Facing the challenge in New York – part 4

From July Roland Oláh, formerly the chef of Café Erté, tries his luck in the USA. He regularly reports to our magazine: “Finally I am here at the Boulud! It was just about time, I completely ran out of money. I sent home all the money I could and managed to buy my train pass, but now I get USD 100 for my previous two days’ work at Daniel! Help from above! We start with cleaning the place and when finished we go out to the Central Park for a half-hour break. After the break, the chef assigned the tasks to everyone: I would work as entremetier, doing the garnishes for meat dishes – I am glad. I will be working six days a week, from 7 am until 5 pm. Papers: 30 pages containing the work description for Dinex Group personnel. They contain everything, from how to look and what to wear at work, the discounts employees are entitled to, paid leaves, insurance, etc. One of the lockers in the locker room has my name on it – unbelievable! On the first day, we make garnishes for five dishes (chicken, duck, rabbit, veal, and beef) and for these 40 different things need to be prepared! Cauliflower for the chicken takes the most time. I have to pad a prism-shaped form with cauliflower leaves, then comes a layer of cauliflower farce, a plate of minced and fried chicken meat that perfectly fits in the form, another layer of cauliflower farce and finally the leaves are folded in. A perfect 7-cm long, 3×3.5-cm high prism. I have to make 25 of them a day! I start every day with blanching and after that I dash to start doing my other assignments.”