Kitchen Day 7

Potatoes!!!

So many of them, too many of them! We had nine different kinds to eat yesterday! That's like seven too many... After our buffet we were all ready to pass out, (Ha! I did) and it was definitely that much more difficult when I went into work to eat all that food.

Even today it is quite difficult to eat, we had pasta so I'm not going to need food for days...

The dumplings were super fun to make! They also came out very well cooked so I'm happy with that!

This was the first day where we really had a lot on our plates. Chef did help us out by making a few of the extra dishes not on our curriculum, but we still had to make 5 or 6 on our own. By far and away the most difficult part to the whole day was getting the russet potatoes to cook fully and correctly.

I botched ours. Tried to do them 3 different times and they still weren't done; I was definitely a bit disappointed with that project. 

Keenan was tasked with making Gnocchi. That is such a difficult dish for even some Master Chef's so it was a bit of a challenge for us.

Close-ups of my groups dishes:

 Pommes Duchesse

 A super tasty potato salad, concocted by Mitch

 Potatoes Jullienne

 Castle Potatoes

 Potato Dumplings (Klobe

And finally mashed potatoes

Definitely next time I will work on cooking the taters properly. Start with a huge pot of water sooner so that they are much easier to send through a ricer. Other than that not too much to say about the day, I definitely enjoyed being Team Manager, it was cool to be the one responsible for service. A bit stressful, but that's what makes me keep going, laziness is not good!

Pre Kitchen Day 7 PSA

Okay so it's 1:30am and I need to sleep. I really want to let you know all about our day in class. We made 9 different potato dishes. Nine! So much starch! Also, thanks to Bubba, the posts will now include high quality photos. My phone is decent enough but you will see a HUGE improvement in the photos. Honestly they are professional grade.

I will make sure I bring my computer tomorrow so I can post both Day 7 and Day 8, but again to ensure they are good quality I must retreat to slumber. Today I slept in my car for like an hour, super helpful, but not really the best way to go. If I can get all of this stuff finished on my breaks then I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Well thank you for the patience (I hope...) and you will not be disappointed tomorrow afternoon!

-Benjamin

PS I had to include this photo because it's a great one of our Chef Marcus Lepke

All the tasty bits!

Alas, we have come to the final day of our training at Eureka! No more tasty food for free! :'(

We had so much! The signature entrees, desserts, breakfast, beers! Way too much food!

On the plus side though, we are sooooo close to letting you in on our secret! It's now less than a week away from the Grand Opening.

Eureka! Boulder opens September 5th!!!

So tonight we tried our signature dishes, a fancy way to say entree. Very delicious! The NY Strip Steak was cooked to perfection! Such amazing flavors and seasoning, not anything crazy really just salt and pepper; garnished with the asparagus and our signature saffron crema. I wish I could have eaten a full dish!

The rack of ribs was awesome! Nice and smokey, super tender,

just a fantastic meal! I would really recommend bringing a towel

to keep clean!

We finally got to try some of the appetizers that we didn't have the ingredients for yet, as well as the chicken sliders. Man they have a bit of a kick! That Reaper sauce is no joke, I would love to watch someone use it as a dipping sauce for the french fries. The Osso Buco riblets. Divine. The orange chili glaze on there combined with the slow roasting, they fall apart into amazing bits of wonder. By far one of the best dishes on the menu!!!!

Desserts
Spelled with two s's because you can't get enough...

The first time I read the Eureka! menu, the one dish that really caught my eye was the Rum Pudding. The description of it, the sound of the name, all of it screamed to me that it was the one treat I needed to try. It was fantastic. Very creamy, not too sweet, just the thing to follow up a Fig Burger ;-)

The chocolate torte was perfect. Our version of a Chocolate Lava Cake, the molten core was just the right kind of gooey. The chocolate is a semi-sweet chocolate so when you eat a bite with the vanilla ice cream it is just right. I will definitely eat too many of these in the next few months, especially as the snow begins to fall.

The Apple Crisp (above) is a mini apple pie.

This little treat definitely hold the heat in, (I totally burned my tongue on the first bite!), but if you get a good clump of ice cream it dances right on that line of temperature. I'm all for candied pecans and caramel any day of the week!

Breakfast

Bananas Foster French Toast. Yep...

Last but not least we tried the breakfast. Here in Boulder, CO we are fortunate enough to get a breakfast menu at our Eureka! Only 8 of them exist! I loved the Eggs Benedict, the Huevos Rancheros and the All Day Burrito. Almost everyone who works for the company would do anything for the Bananas Foster French Toast. Between all of these, I'm not sure I can pick a favorite. Yes the French Toast is incredible, definitely up for debate as whether it should just be a dessert staple, but the Huevos were so full of flavor and that burrito can definitely hold up to the main entrees. Coupled with our Mimosas, we will be the new hotspot for that weekend morning staycation.

Beers!

I won't say too much on this topic, it could be multiple posts. We have around 40 beers on tap, 20 of which are permanent. They are all craft, many of them from right here in good old Colorado! Just wait until we have our special nightly feature where you can keep a pint glass after having a beer!

Huge Thank You to our Kitchen!!!!!!!!

I definitely want to give a huge thank you to our wonderful kitchen! None of these posts would have been possible without you crafting the amazing dishes!!! Keep it comin! :D

Door 222

One of the most important things that Chef Marcus Lepke is trying to teach us in culinary school is taste. A great Chef can taste a dish, figure out what it is and what it needs, and then make that dish exceptional. The best way to do this is to get out and try different foods. So it is now that time where I become a snobby food blogger :D (not really snobby I hope!).


Door 222
Loveland, CO
www.door222.com

The Grapefruit cocktail was very good. Not too overpowering in the citrus, very refreshing on a hot day on the patio.

