Saturday, October 17

Auberge du Soleil stagiare


So this is a fun story. I just finished a stagiare at a resort in Rutherford, which is about 10 minutes south of St Helena. A stagiare is where you work somewhere for free just to get the experience. It's what you do in the culinary world to get real world experience in a kitchen. Auberge du Soleil is a very nice resort with a very expensive menu. I got to work in the pastry kitchen today. My current chef instructor used to be the Executive Pastry Chef at this restaurant a few years ago, and is friends with the current pastry chef. He helped in setting it up for me. Chef Lemieux is a very nice man and very helpful. It was a great first experience in a really nice restaurant kitchen with a high class and expensive menu. That is somewhat unusual though, because most kitchen's like that have very intense chefs and very high expectation. That means lots of yelling...

Today I got to prep and bake off puff pastry bouchons (?), pumpkin pie in small square molds, English toffee, Foster sauce, and cheesecake. The pumpkin pies were served today. And their plating is just absolutely beautiful. I'm glad he trusted me with things that were going to be served to people who paid a lot of money to be there... :)

I'm glad I did this. I was nervous a little bit because you never know what it's going to be like going into a new kitchen. Especially when it's so small, which is the norm in the restaurant industry. At Auberge it isn't really the norm because they have a separate area that is just for pastry and it's temperature controlled! It was a nice working environment. It's a busy busy kitchen with a lot of people around. But they put out a really beautiful product. I had a great time today

Auberge du Solieil

3 comments:

Makenzie & Jordan said...

Sounds like tons of fun! I had no idea that you were going to culinary school. That is so cool. Hope you don't mind me peeking in on you from time to time.

Makenzie & Jordan said...

If you want an invite to my blog email me and I will add you :) makenzie_lee19@hotmail.com

Merrells said...

How fun! I love, love, LOVE pastries. If you ever need to try something (treats) on someone when you get back, let me know!