S.O.S.

This has been one heck of a busy week at the Chronicle! I've been fried, tied, hamstrung and skewered. And today, my dear work buddy Cindy was not there. Oh, Cynd, you left me to the wolves!! Here's a photo of Cindy working away in the kitchen last week.

It was Photo Shoot day and I had 3 dishes to prep for the photographer. But then there was the 'family meal' day that was set for 1:30. I got in at 9:30 and never stopped until 3pm. Brutal!

My feet and back feel like I was directing traffic all day - on top of me! I took the stairs so much up and down to the cellar, the photo room and the kitchen which are all on different floors, that I finally got fed up and started taking the elevator. Its just a difficult elevator that you have to manually control so you can't carry much. I broke two plates trying to get the elevator going. Don't tell Cindy. They were cute ones too. Oops.

I styled every plate that got shot today which equates to a $check$ for me when it runs. Yea me. I think it runs on the 21st. Look for my name in small print. Really small print under each photo.

Tomorrow may be a better day since I found out tonight that I won't need to enter and log any wines for next week. Big relief.

The Fancy Food Show is this Sunday at the Moscone Center and I'm planning to go. I'll take photos and let you know what's new! I'm excited.

I'll Miss My Fog

This morning while walking to the Chronicle I was stopped by the beauty of the morning fog being quickly burned off by the sun. I took two photos and you can see how quickly it was burning. I took both photos one after the other. Oh, I'm so going to miss my fog.

Back to the Kitchen Bitch!

Christmas time came and went and now its time to squeeze in more kitchen time at the Chronicle. I'll be working this next week on some new recipe testing and more writing. Fun! Here's a photo of the Chron Kitchen where I spend my days.

There are two stoves, one electric and the other gas. Naturally, I play on the gas stove. I love the overhanging pots and pans. They're so easy to find and no bending over. The natural light is great coming from that window. It really brightens up the kitchen so I can actually see when I'm cutting off my fingernails with a cleaver.

We also have two refrigerators, one for the staff and the other for the testing. The big long counter top is a must. I love that it is so long. There's plenty of room for 3-4 cooks to squeeze in, which sometimes happens. We also have a dishwasher just for the glassware (wine glasses) and the other normal one.

Its a fun playroom. I'm looking forward to working there tomorrow. I am really learning so much from working with the Chronicle Food and Wine Department staff. They are a great, intelligent bunch of hard workers.

Gratitude is a wonderful attitude.

Cooking for the Chronicle

Today was my first day at the San Francisco Chronicle's Food and Wine Department. It was a cool morning but well past my usual 5:30am wake up. I boarded the Muni bus in nice weather for my short ride to Market Street and 5th then proceeded to walk the remaining few blocks to the Chronicle.

I have come to find out that the F&W dept. don't get in on Monday's until around 10ish (insert smile here). My regular hours are 9:30 till 5pm (ditto the smile here). Once everyone was in and settled I got to my first assignment of cooking turkey legs and breast's confit; meaning cooking the legs submerged in duck fat for 3 hours and the breasts to 135 internal temp then letting it sit in the confit another 20 minutes. I cleaned and prepped the turkey, cut it up, took out the wishbone and got things going.

Well, it turned out the breast recipe didn't cook well enough at 135 degrees so next time it should be about 150ish then let it sit. We need to follow directions explictly at first then make our notations for any changes after.

Next on the list was Cardamom Ice Cream. I love the smell of cardamom seed pods. They are so aromatic. The ice cream was a slice of heaven when it was done. Tomorrow I'll be making pumpkin pies to go with it. Yummm.

There were a lot of dishes, pots, pans and cleanup but it was so pleasant working in a kitchen that is more like a home style kitchen than the big monsters I was used to at school. There is another student from the CCA there too. I know her from our Newspaper Club at CCA so that was nice to see a familar face. The gal who oversees me is also a CCA grad. The three of us were sharing the kitchen today cooking up individual recipes the writers are doing articles on. When we are done cooking we all taste test them, make any corrections and possibly re-do the recipe tomorrow.

I got my security pass and internet access late today so tomorrow I'm set to go. The ride home on the muni was fine and quick. It's a bit crowded but it sure saves on parking. Since this is an internship there is no pay so I must find ways to save, save, save. Gotta make it through the end of January at this gig to get my Cordon Bleu certificate. In the meantime, I need to get started on trying to find a "real" job. Yikes...

I feel like I'm stuck on Disneyland's "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". Scary.