Daniel Gunther Proctor Kitchen

Today was a great culmination of my endeavors in the kitchen. I am, writing this as I prepare my final meal, so it will be brief, but I need the blogs. I had a great experience in here, working through every dish with my mentor Nate. I feel that I built a lasting relationship with pretty much everybody in this kitchen. As I wrap up, I serve a meal to Mike Henriques which will be my send off. I sure hope that he and the others enjoy it. Anyways, I should get back to cooking so.... Also, kind of excited for express fest? Time: 1:45 p.m. Hours Today: 7:24 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. Total Hours: 80:25

Today, I jumped right into the preparation for my final meal, which actually ended up causing me to have my longest work day to date. Not to fret, I enjoyed every last second of it. I began by making a vinaigrette for the salad that I will present tomorrow. I also made a sourdough dough, which I will bake freshly for tomorrow. Another batch of chocolate cake was also prepared, ready to jump into the oven tomorrow right before two o'clock in the afternoon. I also made a beef stock for a soup tomorrow, of which I will not disclose the contents yet. It tasted great though and I am excited to present that one tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, I am getting up an hour early, to get a head start on the sauce for the main entree. I also spent about an hour and a half working on my presentation for express fest. I'll be sad to say goodbye, but am proud of all that I've accomplished. Time: 9:34 p.m. Hours Today: 7:52 a.m. - 2:53 p.m. Total Hours: 72:49

Yesterday was pretty brief. Just a minor addition to the hours, but was helpful in preparation for my presentation at Express Fest. Annie, Nelson and I threw the cookies into the oven after balling them up and essentially waited for them to be done. In the mean time, we ate some of the sourdough cake that I had made the night before. It was short, so there isn't much to talk about. I suppose, I also spent the day writing my reflection paper as well and planned out my four course meal. Excited to nail that one home. Time: 9:30 p.m. Hours Today: 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Total Hours: 65:48

Today was a short day, but nevertheless as successful one. Although my mentor wasn't there, I worked with a few of my friends under the loose supervision of Caleb to bake a sourdough chocolate cake and make cookie batter for Express Fest on Wednesday. Today was more just fun for me and messing around, rather than structured productivity, but all the same, I got to have some fun with a few of my friends, applying skills that I've learned for my final presentation. The cake is cooling overnight, but from what I can tell, it tastes pretty great. I must thank Diane for the recipe and Annie for the recipe for the cookies. Overall, great day, mildly productive day and an enjoyable day. We had strike this morning, so I was already a bit distraught and exhausted, but being in the kitchen significantly brightened my day. I'm excited to get started on the final meal on Tuesday. Time: 8:33 p.m. Hours Today: 4:00 p.m. - 6:39 p.m. Total Hours: 64:48

First of all, big shout out to Fiona for reading all of my blog posts last night, I appreciated the comments and acknowledgment of the work that I’ve been working at, so vigorously for the past three weeks. Although, this week began with a bit of a roadblock in the forms of AP Exams, I banged those out, one day after another and jumped right back into the kitchen on Thursday. That was the most excited I’ve ever been to get up at seven a.m. in my life and that was a sign to me that I was doing the right thing with this open-ended period of three and a half weeks. I did a bit of thinking and considered my other and what was initially my first choice as a project: working on Roseway for their yard period. Although that would have been awesome, I am eternally grateful that that fell through. The way that this spring has gone for me, has been an incredible journey and learning experience that I don’t think I would have been able to achieve living and working in Gloucester. The chance t...

Today was another good day, with a good amount of learning, mixed with enjoyment. First, I threw my lasagnas in the oven and let those cook for about an hour and a half before they got to temperature. They were a bit difficult to cut, but I was happy with the appearance and flavor once they went out onto the line. I also spent a lot of the morning cooking and then frying up some beans. The last piece ended up not so great, but was neither the fault of mine, or Nate. I made some pineapple, red pepper and rum sausage, but when we started to fry it in a pan, it smelled rancid and we had to throw the entire batch out. At least I now know how to make sausage though. I also spent a bit of the day sorting out what I am calling the judgement meal, a meal that I will cook for my advisor: Spencer Corkran, my two committee members: Fiona Mills and Caleb Dunklee, and last but not least, Nate and myself. Hopefully this meal will showcase my culinary abilities and taste pretty good all at the same t...

