Things Are Looking Up!
Yay! Finally!
I'm not full time yet at Merridale but will be going to 5 days a week lunch service, with two days all alone, next week. The restaraunt will be open seven days a week. I'm quite excited that the chef thinks I've done well enough to handle two days on my own. Mind you, weekdays are not overly busy, but still it's a step up.
After that we're going to be adding dinner service, probably by reservation only so it will be easier to staff but I'm not sure on that one. So again, I should be able to add more hours and slowly phase out going to Vinoteca. I'll probably take hours there whenever I can until they close at Christmas as the extra cash would be nice. On Friday I did the lunch shift at Merridale, then went to Vinoteca for the dinner shift. It made for a long day but at least I made a few more bucks than usual.
The other cool thing has a bit of story behind it:
Last week after Sunday brunch at Merridale we had a ton of leftover bread, so Chris and I decided to make bread pudding on Monday. Well, we only had one pan and it was huge, we ended up with the Mother of All Bread Puddings that took almost ALL day to cook. Ehem. So we thought we'd try again with ramekins or something. On the way home I remembered that we made bread pudding at school in ramekins and it was easy.
So I thought, why not muffin tins? Then I thought, the restaurant is on an orchard, we should have apples in the pudding. Then I thought, I hate raisins, maybe cranberries would be nice and give some colour too. Wednesday was experiment day, I put together the ideas and tried baking in a muffin tin and a mini bread loaf pan. After that it was off to the assorted family to force them all to eat bread pudding and gather some feedback. They all liked it and recommended a few changes. I cooled the puddings, wrapped them and took some to work on Friday. Chris and Tammy (one the servers) tried it and liked it. Chris said to save it for the chef to try on Saturday. Well, the chef tried it, liked it and said he would put it on the menu. How cool is that?!?
I'm not full time yet at Merridale but will be going to 5 days a week lunch service, with two days all alone, next week. The restaraunt will be open seven days a week. I'm quite excited that the chef thinks I've done well enough to handle two days on my own. Mind you, weekdays are not overly busy, but still it's a step up.
After that we're going to be adding dinner service, probably by reservation only so it will be easier to staff but I'm not sure on that one. So again, I should be able to add more hours and slowly phase out going to Vinoteca. I'll probably take hours there whenever I can until they close at Christmas as the extra cash would be nice. On Friday I did the lunch shift at Merridale, then went to Vinoteca for the dinner shift. It made for a long day but at least I made a few more bucks than usual.
The other cool thing has a bit of story behind it:
Last week after Sunday brunch at Merridale we had a ton of leftover bread, so Chris and I decided to make bread pudding on Monday. Well, we only had one pan and it was huge, we ended up with the Mother of All Bread Puddings that took almost ALL day to cook. Ehem. So we thought we'd try again with ramekins or something. On the way home I remembered that we made bread pudding at school in ramekins and it was easy.
So I thought, why not muffin tins? Then I thought, the restaurant is on an orchard, we should have apples in the pudding. Then I thought, I hate raisins, maybe cranberries would be nice and give some colour too. Wednesday was experiment day, I put together the ideas and tried baking in a muffin tin and a mini bread loaf pan. After that it was off to the assorted family to force them all to eat bread pudding and gather some feedback. They all liked it and recommended a few changes. I cooled the puddings, wrapped them and took some to work on Friday. Chris and Tammy (one the servers) tried it and liked it. Chris said to save it for the chef to try on Saturday. Well, the chef tried it, liked it and said he would put it on the menu. How cool is that?!?
posted by Sue at
5:50 PM
2 Comments:
Yay! That is cool.
By
Unknown, At
3:41 AM PST
I meant to post this ages ago - "Simon Manvell, one of the Island's most respected chefs, has joined Merridale Ciderworks as a consultant. The driving force behind Dock 503 Waterfront restaurant in Sidney for years, Manvell will be developing a new fall menu and help to expand Merridale's popular Cobble Hill bistro, la Pommeraie. Manvell, vice-president of the Island Chefs' Collaborative, has long nurtured relationships with local food producers and plans to bring his fresh and simple food philosophy to la Pommeraie."
So, have you worked with da chef? What's it like?
By
Rowena Hart, At
6:16 PM PST
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