How to Execute The Dorm Room at 33,
or how I learned to love the bomb.
By Josh Galliano
I don't have all the answers for the chefs who will do The Dorm Room over the following months. It'll change each month with each chef and each menu. So, consider whatever I write to be a guideline that needs adjustments and improvisations and the stuff that chefs do to get the job done. Some of what I'll say might be insightful, but most of it will be recollections of what I went through.
All in all, I had a blast! It's great to serve people food who just get a kick and thrill out of eating and dining with others. Here's to y'all, you're the ones who made The Dorm Room a success.
One last thing before I start my diatribe. I'm really sorry to the people who didn't like certain courses. I wish I would've known ahead of time. When I was cooking at 33, I couldn't do things on the fly like at Monarch. I can't change a menu into a vegetarian menu or a vegan menu on the fly because I don't have my dry storage or my walk-in. I brought only what I needed, and finding out too late about restrictions just meant I felt like crap because I couldn't do anything to make you happy. Does that mean that I would offer a different version of the menu? Well, there's the rub. I don't know the answer to that one because I don't think I could've prepped a different option with everything that was going on for me.
1) Hire a dishwasher. Did you see Mike and Dillon doing all those dishes? Holy crap, I was ready to hire them at Monarch just because they were keeping up with drinks and dishes with NO MECHANICAL DISHWASHER! Mistake #1: no extra dish help, or to rephrase Mistake #1: I should've used disposable plates and utensils.
This brings up a pretty big ethical/financial question. Would you have felt comfortable paying what you did if everything was served on Chinette with clear plastic utensils? I was lucky enough to bring plates and silverware for all the courses, but it created stress. Big stress especially when we were double using some plates for both seatings. Plus, I never ate on disposable plates in my dorm room. Cheap Saigon City bowls and plates, sure, just nothing that actually could be thrown away.
2) Discuss your menu with Jeff. Why, so he can print menus days ahead of time instead of two hours before the event. Plus, the guys serving the food can actually pair wines or beer, or, Heaven forbid, explain the food for you.
3) Electrical circuits can only support so many dorm room appliances. If you're thinking about fudging the hot plate by using your induction burner, think again. If you want to do that, you might be cooking on your induction burner in the basement and trying to run the food up to your plating area.
4) Maybe another folding table, one for appliances and mis en place; another one for plating. Screw the entryway for the new bathrooms.
5) Bring a friend. Make sure that person has a fundamental knowledge of your menu and dishes so that two people (or more) can actually plate it up. One person doing all of this is crazy. Use the buddy system, it'll save you.
6) Hydration. Very important.
7) Show up early to prepare yourself for how you want things and where you want your stuff. Maybe storyboard the meal, with a diagram or a list of everything that is supposed to go on the plate.
Example: Sorry first seating, I forgot to get the ricotta salata out of the cheese fridge to put on your salad!
Go and talk to the guests. They came to see you and eat your food. Jesus H. Christ, they are your ardent fans who would throw down for you at Pop's if someone spoke bad about you, your restaurant, or your food.
9) Schedule all family emergencies for the week following The Dorm Room. It's just easier that way.
I never had a chance to explain the courses like I thought I would be able to explain them. Me on a soapbox, preaching each course to the congregation just didn't happen. Here's what was going on in my head for the selection and execution of the courses.
I started living in a dorm when I was 15. Sounds young, huh? It was this place:
www.lsmsa.edu . We had six wings to our dorm, and I lived on the Asian wing. It wasn't really "The Asian Wing", but when you think about it, my best friend across the hall is the biggest (like muscular, and you should see his younger bros) Vietnamese guy you've ever met, two Chinese guys' parents owned Chinese restaurants on the Westbank of New Orleans, and various other kids all lived on 2C. So, my dorm room cookery started off young by eating their food that was brought to them or that they cooked in their rooms. We weren't supposed to cooking in our rooms, but they had the family style rice cookers and crock pots! Me, I had a roommate who loved making rueben sandwiches and loved eating the food that I would bring back from Maw-Maw's house. Naturally, a barter system started up. One mini pecan pie from Maw Maw could easily fetch a plate of Vietnamese Bi that Louis' dad (a war veteran that was shot 7 times!) made.
