One of the best times working at the entertainment venue was arranging the dessert table. When I see a doily it makes me think of chocolate. I absolutely loved taking the cakes out of their pastry boxes and cutting them in slivers small enough to feed a large army. After each slice I would drag the knife sideways down the edge of a clean square plate so that no crumbs would damage the perfect top of the cake when I cut the next piece. When I was finished arranging the table, I would find my carefully hidden square plate and with my index finger wipe the chocolate icing off and taste the delectable burst of ganache. This was a treat that I never told the other chefs about. Why do you ask? Because they are vultures and would have swooped in and stolen my plate if they knew. Since as a cook in a equatorial temperature kitchen you sweat profusely and eat little the taste of chocolate in my mouth was pure bliss. It ended with a very triumphant hand wash and a cat that ate the canary grin on my face.
The table always looked fantastic just before service like something you'd see in a display case. On some nights it was my duty to keep this table stocked with goodies, plates and forks. Sometimes I just had to tidy it's appearance. People LOVE their dessert and if you need any proof man the dessert table! One such night I was doing this very thing. I was running food for the buffet and keeping an eye on the dessert table. We started getting low on desserts when I told the head chef we were almost out. A frantic frenzy started in the kitchen as I was told to look in the freezer. Who cares about the meal give the people their sugar!!!!
This was a chance for me to think out of the box. Okay..... think back to mom, meme, aunties and the things they used to bring to family gatherings. With stealth that would make MacGyver blush I gather plastic wrap, floss and ranch dressing. In all seriousness I gathered whipped cream bags, angel food cake, frozen strawberries and a can of chocolate fudge. Through the innovative use of a microwave for defrosting and crumbling cake I did the impossible. In less time than it takes for a cook to have a butt break I created a trifle to the shock and amazement of the kitchen. I even had enough left to create a very quick plates of strawberry short cake.
At the end of the night I took a couple of victory laps around the kitchen as I brought in the last remnants of the trifle. The only thing that tends to happen when you have such a wonderful moment is that somewhere out of nowhere the thing you were looking for the most materializes out of thin air because the kitchen gnomes bring it out of hiding. There in the chefs hands from the walk-in came a triple dutch chocolate cake. The only thing I could do in regards to the hairy eyeball was say, "Well that's great we can use it tomorrow night!" That's why if you tell your chef you are out of something they tell you to "Look Again".
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