Our New Chef

As another week passed by, I look back and think of how interesting it has been. The first day we had a new chef. He is from Korea, but has lived most of his life in Holland. This whole week has been rough on us all as we are adjusting to some new ways of doing things in the kitchen. Fortunately for us, he is actually a really nice guy. His first couple of days I had explained to him how we ran he kitchen before, and seemed to respect me and my way of doing things. This was a pleasant surprise. The first night was a piece of cake for us. Very few reservations, and one of the servers had his birthday that night so he played with the times and blocked off 8, 8:30, and 9 reservations so we would be done early. No complaints here. We then gathered in the dining room for some drinks and chill out. It was pretty nice. Over the next couple of days I realized that this new chef likes to hang out and have fun. We have been going out at ports and checking out the town and grabbing beers after work. It's been a nice transition so far. I look forward to cooking with him and learning from him as well. He will be the chef for the remainder of my contract which is nice. So now I know that the kitchen will not change anymore while I am here. This is good.

Politeness seems to be something of a lost or non existent part of daily life here. Most people do not say, "good morning" or "how are you?" just, "I need this now!" Well isn't that just lovely. I try my hardest not to sink into this. I always will say those things even if I am greeted first thing with a request and no pleasantries. I wonder if it is just part of their culture or just the culture on the ships.

Another topic, which seems much more prevalent here, is adultery. I have talked with many people here and they all seem to have wives and families at home, but have girlfriends on board. I understand that people do cheat, but I have never been so heavily exposed to the abundance of people that do this. I guess that if they are alright with it and that is what they do, then whatever.

I have learned a few things while here on the ship. One is now I can eat dinner. I mean I can sit down and shovel a plate of food in my mouth in a matter of minutes because I don't have too much time. I have allotted myself about 10 minutes to run downstairs, eat, and run back. So far so good. What makes it easier is the fork and spoon technique I have learned. All of the guys here eat with a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other. The spoon scoops food onto the fork and holds food if you want to eat two handed. Most meal times are rushed as there is not an abundance of free time to eat.

Well we suffered in our ratings for the last two weeks in the main galley and the Pinnacle. It sucks, but we will continue to push and try harder. The executive chef called the whole crew into the main dining room for a speech about how we need to try harder. He is actually pretty good at rallying the troops and building a strong team. I have a feeling we will do better next cruise.

Well I don't have any new pictures right now, but I did take some of the awesome lumberjack show we went to in Ketchikan. It was very entertaining and amusing. 7 weeks down and 18 to go.

A couple of pictures

Well I ran back to the ship and uploaded a couple of pictures for everyone to see.

Jomon's last night

From left to right: Me, Willy (pastry), Joel (Asst. Cook), Romel (dishwasher), Jomon (chef)

I took this picture the night before we got to Glacier Bay. It was around 11 pm and it just looked amazing outside.

Final Days of Chef Jomon

Well first I will apologize as I have forgotten my camera in my cabin and thus cannot upload any pictures this weeks. I will try to take of this massive lapse in memory by uploading on Friday when I am in Juneau.

This past week was the last week for our Pinnacle Grill Chef, Jomon. He started the week with a huge scare. So here I was on break in my cabin, relaxing, watching tv, when all of a sudden the phone rings. It was the sous chef he said, "Josh you had better get up to your kitchen and get ready for service, your chef did not get back on board and we are leaving Vancouver." I was like holy crap. I couldn't believe it, but I ran upstairs running the whole menu through my mind. I arrived in the kitchen only to find a frantic Jomon gathering his mis en place (prepared items). He had been late arriving on the ship and did not scan his card as the security stand was taken down. No one in the kitchen knew he was on board and thus all of the confusion. The rest of the week seemed like he was in a daze as thoughts of his return home to India floated through his mind. He was a good chef and taught me a lot in the last 6 weeks. I saw him off the ship this morning, and said goodbye.

A new era is upon this kitchen as the new chef arrived. His name is Kim. So far so good, but our first service is tonight. I showed him around the kitchen and informed him of all of the ins and outs of this ship. He seemed very enthusiastic and excited to be here, and he expressed the desire to have this contract be much better than his last.

