Week 4- Becoming A Part of the Team

Internship- Black Star Farms

Stephanie Sheffer

Week 4

It has been one month since I started at Blackstar and I am starting to feel like I am a real part of the team.  It is nice to be getting to know my co-workers and understanding the expectations of my position in the team even better.  I made breakfast and hospitality appetizers all on my own five days this week with little or no issues. Chef Jon would check in with me and lend suggestions when I asked for help with ideas for things like garnishes or plate presentation. 

-"Chicken in a Corn Field"- as named by my 8 year old Lauren- Its a wedge of cornbread on top of Asparagus Lattice and then topped with a fried egg and cheese sauce.

This was also the first week that we started serving a group on Sunday evenings called “TAUCK.”  This is a travel group that comes every Sunday evening for a prix fix meal that consists of a salad course, entrée and dessert along with a glass of Blackstar winery’s wine.  The first group was a little on the smaller side, only 24, but it was a good size for me to learn the ropes on.  I worked mostly on helping prep ahead and then plating.  I was told that the group has the potential to be as many as 48 people.  We offer these dinners every Sunday all the way until the end of October.

Veggie Bundles tied with green onion

-Chef Jon putting entree plates together for TAUCK dinner

I also spent more time at the Café this weekend too helping with serving, bussing tables and more baking too.  I think I like baking in the Inn kitchen better than the kitchen at the Café but it was still good to experience working there too.  I feel like it was good for me to practice my serving skills too since this is such an important part to the food service industry and the overall dining experience of the guests we cook for.

Week 3- The Heart of A Baker is Realized

Me and my cocoa- Oh the things I can make with this!

Internship- Black Star Farms

Steph Sheffer

Week 3

This week it is all about the baking!

I love this new characteristic of my job.  One important aspect of both the Inn and the Hearth and Vine Cafe is the fresh baked goods that we offer.  I am not allowed to do anything in the yeasted breads category, including laminated dough’s since Jen does these types of breads in the Brick Oven for Nine Bean Rows on a daily basis and we use her products.  I am allowed to make cookies, brownies, coffee cakes, quick breads and muffins of all kinds, and my most favorites, Macaroons! 

My beautiful Baked goods!

cookies ready and set out for hospitality for our guests

I am turning into the go-to girl for most of these items and I am having a lot of fun with it.  I even got to make some special requests when the Sysco order was put in this week for certain items that would help me put out even more delicious products.  I am learning to fit in my baking tasks with my responsibilities that are growing with Breakfast.  Chef Jon has given me a key now so I am taking over doing breakfasts more frequently.  My first solo breakfast without supervision was this week, twice!

Strawberry Waffles Stack with Pork sausage

Spinach quiche with Tomato Chutney, Bacon and Goat cheese

I also found out that I got a raise too!  Apparently it is the fastest one ever, though I just think they wanted to make sure I was a good fit before paying me the higher rate.  Either way I am thrilled.  How wonderful to be paid for doing everything that I love.  I am realizing very quickly that my dreams are becoming a reality and that becoming a chef is truly the right choice for me.  I can see so many outlets for me to pursue through Blackstar farms and beyond that I sometimes don’t know where to begin.  For now I will stay focused, since I still have a lot to learn and Blackstar is turning out to be a great foundation for my hopeful future success in this industry.

Week Two- Internship Experiences Galore at Black Star Farms

Revold Road Sunrise on my way into work 

Internship- Black Star Farms

Steph Sheffer

Week 2

I spent an entire evening researching what I could do for my very first breakfast at the Inn.  Once I came up with a plan and a recipe to work off from, I ok’d it with the chef the day before and then I experimented it on the family at home. 

My test run plate at home the night before

I decided to make a crustless quiche since I would be cooking for a smaller group that morning.  The Inn can accommodate up to 20 guests at a time, this particular morning we would be serving 6 guests.  I used ramekins to cook my quiches that had to be done in the oven inside a water bath.  At home when I practiced I found a few things that didn’t work quite right or needed to be changed.  This was good for when I recreated them for my first breakfast because they came out really nice.  

