week 6

This week was a normal, slow, yet fun week. We did not have much to do for the beginning of the week, but on Saturday we had a special dinner. For the whole week, Joe and Afif worked together to make up a 5-course menu to be used for the dinner. During the week everyone pitched in to prep this meal, and it came out to be a success.
We had a 5-course meal to prepare for and we only had 3 days to do it. The first course was a shrimp mousse on a sugar cane skewer with a tangy garlic dipping sauce. It was served on julienne Napa cabbage and fresh vegetables. Afif and Joe prepped for this dish. It turned out very good. At first the mousse had too much onion and it was over powering the shrimp, but chef fixed this by adding less onions and by brushing honey onto the shrimp when grilling them. The second course was a roasted pork salad. Joe came up with this dish. It is a very simple dish but very tasty. The blood orange goes perfect with the roasted pork. The third course was taken from the regular dinner menu and tweaked a little bit. It was seared duck breast. It is served on a bed of couscous with a crab wonton and a plum cherry demi. The original dish is served with an apricot glaze instead of the plum cherry demi, but both work very nicely with the duck. The fourth course was a grilled filet of beef tenderloin served with mushrooms, sweet polenta, and a moral mushroom demi. This dish was also very delicious. Because it is tenderloin filet the beef is very tender and full of flavor. The fifth course is a dessert course. Chef Afif prepared a flourless chocolate tort, which was served with a very rich raspberry sauce. The winemaker put on this dinner, from Alexander Valley Vineyards located in Healdsburg, California. Each course was paired with a glass of their wine. The pairing’s were chosen by the winemaker.
It was a slow week at first. I was working normal hours, 9 – 5, and only doing about 2 tables a day for breakfast and lunch. Next week we do not have any guests for the first half, and then the next week after that we are closed for 10 days.