Working for the Man

December at the Villa is always very very busy which is great! So i thought I would run you through a typical day of my work.
Thursday: December 18, 2009

6:00 am - I clock in bring up the bread that has been in the cooler all night and transfer it to the proof box. I then go down to the freezer and bring up about 20 cakes and tarts from the freezer (we freeze all of our cakes so they slice nicer for buffets and parties...believe me you would never be able to tell). My assistant and I listen to music all morning while decorating the cakes. Then we baked off a lot of mini cookies. Everyone in the kitchen eats them so I always get stuck baking off extra for everyone. Today I gave two that stuck together to the girl who works the salad station.

8:00am - The Produce guy GENE comes, usually brings me a grapefuit. My assistant keeps decorating cakes while I make the Bread Pudding for the day. We then bake off all the breads for the day. As soon as one batch is done baking we usually split a loaf, I like to dip mine in Spinach and Artichoke dip.

9:00am - We start any plate-ups we may have for the day. A plate up is a banquet function where every guest receives the same dessert. Today we had a plate up for Tiramisu.

10:00am - Bread Pudding comes out of the oven and I put a shiny glaze on it. Then I proceed to making the mini pastries for a party. Usually this includes canollis, cream horns, mini key lime tartlettes, fruit tarts, chocolate mousse cups, Cream puffs, eclairs, chocolate strawberries, truffles and petit fours. We have dozens of other choices these are just the ones that are most popular.

11:00am - We take out the lunch items and deliver all the cakes to the right ballrooms and then roll the bread for the next day.

11:20am - Family Meal is ready. YAY! We all sit down and eat our lunch. Today it was Baked chicken and a pasta salad. I usually just eat the fruit Gene gave me.

11:30am - Lunch Begins and we all rush around until 2:00

2:00pm - I do all my ordering for the next day and then do some production. Today we made a batch of chocolate mousse cake, lemon shortbread cookies, cheesecake and a few other things.

3:00pm - I go and sit in a meeting to go over all the parties. I usually just doodle.

4:00pm - I make sure all the parties for the night are set up and my staff knows what to do. Then I get all my knifes together and LEAVE:)

5:00pm - Home