There are a lot of things I would do differently now- but for a first try this was alright :)

Most breakfasts at the Inn are expected to have a starch, meat of some kind, vegetable, sauce and a garnish.  There is a little bit of room for changing this up, in the case of a sweet breakfast like waffles you may omit the veggies or you could be creative and put your veggies in the waffles!  So for my first breakfast I made “A crustless roasted vegetable quiche with a Red House White and Crimson tomato sauce, finished with Raclette cheese.  I garnished it with a fresh chive and rested the quiche on top of some wilted spinach too!  I had two guests hug me after the finished breakfast that morning and one couple even clapped in applause.  It felt good to have accomplished my first breakfast at the Inn so successfully.

Another aspect that is required when you work at the Inn is to create appetizer plates for “Hospitality.”  This is the reception that the guests can attend when they first arrive that offers wine tasting and a few appetizers to celebrate their arrival.  For the second week I am put in charge of creating some of the appetizers.  Chef Jon helps me with a few ideas that have worked in the past, but gives me some room to come up with my own too.  One of my first appetizers I created was asparagus wrapped in prociutto and then baked in the oven with a Parmesan garnish.  They turned out really nice!

I also had an opportunity to shadow Chef Paul this week at the Hearth and Vine.  This was a really great experience as well.  Chef Paul cooks an entire meal for their patrons out of a  wood-fired brick oven!  They can only accommodate up to 20- 25 reservations at the Café, which does a lunch menu of pizzas, salads and sandwiches in the daytime and then transitions to the more formal dining restaurant in the evening.  I helped prep a lot of the elements of dinner that afternoon while also having the chance to create a few pizzas and learn how to use the brick oven.  I had a great time and was completely enthralled with the talent of Chef Paul, as he would create up to four entrees at a time in the brick oven that evening.  He was like a one-man band, completing five different tasks at a time to complete each entrée.  Every single patron that night was gushing with compliments. 

Chef Paul in action- cooking with the brick oven- very cool!

-The brick oven with dinner being created inside

One of the plated dinners that evening

I am starting to see why I love culinary so much.  There is a specific artistry that each chef applies to his or her craft.  I love how we are creating not only great food, but touching all the emotions and senses that are required to make our food memorable.  At Blackstar the culinary staff is contributing to a very satisfying experience for all their guests and patrons.  Every person that I have seen experience a meal here, leaves with such satisfied smiles and gushing with compliments.  I love it here!  

The FoodLover was an Intern :)

I have decided that it would be fun to share with you my weekly logs for the internship I just completed at Black Star Farms.  It is a requirement to complete 300 hours of experience in order to graduate and within 10 weeks I have finally and successfully completed this task.  For the next ten days I will post each weeks story- the synopsis that i had to send to my instructor.  I hope you enjoy- it was really fun for me to go back and read these now that i have been at Blackstar for almost three months.  So many amazing and wonderful things have happened since I started my journey there and I can't wait to see what happens next!  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be doing what I love everyday- A foodlover's dream come true!

Internship- Black Star Farms

Steph Sheffer

Week 1

-Early morning scene outside kitchen door at the Inn in Late April

The sound of a rooster crowing is my very first indication that I have arrived at my dream job destination.  An “Agricultural Destination” is the branding slogan that Black Star Farms uses and I can’t think of any better way to describe it myself.  There are so many different venues on the Black Star Farms property that lend to the overall success of fulfilling this slogan.  I would like to start with the Inn where I will begin my culinary discoveries and learning process for the internship requirement that has brought me to this extraordinary and dream fulfilling employment opportunity.

For the first week at Blackstar I spent the majority of my time at the Inn learning and shadowing the process of creating Breakfast for the guests.  Immediately I am aware that this is going to be a very unique chance to exercise not only my culinary skills that I have gained from school this past year, but I will also be calling upon my decade of experience as a homemaker and the many times I have experienced opening my fridge and coming up with a meal based on what is there.  The pantry is stocked, don’t get me wrong, and the coolers and refrigerators have many different things to work with, but the only thing that is a constant is the egg.  That is because the farm has over 100 egg laying chickens and ducks to rely on.  This is a good thing since eggs are a classic when it comes to preparing breakfast.