I decided to share what a day on board is like for me. I know that I have said my schedule before, but this way maybe an understanding can be reached. Of course every day is a little different depending on how busy we are and whether we are at port or not, but things are still fairly similar. I start the day around 6:00 am and as I wake from the faint sound of my alarm through my ear plugs, which I must wear because of my cabin mate and his terrible snoring, I think of the new day. I climb down the ladder from the top bunk and that first step on to the cold floor sends a shooting message from my feet to my head. They tense up and say, "Oh No not again, just a little more rest please!" I go to the gym and am ready for breakfast by 7:45 am. At 8 I pick up my produce from the provisions area on A deck. The decks starting from bottom to top are B,A, and 1 to 10. I haul everything to my kitchen on deck 4 and begin my day. If there is no lunch I am out by 10 or 11 and have until 4:30 to hang out. If there is lunch then I must stay until 1pm and then I go for my break. I return for dinner service at 4:30 and as we push through the massive amount of tickets that sometime just pile up, we send the last order out around 9pm. Then we clean and are out by 10:30pm. The last day of the cruise is what we call general cleaning. This means everything comes out of the fridges and we scrub and sanitize and detail the whole kitchen. This day puts us out of the kitchen at 11:30 or later. And then the first three days of the cruise we are in code red. This means that all food in buffet areas has to be served to guests by someone, there is no self service. This is because many people come on board, potentially sick and it could spread. Then the third night which is right now Juneau night we super sanitize. We use to concentrations of sanitzer after we scrub everything down. The first kills the bacteria and the next sanitizes the area. We do a lot of cleaning and the standards are much higher on board than on land. Many of the company policies exceed those of the US Public Health. Then I either go the PO Bar for a beer if I'm not too tired and then off to bed for another day. It's hard to believe that 6 weeks have gone by. Well there are only 19 more to go.

So how about a little kitchen lingo. Some I have heard before and some I have not. A lot of things like order, fire, and all day are used. One that I find amusing is when someone says, "We have a lot like rice." Meaning obviously plenty. Jomon said something but I cannot spell but can try to write the way it sounds, "Ta' al a habibi." He said it means hurry up. There are plenty of other things, but this is just a couple.

Oh the ribeye connection. A prevalent system that thrives in the underbelly of the world that is what everyone refers to as, "life on board." I find it nice to have a good relationship with those that help me out to make my life easier. As most cultures are different than what I am used to I have to adapt. Politeness and kindness go a long way with me, but not with those that live here. That is where the ribeye comes in. An example, The provision guys downstairs will gather all of my produce for me and put it all in one nice container so I don't have to search and waste an hour looking for everything. This all for the low cost of one ribeye every week or so. Thats not bad considering this payment is split between 4 people. Other specialty things are worked out on a case by case basis. Last night the manager asked me to cook some food for him and the wine steward, and I wasn't in the mood to stay longer just make him a steak. But he said the wine steward could get me anything I wanted to drink. Bingo! So I have been craving a good beer, since only lagers are available to crew and I honestly find them to be a little boring and just don't hit the spot after a long day. I have noticed Alaskan Amber on board so I asked for that for myself and a few more for the other guys in the kitchen. It was worth it.

One thing I touched on earlier was a difference in cultures and understanding. This is something I still struggle with, but am getting better in being clearer on how I express myself. The other day for lunch one of the servers, started giving us a hard time because of the lack of a particular garnish on the plate. Not that there wasn't a garnish, just not the one that he wanted. He started to give me attitude about it and I snapped at him. We settled our differences later as I expressed how things he was saying earlier to my assistant cook and myself made me feel and why I reacted the way I did because he then yelled at me, and honestly I am not a fan of yelling, especially in the kitchen. And actually he apologized to me as well, which says a lot. We are good now, and I know that I need at least one server on my side and he is it, as the other servers don't really care about the kitchen. Although every now and then I make some damn good Philly Cheesesteaks for us in the kitchen and always make an extra for him. It works.

As I was walking to the cafe I saw something that looked familiar. It was a hot dog stand, but not just any hot dog stand. This was called Japadog. They do Japanese style hot dogs. What's even funnier is that I had researched them in culinary school when I had to do a report on street food in Canada. How crazy is that. Well I certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity to try something so great. I had the Kurobuta Terimayo dog. It was a Kurobuta pork hot dog with teriyaki sauce, mayo, sauteed onions, and seaweed. This thing was pretty darn tasty.

Well it just happens to be the first sunny day I have seen here in Vancouver and I am going to go take a walk around town. Oh and please feel free to email me or post comments or questions, anything really. I'd like to here what you think.

Another Day Another Dollar

So this is the saying our chef says at the end of every night as we are cleaning up. It's actually something I look forward to hearing as it means one day closer to the end. Not that I don't like working on the ship, but it is definitely nice to think about going back home.

Well again a week has passed and I am back in Vancouver. An eventful week with a lot of different things happening. First of all our new manager for the restaurant is very interesting. He has a different way of running the reservations than the previous manager. I don't know, which I like better, they are just different. Anyways he was given 2 extra servers and so he thinks extra servers, means more guests, means more revenue. Um, no. We didn't get any more kitchen staff so why does he think we can jump up 25% more guests with no more help. Well we did it. Despite this we received our highest rating for this last cruise. I was also complimented on my low failure rate for properly cooked meats. It was just a lucky week. Only 2 send backs on 400 steaks.

