Allow me to elaborate.
I do love what I do for a living. I love working with my hands. I love making food that people look forward to at the end of a meal or a celebration. I love baking and pastry. On the other hand, I don't love being told what to do. I don't appreciate being yelled at or belittled. I don't like the feeling of anxiety when Mothra walks through the door in the morning.
When I really sat down and looked at what I expected from this career and what I got into this business for, it was to be my own boss.
I don't consider myself a leader or a follower - I consider myself independent. I wanted to be knowledgeable and skilled enough that I could run a business on my own - and I want to get back to that goal.
People kept asking me what my career goal was and how far I wanted to move up in the hotel business, and every time I told them I was aiming for an executive pastry chef position, it felt wrong. I didn't believe it no matter how many times I told myself that it was the natural progression of what my career should be.
But I've figured it out - at least a rough draft - of what my career plan will be. I intend to start my own business out of my home and grow until I can get to a point that I can buy a location to set roots down. I want this to be a dessert catering business - meeting with clients face to face, asking what their needs are and then creating those items and making the entire process very personal. I want to emphasize seasonal, fresh, local ingredients and I want to work primarily with farmers and growers in the area to buy my ingredients instead of buying from local grocery chains. I want to make healthy dessert options. Ultimately, I want to have an area in my place of business that is set apart for meetings with potential clients about wedding/celebration cakes where I can design with them exactly what they want for their big day. I want to be well-known and have a great reputation. I want to be successful. I want to make lots of money. Bottom line - I want to be my own boss.
Obviously, this won't happen overnight - but I feel that if I begin my personal business as a part time job, I can continue to gain experience where I work now. Slowly as my reputation begins to grow, I can turn my full-time job now into a part-time job and focus more on my business. Then it's only a matter of time before I'll be on my own in my own pastry haven.
That's the plan, folks. You read it here first. I will continue to revel daily in the musings of what is to come while I gain more experience at where I'm at now.
With that being said, let me discuss the menu that my co-worker, Rebecca, and I have created for fall.
Main Desserts:
- Warm Apple Crisp served with caramel ice cream and garnished with a dried apple chip
- Pumpkin Pie Parfait - layers of caramel, organic cream, pumpkin mousse and white chocolate covered graham crackers, garnished with pumpkin seed brittle
- Flourless Chocolate Cake - with a crunchy hazelnut crust, served with organic espresso cream and candied hazelnuts
- Maple Cheesecake - served with maple whipped cream, bourbon caramel sauce and housemade pralines
Pies:
- Sweet Potato pie with a marshmallow meringue
- Chocolate Pecan pie
- Butterscotch Cream pie
- Muddy Buddy Pie, which is layers of chocolate mousse, dark chocolate covered chex and peanut butter-cream cheese mousse, topped with powdered sugar - garnished with Muddy Buddy Mix
Ice Cream/Sorbets:
- Caramel Pear Sorbet
- Carrot Cake Ice Cream (cream cheese ice cream with swirls of carrot cake and caramel sauce)
- Coffee Ice Cream (Rich coffee ice cream, swirled with caramel sauce)
- Cookie dough ice cream (Vanilla bean ice cream swirled with dark chocolate ganache, chocolate chips and chunks of cookie dough)
- and Caramel Ice cream
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the night staff at the restaurant and have a tasting with them with samples of all of the new menu items and it went incredibly well. The staff completely loved the desserts and seemed excited about trying to upsell them to the customers at the restaurant and bar. Overall, I feel really optimistic about this menu change - there are a lot of rich, heavy items on the menu, but with the cold weather getting nearer, the idea of comfort foods seems more and more appealing. I think this menu will sell very well.
The honest truth about this menu writing experience? It's actually been very pleasurable for a number of reasons.
One, I was able to co-write the menu with Rebecca. The fact that both of us are still fairly new in our careers and near the same level of experience, we were able to feed off of each other and come up with great ideas. Granted, we also came up with some horrible ideas that we thought were good at the time, but having the support to speak our minds to one another without judgment was helpful. Plus, when Mothra shot some of our supposed solid ideas down with a fiery arrow, we were able to talk to each other about it and move on to something better.
Secondly, doing this process on a regular basis has helped me with confidence in creating new ideas. Really, there is no choice but to come up with ideas and while many of them may not be the best choice, there are always at least a few that stand out and are able to make it to the next step. And there is really a great feeling when you see someone enjoying a dessert (or piece of pie or scoop of ice cream) that was only an idea in your mind a few weeks before.
Do I think this menu writing process is tedious and stressful at times? Without a doubt. But it really is rewarding and I am always learning something new whether it be about myself, or how to make something that is just good into something fantastic. I guess it always tends to be a matter of perspective.
More to come soon~
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