Reflections

My Last few days down in Florida I was not on the schedule so I took this time to dine at Kona, ‘Ohana and visit the parks.
I had dinner at Kona. I ordered Coconut and Curry Soup, an assortment of sushi, and the Kilauea. My friend ordered Cucumber Sushi Roll, Coconut Almond Chicken, and the Kona Cone.  Everything was so tasty. I think we got better treatment because I worked there though.
I went to ‘Ohana for their Character Breakfast. I got to meet Mickey Mouse. We were served the breakfast bread- both cinnamon raisin and pineapple, an assortment of fruit- melon grapes, pineapple, sausages, bacon, Mickey waffles, passion fruit orange guava juice, and scrambled eggs. Even though most of the entertainment was geared toward children- I had a blast.

 
Kendall Vs The Real World
The main difference is how mistakes are treated. If I burned creme brulee at school its treated as a learning exercise. I acknowledge that I screwed up, and try it again- vowing to never make the same mistake every again.  If i mess up the creme brulee at the Poly, I get written up and have a sit down chat with my chefs. And then Id have to redo the dessert in a time crunch.

This is the End

Its coming to the end of my internship.

I had to deal with crazy, mean, and obnoxious roommates, bed bugs, and sketchy living conditions. It made my working experience that much more difficult. 

I am so ready to go home. Every ounce in my body is ready to go home.

I know I did my best. I took this job very seriously.
 AND NOW THE END!

Dinning Plan

A double batch of Kona bread is made everyday with 180 sliders. The dessert pars are kept at 100. (creme brulee, kiluheahas, cream pies, cheesecake, apple stack). Kona does 600+ covers nightly.

Some nights we run out of creme brulee. We would make more except there are only 100 molds... and more break everyday. More are supposed to be on order but god only knows when they will actually come in.

The whole kitchen is working at 100%. Burning the candle and both ends... and more cliche sayings to say its hard work.

The dessert bar  is so busy two people are scheduled nightly.
 I'm used to working alone out in the bar, so its like flexing new muscles working with someone else. We split the dessert bar right down the middle. One person gets the ice cream, cream pies and fondue. The other person gets apple stack, brulee, and kiluheahas. There is a lot over lap though.

There is only one person on the AM shift. They struggle to get everything done. Most days someone from the back will come up front to the dessert bar to help out. It is insane how much work needs to be done, and how few people there are to do the job. Ive been working over time everyday.

Free Dinning Plan

Free Dinning Plan starts next week. I don't know the specifics on how it works. What I do know:  If a guest has the dinning plan they get an appetizer, entree and dessert automatically. And If the Dinning Plan is free, everyone will get a dessert. So in my mind that equals free dessert for everyone.

So the bakery staff is freaking out.

Roommates

I have been having problems with my living conditions. First- I live with five other girls.

• Toward the begining- maybe about and month in- one of my roommates set off a stink bomb. It was against all Vista Way and Disney rules. There was a chance i could have gotten fired for it, but luckily I didn't. The girl confessed to it and she alone got the boot
• my apartment is prone cockroaches. Everyday i deal with one in the kitchen. 
• I walked in on one of my roommates.. with her boyfriend.
• And another roommates is blaming me for the huge amount of dishes in the sink. I barely have time to sleep let alone make a meal for myself
• Another roommate accused me of using her razor
• And the food i have in the fridge (CLEARLY LABELED AS MINE) dissapears
• I HAVE BED BUGS. yes BED BUGS! i dont know how or why but i do
• When Vista Way came to clean my apartment- they took away my matress and forgot to give me a new one

I am so stressed out I actually asked to leave the program. Chef Lawrence is urging me to stay- I only have a month left and he values me as an employee (the first and only compliment i ever got from him).

I cant even think about work. I am miserable.

And...

I'm back at the dessert bar.

Sheets

The 7am Shift is in charge of ordering for the next day. I always get a box of plastic gloves, a huge bad of cotton candy, hersheys syrup, raspberry, and strawberries. the rest changes day to day.

The spoilage sheet is also important- mainly because a chef will chew me out if i don't do it. The shipping and receiving guys track everything we use and don't use. It must suck to have their job because there is so much thrown out each day. It unbelievable how much is wasted.

Chocolate Tempering

For the mickey stix, chocolate covered strawberries, and chocolate curls, I need tempered chocolate. But this stupid tempering machine never works. That means I have to temper by hand. It takes a huge chunk out of my day. I don't have time to temper chocolate when I have a huge laundry list of things to do. The white chocolate curls is my least favorite thing. I actually dread doing it.

