Crazy busy nights at the Sleive Donard Hotel

 

Hello again, its April from the Sleive Donard

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I started off my experience in the Sleive Donard working in the starter section of the main kitchen. The first day was a bit overwhelming that’s just because I wasn’t familiar with how the kitchen functioned. After that first busy night it all sunk in and the next day was easier. My job on starter section was to prepare all that needs to be done for service which starts at 6 o’clock. We would prep in big batches especially coming up to the weekend when it will be the busiest. So far, I am having a blast in the starter section. When I can, I help in any other part of the kitchen, so if I have a spare hour, I  want to get more experience, so I help the chefs out in pastry or help with main course preparation for service.

When I am covering in the pastry section, I am just helping out, so I only make sweet treats such as, scones, traybakes, muffins, crème pat. My goal is to be rostered for pastry for my last two months of work placement and get to do more technical desserts such as making pave. Its all very exciting at the moment but yes defiantly want to aim for more experience in the pastry section of the kitchen. One night I had to cover pastry on my own for service which I have never done before, but all I needed to do was to keep calm and follow what was on the menu, that night went amazing I loved serving all the desserts, I got to be artistic and show off what I could do.

Cooking night, another night I was put to the challenge of being on pans which means when orders come in I will cook the meats and fish. This was a really busy night and I never got to do this before, so it was new to me. All was going well till near the end of the night when I burnt my hand badly so had to step out from the kitchen, I was disappointed, but I made it a challenge to go back the next day and made sure that that burn wasn’t going to stop me from learning. The next night went smoother. Practice is key. I was taken out of my comfort zone those both nights, it’s what I needed. I now how to cook lamb, duck, sirloin, salmon, and sea bass to order.

 What an exciting experience I am having so far.

Until next time!