New Menu Accomplished

It has been a rollercoaster over the past week or so. After the sobering experience that I had written about in my previous entry, I went on vacation. The timing couldn't have been more perfect... it gave me time to reflect on all the things that Mothra had said, relive the experiences I had and learn from them and try to move past it. Truth be told, it was difficult. I had a pit in my stomach the entire week I was off because I was dreading coming back. But as the saying goes, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. When the time came for vacation to be over, I had a clear resolution to do my best in every project, to not take things so personal, to remember each experience is a learning tool, and finally, to respect Mothra's experience and authority, but not give her that much control over my emotion. And the first day back from vacation actually went very well. The menu was in it's absolute final stages, namely back-up supply of essential components, garnishes and prepping what could be done as the following day would be the first day of the new dessert menu in service.

The final step in the new menu was to arrange a tasting meeting with the restaurant staff. Up until this point, the desserts had be tasted over and over by myself, until I thought it was good enough for Mothra. Then once Mothra gave her suggestions (tweaking this and that), and she felt the product was ready, we'd have a tasting with our executive chef. If the dessert met his approval, then we were in the clear for the new menu production to begin. Now, after all was said and done, I arranged 3 different tastings for the restaurant staff (one tasting for the morning shift and one for the evening shift) and another tasting for the bar staff. What I did, essentially, is plate each of the desserts up as though they were going to be served. Once all of the staff was present for the tasting, I would explain each of the desserts in detail.
What ingredients are in it. What allergies could be affected by it. (nuts, dairy, eggs, etc.) What desserts would be best to sell for more experienced palates and what would be best for kids. My personal favorites. What the garnishes are. And other things of that nature. And of course, the staff has questions along the way and they all taste the desserts so they know exactly what they are selling to the customers. Truth be told, all of the tastings were very well received and the staff loved it. And as a result, the desserts have been selling better than usual over the past week.

What a relief to have this menu up and running. But, it is time to start thinking about the fall menu... so the process begins again. I find comfort in the fact that I've learned a tremendous amount over the past few months, so I am actually excited to start this process again.

Here are a few pictures from the experimental stages at work. I wanted to include these just to give you an idea of how we exactly we played around with different flavors:

This is the very beginning stages of the brown butter pecan cornmeal cake - we thought peaches were going to be the main fruit on top, so this experiment was to try the cake with whole pecans, chopped pecans, or no pecans at all, as well as trying the peaches whole, sliced or cut in pieces. This led to our next experiment...

This is 2nd experiment of the brown butter cornmeal pecan cake - it is divided in to 8 sections. The top half has small pecan pieces underneath the fruit and the bottom half has large pecan pieces underneath the fruit. This was mainly to test for the feel and consistency of each bite in the mouth. (Was larger better? No. We actually scrapped the nuts altogether in the end.) The fruit we tested was plums (which didn't make the cut because... well, we know why), peaches (which didn't end up happening because we ended up putting a peach pie on the menu and needed variety ) and blackberries, one fresh column, one cooked column. The blackberries ended up being the winner because it was incredibly delicious - Plain and simple. We did decide that the berries needed to be cooked though because the fresh berries didn't mesh well with the cake and the overall texture we were trying to achieve.


This is Mothras final attempt to keep my dream of the plum tart alive - I gave her my test sample (the 9709) and she gave a few suggestions on what to experiment with. On here we have on tart with cheesecake filling and plums, one with almond cream and cheesecake (which looked and tasted awful) and another one similar to that with chopped nuts, and one with almond cream and cooked plums on top. A worthy test, but nothing that produced something we wanted to pursue further.

All in all a very interesting process to be a part of. It's really fascinating to me that you can change the whole dessert by adding one ingredient or changing the form of an ingredient you already have. It makes the possibilities nearly endless - and that makes it all pretty exciting.

Finally, I do have great news. A few weeks ago, I was nominated for employee of the month and this past week, I won the overall award. Included with my certificate and a gift card was the nomination form that was sent in. I was nominated by Mothra, and here is what she had to say:

"Nik is a key player in the pastry shop and has been instrumental in executing our wedding cakes. These wedding cakes are a vital part of a special celebration and are long remembered in minds and photographs. The success of these cakes are vital to our success (as a hotel) on the day of the event and any failure would not soon be forgotten.
Since his very first week in our kitchen, Nik was colled on to build and decorate wedding cakes. With his exceptional abilities, he has focused his efforts in giving our brides and grooms the most beautiful and delicious cakes possible. Nik is detail oriented and cares deeply about putting his best work forward. In addition, during his time with us he has always been eager to take on additional responsibilities including setting the tastings and meeting with brides and grooms. What's more he has played a key role in the design and displays of our sweet tables. His work has been noticed by our meeting planner(s) and he is even been asked for by name to help with future displays. When I need to count on someone to have a special eye for flower arrangements or displays - I know I can count on him doing an excellent job. No matter how hurries, he always remains upbeat and positive and has proven himself to be an excellent team player. We are truly proud that he is a member of our pastry team."

The new menu up and running, then this? I don't think I have any room for complaints.