7am Cont.

My day:
AT 6:50 ish I go to the desset bar and store an extra apron in the top drawer. I then grap, the order sheett, spoilage sheet, and to do list. I began filling out the basics. At 7am pre-meal begins with the rest of the bakery and the 'Ohana crew. The chef goes over the theme and goal of the month "be courteous to all guest including children" or "Remember to smile". The number of reservations for both 'Ohana and Kona are covered. Someone always gets sidetracked and the meeting lasts 15 minutes longer than it is supposed to. By the time its over, i basically sprint out the door to get to work.
I begin with simple tasks. I gather all the triangle plates, I stack the plastic black bowl in 1/3 hotel pans, and i wash the fruit. I then move on the silk screening the plates. This always takes longer than i would like. I do about 90 kiluaea plates, 60 cheesecake, 6 anniversary, and 10 happy birthday.
And then i start on the chocolate. We keep a par of 6 containers of Mickey stix, and 8 rolls of dark chocolate curls. If i see there is close to enough (like 5 containers and 7 rolls) i dont bother doing it.
Next i move on to the fruit. I make three containers of each fruit- one for lunch service and two for dinner. Since the coolers out at the dessert bar are broken everything is on short term cold holding. For dinner service the fruit is first place out at 5pm- it needs to be replaced at 9pm. (hence 2 of each fruit for dinner).
By the time i finish that tak its about 9am. I like to go on break at 10am (and come back at 11) so i do odd jobs untill then- like make the sauces, or waffle cone batter and set up my station.

My favorite thing to do ever- is make the displays. most everything is made with shortening. I go in back to the bakery and grab five large scoops of shortening. Two are for the Kona cone -one chocolate (colored with cocoa powder), one vanilla. One is for the Kid's sundae. One is split for the two quenelle scoops on top to the apple stack and the cheesecake. The last on is for the base of the cream pie. The kileaua, and the cream pie get piped on shortening with a star tip (we keep and bag ready in a drawer). I can take my time with the displays- i try to make them so irresistible no guest could say no.

At 12 pm lunch service starts and the displays need to be out and perfect before then. 12pm to 3:30 its a juggling game. I need to plate desserts and still get everything crossed off my list. I try to make it that only the cream pies, ramekins, and cookies are left to do during this time but.. life happens. If its a busy lunch- my whole world goes up in flame. I like to have it so the PM person has a smooth night, but if i can't get production done- it leaves them screwed.

If lunch is slow (which it is quite often)- When the PM person shows up i leave them up front and I go back to the bakery to make white chocolate curls, cookie batter, and other tasks that need to get done- but not necessarily every day.

This shift is definitely not my favorite- by far. Id rather be on 4am.

7am shift- Am Dessert Bar

This shift is general prep work. In specific:

Silk screen the cheesecake plates with blue white chocolate ganache "Celebrate Today!"
Silk screen Kiluhaha plates "Kona Cafe", Birthdays and anniversaries with a picture of lilo and stitch- dark chocolate
Fill 1/6 hotel pans with fruit needed for cream pies and fondue
Make white and dark chocolate curls
Make mickey stix
Make Cookies- macaroons, brandy snaps
Set up the Kona cone holders
Plate desserts for lunch serevice
Make waffle cone batter
Make and bottle sauces- chocolate, caramel, strawberry
Set up plates and hotels pans for all the desserts
Top cheesecakes with whipped cream

Third Shift

The third shift (WHICH I NEVER GOT TRAINED ON) is simple. They make all the danishes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, muffins, etc for the morning, they also bake off the Ohana Breakfast bread (that the bread shift makes). Everything in this shift comes in a box and the third shift person figures out how many of what to place on a sheet tray and bake.
It was my job as 4am shift to glaze all of these things. It was a either covered in apricot glaze or white fondant (both for the danishes).

Parfaits

The parfaits are so simple I don't know why they have the bakery do them. Its granola, honey yogurt, more granola, the a sliced up strawberry. All in a plastic sealed cup.

