Menu Wars

Introduction

What is Menu Wars? Menu Wars is our final assignment with our seniors where we get separated into two teams and from this we have to create a menu and work together in order to be successful. We put together seven meals, in tasting portions, for teachers and administrators at our school. They gave us tips and scores on each of our meals to see who the final winner would be. Overall, this was an amazing experience filled with stress but many more laughs. Although my team did not come out successful, I wouldn't trade the experience. 

Team Work

My team, The Homestead, was going for the theme comfort. Going into this, I was nervous because I never really worked alongside my teammates before in the kitchen and I wasn't sure how we were going to work together. I also was used to working by myself on my recipes, so having to balance my dish plus helping out my teammates was definitely a struggle the first two prep days, but I think we came along way on the final day. On our first meeting day, we realized that each of our themes had a commonality of comfort throughout them, so we decide that that is what we wanted to focus on making our restaurant. Our first assignment, that we had to do was to make a menu. This was difficult at first because we had to cut some meals and add some which was definitely not the best way to start off our team environment, but it was something that we had to do. No one obviously wanted to get their meal cut, but it was what was best for the whole team. After we created our menu meals, we had to create the actual menu design and name. The name was difficult because we had many disagreements upon what we wanted to call it. However, at the end of the period, we decided that The Homestead was the best name to help convey the theme through the name. Now, in order to create the design, we made a shared canva template and began from there. We were discussing whether to use blue or red as our color to convey comfort, but we decided to go with red. We used The Little Barn as an example to build off of. Originally, we had white lettering with red boxes instead of the yellow with the red and black lettering. However, we realized once we printed it out that it was somewhat difficult to read, so we had to switch it up until we found something that worked. This was stressful because we were on very limited time to make a menu and when we realized that it was difficult to read, one of my teammates had to spend extra time of printing and cutting this version of the menu. I believe that as we grew as a team over the week because as we spent more time together, we were able to learn more and get closer. This showed on the final day when we had to help each of us succeed with our plating and serving. 

Day 1

Day 1/Draft 1 of Menu Wars was a little rough for me personally. It didn't start off the best especially when I had to switch my dish. I originally wanted to do chicken marsala; however, my team had too many chicken and meat dishes, and we didn't have a salad. So, I switched to doing a mushroom and arugula salad for the day, or so I thought. Since my group had seven people and the other group had six we needed to take away a dish and since mine was already changing, I offered to be that person. On the prep days and real menu wars day I would just be a help to my teammates and anything that they needed, but I needed to make something today. I needed to make something because chef bought a lot of mushrooms for my chicken marsala, but since I wasn't doing it, I didn't want to waste them. So, I found a salad recipe online that incorporated mushrooms. I went through a bunch of different recipes online and this one looked the best. On the prep day, I just made the mushrooms. I did this by cutting the mushrooms, then tossing them in oil, cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then I put them in the oven for about 15 mins until that got harder/crunchy. I did this by tapping them to feel the hardness, but also looking at the toppings to see how the amount of time in the oven was affecting them. Such as the cheese sticking to the pan. On the actual cook day, I made the dressing and assembled the salad. The dressing was very simple to make, it was just balsamic vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper all mixed together. Then assembling the salad was much a handful of arugula on the bottom, then mushrooms on top, and to finish it off, I freshly grated parmesan cheese. Overall, this salad was very simple, quick, and easy to make. For the feedback aspect, I was told that I put too much dressing on it and I notice that now as I look at the picture. You can see it getting soggy. Along with this, chef told me to maybe switch up the dressing to a glaze or rosé vinegar. Another thing that I wanted to do was to switch the type of lettuce because arugula isn't my favorite, but chef said to keep it the same and not to change a thing. I got feedback from my team and they all said that the mushrooms were delicious, but they agreed with the dressing aspect. On this day, I got another job added on my hands, the drink. I wasn't supposed to make the drink either, so being asked to make it was a surprise. The first day making it was definitely rough because I didn't know the recipe and it called for having the drink cool off and there wasn't enough time for that, so the first time we drank it, it was all diluted and didn't taste the best. The first step was to make the hibiscus tea. I did this by boiling water, then adding rosemary and hibiscus flowers. After that, I let it sit for 10 minutes and I strained it until it was just liquid. Next, I had to make the syrup which was pineapple juice, lime juice, and sugar. After I made this, we put it right over ice and mixed it all together. This was our problem because we didn't let it cool off before, so it didn't taste the best, but you could see that the potential was there. Overall, today was a good day because we learned a lot about what we needed to adjust to make it perfect and what we need to work on as a team. 

