Information for Thai Menu Days 10 + 11, September 23 + 27

Know Your Thai Curries

Every one: I will set up a tasting and lecture session to cover material for the Vietnamese- Thai quiz on day 12. Try to pace yourselves so we can sit down for an hour between 9:30 - 10:30, after that we can set up for service and family meal and you can get out earlier to start your weekend. 


Individual Stations and personal responsibilities: 

Sous Chefs-

Fernando : Hot and sour soup - 1/2 gallon and Green papaya Salad 1/4 recipe for Day 10.
                  Thai Chicken soup with coconut and galangal- 2 gallons for Day 11 and 1 full recipe                           papaya salad for Day 11.

Day 11 is Coconut Chicken soup, make 1 full recipe , just follow the recipe and taste for fish sauce and lime with me when it's done.

Salad -  - 1/2 recipe on Day 10 and 1 full recipe on Day 11. To ba placed on street food plate.

Hot and sour soup for Day 10- watch demo on how to cook shrimp in broth, Green papaya, watch demo on papaya fabrication

Fernando: You are also responsible for setting up the streetfood station for Days 10 + 11.
 Set up Street food station - similar to Vietnamese set-up. The Thai Street foods are : Beef Satay with peanut sauce, fried fish cake, cucumber salad, green papaya salad, and long grained sticky rice. Set up a chaffing dish on Station 5 with 1/3 pans for hot foods and place cool food, salads ( there are two salads on Street Food Plate - cucumber salad and papaya salad) plates in small containers at room temperature. The sweet chili sauce, and plates should all be set up near the chaffing dish.
Peanut sauce for Satay is made by Station #3, it DOES NOT go in a ramekin - hold it in a small plastic cup on the side and put a dab on top of each satay as it goes out.

 Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram and show it to the Chef when you arrive at 7:00 so we can go over it together early.


Kat:  Talk to me before assembling the dipping sauce so I know you have the proper ingredients, and fill the ramekins only HALF way! On Day 10 we only need enough sauce for 10 people. Day 11 - enough to serve about 65. You may make it all on Day 10 and store it in the cooler over the weekend.

Remember that you have Long grained sticky rice soaking from Day 9 for use on Day 10, steam it as directed o Day 9 in class, allow it to cool slightly, and old to serve o the street food plates.

Also steam 8 cups of Jasmine rice for Day 10 and 16 cups for Day 11.

When Dipping sauce is made and rices are steamed, or ready to steam, prepare to set up the hot line. There's not much to it: Steamed Jasmine Rice, 1/3 pans for each of 5 curries, and a 1/3 pan for Stir Fried squid - only one steam table needs to be set up. Be sure to consider plates needed ,utensils to set out, garnishes and plate wipes.

Curries are served as a "sampler plate", meaning that a small amount of all 5 curries are served on each plate.
Know your Thai Curries - See poster above - Each curry should come to the service line in a deep 1/3 hotel pan. Use a  12" rimmed "soup plate" (the shallow bowls) with Jasmine Rice, with rice in the center.

Chicken Rice is served from the station producing it. They will have a chaffing dish for their own rice and will plate and pick up without needing assistance from other stations.

Stir Fried Squid will be cooked in small batches for Day 11 service and be served from the steam table in a 1/3 pan. Plate into an oval casserole dish on a larger oval plate with a scoop of rice.

Jasmine rice - 8 cups Day 10, 14 cups Day 11 - Talk to me about using the Western Steamer or a Rice cooker, or both.

The Steam table will need to be used to hold the curries, the pad thai, stir fried squid and the jasmine rice. Put each curry in separate, deep 1/3 pans, same with the squid.  Pad Thai should be in a deep 1/2 hotel pan, and the Jasmine rice in a full hotel pan. Draw a diagram of the line set up and make it complete. Plates: Currys in a 12" shallow bowl with Jasmine rice, Pad Thai in a deep noodle bowl with roasted peanuts and a lime wedge on top of each. Stir fried Squid in deep 1/2 pan, the squid itself is served in a round casserole dish sitting on an ovel platter with jasmine rice sitting on the side - similar to presentation of steamed fish from Japanese menu.

Station #2 - Andrew see abovve about Chicken Rice and coordinate with Kat. 

Chicken Rice - Scale recipe to use 1 whole chickens on Day 10 and 3 whole Chickens on Day 11. This dish is served room temp in summer, or prepared and then reheated in a wok steamer across from Table #2 in the cooler months, most westerners don't "get it" when it's served at room temp, so set up the wok steamer. Entire plate is picked up from your station. You need to make your own rice, make it pilaf style and use rendered duck fat to parch the rice. Be sure to discuss Pilaf Method with Chef before you start, this is a common area for mistakes. Pandan leaf is available from the store room- order it on supplemental if you don't see it on the invoice in the morning. For Service you will need:
- Chaffing dish to hold rice
- Shallow "gratin" dishes to hold chicken and sauce, gratin dish sits on large oval plate with rice and cucumber/tomato/cilantro garnish (this is like and undressed salad tossed together).
- Service utensils to plate. Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram.

