This is a brief account of my first day as Garde Manger at Chez Panisse.  The shift is supposed to be 6 AM to 2 PM.  I worked 5:40 AM to 2:15 PM.  It was a Wednesday, meaning it’s supposed to be a little more easy than the other days but there is a lot of prepared food to inventory regardless.

• Arrive at 5:45 am
• Get an inventory sheet and mark stuff for downstairs
• Inventoried downstairs walk-ins, meat and vegetables
• Inventoried outside walk-in
• Inventoried prep food walk-in, which was packed with unlabeled stuff I had trouble identifying.  It took me half an hour at least to get through it.
• Took out duck fat
• Met with Chef and went over to do items
• Explain list to interns
• Change into whites
• organize all the walk-ins
• Squeeze tomates and set softies to roast
• Set up for 9 o’clock meeting, put out some shell beans
• More inventory for ordering – dairy
• Go to storage next door to look for medium hotel pans
• Go to a different storage next door and finish ordering inventory and getting restock stuff
• Restock oils and dry goods like flour and sugar
• Go back and get more stuff from storage that I forgot
• Place orders
• Meeting @ 9 am
• Go over staff lunch with Chef: 20 meatballs, cucumbers, what I thought was yogurt but was actually onion rings in buttermilk, couscous, butternut squash ravioli, lentils, potatoes, cauliflower, aioli
• Put away orders
• Put fish away, which means set up an ice tray for each kind of fish, separate for upstairs and downstairs and then label and cover each type
• Bring stuff to the office for them to do: shell beans
• Put stuff away for downstairs to use according to their list
• Make staff lunch starting @ 11 to serve @ noon
• clean up station
• eat
• clean all the walk-ins and reorganize
• clean up lunch
• Inventory and restock from storage
• Meet with downstairs chef about their list
• Top fennel and beets
• clean up
• clock out at 2:15

And I’m spent.