Crazy!

Well, if your following this blog you'll be expecting big exciting posts about now? Sorry, bit of an anti-climax I am afraid. I have been 'relegated to devision C' - pastry prep - the easiest work in the kitchen. I will admit that I am suffering a little princess-itis after being chauffered around and treated like a visiting dignitary for two months. I certainly wasn't expecting preferential treatment but I was more than a little hopeful. There is a very large brigade in Arzak and if you walk in the door you start at the bottom. Period. I can hear my over inflated ego hissing out my over inflated head. Pie anyone?
The food at Arzak is best described as unreal. It is the most artistic and conceptual food I have ever seen, and you can find a few unusual ingredients in your meal. For instance, you know the edible plastic that coats medicinal pills? That transparent stuff? Yeah, they have sheets of it that they use for one dish - brush it with pepper paste or something or rather. And this other stuff, a clear sticky ooze, is used to coat a chocolate before it is submerged in boiling water - it congeals and forms a protective barrier while the chocolate melts inside. Ahyhoo a chef told me when he wikipedia'd said product it informed him that it was also used on porno sets as fake jiz. Ha!
So yeah, struggled a bit these couple of days. Not because of language barriers, not because of high pressure. The exact opposite in fact. Got to remember it is winter here and the covers reflect that, so the kitchen is fairly relaxed. All work gets done at a pleasant pace. No one gets in the shit, its all cool. Problem is I am ITCHING to be in the shit. I need my adrenaline fix! Nope, just stand there and watch how we do things. Ok.
Today I got a little bit excited - I was standing there doing nothing, vague-ing out, and suddenly I realised there was a chef de partie in my face, and I thought "goody, I am getting yelled at" but no, she just wanted some orange juice. Damn.
There is hope, In summer the place gets jammed, and it is a tight kitchen, so hopefully by then I will be garnishing plates with flowers or some other high pressure task. I made friends with a guy called Paulo, he has been there for four months and today he got bumped up a section so just got to be patient with this one!