I would mention my time in an LSU dorm, but it was disgusting. I didn't really feel comfortable cooking in there since the whole building was disgusting. I think they have torn down that building. it was like a thirteen story cess pool. Most freshmen wound up there.
Anyway, I digress. There was a lot of influences to the menu and I stretched the meaning of dorm room to fit my experiences in a dorm room.
Course One Praline Bacon
Could it be more simple than par baking some bacon. Topping it with a mixture of equal parts brown sugar and nuts (blitzed in a robot coupe, sorry that was a fudged use of an electrical appliance), and then rebaking it? I used a toaster oven, which was an ever present item in my dorm room cookery. How else were we going to make ruebens?
Did I eat this in my dorm room? Nope, but my Cajun friend from Eunice used to bring up boudin and we would put a pot of water on to simmer so we could heat up our boudin and eat it on white bread. Good times.
Nod to the Southern upbringing.
Course Two Walker's Greens
Another simple course, but it was simple because with good produce, it doesn't have to be complicated. Just don't get in the way of the beauty of those spicy greens.
I originally wanted to shave artichokes and put those on top of the salad, but that got tossed out when I ran out of time for prepping this meal. So, I grabbed the plantain chips that were hanging out in the kitchen from Saturday service. Fudge #2. For emulsifying the vinaigrette, I did use a handheld blender. I thought that it was an acceptable appliance, 110V with no real rpm's.
The second seating got the pickled scapes that I was going to offer on the side with the Praline Bacon, but I forgot that.
Nod to my love of farming and local produce. Cane syrup in the vinaigrette, nod to my love of sugarcane.
Course Three Herb Marinated Opah
Really easy going dish. I think I was scared of putting this on the menu for fear of being called out for not really cooking. Great dish, with beautiful fish and great black garlic. Hell, I could've just served that as a course and been happy.
Nod to my love of off the beaten path fish and Mediterranean cuisine. Or, as Roger Verge said, the Cuisine of the Sun.
Course Four Red Braised Pork
The Chinese guys taught me how to cook jasmine rice with Chinese sausage in it. Or that shredded pork stuff that comes with the red or the blue label. When we were out of supplies (or in other words, it was time to go home to restock) we'd cook rice and Chinese sausage.
They cooked a dish similar to the red braised pork, but truth be told, I learned how to cook this from my friend and fellow cook James Wong. Cooking sometimes feels like a dorm room culture, so I borrowed from what James showed me. The pig feet seemed daunting to most people, so if I were to do it over again, maybe I'd just get a bunch of fresh hocks.
Fudge #3: I boiled the eggs on the stoves at work because I was running out of time. And I doubted if my hot plate could actually boil anything.
Course Five Banana Pudding
I love banana pudding! Which is funny because I didn't eat it as a young kid and I didn't really eat a lot of fruit when I was younger. But then again, Southerners eat fruit two ways: fresh from the tree/plant or cooked with a ton of sugar (you should've felt the toothache after Maw-Maw's Out of This World Pie!).
I added in about a pound of browned butter, but I should've added more as that barely dented the 64 egg yolks from Dave Hillebrand that went into that creme patisserie. We also fudged (#4) the rules by bringing a KitchenAid Mixer.
Nod to the South again.
Mignardises Fresh Apricots and Persimmons
I love foraging for local produce. It's free and if you were to buy it from some fine foods distributor, they would charge you an arm and a leg. Why? It's free by definition of it growing wild. On it's own. With no help from you or me.
Anyway, I go looking for stuff a lot with my father in law since he knows the area really well. He gets a shit eating grin on his face when I tell him about some of the things that I'm looking for, and he gets a bigger grin when he brings me stuff that he knows I'll like. (You should've saw his face when I told him I wanted the lambs quarters in his garden. "You want what?" "You know, the wild spinach over there by your potatoes and brussel sprouts." "That's a weed, Josh.")
Nod to free stuff.
Thanks again for a great experience and being understanding about the commando cooking situation that I created in the new addition to 33.
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