4am Shift

Banana Bread

This training was one of the most stressful in my life. Jimbo is transferring to the Animal Kingdom bakery. His last act at the Poly was training me. I knew what needed to be done during this shift, so it wasn't that I was clueless, it was that I couldn't manage my time. I came on my first day and started glazing the danishes, Ohana breakfast bread, cinnamon rolls, and the other morning pastries. Jimbo started on the luau mousse. I did the banana bread, and the parfaits. All those tasks are supposed to be done (alone) by 6am, and we just made the deadline. The next day Jimbo called in, leaving me to do the mousse alone. I wasn't paying any attention when he did it the day before, so I had to remember what I learned in school, and use it like a crutch. I worked for hard and fast by the time 6am came around I burst into tears out of stress. I managed to get everything done with no help. Chef Lawerence came around and said MY banana bread was the best he saw in a long time. He even used the word perfect. The next day, was Jimbo's last, he spent most of his shift gossiping and saying goodbye to everyone. I would have liked more training but he gave me a sink or swim situation, and I came out on top.

Luau Mousse
44 lbs Chocolate
48 qts Heavy cream
1 qt Egg yolks
10 lbs Sugar
22oz Gelatin

Bloom the Gelatin in cold water. Melt the chocolate and 24 qts of heavy cream in a large kettle. Whip the rest of the cream to soft peak stage. Whip up the yolks and sugar in a separate bowl. Combine the whip yolks and cream together. Melt the bloomed gelatin in the chocolate. Pour the chocolate with the rest of the mixture. slowly whip it together. Make sure it doesn't get over mixed.

Banana Bread
20 oz over ripe bananas
.75 oz BS
.75 oz BP
10 oz Ap Flour
2 lbs sugar
6oz macadamia nuts
3oz coconut

Cream together butter and sugar. In another bowl combine flour, salt, BP, and BS. Add the bananas to the butter mixture until mushy. Add the eggs slowly as to not break to mixture. stir in the flour mixture. and by hand fold in the coconut nuts. Using the 4 oz scoop fill the well greased trays. Bake at 315 for 22 min.

Coconut Kiki Tart (cream pie)

 

The tart shells are made with pre-made dough. They are baked at 300 for 13 min. It is filled with coconut pastry cream and top with a mountain of whipped crea. Toasted coconut is sprinkled on top for extra flavor. It is served with a brandy snap, lychees, raspberries and a mint leaf.

coconut pastry cream:
16 ea whole egg
8oz whole yolks
1lb sugar
6oz flour
6oz cornstarch
6oz malibu rum
32oz coco fiesta
1qt half and half
56oz coconut milk

The coconut and half and half is heated to a boil. The eggs are whisked together with the dry ingredients.

then the egg mixture is tempered in with the heated milk. it is heated to the right consistancy

Brandy snaps:

1 lb butter

14oz cake flour

14oz corn syrup

14oz sugar

4 oz Coconut

The butter is melted, sugar and corn syrup added it. Then the flour is whisked in. The shredded coconut is stired in. The batter is piped out in long strips on a sheet tray 4x6. baked at 300 for 15 min. They are then rolled up like cigars.

The lychees come in a can. The liquid is drained and turned into a sauce by heating and adding cornstarch. The lychees are added back into the sauce.

Fondue, Ice Cream

Kona Cone

The cone batter is simple. The mix comes in a bag, you add 46 oz of water and 4 oz of cinnamon. You pour 2oz of batter into the waffle machine a close th paddles. The machine sets a timer for a minute and thirty seconds. once the timer goes off, you take the waffle and twirl it around in a metal cone to make the shape. It is served with two scoops of ice cream, chocolate buttons, cotton candy, chocolate sauce (comes in a bottle), sprinkles, and a mickey stix.

The kid's make your own sundae is simple. of scoop of ice cream, a cherry, sprinkle, chocolate sauce, and chocolate buttons.

 

The Fondue has three kinds of fruit and two cookies. Strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple along with marcaroons and brandy snaps. It is served with melted dark chocolate for dipping.

Brandy snaps:

1 lb butter

14oz cake flour

14oz corn syrup

14oz sugar

8 oz Macadamia Nuts

The butter is melted, sugar and corn syrup added it. Then the flour is whisked in. The nuts a stired in. quarter ounce ball are placed on a sheet tray 4x6. baked at 300 for 15 min

No Sugar Added Apple Stack

 

The apples come in a huge 50 lb frozen box. For the apple stack 13 lbs are baked with cinnamon, sour cream, splenda, and marscapone cheese. The applestack is served by alternating fried won tons (sprinkled with cinnamon and splenda) and apples. It is topped with sugar free ice cream, and sugar free caramel. The caramel sauce is made like a normal caramel except with dextrose instead of sugar. Butter and heavy cream are added once the desired color is reached.

