well its been over a year since my last post and i wanted to get going again with a favorite food of mine, beef and bearnaise sandwich.
i first made this item when i was working for a seminar and convention hotel in connecticut back in the late 1970's. it was my first experience working in such a large kitchen. the main dinning room at this place had the capacity to seat close to 1,200 guests at a time, with 2 private banquet/reception rooms that each handled between 300 to 400 guests for weddings and parties. these rooms cold also be joined into one larger room. there were an additional 16 satellite rooms that could seat between 15 to 30 pax each. at times we operated at full capacity with all rooms in service at one time.
being a resort complex there were also 3 swimming pools with cabana service, close to 20 tennis courts and 2 18-hole golf courses with club houses and a full bar and cocktail lounge. plus 24/7 room service.
i started working the evening shift as a line chef, was then promoted to personally assist the executive chef, and was then finally put in charge of food that was going out of date and leftovers. now you may think that is an odd position, and might think it was a demotion of sorts, but considering the size of this place, and sheer amount of food that went out the kitchen doors everyday, it was the biggest responsibility i had ever been given.
in the back kitchen area were all the storage rooms and walk-in coolers all in a line down a long hallway. besides the storage rooms for canned and dry ingredients, bar supplies, liquor and wine, there were rooms filled with all the tools, equipment and necessities it takes to run such a large catering operation. there were 5 of these massive walk-in coolers. one for fruit and vegetables, one for meat and poultry, another for fish and seafood, still yet another for dairy, cheese, finished desserts and also the plants and flowers that were used for room and table decorations. one final cooler was for finished, prepared and leftover foods. there was also a large walk-in freezer that not only held all the frozen foods, but massive slabs of ice used for carvings.
at the end of each day it was my responsibility to take inventory of all foods that were going to be out of date, or not earmarked for service the next day. i would then have to make an itemized prep list for the next shift that would utilize these items. if this were not done these things would end up either in the trash, or sent to the pig farmers down the road as feed for their stock.
prepared foods for buffets that were not fully depleted would either become employee meals, or possibly converted into tidbits and savories for the next day's seminar coffee breaks and luncheons. raw items would usually be transformed into soups, quiches, side dishes, crepe fillings and pies and the ever present "mystery dishes" that appear on buffets one time, never to be seen again.
if this was not done food cost would escalate out of control and we would not run within the required margins set down by the cost analysis department, and budgeting office. most large operations such as this, hotels and ships, convention centers and catering facilities, all have someone working on this daily.
one banquet menu that was extremely popular with our clientele was roast prime rib of beef. we had banks of ovens that ran around the clock simply filled with these massive joints of flesh, potatoes of every kind ranging from simply baked to the ever creamy potatoes au gratin, and popovers that were baked in extra large muffin tins that were grease in the fat that was rendered from the ribs as they roasted.
when it became time to send out a banquet for between 100 to 300 guests who were being served prime rib we would set up 2 assembly lines in a counter and steam table area that was designed just for this. each line had a team of chefs that consisted of a person slicing the beef, another placing the potato and pop-overs on the plate, another would add the vegetable, and then another would nap on either a gravy or jus. a final person would make certain the plate was arranged as it should be, that it was spotless and then lay on the garnish before covering it with a lid and placing it on the tray. this all had to be done quickly in order for a room of 100's of guests to all be served in a reasonable amount of time.
there were waiters employed strictly for this type of en mass style of service. they had to be strong, fast and light on their feet. the trays all had room for 4 plates each. but these were then stacked 3 to 4 high which the plate covers are designed for. meaning, each one carried between 12 and 16 orders at a time. yes, we could have used carts and trolleys to get this food out of the kitchen, but this was actually a faster and more efficient way, plus the food arrived as hot as it could possibly be. these runners would then go to a table side and the waiters would off load the plates to the quests. each tray could accommodate no less than a table of 10.
the feeling of accomplishment and a job well done after each of these affairs never seemed to lessen for me. although some may not like or appreciate this type of production work, and feel that fine dinning is where it is at. there is something to say for a room of 500 people who are happy and content and you it was done in a minimal amount of time. its all in the preparation, coordination and execution of the task. it is not simply cooking or churning out meals.
what this meant was that we always had an abundance of roasted beef. typically the end cuts, that were well done, would be shredded and turned into roast beef hash that was served for either breakfast, lunch or 24 hour room service. but the center cuts were thinly sliced and used for traditional american style hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes, veg and gravy or triple-decker club sandwiches. cubed and converted into soups, crepe and pie fillings. julienned and used for chef salad, or sliced and used for a sandwich known as a french dip. a french dip is when the beef is thinly sliced, placed on a baguette, and served with a cup of warm beef jus (the juice that accumulates on the tray when you are slicing a hot roast. at times it has some broth added to it as well.
one day while i was going through my routine i decided to stop and eat lunch. always being on the run and having little time, i did as i usually would, i made something with left overs.
i grabbed some sliced rare center cut prime rib, a handful of crispy watercress, a baguette slathered in garlic butter left over from an italian style buffet, and a tub of bearnaise from the grill station. i re-heated the bread by placing it cut side down on a griddle, shmeared (that's a new york city deli term that never justifies in my spellchecker) it with the bernaise, plumped up and layered the thin slices of beef, and topped that all with the cress finishing it off with a good twist of the pepper mill .the next day it was on the buffet's sandwich station for lunch, and i have included it on innumerable coffee shop, cafe and room service menus ever since.
now, when i have a craving for this delight, and i don;'t have 50 pounds of left over prime rib, i use steak. and being in a local where water cress is hard to come by, i use rocket, or arugula, which has a similar nutty flavor and a definitive bite. i always have a jar of my home made bernaise essence, and a piece of baguette in the freezer.
the method is simple as i stated above. prepare the bernaise sauce, slice the bread and shmear it with garlic butter, and then pan fry or sear it on a griddle. slice the beef as thinly as possible (chilled or room temperature medium-rare skirt steak [most often the cut used for fajitas]is best IMHO when prime rib or roast beef are not available),layer it on the baguette with the greens and its ready to serve. you will note in the pictures below that on this particular day i had a half of a red onion sitting in my crisper so i also used some very thin slices of it too.
NOTE: at times when i am in a hurry or simply do not wish to prepare bernaise, i simply add the bernaise essence to some good mayo and use that. if you do this before you start the other steps the mayo will have a longer time to become infused with the essence. further, unlike bernasie, the mayo can be made in a larger batch and refrigerated for later use.
sorry to digress for so long, but i just couldn't resist that trip down memory lane.
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