Typically, there will be 9 whole chickens delivered on Day 11, NOT ALL OF THESE are for you. Station 5 needs 5 chickens to marinate for Day 12.

Yellow Shrimp Curry - 1/2 Recipe on Day 10 and 1.5x recipe on Day 11 -  Use the curry paste to make the yellow curry sauce. Make the sauce completely, except for the shrimp, and cool it. Just prior to service, heat the sauce and gently poach the shrimp in 1/3 batches in 1/3 of the sauce as needed to stay just ahead of service without over cooking the shrimp- this keeps them from over-cooking on the steam table.

Red Chili Chutni - Your responsibility to make this for the Indian Menu. It's used as a condiment, but also as an ingredient by other teams, make sure it gets made early in the day so that it can be available for others to use. You may divide the job over Days 10 + 11, but it must be done.

Station 3- Rin
Make sure you set up the satay grills and check the charcoal before the supplemental goes in.
I'll show you how to set it up, but it must be done early, you'll need to fire up both grills with charcoal for service on Day 11 and keep feeding the grill with more charcoal as it burns down. Make only 10-15 Satay for Day 10 and 60-80 on Day 11. You may make 2x recipe of peanut sauce on Day 10 and hold it over the weekend for use on Day 11.
Cucumber salad - 1/4 recipe for Day 10 + 1 full recipe for Day 11

The Beef Satay - 1/2 recipe for Day 10 and 2x recipe for Day 11. Trim off external fat and collagen

Peanut Sauce - Should be made on Day 10 and used for both days. When cooled to use the following day, it needs to be reheated gently, and it may break - it's an emulsion. If it DOES break, fix it the same way you would fix a hollandaise or mayonnaise (and if you think I mean "use an egg", you need to do more research). Peanut sauce should be held at room temp on the street food line and a small dab placed onto each skewer as it's plated.

Stir Fried Squid - 1/2 recipe Day 10 + 2x recipe Day 11

If you have time, you can help me set up Mise en place for the Pepper Crab...otherwise, I'll handle it. 



Station #4 - Victoria + Hermes

Scale the meats to make 1# of the Massaman and Jungle and Green Curry on Day 10, and 2# on Day 11. It's important to start them early, so hustle. Use a small rondo or large sauce pot with a cover - size matters here, too big and you'll burn the curry, too small and it's too crowded - remember to keep covered until the meat is tender to avoid drying out and burning by evaporation. Also remember that you can braise in the oven if the range gets crowded later in the morning, if you don't have room on top of the stove, you can finish in the oven. The braises should go to the steam table in deep 1/3 hotel pans - -covered.

You will also be responsible for the Pork Vindaloo Paste for the Indian Menu - look in the Indian section for the paste recipe and start it on Day 10 for finishing on Day 11 - it's very easy when spread over two days.


Station #5- Alex - Red Duck curry 1/2 recipe for Day 10, the rest on Day 11 - talk to chef about exactly how many pieces of duck to cook on Day 10. Also Fried Fish Cakes 10 pieces on Day 10 and as many as you can (40-60) on Day 11.

Duck Curry, the duck should have been marinated on Day 9, we'll use 1/4 of the marinated duck on Day 10 and the rest on Day 11 - recipe is pretty self explanatory. Pan Roast Duck, while duck is roasting, prepare sauce. When both duck and sauce are finished, hold both separately. Near service, gently heat sauce, add duck and gently heat duck in sauce. Ask for clarification on the blog if you need it. Served from a deep 1/3 hotel pan on the steam table.


Fish cakes - We need to make 1# of fish on Day 10 (1/2 recipe), use the older fish left over from Day 9 first.  Double on Day 11 - we can shape and size the cakes to meet the required number of portions for each day. It's important that you have a VERY sharp knife to hand mince the fish. Also very important that the long beans are sliced into PAPER thin rounds, if you slice them thicker, the cakes fall apart. Please ask for a demo on slicing the beans before you start. Cakes should be fired in a 325F fryer in small batches as needed for service and put on the street food station in 1/3 pans. I will show you how to form them. They will be served on the street food plate - talk to the sous chefs ahead of service so they can direct you on where to put them when they are cooked, fry them as close to service as possible.

Also - Day 11 - Prepping Tandoori chicken - the marinade requires red chili chutney. This is made by Station #2 for the class. Be sure to check with them early in the day to discuss when it will be available to you. Also be sure to speak with station #2 and get your chickens for marinating.