Banana Chocolate Creme Brulee

 

Ganache is poured into the ramekins the frozen the brulee mix is poured in. It bakes at 300 fro 15 min, then covered for and baked again for 25.

creme brulee:
12qts h.cream
32oz creme de de banana
4lb sugar
4lb sweetened condensed milk
4qts egg yolks

The liquor is heated up to remove alcohol. Then the heavy cream and milk is added. Theh it is tempered in with the egg yolks and sugar

Brulee sugar is 5:1 sugar to brown sugar. a meager amount is sprinkled on top and torched to a nice golden color.  Half a banana is caramelized too. It is served on a rectangle dish with a chocolate curl

Cheesecake

White Chocolate Cheescake
5lbs cream cheese
sugar
eggs

The graham cracker crust is roll out thin on a sheet tray. 35 rings are place around. The cheesecake mixture is poured in. It is baked at 200 for.

A qunelle of whipped cream is place on top. It is plated on the triangle Celebrate Today! plate with strawberry sauce (frozen strawberries pureed in a blender), white chocolate curls, and mickey sprinkles.

Bread Pudding

For 15 Trays
Custard:
10 gallons Milk
36 qts Heavy Cream
3 bags E-Z eggs
18 lbs Suggar
4 oz Vanilla

One and a half loafs of brioche are cut up per tray. 2oz of pinapple are sprinkled on top. 2gallons of custard is poured in. It is baked at 275 for 99 min.
It is served with a banana caramel sauce and a large scoop of ice cream.

Kilhuaha

4lbs sugar
4lbs brown suger
4lbs coco powder
2lbs gluten free flour
4lbs butter
44 Eggs

First melt the butter on the stove  it needs to boil. Then mix the flour, sugars, and coco together on a 20qt hobart. Pour the boiling hot butter into the dry ingredients. Mix until incorporated. and the eggs slowly, scarping the bowl oftern

Using a 2 oz scoop- fill the well grease molds. Pipe in a small dollop of ganache. Scoop 2oz on top.
Bake at 300 for 25 min. Once they are cool filp the kilhuhas out on a sheet tray. using your finger make a small hole in the center of the cake. Pipe in ganche until it is filled

The kiluhaha is plated by first microwave the cake for 10 seconds. On the triangle Kona plates with 2 oz of white chocolate passion fruit creme anglaise, the cake is placed. 3 raspberries are placed around and a four goes on top of the whipped cream, and all is topped with three chocolate curls.

6am Cont

My day begins with mousse and ends with bread pudding, but in between its freedom. There is so much creativity involved in the shift, I love it! Room service orders at least two cakes everyday. Even though my cake skills are lacking I take it as a huge opportunity to improve. We use Edible Images for most of our cakes (a Disney property wide decision). I am not fond of it. Its tastes overly sweet and only looks so-so. I think my favorite thing to make is the creme anglaise.
I have the recipe memorized:
4qts heavy cream
1 qt egg yolks
5lb suger
9oz white chocolate
12oz passion fruit puree

Some thing about making it is so relaxing, The simplicity allows me to calm down. I just love the smell and the flavor too.I heat up the heavy cream and sugar, when it boils i temper in the yolks, and once it comes to the right consistancy I add the chocolate and puree.

i now have a routine. I do mousse, kilhuahas, creme anglaise, tart shells, one cake, and bread pudding. It mostly takes up my whole shift. There is room for things like scooping cupcakes, but I do those four things everyday.

Chef Noah

This is the first sheet cake I ever did. Tex helped me out by telling what to do step by step. (he also wrote on it). The cake was to be picked up at 3pm, and the guest never came. The next day Chef Noah came and threw the cake directly in the trash, right in front of me. Even if the cake couldnt be used for another guest, i wish he didnt act so rash. i was heart broken.

Mickey cake

This is a mickey cake. We have cake molds of mickeys head. We bake either chocolate or vanilla, fill with butter cream and top off with ganache. The face comes in a box- made of white chocolate. This simple cake costs $45. I would never pay that much no matter how cool it is.

6am Shift

After weeks of solely doing dessert bar, I am scheduled for the 6am shift.  When I arrive I feel completely lost. Ive been work at the Poly for way over a month, but it feels like my very first day. I meet Jimbo (4am shift), and Tex, they had both been work for WDW basically since it opened in 1971. There was also another CP (collage program= intern) Amber. She went out of her way to make me feel comfortable. Jimbo had made the luau mousse, and it was our (Tex, Amber, and I) job to pour the mousse in the molds, cut of the genoise rolls (comes frozen in a box) and place the cake on top. Even with the three of us work steadily, It took a whole hour to get th mousse finshed and in the freezer. We did two trams worth. 38 trays, thats 900 plus individual pyramids.

