That should be my new title.
I have been going for the past 6 weeks for my plantar fascitis. It is improving. Along the way to getting better I am having shadow pains in my left knee and the outside of my left foot. Physical therapist thinks it will go away as I get stronger. Today I went to the Osteopath for the elbow, which I already knew is suffering from tennis elbow. I had my diagnosis confirmed and was given a prescription for yet another 6-8 weeks of physical therapy. I am not entirely sure that I have not been taken by my PT. He is the one who told me I should get treatment for the burning pain in my elbow (after I asked him his professional opinion, of course) and referred me to the Dr. Who then referred me back to my PT. Sigh.
The elbow does hurt, sometimes in the middle of the night it wakes me up with it's burning insistence.
I do intend to engage in stirring/folding/whipping/lifting/pounding and general kneading behavior in the line of duty in the forseeable future. Therefore I should attend to this pain now as opposed to waiting till it is out of control. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the therapy I am doing. Hope I come out the other end all better.
I have given notice at the job. She took it well, was very nice about it and didn't explode as I was expecting. Made it easier for me. I gave her 2 weeks but today she asked for more if she hasn't gotten the position all sewn up. I acquiesed. I really don't want to be there any longer than I absolutely have to, but I do not yet have something concrete lined up, so I guess I should keep making money. I did have a very good second interview with Marc Aumont and his sous chef last week. He says he wants to hire me, but not for the opening. this I can understand. For a high pressure, closely watched opening (cover story about the endeavor in the food section of the NYTimes today) he will need seasoned pros that he can rely on to do the job without needing any monitoring. I am not that person. He was unable to tell me when he thought he might be able to hire me. It could be November, it could be December, it could even, unfortunately, be January. I asked that he let me know as soon as he has a sense of that hiring time, so that I can wait as long as I can, but can move on if it's taking too long. The opening date is currently 11/20. I figure I can wait through November. But I don't think I can wait through December. I could try and get temporary work, but I'm not sure how I would phrase that with a potential employer. This is the holiday season which is traditionally busy for food service so many bakeries need extra help. If I knew he wasn't going to call till January I would visit a couple of bakeries like 2 Little Red Hens, Sweet Melissa or Once Upon A Tart and see if they need extra Holiday hands. But he hasn't been so definate, and I can't imagine it happening soon, certainly not till after the 20th of November. So I am trying to sit on my hands and be patient (not one of my strong suits) so that I end up in a good job where I learn something, as opposed to landing in another situation like the current one.
There is still the possibility of something happening with Sullivan Street Bakery. I have not heard back from them, left a message on a machine again yesterday. Don't want to be a pest, but don't want to be forgotten. Will wait another couple of days and call again.
I could certainly make good use of a couple weeks off to bake some Holiday goodies for my friends and family. Just am bothered that the delay in finding a good job adds to the delay in our leaving NYC. Need to give any job six months, if it doesn't start till January that means we can't think about leaving till June.
UGH.
Sigh.
Am feeling itchy to get into a kitchen and get baking. Want to see how much of my schooling I retained. How much of that schooling is relevant. Want to find out if I have a true affinity for this or just a intellectual attraction. Want to get going. Feel like I got all trained up, all schooled up and now am spinning my wheels churning out the same muffins and scones day after day. Made some delicious ginger cookies (at home)last week. Still working on my loaf breads, think I am missing some crucial step as they are still dense. Wonder if I should be trying different recipes.....
Let me Bake!!
A bientot,
Samantha
I have been silent because I have been mulling over decisions. I am not happy in my current job, that is no big revelation. But what to do about that unhappiness? As many know Don and I have had a plan to move out of NYC in the very near future. So how do I go get a new job if I may only be working it for a couple of months. Not very ethical, nor respectful to a prospective employer. But I was getting very antsy about the idea that my NYC experience would be at this small bakery in Brooklyn, where I really don't feel like I am learning much. Not that I had a job lined up to replace the current one with. I did however start looking. The job posting list from school proved fruitless. The New York Times however offered up two possibilities. The Danny Meyer group has been hired to handle the food at the newly renovated Museum of Modern Art. Last week they had an ad in the paper looking for all staff, including pastry cooks. I did some research and somehow could not come up with the name of the pastry chef, even though I knew they had hired one. So I went blind to an interview figuring that working for a Danny Meyer restaurant would be a good thing for me, whoever the PC was. The other listing was for a new Mario Batali place. I asked around and decided not to go that route. I have great respect for Mario Batali and would not want to burn any bridges there. This is not to say that I am planning on leaving any new job after three months. More on this later.
