On Vacation...sort of...

So...Its Thursday and I'm into the first week of 2 weeks off...but hardly sitting around idle.

The Executive chef for a local catering company called me and asked if I could help him with a big party he had. Some of his Sous chefs were not available and he needed help prepping for a party of 400 along with some other smaller parties for Tuesday and Wednesday...and of course i said YES!!!

Romakie, stuff mushrooms, cookies, brownies, sandwiches, fruit, lemon bars, bacon wrapped scallops, drinks, break, spinach dip...and lots more other stuff were in the works the past few days.

I had a blast...at first, I was completely out of my element. He would hand me a recipe and say, "make it to yield 400 or 500" and I took it from there. Thank you Chef Emily for making sure I knew how to convert yields in freshman class.

No language barrier as I was able to keep up with all of the spanish speaking staff...at some point they wanted me to start singing with them with the mexican music that was playing all day long...good thing they didn't have Styx or chicago on or they definitely would have kicked my ass out...LOL!!!

It was a nice size kitchen, the staff was great, and the Chef was awesome in showing me what his standards were and teaching me a few things here and there about catering shortcuts.

I can't wait to help him out again when he has more larger parties. Thanks Chef Rick Santana!

Now...I can't wait to start up school again.

A fellow classmate works at the Elk Lodge here in Riverside and she contacted me today saying that she confirmed that she could use some help and I could get some work experience working at her place...I said...LETS DO IT! So hopefully I will be cooking for the Elks here pretty soon as well.

Its all about getting out there and making some contacts so that when I'm ready, I can possibly have some gigs lined up and hit the ground running...and I can't wait to get in a kitchen full time and start to whip stuff out.

Its funny...you'd think I would be enjoying the time off...in actuality...I'm ready to get back to school!!!

Hope all are doing well and more to come...