Health Inspection, Other Things

Its been far far too long.

I survived my first health inspection. The inspector was a short, middle aged, soccer mom looking woman with a clipboard and a fanny pack. She walked into the kitchen around 6 on a Friday night. At the time I was filling Timbale with generous, gloveless, handfuls of basil infused ricotta which is technically not a violation but she was looking at me in a way that communicated very clearly her distaste for my technique. Unable to lecture me, she instead approached James who was not wearing gloves when he shoulda, and sternly instructed him to stop what he was doing immediately.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but James is a pretty intimidating figure if you don't know him. He's about 6' 200lbs. with a shaved head, a prominent neck tattoo and at the time he was holding a big knife. This woman, all of 5'4" 130, walks into his kitchen and starts berating him. For a second I was impressed with the ballsyness of what she was doing then I realized that that's the exact same thing she does all day and she must totally get off on it. Probably moonlights as a dom.

Today I broke my personal record for consecutive days making Ravioli, Timbale or both with 5 work days in a row. Sadly I won't make it to 6 this time.

We got new hotel pans, strainers, ladles, sheet pans, half sheets pans, nine pans, six pans, third pans, tongs, measuring cups, a pastry bag, a cooling rack, and probably more things that I'm forgetting. All of them make everything much easier.

I haven't cut or burned myself in over a month and at this rate my forearms will never look like Jason's. Fortunately I get to work grill for the first time tonight. That means I'll be making burgers, chicken sandwiches, flank steak sandwiches, Ravioli, and maybe timbale. Not completely sure about that. It also should provide many more opportunities for being burned. Exciting.

I've been spending waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money on cheese.

Out of nowhere Ravioli have become the most popular entree on the menu so I have to make them almost everyday. I've made Ravioli the past 4 days in a row. Two of those days I did nothing but ravioli, timbale, and dishes. Not complaining. Timbale is new on the menu. It's hamburger sauce (similar consistency to sloppy Joe filling), Italian sausage in bechemel, and basil infused ricotta layered and wrapped in pasta. Its kind of halfway between lasagna and ravioli. When Joe and I worked as a team it took us 6-7 hours combined to make 20. I've been going back and forth on whether or not I like to make them. They're kind of a huge pain in the ass.