I went to the interview call for the Modern, filled out a long form and presented a resume. Then I waited for a spell. Just when I was starting to think I might have to come back the next day I got called in for an interview. I met with a nice Frenchman who did not introduce himself. I was being as charming and honest as I could be. Told the guy that I do not have much experience, I am a career changer but I do work very hard and am a fast learner. I'm not sure exactly what I said but the guy liked me, and guess what, he's the PC. His name is Marc Aumont and he worked for David Bouley and at Compass before being offered the position by Danny Meyer. He has only been in the country for four years, before that had his own patisserie for his whole life in France. He took the business over after his Dad died when he was 13. We got along well, he seemed receptive to my enthusiasm. It wasn't till half way through the interview that I got it out of him that he was the PC. I honestly don't think he was trying to be cagey, although I don't think he wanted interviewees to fawn over him from the start, so it was a calculated move to obscure his identity.
I have a second interview on Thursday. He has 8 people he is bringing with him, but this operation is so big that he is looking to hire 8-10 more people. I guess my profile would fit in there somewhere. This is not to say that I have a job, but I did get called back for a second interview. I got completely caught up in the idea of being able to get a better job than where I am, that I made one more concerted push to speak with Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery. Finally I got through, last Thursday I actually spoke with him on the phone. He is hiring. He had my resume. He thanked me for being so persistent. He told me that his 2nd in command will call this week.
So what do I do now? I have two possible jobs in the works. Well, Don and I talked it over and I will work either of these jobs as long as I need to to get some experience and to be accountable. The point in working in NYC was to get some useful experience that I could take with me to the country. What I have gotten so far, what I would get if I stayed where I am, is not cutting it. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to see what I do not want to do, but I have not learned very much. I have not challenged myself, or been challenged by another. I am frustrated working with broken equipment, doing the exact same thing day after day with absolutely no hope of change anywhere in sight. I do recognize that bakery work, hell all food service, is repetitive in nature. However the place where I have landed is stuck in it's repetition and doesn't even realize it, doesn't see that there is room for variation that might actually improve the product. I am afraid I do not have enough respect for my boss to keep working for her, and I don't like her enough to stick around anyway. And at this stage in my career I cannot afford to be generous with my time. I have learned that I may need to work that high stress job for a spell till we leave town. I am hoping that something comes out of the Sullivan Street situation. Do think that I would like to get into the bread baking world. If it doesn't happen, however, I will be thrilled to work at the Modern. Danny Meyer enterprises are always professionally run and they treat their people very well. There will be two actual restaurants in the Modern in addition to a 'cafeteria' and a bakery with chocolates. There will be much pastry work to do. I may even be able to do bakery type work in the Modern.
So tomorrow when I go to work I will be giving three weeks notice. I do not want to leave her high and dry, especially with the Holidays approaching. But even if I do not have a new job by the end of those three weeks, I cannot work there anymore. When I came into work on Saturday AM there had been some sort of leak in the building and it had gotten into the walk in. I had to throw away a whole tray of muffins I needed for that day before I could even bake them, as well as three days worth of spinach pies. Now this was not my bosses fault, but the building she has her business in is indicative of her work environment. The oven doors do not stay closed, we have to prop a bar stool in front of them to keep them closed. The mixers are all broken and only partly work. The scale is going to die any minute now, and I am always cleaning up after her and my fellow employee. I do not want to speak badly of her in a public place where she cannot defend herself. It is not a place I want to work.
I have been fighting off a cold for the past few days. Spent yesterday and today on the couch with my dear husband who is unfortunately lost the fight and painfully sick with a bug. Actually slept 11 1/2 hours last night, a good 10 the night before and 9 the night before that. It is doing me good, but I am amazed at how much sleeping I am doing.
