What's in a Name?

Note: This post pertains to yesterday; I fell asleep while typing it up.

Today was the day Mr. Marriott was to come and meet all of us. We were told when he is near, we are to wash our hands, and go stand by the door in a line, so he can do a "run by greeting". We kept that information in the back of our minds, and continued with our work.

I was on my own today, Jennifer told me to check the board and ask her if I had any questions. According to the board I had a build your own sandwich for 13 people. Easy enough. I started to gather my ingredients, and look in the fridges. I was lucky, there were cucumbers and tomatoes already cut up for me, as well as some salad greens from the day before. I gathered up gherkins and dill pickles, bowled them up along with 4 types of mustard and some mayo.

I cut up some eggplant, zucchini, red onion and peppers. I was going to roast these with olive oil for a vegetarian choice. I roasted them for a few minutes, tossed them in more olive oil, salt, pepper and basil. Tasty.

Applying what you know: While gathering up these ingredients I couldn't for the life of me find the zucchini. Then I realized it was a squash, and immediately found a box labelled squash, which contained zucchini.

In the middle of cutting up these vegetables, Mr Marriott was due to arrive in the kitchen in 30 seconds. So we all washed up and gathered to one side of the kitchen. He came in, shook all of our hands, and we huddled for a group pictures. I've been scouring online to try and find that picture, but at least I found a picture of Mr. Marriott himself.

He is 79 years old, and travels around to the Marriott hotels. It is very rare that he visits the same hotel twice, but that is the case with this location. He is here on a double business trip, as he is Mormon, and holds the place as the steak. He is here to train the next person in line. (I know little of the Mormon religion; this is all that was explained to me by several different people.) He is a friendly spry old man, and treated each of us with a smile, and while he was only there a short time, he made us feel like valued employees.

After the photo shoot, we all got back to work and finished up what we were doing. I finished slicing cheese and meat, and plated them up along with some buns, rye, sour dough and whole wheat bread. With this my function was done, I labelled it for the proper room, time and amount of people, and waited for the service staff to come and collect it. Once it was gone, I cleaned up and went for lunch.

When I went for lunch I knew there was little left to do in the kitchen but clean up, so I took my time eating. I spoke with one of the other new staff, Dylan. He has 2 pet rats, so I'm not the only culinary personnel with a rodent problem, and I spoke with Pat who has been here for 25 years. He is a cook in 44 North Kitchen.

The way that the kitchen is laid out, is in 2 major divisions. There is the banquet kitchen, where I work in the Garde Manger section, and the 44 North section which is partially open to the public. We rarely get to see each other, unless one of us is hording all the flatware, or we have a little bit of something left over, and we give it to the other. For example, I had half a loaf of whole wheat bread, instead of walking it back to the walk-ins, I just gave it to them to use for toast. In the banquet section there is Pastry, which has the only wooden table in the kitchen, as a few years ago everything wooden was removed due to its bacteria breeding qualities. Victoria works in Pastry, she is a British woman who is always friendly. Yesterday I was gathering raisins down in her section when I mentioned I worked in a bakery for a few years, she hopes to pull me out of Garde Manger some day, and get me to help her out. Ethel also works down in Pastry, I only just met her today, but she seems like a nice woman as well.

Also in Banquet section there is hot line, which Nick is head of, with Dylan under him. And adjacent to Nick is Donald who is a joking guy who runs the soups, saucier. We have two dish-pits, one is the proper dish-pit, and the other is the pot-pit, where we put everything we cook in, or with.

I met Robert today, Robert has been with the company for awhile, I forget how long. He is a blind man, who works in laundry. I was walking with Jennifer when we saw him, and she went to get his uniform for him. Apparently he knows the laundry room inside and out, and only has trouble when new equipment is ordered in. I walked by him later on, and noticed he is the neatest folder ever.

Today I learned: How to take apart, clean, and put together the meat slicer. How to properly label a function so the service staff can deliver it correctly and where the food for banquets is taken to.

I received my first evaluation today. Jr. Sous Chef Dorothy signed me off, and told me I'm a quick learner, I'm tidy with my work station, I'm bright, respectful and I get along well with my fellow co-workers. I think the two last points contradict each other, as getting along in a kitchen, means disrespecting each other in a friendly playful way. But I'm pleased with this remark.

"Kyleen is a quick learner and clean as she goes she is very brigh and respectful. friendly and gets along well with here fellow associates."

She also signed off on 33.5 hours of work.