Saturday, December 12, 2009

Merry Christmas!

The festive season only means one thing for the hospitality industry: rampage.

It's based on the 'cause and effect' theory; people want to celebrate, and we are here to accommodate! How we manage to feed over 2500+ people a week in a table-clothed restaurant is beyond me; but we manage to keep a relatively high level of quality, because the turnover of food is so fast that everything is fresh! - It's because no matter how much food we seem to order, it never seems quite enough to feed you lot! I laugh when I see the 30 boxes of vegetables, 15 boxes of meat and ducks, 6 body-length Styrofoam boxes of fish that come in - then try to fit it all in a coolroom barely the size of my bathroom!

I'll tweet a photo of it soon, but imagine playing a game of Tetris... and you are losing.

But at the end of the day, as long as you are happy with your food and your experience at the restaurant I work at; I don't mind the ridiculous roster and hours. Just as long as someone doesn't forget that I also need a good feed and lots of good booze this time of year.

Here's a pic of some pork belly I've been experimenting with during the season (trying to perfect my recipe):

Mmmm new improved crispier skin w/ seared Hokkaido scallops

Brined belly from a suckling pig, marinated with sechuan peppercorns and boiled, then coloured on the grill