Today was another day. Although I was in the kitchen for a number of hours, I was more focused upon my Dad's imminent arrival for tonights performance. I hope to see all of you here tonight by the way. In the kitchen though, I made all of the components for my lasagna and then compiled it. This took a number of hours, as I needed to make the sauce, roast the vegetables, grate the cheese and then put it all together. I will be cooking it tomorrow and hope to be happy with the final product. In other news, my sourdough starter is ready to go(nice and sour). I also had my daily dosage of mango(I found out that I can snack a bit from the cooler, within reason). Tomorrow, I'm baking lasagna and making sausage. I'm excited too get back at it yet again. Time: 5:09 p.m. Hours Today: 7:27 a.m. - 11:31 a.m. Total Hours: 57:43

Today was another great day. I was absolutely ecstatic to get back into the action and become a contributing factor yet again. I knew going into the day that my role would involve some kind of soup and preparation for a vegetable lasagna that I will be making tomorrow. I decided on a cream of corn soup and hounded away at that for the first couple of hours. At around ten o'clock, I turned my attention to lasagna prep, chopping up a number of different vegetables. Tomorrow I am making the sauce and helping up with omelets. My sour dough starter will also have fermented for seven days tomorrow and I am excited to put some of it to use next week.  Also, I completed my required amount of hours today too, not to say that I am anywhere near done working. Time: 9:12 p.m. Hours Today: 7:52 a.m. - 12:46 p.m. Total Hours: 53:39

Today was the AP English Language and Composition exam. I'll tell you, without disclosing any information about the exam of course, that it was not my favorite experience. It was a lot of complex analysis and an immense amount of writing. I wrote nearly a dozen pages in the span of two hours. Although the experience was tedious, I hope that my scores reflect my efforts and I am able to be absolved of English seminar course responsibilities once I get to college. Today marks the last of my two AP Exams and I will be returning to the kitchen tomorrow morning. It's time to get back to sourdough, vegetable lasagna and olives.

As I enter the second week, I have a had a significant amount of time that has not been spent on my project and I would like to discuss other areas of productivity and improvement. Of course, I am in the musical and that is coming along just fine and I am excited for all of you to see that this Friday and Saturday. My primary focus though, outside of that commitment and my project has been development of my guitar skill and ensemble. Through the past two weeks, I have made significant developments in my ability, practicing a daily average of about 2-3 hours daily. I usually spend a bit of that time studying music theory, but most of my time goes into developing my improvisation and knowledge of the scales. My picking speed has improved tremendously, as I am now able to pick quarter notes at 160 beats per minute comfortably, which for those of you with music knowledge, is 640 individual plucks of a string per minute. I am pretty proud of that and this speed and comfort has helped me imp...

As I have been forced to be dormant over this weekend through Wednesday due to the nature of my schedule and AP exams, I am going to be blogging a bit about other activities to fill that gap. As one is strictly prohibited from discussing the content of the exam, I will reflect on my experience today and some of the comical events that befell us. First we began and then about ten minutes in, the fire alarm went off. Ian Makechnie came out and said that it was from a bagel burnt in the wise oven. We went back into the classroom and resumed testing. I think that I did pretty well, hopefully well enough for Denison. I am remorseful that I was not able to be in the kitchen today, but am excited to get my last exam out of the way tomorrow and resume my project. Otherwise, onto dress rehearsal. Time: 5:15 p.m.

This week overall, was a successful experience except for the fact of my minor illness at the beginning that set me back slightly. For most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I was having stomach cramps and some nausea, which finally calmed down once we hit Friday. This set back my capacity for efficiency slightly as I felt a bit slowed down, but nonetheless I was still able to complete all of the tasks handed to me. In terms of food, I continued to develop my mastery of soup as I made two or three different versions, the amount of which I cannot remember exactly. I also continued my adventures into the realms of flour and baking as well as different variations of roux. Working with Hannah gave me a perspective into the life of a baker which if i’ll be honest made me happy that my passions lie in cooking rather than yeast and ovens, not to diminish that field of work at all, I was just able to solidify my passion for cooking this way. Also, if I’m to continue being truthful working...

