three turkey sandwiches, three roast beef sandwiches, three ham sandwiches, one tuna salad wrap, one chicken Caesar salad wrap, five chicken salad cups, and five potato salad cups. Meanwhile Noreen worked on the dessert trays. Once that was all plated and headed to the spa we were asked to build vegetable platters and meat and cheese platters. Noreen asked me to design the vegetable platter and then get it approved by the chef. I made up one and then talked to chef. He liked it and asked me to do four more just like it.
While I worked on the vegetable platters Noreen was working on the meat and cheese platters. I managed to finish up on my platters sooner so she asked me to finish cutting the cheese for her platter. Once all the platters were wrapped and stored we had to get started on Bruschetta. I started to fine dice dozens of tomatoes. Once they were all diced Chef and Noreen worked on the seasoning and I plated up a couple of trays of Hummus and pita chips. Then the day was thankfully over. I was so tired. But I still had two more days ahead of me.
On Friday I pulled up to security and was informed that I was not allowed to park at the clubhouse. The security guard then told me that I had to park at the spa and a shuttle would be by to take me to the clubhouse. Once I parked at the spa James arrived and we both waited for the shuttle. We quickly realized it would not be arriving, so we started the fifteen minute hike to the clubhouse.
When we finally got up to the clubhouse Chef informed us that the shuttle didn't start up until 3:00 PM and that we could have parked at the clubhouse. Oh well. Then we went to work. I was told to work with Noreen again which I was thrilled about. I went over to her station and asked her what was on the agenda for the day and she informed me that I would be on my own. The sous chef Eric was there and said I would be fine on my own. So Noreen gave me the run down and I went to work getting the orders ready for the spa again. Around 12:00 PM I finished up with the orders and took a short lunch. When I came back I went to work on some more bruschetta, then I sliced some blood oranges. After that Chef asked me to shave asparagus in the deli slicer. That was really weird because the first slice was just splinters and then curled ribbons came out. After I finished that James and I made a fruit platter and a couple of fruit baskets. I was thrilled when Chef said to go home because my back was killing me. When we headed out to catch the shuttle we were told to head over to the cottages. After a couple of minutes James decided to walk down on his own to grab his truck while I waited with the tools. Shortly after he left the shuttle appeared. I waited patiently outside of the cottages until James came back to pick me up.
Today was my last day and once again I was with Noreen working on the orders for the spa. We finished that up pretty quickly though since it was the two of us working on it. I did sandwiches and dessert trays and Noreen did salads and fruit platters. Chef said we could go home once we were done but Noreen said she was going to stay to make some dressings. Since I had never made dressings before (minus Ranch) I offered to stay and help. Noreen had me make the Chinese Chicken Salad dressing. That was such a good dressing, and easy. I pretty much just through everything into a blender until it was well mixed. After finished up the dressings we stocked our station, cleaned up and then headed out at 11:00 AM.
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