Back to normal?

The week just past was the last week (hopefully) of haphazard scheduling of double shifts galore. The big boss paid us a visit for a few days and his right hand pastry man was also in town too. Naturally, our pastry chef was quite nervous about the visit but for me, it felt like any other week bar a stranger popping up to inspect what you are doing at any moment, a bit weird at times but manageable. I was quite lucky cos I helped with making one of the desserts for a VIP lunch on one day and found myself plating and serving with the big boss and the right hand pastry man which was a nice feeling :)

Dessert 1 : Orange and araguani cream cake which was also served with a scoop of orange sorbet.

Dessert 2: Tarte tatin - hazelnut and almond crumble base layered with apples and cranberry jelly. Topped with apples set in agar jelly. The apple and cranberry flavour combination worked really well, not a fan of the agar top though.

Both desserts were created by the right hand pastry man, not only did they taste great but they also looked very creative and attractive - a shame that we don't see him all the time as it would be great to learn more from him.

Our workload was a lot less this week (bizarrely, the pastry chef did not want us making a lot of mise-en-place whilst the right hand pastry man was here?) and service is starting to feel less daunting for me which is a plus.....

Unfortunately, the staffing issue still has not been resolved - only 1 of the 2 people expected to start last week joined our team and there is no sign of any others coming in the near future. The general manager explained to me during the week that they expect to have a full team in a month's time but am slightly skeptical about his remarks as they have been saying the same thing since I joined which is almost 2 months now!!

My March schedule looks a little more "normal" so hopefully, a bit more routine in my life :)