A bientot,
Samantha
I actually get paid to peel and slice apples....
Not having found the exact right job notwithstanding, I am very happy with my career change. Now that the physical therapy seems to be having an affect and my foot doesn't hurt as much, the long hours are just that, long hours. I have never had a problem with working hard. Think in some situations I make work harder for myself. For example, I am a stickler for cleaning. Don't just use the sprayer to rinse bowls clean, but actually apply elbow grease with scrubbie and soap and then rinse down thoroughly. This takes longer than the bare minimum, so my day takes a little longer. But when I leave for the day my station and all my utensils are clean.
But this morning I was standing at the steel table with a large bowl of apples, a cutting board and my knife, happily peeling and slicing, and thinking to myself: this is my job, this is how I make my living (barely, at the moment), and I like it. Still had plenty of energy to come home and make cookies today. They didn't turn out so great, a brownie type cookie from a Maida Heatter book. Don't know what it is about her recipes but I haven't had much luck with them. Find them bland and unremarkable. Going to make Mexican wedding cookies on Sunday for a book signing at Red Lipstick, the local shop of the very talented Staceyjoy. She is going to make Mexican hot chocolate and I thought what would go better than Mexican wedding cookies. Had some from Bread Alone at the wine festival upstate a couple of weeks ago. They are yummy, nutty, buttery cookies. Just my cup of tea (or chocolate, as the case may be). The book signing is for a knitting book, so I get to combine two of my loves, cooking and knitting, into one event. Like that concept, baking for knitters.
Working on my bread too. Had a little more luck with the raisin bread. Each time I do the recipe I learn something more. Trying not to add too much flour to my breads, think that is why I have had some leaden loaves. So this time I was very light on the flour, it was a sticky dough. It was coming out well, but I had a problem when I had to go to physical therapy in the middle of the first rise. It was rising slowly so I left it. It rose a little longer than it really needed to and so on the second rise, when I also had to leave and it got held in the fridge, it rose too much again. Unfortunately when it went into the oven it had no oven spring. All that said, it still come out pretty good, because I had not added too much flour, so it was light and could withstand the over rising. I am going to keep doing this recipe until it is perfect. Have been adding fennel seeds with my raisins and it makes for a tasty variation on raisin bread.
Called Sullivan Street on Monday and got voice mail for Jim Lahey. Will try again tomorrow. Don't want to hound him, but would LOVE to work there so I need to find out if there is any possibility. There was nothing of any interest in the school posting list, so I am waiting another week for that update. In the meantime wondering where else I might want to work and whether I should be dropping resumes. The current job is not horrible, just not as challenging/fulfilling as I would like it. So it is OK to stay with it until something better appears. It is helping my confidence level. Find that I look at recipes differently. Don't worry so much about the stated directions, look at the ingredients and think about their individual actions and then put them together in the way that seems most appropriate. Some recipes seem to be written to make the reader/cook as intimidated and confused as possible. There are really only so many ways to put a cookie together. Either you cream the butter and sugar or you melt the butter and add the sugar with the flour. Sometimes I think cookbook authors want recipes to seem more complicated than they should be in order to justify your buying their book. Made an apple cake from the King Arthur flour book last week that had some strange idea about combining all the ingredients at once. I decided to cream the butter and sugars and then add the rest of the ingredients and it came out wonderfully. If I had done it their way it would have been needlessly difficult. It was a truly delicious cake that I will be sure to make again, and it held well. Next time I think I will try it with the caramel frosting the book reccomends. Apples, walnuts, brown sugar and spices, a lovely combo. Yum.
Trying to be organized for thie holiday season and think about what cookies I will make. Want to try and get some doughs made and into the freezer so I can do some slice and bake come December. I get all stressed out at holiday time so the more advance planning I can do the better... I know, I'm a loony toon for even talking about it, holidays. But watch out they're coming! They always sneak up on you when you're not looking and whack you over the head. Better to prepare yourself now when it's still light at 5:00 PM.
A bientot,
Samantha