July 27th - Finally, 5 Star

After all of my complaining, I finally saw results in my work today. My shift was switched from 9 AM – 6 PM to 1 PM – 10 PM. Now that I am completing the afternoon shift, I will be able to work with the 5-star restaurants in the Hotel: Stella (Italian) and Jamavar (Indian). In both of these restaurants, I will spend time in the kitchen and restaurant shadowing the manager and head chef. The managers will go over with the processes of the restaurant, daily routines, and what they did career-wise to get to this point. The head chefs will go over the entire menu selection with me and then personally teach me how to make certain dishes – this I am very excited about.

I started today in Stella. To be honest, I went into it pretty closed-minded because I did not come to India to learn about Italy. But really, I can learn a lot from this restaurant. I learned how you must tailor a cuisine to fit the nation’s palate and what you must do differently in India compared to the United States. I mostly shadowed Shashwati – the only female working in Stella who also happens to be the restaurant manager – and learned how she has to deal with the staff, chefs, customers, and deliveries.

Before the restaurant opened, Shashwati took me around and explained to me the processes of everything. But once the restaurant opened, I was in the kitchen – which couldn’t have been more fun. It was like being a camera man on the set of Hell’s Kitchen for 4 hours, I just watched the chefs freak out, the plates being set, the dishes being created, and the tantrums that happen almost every ten minutes.

The menu was great for an Indian Italian restaurant, Stella is actually the highest grossing Italian restaurant in India! The menu includes beef, seafood, vegetables, and chicken. I was actually quite impressed at the food they were pumping out – it also inspired my dinner at Citrus to be pizza (I just had to!! I did have an Indian appetizer though).

Once I got back to my living arrangements, Shiny and Heer gave me lessons in Indian cooking! We went through each spice and went over what dishes I could use them in and what health values they hold. I will post those on my next blog, but I left me notes at home today.