My 9 till 5 or how I spend my days.

I am not channeling Dolly Parton but realized while I have posted random photos from my job I have never really written a whole lot about it. Firstly my 9 till 5 never begins at 9 but more like 6:30.
I work in the food service department of Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC where we have two restaurants open to the public. On the eight floor we have Café SFA which serves typical American fare with an emphasis on soups and salads. On the fifth floor we have SNAKS (the C is dropped as a play on Saks) which serves lighter food like sliders and flatbreads. I mostly work on catered events but essential do a little bit of everything.

CAFÉ SFA

The 8th floor restaurant is the largest of the two locations.  It has a fairly large menu where most people will find something they will enjoy. The top picture is our latest special, a Roasted Sea Bass with Feta Potato Pancake and Cucumber Salad. I have also posted a couple of collages of some other menu items and lastly a photo of a part of the room.

SNAKS

When putting this post together I realized I had very few photos of the food in the fifth floor restaurant as I spend little or no time in that location. This photos are a little out of date but represent the kind of food served and again I have a photo of the space. 

CATERING

This is my main are of responsibility. We do everything from a very basic continental breakfast to high end sit down dinners. I had put these collage together as promo material.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my day.

Rock Shrimp Summer Salad

Here is another one of our specials at Café SFA.
Wild Rock Shrimp with Frisee, Watercress, Heirloom Tomatoes and Green Goddess Dressing and Topped with a Deep Fried Soft Boiled Egg.

Bistro Salad

Here is just one of the new items on the menu at Café SFA.
The Bistro salad has mizuna salad, grilled asian pears, rainbow radish and heirloom tomato with sesame crusted sashimi tuna and grilled shrimp topped fried wonton skins. It is dressed with wasabi, lemon and soy dressing. 



Here is a collage of some of the menu items.

Asian Style Red Snapper

Last weeks special at Café SFA was an incredible red snapper dish. The snapper was served with a spinach, daikon radish, red pepper and mango salad over sticky rice and topped with a chili black bean sauce.
The sticky rice is basically  cooked as for sushi rice and we topped it with the pan seared snapper and the salad.






We will be launching several new menu items in the next couple of weeks so I should have lots of photos to share.

Charred Tomato Cioppino

This was our special at Café SFA today

From Wikipedia: Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco and derived from the various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine.

This version has Mussels,Clams, Shrimp, Lobster, Potato and Charred Tomato and is another of Rebecca’s creations.

Bubble and Squeak Fit For A Princess

With all the excitement of the upcoming royal wedding  our sous chef, Rebecca Murphy decided to do a new take on a classic. She took Bubble and Squeak,  a dish probably best know in England as a way to use leftovers and reworked it into a wonderful brunch item. 
The base "hash" was made with:
Sliced Cooked Potatoes 
Sliced Roasted Beets
Sliced Roasted Carrots
Shredded Cooked Cabbage
Onions
They were seasoned with salt and pepper formed in a ring mold and sauted  in butter till crisp .

We topped the hash with a poached egg which was then sauced with a grain mustard hollandaise.

We served it with a side salad of Frisse, Fennel, Dill and Chives which was tossed  with a simple  lemon and olive oil dressing.

I have to say I found this to be quite delicious.

The Many Uses of Wonton Wrappers

Obviously wonton  wrappers can be used  in their traditional manner for making dumplings. But are also very good for making a fried wonton cup which are good for serving items like tuna tartar or as a cup to hold sauces or dressings. I used mini muffin pans to lightly bake the skins just to set the shape and then deep fried them till crisp.


The more traditional use above a lobster dumpling.

Osso Bucco with Risotto

Farfalle, Beef Tips, Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes……

 

Yesterdays special at Café SFA at Saks Fifth Avenue. Farfalle, Beef Tips, Spinach, Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms and finished with a balsamic glaze.

Sushi Platters

Here  are some Sushi platters I put together for an event this evening. I can’t take credit for doing the rolls as we outsource this work.

Mardis Gras and all that

We had a very busy today but I took a little time to take some photos.Here is the special in celebration of Mardi Gras.
Shrimp Po’boy with red cabbage slaw, gribiche sauce and served with sweet potato  fries.

And here are some photos from one of the events held in the home department.

Comfort Food For a Snowy Morning

Here are a couple of shots of menu items from the past couple of weeks at Cafe SFA. The top photo is a basic Chicken Pot Pie with Celery Root. The other shot is lamb cutlets with Soft Polenta, Sauteed Spinach and Tomato Jam.

Farfalle Pasta with Shrimp, Roasted Vegetables and Brown Sage Butter Sauce

Todays special was a delicious winter pasta. The roasted vegetables were butternut squash and asparagus. It was topped with fried sage.

Breakfast Platter

We are reworking the breakfast plate for catering events. This looks like it is going to be one we go with. It has Pretzel Croissant French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage and Home Fried Potatoes served with Maple Syrup

Arctic Char with Shaved Fennel and Raisin

The "Catch The Day" today was Arctic  Char over a Shaved Fennel and Raisin Salad with Frisee and Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Mushu Pancakes Filled with Chicken

One of my co-workers wanted make Mushu pancakes as an Hors D'oeuvre item. She found a recpipe for the basic pancake here. The filling was made using hoisin sauce and sweet chile sauce. These pancakes were really delicious and looked so good on the platter secured by tying with a chive.

Open Faced Soft Shell Crab Sandwich

Here is another menu item in development for a special.
Soft shell crab served with wasabi aioli and gingered carrots and radish. Accompanied with citrus coleslaw.

My First "Page"

Well I began creating my first free standing page on this blog. I plan to have several pages each relating to different types of food or food courses.
Click    Hors D'Oeuvre Photos
 I have added a lot of photos and will add text as time permits.