Waste not, want not…

Yesterday morning, my friend Martin, the private chef, was prepping for a dinner party he would be cooking and serving that evening. 

I got a phone call while I was cleaning in the production kitchen, “Hey Julz, I have some leftover lobster claws and knuckles if you want them; I won’t be using them.”

Of course, I told him yes and ran across the street to his house. Martin was doing mise en place for the dinner; he just took a cake out of the oven and started a sauce. 

It smelled heavenly in his kitchen! He got out the leftover lobster for me. I stayed and chatted for a few minutes but got on my way since I knew he was busy. 

Martin was making an old-school dish called Lobster Thermidor. He was cooking for an older crowd who would go crazy for it. I would go crazy for it! 

This morning, I started the kitchen task of cracking the claws and knuckles and pulling out the lobster meat. There were a lot of them! 

At first, I was out of practice and timid, but then I sprung into action and was done in no time.

I had a lot of that “unwanted” lobster meat and decided to make Connecticut-style lobster rolls for lunch. 

Instead of using mayo like in Maine lobster rolls, Connecticut-style warms up the lobster in melted butter with chives and a crushed garlic clove. Just warmed up, not reheated entirely. 

Sam came home last night to work a shift in Bennington since he is still a per diem employee. It was perfect timing for the lobster since it’s Sam’s favorite. 

I toasted some GF baguette (even though we would all rather have had a potato hotdog bun but can’t), melted some butter, and added chives and one crushed garlic clove. 

I let the butter simmer for a few minutes, added the lobster meat, and heated it until warm. I filled the buns, and viola! A delicious lobster roll lunch for free! Yay! 

I thanked Martin and texted him photos. He was so happy I got so much meat “out of those things.” Lol

Another cook’s waste is another cook’s treasure. That’s how stocks and sauces are made. 

Saucier Chefs come into the kitchen early in the morning and use the waste of bones, unused ends of produce, and the stems of herbs from the prep cooks. Nothing is thrown away.

The saucier chef roasts the bones and creates stocks, reductions, sauces, soups, and demi glazes. Basically, they are building flavors using waste, time, and skill.

Saucier Chefs create the backbone of the finished dishes prepared by dinner service line cooks and chefs. 

My culinary dream has always been to be a saucier chef. I love making stocks, sauces and gravies. Some of my culinary students used to call me the “Gravy Master.” 😂

I would love to come in early while the kitchen is quiet, except for the baker, who has been there since the middle of the night, creating their own magic with flour, water, and yeast.

The job is to create magic out of waste, then get the heck out of there before all hell breaks loose during dinner service. 

Sounds like a perfect job for me. 👩‍🍳