Yesterday yet again turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, we were still down Ian so I had to fill in and make a few different things. I made a fish stew with leftover brown-roux creole sauce. I also made a corn and bean soup with other leftovers. This took up most of the morning, but I was also able to work on a number of odd jobs that Nate needed for us to be successful. Otherwise, nothing too too crazy going on. I have two AP exams next week, so I won't be in Tuesday or Wednesday, but I'm excited to get back to work on Thursday. Time: 6:14 p.m. 5/12/2019 Hours Today: 7:57 a.m. - 11:54 a.m. Total Hours: 48:43

Today ended up being another fill in because we lost another. Unfortunately, our very own Ian Makechnie was out sick and we had to adapt, accomplish and conquer. For me, that meant making the soup and doing a bunch of odd jobs for Nate. First, I made a sourdough starter that I'm going to leave to ferment for about a week before I decide to use it. Awesomely enough, it could last, theoretically forever if I continue to feed it properly. I also made a chicken noddle soup with a nice mirepoix of vegetables. Then I just spent most of the day developing my julienne and dicing skills on some peppers and onions. Although I may sound drab, regardless of what I am doing, it is good experience and I am learning a lot everyday. I look forward to tomorrow and hope that Ian is able to get back in because being shorthanded is difficult. Although the rest of the staff still try to make my life easy, I see how much harder they have to work to accommodate. I try and help to my capability, whilst st...

Today was another good day. Although I hoped too feel better today, I still felt a bit under the weather, but less so than yesterday. I woke up at 6 a.m. to help out Hannah the baker pan some banana muffins. We then went onto to some bread and snickerdoodle cookies. That went pretty quickly, so I went back to my mentor Nate with a pretty empty agenda for the day, but I was able to help him out and learn about something pretty cool in the process. Today overall was a lesson in flour because it was roux and baking based, but the lesson in roux was a lesson in vigilance and patience. For our creole catfish sauce, we wanted a nicely toasted brown roux and avoid creating, my favorite, "midnight black roux". I baked the fish, sautéed up some of the Holy Trinity vegetable mixture of onions, celery and peppers. Then added some chicken base with paprika, salt, pepper and oregano. I let that cook upon a bit, then added the brown roux as a thickening agent. Tomorrow I am making a sourdo...

Today was another success in my mind. I learned a few things, but moreover was able to apply my culinary skills to another meal. Although I was feeling a bit under the weather today, I still made a little bit over fifty flatbreads with rice and refried beans. I cooked up the rice in some sautéed onions and peppers as well as the beans. I also had to make a few more flatbreads, or actually had to double the amount that I had had to meet the demand. This took up just about all of my morning and I scrambled as we reached service time to get them all put together, but I got it done. With the the help of Barb, they were out and ready to serve by 11:05. I headed out shortly after to get ready for musical rehearsal. I am working with Hannah tomorrow at 7 a.m. on some baking technique, which I am very excited about, I just hope that I fell less sick tomorrow. I suppose it's just going around Time: 9:06 p.m. Hours Today: 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Total Hours: 34:09

Today was relatively generic compared to the other days. I just got into the flow as one would do on their first work day of the week and checked off the tasks that I needed to get done. This isn't to say that I didn't have a great time, but rather to acknowledge the fact that I am past the initial rush of beginning something and am now in the flow and routine of completing the eventual goal. Essentially, this is to say that I have entered the meat of the project, where the bulk of the learning occurs. Unfortunately today, my mentor Nate was out sick, so I worked independently with some guidance from both Barb and Judy. I made vegetable soup and flatbreads for tomorrow in the pizza oven. I also prepared fresh dough to make another batch tomorrow. Lastly, I sautéed some vegetables for beans and rice that will find themselves on the menu tomorrow. Overall, a good day, I am just excited to have Nate back because I think that that threw me off of my game a little bit. Feel better s...

