After five
weeks of preparation and much anticipation for the Big Easy Brunch at Riderwood, it was well
worth all the hard work and long hours! From the beginning, the residents and
cooks were very curious to know what foods would be included in our New Orleans
theme brunch. The residents’
feedback was much appreciated during the planning process to help us determine
which foods were their favorites. “Original” beignets from Café du Monde were the
hot topic and highly anticipated. I am also incredibly grateful for kitchen
staff’s support. They not only provided great insight about where and how to promote
the event, but they also assisted us as we maneuvered through the kitchen and
used different equipment. This input from the residents and staff contributed
to the overall success of the event, yet I had much more to learn about
foodservice operations before completing my six-week rotation.
As a
dietetic intern, my love of nutrition, food, and cooking makes the kitchen a
comfortable environment for me, yet I found myself unsure how I might tackle a
meal for 150 people. I must add that our menu involved some culinary techniques
that may seem foreign the home cook. These new challenges included working with
active yeast to make the beignet and King Cake dough. I quickly discovered how
sensitive active yeast can be if the liquid ingredients are too hot. In
addition, I learned how to make hollandaise sauce and the tricks to fix the sauce
if the emulsion breaks. Lastly, the most daunting task of the entire event may
have been poaching 150 eggs for the fried green tomato benedict. Luckily, there
are a few nifty techniques that make poaching eggs feasible for even the home
cook. Hint: steam the eggs in a muffin tin over a bath of water in the
tilt skillet. After working with the kitchen staff through many different
techniques, I certainly gained a new level of confidence in my culinary skills.
Overall, I
am proud of all that we accomplished during our time at Riderwood. I am very
pleased with our efforts to host such a unique New Orleans brunch for the
residents. We received a lot of positive feedback from the surveys and staff.
It would not have been such a success without the support of the residents and
staff. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with the Riderwood staff
and look forward to using my new skill set in the future.
Pictures from the brunch:
This was a truly wonderful dinner and I wish that schedules had allowed the entire class of interns to attend this absolutely great event.
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