Day 2

The week after Day 1, we did our second trial run of menu wars. I would say this one was a lot more successful since we were able to make the changes we needed and taste/prepare the dishes we were actually making. My team decided to stick with the salad and keep it in as a dish because the other team added a dish, so it evened out. They all loved the salad and didn't want to take it out. I think this dish added a lot to my team because it is tasty and quick, so I am able to help out my team by making this dish that tastes good and then by being able to help out my teammates and make the drink as well. My prep and process was the same, besides the dressing. However, my produce was a little different because of my plating. Instead of making one big salad, I had to separate it into 7 different dishes. So I put a handful of arugula on the plate, 4 pieces of mushrooms, freshly grated cheese, then the dressing to finish it off. It looked and tasted good, but the two things that I have to change for the final day is to make sure that I have 3 mushrooms instead of 4 and to use less salad so that the dish isn't as big. Along with this, I worked with my teammates before this cook day to decide what dressing i was going to use next. We decided that I was going to use Rose Vinegar. We tried balsamic vinegar, balsamic glaze, and this one, yet the Rose was the winner by far. It was very delicate and delicious. Now, the drink came out a lot better this round because I made the tea on the prep day, so it had the chance to cool off all night, so it wasn't diluted. Then on the cook day, I made the syrup after I finished my salad and I waited to mix it all together until right before we tasted all of our dishes. We were still figuring out the measurements of how much sweetener to put in, but it was just based off our opinions from tasting it. It was much better since it wasn't dilouted and we figured out the correct amount of syrup to use. Then, when we finished all of our dishes we were able to meet as a group and taste all of them and have chef taste them for any last minute changes. Overall, this day went very well. 

Day 3 - Final Day

The final day was here! I was very excited but also very nervous. I have never had an experience quite like this one before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The prep day was the same as both of the ones before, I made the mushrooms and the hibiscus tea. However, the cook day is when everything changed. Personally, it wasn't very stressful unit the clock hit 10 and everyone was beginning to feel rushed and getting nervous. Especially since my team was going first, so we had to be ready quicker. First, before helping anyone I made sure that I had all of the components to my dish ready, so that when it was my turn to plate, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. However, once I finished with getting my things together such as making the dressing and making the syrup, I was able to help out the rest of my team with their dishes and plating. Lucas was a big help to me with the drinks. He helped me mix it to perfection, the garnishes, pouring, and he did the introduction. Then, for the two dishes before me, I helped my teammates in cleaning the plates once they had their food down, so that it looks clean and not messy. I also helped serve the judges. We had to make sure that we put down and picked up the dishes over the right shoulder. Walking in that room for the first time was definetly a little intimidating, but all of the judges were very nice and welcoming so it calmed the nerves a bit. Then, it was my turn. I did all of the plating myself. I put my handful of arugula, three mushrooms, parmesean cheese, and my dressing. My teammates all helped me bring it out though. This was the most stressful part for me since I don't exactly love public speaking. I had to introduce myself, my dish, and how it connects to my theme. It might've been obvious that I was nervous, but I think I still did a good job. Entering back into the kitchen, it was so sticky and hot from all of the moving around, body heat, and heat from the stove. I was sweating and I know other people were as well. Once my dish was done, I just focused on helping my teammates and cleaning. There were so many dishes in the sink and just around the kitchen in general. We were doing pretty well on time, until we reached around the pasta when we started getting behind. This is when things began to get more chaotic, since we started rushing more. But we made it work, each plate got out, cleared, and washed. After my team finished and the other team finished, they all called us in to tell us how we did such a good job. All of the judges loved the food. Overall, I would call today a huge success. We worked up to this day for so long and it paid off. 

Conclusion

I personally found this event really fun. I loved the menu planning and the thrill of working in the kitchen as if it was a restaurant. The experience was like nothing I've ever had to do before. I'm thankful that my team was so helpful in aiding me to be successful and that they were all open to allowing me to help them. Although, my team didn't win in the end, I still believe that we did a fantastic job. I learned the importance of teamwork in and out of the kitchen and how it reflects on everything. If we didn't have the teamwork that we did on the final day, we wouldn't have finished as we did. I'm super proud of myself and my team. 

Recipe

Funghi Assoluti

https://vivaciousgourmet.com/funghi-assoluti-warm-mushroom-and-arugula-salad/

Prep time = 15 mins

Cook time = 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 4 cups arugula

• 2 cups oyster or mixed mushrooms roughly chopped

• 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp for dressing & 1 tbsp for mushrooms

• 2 tbsp bread crumbs gluten free

• 2 tsp garlic powder

• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan

• 1 tbsp shaved Parmesan for topping

• 1 tbsp Rose Sweet Vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Chop up oyster mushrooms to a bowl. Add in olive oil, grated Parmesan, breadcrumbs (option to use gluten free), garlic powder and mix together.

3. Place on a baking sheet in the oven for 10-15 minutes at so they can get crispy. Careful not to burn.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, Rose Sweet Vinegar, salt and pepper for vinaigrette.

5. Remove mushrooms from oven. Place over bed of arugula.

6. Add shaved Parmesan cheese and drizzle with dressing. Buon Appetito!