Sorry For the Delay!

     Sorry for the delay in blogs and answering emails, Facebook messages and carrier pigeons. Work has been crazy! I just finished an 85-hour workweek and am pretty spent. I also decided that I didn’t feel like paying $.14/minute for Internet. So the posts from now on are going to be slightly spaced out.

 

     Some of you may be wondering what exactly I’ve been doing these past 16 days abroad on the Celebrity Solstice other than crying because I’m lost and leaving said vessel to go around foreign lands and become a more globally-aware young individual. Well, my dear friends, my nametag reads, “Ryan D. Senatore, USA, Culinary Extern.” Which translates to, “White. Make Him Do Whatever You Want, Speaks English.”

 

     For the first sixteen days, the entirety of the first cruise from Barcelona, Spain to Dubai, UAE, I was in the pantry. No, that does not mean that I was stuffed in some closet somewhere…. I don’t do closests. Get it? Pantry is ship terminology for Garde Manger, the place where all the cold foods are prepared such as salads and cold appetizers. The ship has a lot of strange terminology, like galley. A galley is a kitchen. So…. Could we please just call it a kitchen? Anyway, I digress. The pantry was a nice transition in to ship life; getting adjusted to the constant time zone changes, the rocking of the ship, the demanding work schedule. The work in pantry wasn’t too intense in terms of skill level or execution so much as it was intense in terms of sheer quantity of food production. We served over 2000 people daily and all of them order one of the three varieties daily offered for salad and one of the two for appetizer. However, on multiple occasions I was pulled out of the closet (ha ha) and pulled on to the hot line to help out and be what’s referred to as round cook.

 

     No. Round cook does not mean I have gotten fat. Round cook is what the ship calls a prep cook. The round cooks prepare all the garnishes for all of the entrees – there are 6 daily- as well as a lot of the sides, starches and special orders. They also have the responsibility of joining the line during service when needed.  This is a little bit more challenging, you see. I’m still preparing the food for over 2000 customers per day, but now I’m making very ornate garnishes for every plate of food, helping with the sauce, making rice, mashed potatoes and all the accoutrement that go along with the dishes as well as serving on the line. It’s a little bit intense!

 

 It’s starting to get hot in the kitchen.