Then it was on to production. There was so much we did. We make the desserts for all three of the restaurants, room service, and concierge. Everyday concierge needs three trays of mini desserts including mini cupcakes, tarts, mousses, mooncakes, and carrot cake, and brownies. They refuse to take a duplicate and the desserts have to be different each day. room service (know as private dinning) orders chocolate covered stawberries, cookies, and cakes ranging from 6inch to full sheets. Captain Cooks needs every day- two trays vanilla cupcakes, one tray of chocolate, two trays of brownies (ganached), and one tray of apple betty. Ohana gets the same 15 trays of pineapple bread pudding. Its Kona where all the hours are put.

White chocolate passion fruit creme anglaise (for kiluhaha)
Pasty Cream ("custard" for the cakes, turned chocolate for coco puffs)
Tart shells (cream pie)
Kiluhaha- 60 daily
Banana chocolate creme brulee- 60+ daily
Macaroons
Apples stack
Suger free carmel (dextrose - used for apple stack)
Coconut Pastry cream (cream pies)

and the list goes on. We struggled to finsih on time... every single day.

Back to dessert bar

They have discovered I am good under pressure so they put my on dessert bar (for feels like forever).

The shift starts at 230pm. I get there at 220ish everyday. First I go straight to the bar and see who was on morning shift (90% of the time its Dorthy). The morning shift is in charge of production and general prep for the bar. There is a clip board with a to do list on it. If shes wasnt able to get the list finished it means a whole lot of hassle for me. So the first thing i always do is check the clip board.
At 230 we have pre-meal meeting. The chef tells us how many reservations we have for the night, and iother useful information and critique.
Break time is always between 4-5 for this shift its a race against the clock to get everything done so i can actually go to break on time. I basically just make sure everything is ready to the evening. Check the par on desserts, make whipped cream (side note: we use Dairy Fresh. Its heavy cream with sweeteners and stabilizers so when we make whipped cream we simply pour the containers in the mixer plus we can do it hours ahead of time and it wont liquefy.), and finish the tasks the morning shift didnt. The morning shift leaves at 330pm so there is a nice hours overlap to accomplish everything (of course it seems like the morning person didn't get any work done and they're leaving the burden on me).
After break its immediately go time. Dinner service starts at 5 but the first order doesnt pop up until about 6. I get all the desserts trayed up and in the coolers (cheesecake, cream pie, brulee, coco puffs), and set my plates up.
For the Cream pie I set up six square plates and arrange two lychees, two raspberries, and a mint sprig on each. For the Fondue I set up six rectangle plates and delicately arrange two kiwi, two chunks of pineapple, three strawberries, two coconut macaroons, and two macadamia nut brand snap cookies. I leave a stack to rectangle plates for the brulee (because after I torch it, its just a simple matter of putting it on the plate, arranging the banana, and sticking on the chocolate curl.).

And then it starts. One ticket pops up, then one right after, then two more. I have the dessert bar down so well I have to think about my motions very carefully to write about them. To me the actions are so en-grained in my head its like I have been plating for Kona all my life. Its unlike anything I know. My brain is working fast to deciede the most efficient way to get the desserts out and I am plating so fast. Its almost like a dance. The bar itself is small, but big enough to give me a work out as I run around.
At the end of the night everything hurts. I can't wait to clock out and take my uniform off.  It feels like I just came home from battle. Dessert bar: conquered!

Mousse

 This is my least favorite part of the bread shift- unmolding the luau mousse. The morning shift fills the pyramid molds with the chocolate mousse and places slices of chocolate genoise jelly rolls on top. It is my job pop them out in the hot kitchen before they melt. No mater how fast my fingers go my last trays always look metly.

Bread Cont

 This is the Kona Bread its served with macadamia nut honey butter. Its so tasty I can eat a whole loaf by myself.

The Ohana Bread is almost like monkey bread. Its portioned out in to 5 lbs rolls and left to rise on the table. They are then flattened out like pizza dough and cut into small pieces. It is then mixed with a cinnamon-raisin or pineapple- coconut. Then proofed and baked    

• 1 3/4 C. Water
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 T. Shortening
• 4 1/2 C. High Gluten Flour
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/3 C Sugar
• 1 T. Instant Yeast

Ohana Bread

Carolyn preparing Kona rolls