One night this past week I was having a beer with my chef in the PO bar, when the executive chef gives us a hard time for night drinking with him in the Officer's Bar. We joined him and I got some real insight into what it is like working on the ships. And I got on the good side of some of the higher ranks on board, this will help I'm sure. There is always something that doesn't go our way, and usually it is a multitude of things. I guess that is how it is wherever you go. It's how you deal with these challenges that determines how good of a worker you are.

June 12 was the Philippine Independence Day party. Of course it is a huge deal because of the vast amount of Filipino crew members. The party took place in this big open space at the front of the ship that had huge bolts coming out of the ground, but the strobe lights and loud music made it a good time. Not to mention free drinks! I had a good time, and pictures will be posted when I get them as my camera battery was dead. I asked a silly question to one of the managers, "is there an American Independence Day party on board? " I was laughed at. Me being one of maybe 10 American crew members on board I guess doesn't warrant any kind of party. Oh well.

Obviously on this ship there are certain cultural differences that I have to get accustomed to especially with those I work with directly. One case arose this week with one of the servers, Well I guess my sense of humor to him is, well foreign. He doesn't get it and he got pissed off at me because he was talking with the other servers quite loudly during service, in another language of course, and I didn't understand. So with a big smile on my face I said, "So what happened, did you screw up another table?" Oh man that set him off. And after service I went to apologize for the misunderstanding and he told me that it was harassment and if he wanted he could go directly to the Captain to report it. I talked with him a little and we smoothed things over. Now we are cool and there are no problems.

Well 5 weeks down and 20 to go. And in all of my time here on board one thing stands out. What the hell is a + or - on a meat order. A medium + or medium well -. I mean come on, I might as well grab a thermometer and ask what temperature you want it cooked to, 137 or 143. I get a kick out of every time I see this on an order.

Here are some pics from last week:

Working hard on the grill

The not so "Sweet Lunch"- there are 4 more tables, but this had the ice carving

The Pinnacle Pastry Chef, Willy, what a character

Well I am still asked at least once a day, "Are you going to sign up for another contract?" I just started this one and it's six months long. How can I think about another one so soon. I have no idea, but I do not deny the possibility of wanting to continue just as I do not deny the possibility of anything. Never say never. I am enjoying for the most part this experience that I am having. There are certainly a lot of life lessons to be learned here and plenty of things I will never forget.

Time is moving faster

Wow, I can't believe it's been another week. It seemed like it was just yesterday I was sitting in this coffee shop posting my last entry. Well another week and a ton of stories. To start we have two new sous chefs on the ship. It is always a challenge to change to new management as everyone has their own ideas.

Oh plastic wrap. This is usually something that is available in all kitchens. Well when there is one roll for an entire kitchen of 60 people in 5 different rooms, it's not enough. Plastic wrap is like gold on board, and if you have a roll you guard it with your life.

I attended another lobster party, only this time it was more like the after party. I arrived too late and they already finished the lobster, but kindly invited me to continue the night with them in the crew mess. There is where I learned a lot more about these guys. So I was talking with one of the Garde Manger guys, Bruno, and he wanted to know my story. I told him and he was very interested and was talking about how he has worked his way up in the company from dishwasher and all of the Filipino guys that work for this company are in it for the long haul. He assured me that my next contract, should I choose to do another one, would be as a sous chef or higher. He insisted that I remember his name and I could help him out in the future. All of the guys keep reminding me of their names and that they are helping me now so I can potentially help them in the future. Some of them have invited me to their homes in the Philippines. Some of these guys are quite nice, but most do what they have to do in order to survive.

The other thing I learned about these guys is their strong connection with the movie 300. All night in the kitchen you here someone say, "SPARTANS!" and the rest of the guys do the chant from the movie. The reason is we are so few cooks against so many guests. It's amusing and fun to join in with them in the chants. In some cases we are a team, in others not so much. This is one of those uniting factors for all of the kitchens.

A word to my fellow CIA students and graduates, with my ServSafe certification expired I am required to take the test again as it is company policy. Unfortunately for me I have to sit through a class. I am sure it will be better than my first teacher, but a week long class of things I already know, to take a test I have already passed. What a bummer, but at least I get paid during the classes. You always have to look at the upside of the things.

I wanted to share a bit of culinary magic with some people. Yesterday I had reheated mashed potatoes and added a little too much cream, and when I say a little, I mean it turned into potato soup. I had no more potatoes, but needed mashed potatoes for service in 30 minutes. What do you do? Well, and keep this a secret, I used a cornstarch slurry to thicken them. Just added and brought to a boil and Presto! Tasty mashed potatoes that were actually not that bad and nobody could tell. I asked several people to try them. Oh the fun in the kitchen.

