| My New Job. |
[Jun. 14th, 2004|11:02 pm]
Lounge 86
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The Stirling Highland Hotel is just down the hill from Stirling Castle, high atop a mountain that sits behind the city of Stirling. Oh, this is all in Scotland for those who don't know. I had the amazing luck of landing an exchange-student internship here and will be here for the next three months or so.
I started work today. The building is centuries old, it was originally the high school for Stirling and has all the signs of the zodiac carved outside the door and an observatory on top with a guy who comes in every Thursday night to open it up and do a little guided tour of the night sky. The kitchen isn't big, but it's bigger than most I've worked in. The only problem is that the kitchen is on one floor and all the storage is three flights down. But, really, considering all else, I'll get right over that.
Went in at 11AM today, which was 6AM your time, but who's quibbling? Met my chef, Danny, and fellow cooks Paul and Graham who prefers to be called "Chalky," and "porters" Jimmy and Paul. There's a sous chef named Alex who I met when I dropped in the day before, but he was off today. Incidentally, after my first day today, I'm off tomorrow, work Wednesday, off Thursday, then on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and we'll see about next week. It's a wierd schedule, but an amazing job.
Alright, about the job already! It's in a smallish hotel so it's never too demanding. I did mostly prep in the morning, and a lot of gopher work getting myself familiarized with the place. Then around 7PM we actually got busy, because that's when "the Americans" come in to eat every night, a tour group that keeps the place supplied with Americans every night of the week. That's also when everyone in the hotel decides to eat and order room service.
Our menu changes weekly, and we write it. They're sending me into town with £50 (just shy of $100) to buy cookbooks and come up with traditional Scottish food that "the Americans" will like. Tonight I helped plate up several different things, including:
haggis, black pudding and applesauce served alongside airline chicken breast, lamb on top of a salsa with some mint hollandaise, beef steak with stuffed tomato and brussel sprouts and rice, haddock with mint hollandaise with the same sides, some kind of salmon and shrimp mayonnaise salad that has a name that i don't know how to say or spell because scottish people talk funny that has balsalmic syrup around it, a seafood platter with three kinds of salmon, that salmon salad, rollmop and some other fish on it, several different desserts, lots of chicken liver pate served either sliced or in cuinelles...
We did so much business in just an hour and a half that I honestly don't remember it all, but I do remember that it was a blast and I'm positively thrilled to do more. This job rocks, even if the kitchen is a little dirty, and I love almost everyone I work with.
Except for the smartass gym staff who said, "Oh, wait - I know where I've seen you before!"
I said, "What? Where?"
He said, "You were in the newspaper!"
I said, "What? When?"
He said, "Yeah, it was you! Standing there in your uniform smiling, pointing your finger like a gun at those naked Iraqis!"
I said, "You know what, motherfucker? There are some lines that the general public would be courteous enough not to cross. That was the line you just flew past. Fuck off, it's not my war."
What's a girl to do? I'm actually really curious to see what else might happen. So far, people have been really lovely and hospitable to me here, and even seemed excited to meet a real live American. Except for that one asshole, guys seem to love it. We'll see. I'll be writing the menu he sells to his guest next week, so he can eat it. |
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