Greek Food!

[marmalady]

Where I worked as GM, I did all aps (except for fried), all salads & their house-made dressings, all cold and hot sandwiches plus special sandwich spreads, pizza station (including making the pizza dough and focaccia we used for a sandwich, AND desserts, and all the prep for everything.

[Shimmer]

When I did Garde Manger, I came in around noon to do prep work, including half of the saute station's prep. I was responsible for appetizers, salads, and desserts, so I also made the desserts, the dressings, the sauces, chopped/pitted/grated/whisked, etc everything that needed it. During dinner service, I also helped plate entrees when they were in a hurry, and at times did some of the grill work when needed.

We had three people in our kitchen at night- garde manger, saute, and grill, so everyone did a lot of work.

The most fun I ever had! And I can mince parsley finer than anyone else I know. (That's from having to do it over way too many times).

~~SHimmer~~

[Matthew357]

<<The most fun I ever had! And I can mince parsley finer than anyone else I know.>>

So what was your solution when the parsley was too wet after mincing it? The tried and true wrap in a napkin and twist or something more elegant?

Chef likes our parsley to be an incredibly fine mince...almost dustlike but there is only one station that garnishes with it so I only have to dry the parsley for that station...kind of hard to sprinkle when it's clumping up on you.

On a mildly related note. Has anyone ever heard of Guenter Seeger? (I think that's his name). He was in to eat the other night and the sous chef made sure everything that went to his table was perfect.

Matt

[foodnfoto]

I just read this whole thread for the first time and was thoroughly fascinated!
Good for you Matthew!-it sounds like you are doing a bang-up job and learning a lot as you go.
I've always believed that every chef should work in a Greek restaurant as part of his/her training for several reasons. 1) You learn one of the 3 cuisines upon which most western cuisine is based -Greece, Rome and China (unfortunately, most of indigenous American cooking technique is lost to history.) 2) You get a sense of the "familial" ethic upon which all food-service business was originally based (your experience when you brought your family in is a great example of this ethic-it's rare elsewhere.) 3) Greek resturants are usually so busy that everyone works in 5th gear all the time which teaches speed and organization.
I wish my experience in the world of Greek restaurants had been as supportive. It was 20 years ago and the chefs were still very doubtful and suspicious of a woman in the kitchen. But Man!, all those lessons still came through in spades! I still make avgolemono in the very same way that I learned back then, it's great!
Let me know if you get a good recipe for galatoboureko-I'm still looking for a good one.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and knock 'em dead, man!

One more note--watch out for fish poisoning when doing all that fish prep. A little of the fish bacteria in a small cut on your hand can make you very, very sick! Wear gloves whenever possible, and really scrub your hands (like a surgeon) with antibacterial soap after prepping it. Then slather on the hand cream-try udder cream-it works the best on sore fingers.
Good Luck!

[kokopuffs]

From reading this book it seems that the Greeks have a huge headstart on the technique of braising. Just an fyi and addendum to Kyle's previous post.

[Suzanne]

Won "Best Chef: Southeast" from James Beard Foundation in 1996, among other accolades.

[Shimmer]

Matthew-

The only method I know is to wrap it in an absorbant towel, but not paper, more like cotton and squeeze and squish as much water out as possible.

I have been told that when the cutting board turns green, the parsley is fine enough.

That wasn't fine enough, where I worked.

~~Shimmer~~

[Matthew357]

Tonight was a fairly interesting and fun one. The day started just like every other friday, prepping like crazy to get everything in it's place...then about 4:30 we found out how many covers we had on the books. Suffice to say we were rather surprised with the small amount...is it that way with everyone else? We were actually just about as busy Wednesday night as we were tonight. I figure memorial day does strange things to the non-barbecue restaurants.

The interesting thing was how the news affected the kitchen as a whole. I think any of you that have worked in a restaurant know how the kitchen gets before a busy night...somewhat quiet, everyone moving quickly and efficiently..there is almost the feeling of a bow being drawn tight before it is fired. Well, as soon as we heard the number of covers that we had coming we all started joking around, a much more fun atmosphere. We hardly broke a sweat tonight. I would guess this is probably the first night that I really paid attention to the overall mood of the kitchen.

So...that meant that I was a good bit ahead on my prep work so I was all wrapped up rather early. So I wandered over to the GM and started taking notes, got to try my hand at tossing a few plates together etc. Which was great fun and I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty there. So, while I was standing around watching everything Chef is tossing together a menu for a special pair of guests that had come in. Doing things with his usual flair, plating our regular dishes and items in interesting and different ways. So as he is running around working his magic he suddenly says "Matt! Do you have some Spanokopita mix?" This of course caught me completely off guard. The first thing that popped into my paranoid head was "Heh, OF COURSE I've got Spanokopita mix, I know what you would do to me if I showed up tomorrow and didn't have it, what do you think I am, crazy?!?" I didn't actually say that, instead I said "Yes Chef." So he told me to go get it. I ran back to the walk in wondering what in the world he was going to do with my Spano Mix. (FYI: Our spano mix consists of leeks, scallions, dill, spinach, feta and some egg.). I come back out of the walk in and he is poking around in the Grill reach in looking at some of the lobster with a thoughtfull expression on his face. I stood there quietly for a few seconds just watching what he would do next. I guess he decided not to do whatever he was thinking of with the lobster because he put it away turned around took the Spano Mix and headed off in the direction of the Hot Apps station. I didn't want to get in the way so I headed back to the GM and worked there for a few minutes. After about five minutes I couldn't keep my curiosity at bay and I wandered over to Hot Apps and what I saw really amazed me. He had taken the spano mix and stuffed it inside two calamari, cooked them on the grill for a few minutes (the grill marks were really great looking), floured and fried the tentacles then he plated them like they were still alive. It really just blew me away that he could think of something so inventive and appealing off the top of his head. The funny thing was about fives minutes later I was thinking not about the visual affect but the actual flavors involved and how they really did go together quite well. It also made me wonder if culinary genius like that is a gift or something that will come with time and experience. To be honest with you I don't think I would have ever thought of something like that. It just went to show why Chef did quite well at the French Laundry

Welp, I gotta get to bed, tomorrow will probably be busier than tonight was.

Matt

[Suzanne]

Great story! Sounds like a terrific place to learn.

[Athenaeus]

Dear Mat

My husband who follows the forum occasionaly as visitor says that he enjoys extremely your stories

They remind him of a young boy who used to work in the kitchens of the Greek restaurants of NYC years ago trying to collect money for college

Without wanting to spoil the image you have for your chef, stuffed calamaris are very popular dishes in Greece

Usually they are stuffed with cheese pie filling or cous cous or what ever comes to your mind.I make them with shrimp saganaki for example. Try it

BTW another popular dish is stuffed peppers you know which ones, the horn shaped green ones!! Ohhh What a dish this one.

I was surprised to read that you serve such dishes at your restaurant.

I wonder if the person who ate that stuff was american or Greek.