To give this reflection justice, I first want to discuss the trite dynamic of a kitchen and what the holistic restaurant chef experience looks like from my point of view. Although I haven’t referenced it before, I was a pantry chef at the number one rated restaurant where I live: Garvan’s Gastropub. The chef hired me on the terms that I had a three week trial period where he would try to infuse his culinary philosophies into me and make me a talented enough line cook to make the cut. Fortunately for me, at the beginning of the July of 2018, I made the cut. I worked in a hostile environment where no matter how quick you moved, criticism was on the horizon. Although the head chef never openly criticized me because he appreciated my work ethic, there was a serious power struggle between him and the sous chef, making the power dynamic tense, to say the least. The sous chef and others higher on the line than me, would treat me like garbage considering my lack of experience. I became a pup...

Today was copious amounts of fun, with yet another tool added to my repertoire: the pizza oven. Although my hypothesized allergy to tomatoes was likely confirmed, that didn't stop Nate and I from cooking away. Today was a little bit simpler, as all we had to make was the dough, but it was a laborious task to make the mass quantity of pizzas required to satisfy the student body. We didn't even make half of what they usually, so I can't even imagine. The process entailed, first rolling out the dough into a pizza shape. Then, throwing some sauce on there, which is where my allergy came in and lastly putting cheese on and then off the the pizza oven. We probably made about forty pizzas and    I was glad to have two of my friends come back and help during the rush. Nate and I also got a good chance to talk today and we discussed different kinds of yeast which was awesome. It was a short day though because I had rehearsal shortly thereafter, but all the same a success and another...

Today was not particularly pivotal moment in my senior project experience, but another step in the right direction all the same. I started the morning by preparing my soup. That entailed retrieving the prepared mirepoix of vegetables from yesterday, cubing beef and potatoes, and also grabbing the excess pork, vegetable stock and barley. I steamed the potatoes and glazed the beef with red wine. I boiled my stock, mirepoix and beef, while roasting the potatoes and cooking the barley separately. While this was all going on, I also needed to prepare for my sausage action station at lunch. I unpacked the vegetables and onions that I had prepared yesterday and sautéed them up, frequently stirring up the mixture with a pair of tongs. I then worked on a apple-cabbage-lemon coleslaw to go with the sausages.  This entailed a mild mixture of red and and green cabbage with diced apples, lemon zest, lemon juice, red onion and salt, all the while soaking the apples in lemon juice to prevent thei...

Today ended up another resounding success, just another chance to develop my culinary skills and ability to work in a professional environment. As those of you who attended lunch may have seen, I worked on a shiitake and wild mushroom risotto coupled with parmesan and heavy cream for flavor and texture. I began the day by preparing for a vegetable stock that would eventually go into my risotto. This entailed the preparation of a mirepoix of vegetables in a moderately large dice. I also added garlic tomatoes and the mushroom infused water that came from hydrating the porcinis. I boiled down the stock, while I prepped for the rest of the meal, dicing onions, grating cheese and an amalgam of other odd tasks to reach my eventual goal. Once I was ready to make the risotto, I remembered that I had an AP meeting to attend and that ran a bit longer than expected, but when I got back, I made my last minute adjustments and began the process. For those that do not know, risotto is a special kind ...

Today was another success in my mind. I showed up ten minutes early, ready to work and get right into the dish that I had begun to prep last night: pork tenderloin with a mustard rub. I roasted the pork on a mirepoix of vegetables and caramelized the onions that I had chopped last night. While that was roasting, Nate and I discussed another dish that I could prep for the lunch line, as there had been a minor miscommunication that was completely my fault, but it was no big deal. I decided to do a broccoli with brown garlic sauce. I honed my paring knife skills, chopping away at about forty heads of broccoli, all the while maintaining a watchful eye on my onions and pork. Once the pork hit a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, I took it out and took the juice and vegetables to make what I called a bootleg demi-glaze (highly reduced espagnole sauce). The version Nate assisted me in creating was made up of pork fat and vegetables. It all came together pretty quickly as I roasted some as...