This is a great place in downtown Loveland, CO. Honestly I'm not sure why we have never been here before. It has a nice and cozy atmosphere, we sat out on the patio to enjoy the weather, they even have a kind of screen on the patio to make it more private from passersby. Apparently the name is new (they used to be called Next Door) but have been here for 4 years. I really can't understand why we haven't been in before.

We came in for the tapas,we had looked it up online and found that they were the most raved in the reviews. 

Bruschetta

The bruschetta was incredible!!! Made with goat cheese, bacon, and a palisade peach, I really want one right now. The only thing I would change on the dish is to add more. So much more. If this is the most ordered appetizer on the menu I would not be surprised, the taste on top of the creaminess of the peach and the cheese on a crunchy baguette was sublime.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Bacon wrapped dates. 3 words that should tell you everything you need to know... They were fantastic. Anyone in my family can attest to our love of dates. These wonderful little desert fruits are so sugary and really can't go bad in anything. As soon as you wrap them in bacon and add an almond as the "pit" you make an incredible excuse eat some fruit; albeit this fruit is possibly the farthest fruit from healthy!

Short Rib Mac n Cheese

This is by far one of the best Mac n Cheeses out there. I don't really see why they even bother to classify it as an appetizer, it's so HUGE! By the time we finished this we almost called it quits. The smokiness from the ribs and bacon along with the creaminess of the cheese was heaven in my mouth! I really want to go back and ask the Chef for the recipe because I need it NOW!!! The crunchiness of the potatoes added a great texture!

Chef's Special: Braised Short Ribs

Our wonderful waitress (I will go back and get her name so she gets some credit) managed to convince us to get an entree. The short ribs in the Mac had us lean towards trying them full on in a feature. I hate to admit though that they were out-shined in this dish. The mashed potatoes were a perfect blend of buttery-deliciousness, asparagus were very well seasoned and tender, but the ribs were missing something. Alone they were perfectly cooked, fell right apart with a fork (no knife needed), but didn't have any deep flavor. However, when taken with a bite of the seared tomato they became an incredibly flavored piece of meat. If I could have gotten a few more tomatoes this would easily be an incredible dish, it is still very good as it was served but I would probably try something new upon my next visit.

 Dessert: Honey Drop Martini & Donuts!!!

The homemade donuts.........

No words........

Well some words,

Delightful

Sugary

Goodness

What a cool concept! Fresh from scratch donuts served with sugar in a bag. You shake the bag (is it clear?) and then tear into it. Donut holes for me, if that's what you might call these, are an interesting topic. They HAVE to be an imitation of the Danish Aebleskiver, a tasty treat I grew up with. This twist on it though is as close as I've ever seen to the real thing, we grew up eating them with a berry jam (raspberry white wine reduction here) and sugar. This was a wonderful end to the meal since it kindled those great memories. That alone is why I came back to food so it's a good kind of message for me!

The Honey Drop martini was also very good. I enjoyed it more than the Grapefruit one, it had more flavor even though it was quite a bit more sugary!

Overall this was a wonderful night on the town. Great atmosphere, refreshing drinks, very friendly and attentive service, delicious food, and a crazy throw back to my childhood to top it off. I will definitely be dining here again! Really I can't wait to go back!

Kitchen Day 6, Soups!

We've made it to the second week in the kitchen!

Today we made soups! Soup is such a wonderful thing, so much flavor packed into a bowl! And in the famous words of Mr. John Snow, "winter is coming..." so this is a great time to learn how to stay warm and well fed!

Consommé (a la bruniose)

This is such a wonderful soup. Used as a base in other soups, it is a flavor-packed broth. Consommé can be made from a number of stocks, we used chicken for today, including beef, fish and other game meats.

Starting our mise en place for the day (top) and then listening to Chef Marcus as to how to use the day. (Bottom) preparing the dish for service.

My team worked very hard today, we have really begun to master time to our advantage. Next time we definitely need to make sure we taste as we cook, something I always do at home and have somehow forgotten here in this kitchen. Our consommé was almost perfect, a great color (though Chef did suggest we use his burnt onion trick to add a golden color) and good taste, we could have used a tad more salt.

Vichyssoise

 A very popular cold soup, vichyssoise is a creamy potato and leek soup. We started off again with clarified butter, something I've never used before but seems like the best kind of butter, and browned the leaks before adding the potatoes. We didn't use enough potatoes I admit, our soup was very tasty but it was a bit watery. I was very focused on finishing all the soups on time that I didn't even think about the consistency, we even talked this morning about how M. Escoffier used rice to thicken his version of this soup.

This is the "winning" soup. Team Kelly (or B2) made a perfect soup.  Wonderfully thick consistency, perfect cream color, and it tasted fantastic!

Shrimp Bisque

This was the best sauce of the day. So much flavor!!! I will also be upfront and say my team's soup was the best! You better believe it! Chef did like Team Rigo's (top right photo) sauce the best, he added a bit of cayenne pepper to top it off, the most :'( but for a traditional shrimp bisque our's took the trophy!

I didn't personally have too much to do with this soup so I don't have much else to say about it. We split into teams to have better use of time and although we were all 7 minutes behind on plating we ended the day quite ahead of schedule. Anyways, this soup was amazing. So full of flavor! It was very smooth and creamy, great hints of the stock and of course shrimp flavors, definitely going to be a go to soup on a cold snowy day!

Overall we all had a great day, there was only one mishap when some shrimps were stolen...? But besides that we all are getting into the groove of working in an extremely busy kitchen. I don't even think that I have ever been to a restaurant that had around 30 chefs in the kitchens so I'm quite looking forward to a few months from now as far as the kinds of meals we can put out as a team. 

 Chef Marcus showing the proper way to flambé the soup.  It got a little out of hand when some of us tried it later... :P