October 6 , Prepping for Day 4 and 5 - Korea

Hi, everyone. Here's the heads up for typical questions and common problems for the first day of the Korean menu. Read all of the recipes, watch all of the videos, make a bunch of notes, distill them down into a few questions and post them here. PLEASE feel free to try to help each other answer questions and give advice. If it's inaccurate, I'll chime in between 8-9 and let you know.
Please try to consolidate your questions into 1 post. I understand that there will always be times when you need to add something on later, but receiving 4 or 5 separate posts from the same person takes a lot of my time and does not display organization on your parts. If you look back at the Spetember post for this section, you'll see some photos that might help you visualize things.

Sous chefs:

Spicy Beef Soup - broth is already made and beef is already cooked. Make sure we have enough for 2 days - we make the same soup both days this menu, talk to me if you don't have enough broth or meat on Day 4 so we can order more ofr Day 5.

Rice - Medium Grain rice. The tracking schedule says to make 12 cups, but you should make 16. Teams 4 + 6 will need rice, they will use some of the stuff that you soak.This needs to be soaked for one hour before cooking, other wise, treat it like the Chinese rice. The result will be a lot more sticky than the Chinese rice - so don't freak out when you see it. You still have to fluff it and rest it.

Salads/Kimchi - This will be a 6" round plate like we used for the Dim Sum, with small portions of each item on the plate - a "sampler".

Sous Chefs should make the daikon salad and delegate the spinach salad and soy bean sprout salad to teams 2+4, 1x the recipe for each salad. Team 5 should make the scallion salad - 3x the recipe for that with the expectation that 1/2 will go on the salad/kimchi plate and the other 1/2 will be served with their grilled beef.

The Kimchi is already made and in the cooler. Last class made it for you and you'll make it for the next class. There should be cucumber, radish, and cabbage kimchi in the cooler. The teams assigned to "set" the kimchi will take some out, allow me to show them how to cut/prep it for service/ All salads and Kimchis should be in individual 1/6th pans, together on one sheet tray, ready to plate by 10:30. They can be plated ahead and held at room temperature without suffering in quality.

Sous chefs will only need to draw a diagram for the salad/kimchi station and the steam table. The steam table set up will be minimal - only the Rice, the Stir Fried Noodles, and the Braised Short Ribs will go there. All other items will be plated from the stations producing them.

Station 2 - Half of the short ribs coming from the meat room are for you and the other half for team 5. Let T5 have the most meaty ones. the recipe on this dish works well, all you need from me is a demo on how to cut them - it varies from week to week, depending on the ribs, so ask first thing in the morning. "Set KimChi" just means that you take the kimchi out of the cooler, get a knife, board, gloves, and 1/6th pan and ask me what to do. Do this early.
Miso pickles - the recipe n in the Japanese section, if you don't have time on Day 4, it can be done on Day 5 - BUT IT MUST BE DONE.

Station 3 - Be prepared to make both the trout and the glass noodles. A solid time line, ingredient list, and equipment list will be an important part of your job., you have two different entrees to set up stations and coordinate service for. You take care of ALL MEP for the trout and Glass noodles. Be ready to plate fish from the fry area, cooking the fish ala minute during service. Make sure to watch the video on fish fabrication and to draw a complete and detailed physical diagram of how your fry station will be set up. Show where everything will be in place and label each item. The trout is served on an oval late. The noodles served from the steam table in a deep noodle bowl, have a separate diagram for how your noodle mise en place will look when you begin to stir fry. What ingredients will you need? tools? Remember that the noodles are Stir Fired - that means dividing MEP into 4 batches for firing for family meal and through-out service.

Station 4 - You will get 6 small Cornish hens. Make your liquid early, make sure it's very flavorful. choose the right sized pan to cook them in - a rondo just big enough to fit the hens. Hens must be poached between 165-180F - no boiling! Get rice to stuff you r hens from the sous chefs, they will rinse and soak it, you need to par-cook it. Make the your poaching liquid,par cook the rice, cool and mix with other ingredients, stuff and truss hens, start cooking them by 9:30. While hens are cooking, make poached garlic heads and other garnishes. It works best to poach the hens on top of the regular range and, when they hit 165F internal temp, hold them in a water bath in a wok of hot water. You can set up your plates, utensils, and garnishes nest to that wok and plate from there. "Set KimChi" just means that you take the kimchi out of the cooler, get a knife, board, gloves, and 1/6th pan and ask me what to do. Do this early. Pickled ginger recipe is in the Japanese section. Make it on either Day 4 OR Day 5 - but make sure it gets made.

Station 5- You will be sharing the grill with Station 6, space will be tight. You will be grilling thin pieces of marinated beef and plating them ala minute onto 12" round plates with rice, a small ramekin of Korean pepper sauce, scallion salad, and placing 3 pieces of beef onto leaves of cabbage lined with shiso leaves. Since you'll be plating from the grill station, set up a chaffing dish to hold your rice. You can share this chaffing dish with station 6 -1/2 hotel pan for your rice - 1/2 hotel pan for their "mixed grains". I don't have a good photo of your plate yet, draw a diagram of what your station will look like - where everything will be - and a picture of what you imagine the plate will look like so I can help y adjust in the morning. Be as detailed as possible with you drawing - label everything so I can see how you think. "Set KimChi" just means that you take the kimchi out of the cooler, get a knife, board, gloves, and 1/6th pan and ask me what to do. Do this early.

Station 6 - You will be plating from your station. the recipes are all pretty detailed and the videos are accurate, except, when making the pancakes, you will use a flat griddle set over the left side of the grill instead of the cast iron pan shown in the video. Since you'll be plating from your station, set up a chaffing dish to hold your "mixed grains". The rice you need for this will come from the sous chefs, they are soaking enough for everyone. . You can share this chaffing dish with station 5 -1/2 hotel pan for your grains - 1/2 hotel pan for their rice.