Change is good...?

Whenever it takes his fancy, that is to say, when the hotel isn't busy and there are no functions, my esteemed excutive chef feels the need to change the menu for new more exciting things. It should come as no surprise to me anymore but I still get flustered by the changes.

There was once when he wanted a change in the coffee house pastry buffet menu. One fine day he just decided that he was bored with all the old items. We were given two days to complete this task. A gargantuan one considering that we have almost 40 different items on the menu. We of course had to work day and night to finish up the items which was further delayed by the fact that we did not have many of the raw ingredients. Being as it may we managed to get everything done, bowing and scraping, stealing and pilfering to get enough cartons of cream and enough number of egg yolks. It was a miraculous transformation. The buffet was beautiful again. ~happy smiles and self-congratulatory pats on the back~ We all breathed a sigh of relief.

After three months, the scene was repeated. This time our ever knowing exec chef decided that the customers were too bored with all the (3month old) items. So it was revamped again. What struck me most is that we were required to do it all at the drop of a hat. Moussess done individually in plastic piping molds with layers of vanilla creme brulee in dark chocolate mousse then glazed with caramel galze and topped off with a single almond macaroon . Then there were the mango trifles which had to be done in miniature glassess complete with sponge sandwiched with raspberry jam and topped with a paperthin layer of lemongrass bavarois (I kid you not).

It's no wonder the pastry staff are always on their toes, it's no wonder that even when the hotel isn't making enough business to pay out overtime wages so the staff are encouraged to go home on time that the pastry staff work from morning til night whipping, tempering, creaming, baking, unmoulding, cutting and glazing the darned desserts.

It's no wonder the cost is so high every few months because we have to order new things, new order lists, new garnishings, new everything.

And don't let me get started on the home made ice cream we have there!

It's a good thing that I love my job, otheriwse I'd be so terrorised by it all that I'd be put off baking another cream puff in my whole life.

Currently, we're looking to change the lobby lounge's menu. Twenty new items by the sounds of it.

~phew~sighs~

Time frame: ....And the chef saw all the desserts that needed to be created and said,
" Let it all be done by tommorow night"

Rev up the machines, crack those eggs, whip that cream into shape, roll up those sleves.

Let the game begin!