On my first day the chef I am training with sent me out to the side of the shed to cut chives as part of the garnish for the breakfast entrees.  He also had me prepare the breakfast bar that daily consists of fresh fruit, homemade granola, vanilla bean yogurt and a variety of breakfast sweet breads and bread from the brick oven bakery that is another aspect of the farm.  I learned that the majority of the breakfast meats we use are also a product of some of the animals that are raised on the farm too.   The most profound thing I realized though is that this breakfast that is prepared for the guests has to have a “Wow” factor and by that I mean that we want our guests to feel extra special when their entrée is place in front of them.  This requires a lot of attention to not only flavors but also to presentation.  The chef I work with seems to have a lot of experience with this and I am excited to learn all of the tricks of the trade that have to do with composing a beautiful plate.

-Chef Jon plating up Root Vegetable Waffle Entree on my first day at The Inn

-Root Vegetable Waffle Stack with Shaved Ham, a poached egg and hollandaise- Yum!!!

After the first day or two the Chef tells me that I will do my first solo breakfast towards the end of the month- a day later he decides I am ready to do one as soon as week two!  I am ready for the challenge and I can’t wait to show them what I can do!

Get Ready Because Here They Come!

A day or three off from work......  Just in time and Thank Goodness!

Just in time for me to make sure and show my family how much I adore them.  The summer buzz is just on the horizon for our Northwestern Michigan communities and businesses.  This is the time of year for us to be our most excellent and practice extreme hospitality.  To shine and share all the beauty that makes our piece of terrain here so special.  We have trimmed our hedges, raked the beaches, and started to harvest the first fruits of our labor in the gardens and berry patches.  The expectant masses are on their way, to taste and experience and create postcard memories that will be their reminder to return again and again.

Are you ready?

 I have been practicing for these moments my whole life.  My rehearsals have consisted of many different mediums, yet each experience is vital to my ability to be successful in meeting the expectations awaiting my attention.

"Togetherness" -seems to be a very important thing lately- though I don't know when it ever wasn't really important.  I am always looking forward to the people of my life.  Of course the original crew like my family and forever friends, my time with them is priceless.   The new releases have been amazing too- like those people who I have just met, my newest friends- You are all great!

Additionally I am gathering some lovely acquaintances on a daily morning basis when I work at the Inn at Blackstar.  The guests that attend breakfast are some of the most lovely people I have ever met.  They are always so gracious and kind- truly thankful for the work that the entire staff performs to meet their highest expectations.  I have received hugs and enormous compliments for some of my breakfast creations recently.  Sometimes I don't know what to say, especially when someone tells me it was "the best breakfast of their entire life" and then takes my picture to complete the memory.  Another guest told me recently that up until this particular breakfast he "hated quiche."  That was until he ate the one I prepared, he totally subscribed to the clean plate club!  Yay!

Of course it isn't always a home run with everyone, but that is OK.  I've had a few guests who just don't want what we are serving, but that is really a rare occasion.  I know I still have a lot to learn and thankfully I have some wonderful teachers to guide me through it all.  Everyone I work with is so supportive and perceptive.  I am also spending some time practicing at home.  It kind of feels nerdy sometimes, but I think that if I am going to be the best that I need the practice.  Even though the guest list changes just about on a daily basis, I can't make the same entree every day.  I have a few plates I am comfortable with now, but I want to do more.  I want to push the standards and really wow people!

This coming weekend involves some different events for us too.  These are always fun because it involves a totally different set-up and skills inventory.  I am super impressed with the menus that the Chef puts together.  They are really superior in all the important components- and I think that anyone who books an event at The Inn will not be disappointed.  I learn so much with these events, its an overall  amazing experience!

I have three social events outside of work in the next three days-  Every night we'll be out on the town- wining and dining and spending time with our favorite family and friends.  Hopefully meeting new friends too!

                                       

Sweeter Song CSA deliveries start this week, actually tomorrow!  

The gardens at our own Stellar View Farm are in full bloom, and the chicks and ducklings are growing fast!  Farm Markets are open and strawberries beckon us to their fields to be picked.

This is how it is for those of us who embrace the social effects of the summer sunshine.  I have been looking forward to this time all year long- Its finally here!