On the last day of every cruise we have a special buffet called Suite Lunch. Now on my first week everyone was talking about it and I though Sweet Lunch. People were all worried and I was like why, it's the pastry departments deal right? I was sorely mistaken. On this day the Pinnacle is responsible for setting up a huge hors d'oeuvre buffet for 150 people who stay in the suites, and a 50 person regular lunch in our dining room all while the chef of the Pinnacle is busy carving fruit and setting up the buffet. I like lunch usually because the kitchen is mine and I run the hot side all by myself and my assistant cook Joel, the new guy, runs the cold side. Anyways the Suite lunch is definitely not sweet.

I will try to post some sort of a calendar or schedule, and although unlikely if you are in one of the cities I'm in on the same day let me know.

Me in the Pinnacle Grill kitchen

The dining room

More of the kitchen

So I have now figured out how to put pictures here. I have to go to a place off the ship that has free wi fi. Like the Blenz Coffee I am sitting in right now in Vancouver. It is like 10 times faster than the internet on the ship. So here are a few I have taken so far. Again there are more on facebook because for some reason the pictures take quite some time to upload even now. And I am somewhat impatient.

My cabin mate Judy, unpacking and showing off our sweet bunk beds.

Skagway, Alaska

My ship docked in Skagway

Glacier Bay

Well I have seen how unorganized a large corporate environment can be since working here. For the last two weeks there were rumors going around that they were going to take the other cook in the restaurant, Lemont, away and move him somewhere else. After trying to confirm this with the executive chef of the ship he just said, "You never know what is going to happen." Then the last night we were told that he would be changing positions today. So in one night everything got messed up. There was no time to train the new guy, and the chef of my restaurant is busy helping the guest chef on board and I have no idea what goes on at that station. So I have a feeling that dinner tonight will be very interesting.

I have also been informed by many of the crew that they are all extra nice to me, not because of my seniority in the kitchen. It is because they think that after this contract I will become the 2nd cook, which is just under the executive chef of the ship and skip the sous chef position, and eventually become chief cook, or the executive chef. So they expect that if they are nice now and give me anything I want I will remember in the future and return the favor. I laughed when they told me this.

On to the topic of piracy! This kitchen is all about it, at least in my restaurant. Most of the items on our food orders never get approved because of budget restrictions. So we are forced to go around to all of the other kitchens and snag whatever we need. If I need fruit I go to garde manger and swipe what I need and hide it in a covered pan as I walk away. If I need vegetables I go to the vegetable guy and try to bargain for a bell pepper or two. If I need mashed potatoes I go to the potato man, and yes there is a guy who only deals with potatoes, and I usually trade him a red bull for some mashed potatoes. This is worth it because it saves me time. And then I go to the soup man and take from him what I need, well you get the picture. I am constantly walking around all of the kitchens looking for tools and pans and hijacking them and hiding them in our kitchen. We lock up our equipment at the end of the night. Plastic wrap is worth more than gold as there is currently two rolls for the deck 4 kitchens. One for my restaurant and one for the main galley, garde manger, bakers, buffet, and salad kitchens. Ours is always hidden or locked up. Also 1/3 hotel pans, 1/9 hotel pans, whisks and silicone molds are a precious commodity, that are locked up and hidden. Even the key to get into our padlocked cabinet is hidden. You can't trust anyone, and some stuff even makes its way back to my cabin every night, as I don't want to risk losing any of it. Once it goes missing, consider it gone forever. The art of stealing, bargaining, and trading are very important here.

Other than that nothing else new for me. I will try to take some pictures of the kitchens and post them soon.

The First Lobster Party

So every week on the cruise there is a lobster night in the main galley. The night before they post signs in the galley for a lobster party in the fish prep room. For the past two weeks I was so tired I just decided to forget it because I didn't know how long it would take to prep enough lobster tails for 2000 some odd passengers. Well I finally decided to go a couple of nights ago. Holy crap! So I walk in and see about 10 guys from the kitchen all crowded around the table cutting and prepping the lobster. And in the corner is one guy controlling the sound system for the loud blasting music that barely overcomes the shouting from the guys. Now this same person with the stereo also has shot glasses cans of coke and couple of bottles of whiskey. He is in charge of pouring shots and passing them around the table. After two times of drinking with Filipinos I have learned, I can't drink the way they drink. In 30 minutes of lobster prepping fun I had already had enough to drink, but then we went down to the crew mess only to continue the "lobster party." As I tried to peel my self away from the group the executive chef joins us and so does the sous chef. Now I am stuck, and passing on shots is unlikely. Eventually I got up saying I had to go the bathroom. The sous chef walked me to the bathroom and stood outside the door until I came out and pulled me back into the mess. I waited until he left and snuck out only pass out on my bed. What a night! These guys really know how to party, oh and did I mention the classic karaoke that was being sung by a bunch of drunk people who couldn't stand. So 3 weeks down, 22 to go.