Korean Menu Days 4+5 Feb. 14 + 15

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 help each other answer questions and give advice. If it's inaccurate, I'll chime in between 8-9 and let you know.Although Day 4 will be a "none service day", you should prepare to meet our time deadlines and have your mise en place finished and stations ready by 10:30 so we can make last minute adjustments and go to family meal at 10:45. The current tracking schedule is correct for both Days 4 + 5, so please scale your recipes accordingly. 

 Below are some photos that might help you visualize things.

Sous chefs:

Set up on Station 5 for a "Kim Chi and Panchan Sampler Plate" Similar to the dim sum plate today, but all room-temp items, so they can actually be plated ahead and held on sheet trays if you have the time. The set up should look like this:

From Korean Menu Day 4

and the finished plate should look like this:

From Korean Menu Day 4

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. Steam table looks like this:

From Korean Menu Day 4

Spicy Beef Soup - broth is already made and you can add white beef stock to it if you need to, 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 for Day 5.

Rice - Medium Grain rice. 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 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.

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.Please be responsible for helping the sous chefs set up the cabbage kimchi for service each day, this just means that you take the kimchi out of the cooler, get a knife, board, gloves, and 1/6th pan and ask me how to trim and portion it, you wil need to give the trim to Team 6, so do this early.
In addition to the tracking schedule, please make Miso pickles - the recipe is 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 plate, make sure you have them on the fry station. 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 3 small Cornish hens on Day 4 and 6 on Day 5. 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 your 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 next to that wok and plate from there - draw a complete diagram of how this station will look for service, use the wok closest to the Chinese Oven to hot-hold your pot of Hens and use that as the focal point of your station, use a tray stand and the work table across the isle for the rest of your mise en place. "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. Make enough Red Pepper Sauce to share with Station 6 - they will need about 8 oz. 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". 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 you adjust in the morning. Be as detailed as possible with your 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.
See station 5 instructions above so you know how you are expected to share table and grill space. On Day 5 you are responsible for setting up the tasting of Korean Ingredients, use the tasting sheet form the course guide and ask me if you need further information. Tasting ingredients must be ordered with Supplemental so that we have them before service.

You are assigned to also make a Daikon and Carrot pickle for the Vietnamese menu - the recipe for this is embedded in the Bahn Mi recipe under that section.