Kaiseki Chronicles #1

Maybe some of you have noticed the small change in the “about me” section on my sidebar. Yes, I’m no longer an izakaya worker. After the izakaya was closed, they decided to start a kaiseki (traditional Japanese full-course meal) place there. As this is my very first time to experience what it is like when starting a new restaurant, I’d like to post about it as much as possible and share with the whole world. Last night, all the staff (the owner, new manager, new cooks, waitresses and dishwashers who are ex-izakaya employees) got together at our workplace. We talked about the work shift and tried new uniform on, then went to a yakiniku place together to mingle. :D For a couple of days, all staff members are coming to work to prepare for the opening day which is the 30th (I think). Tonight we are going to do some “practice,” having the owner’s friends only as clients. As some of you might know, I’m interested in kaiseki, and I have tried making “quasi-kaiseki” myself twice before. So I’m very glad to be able to see and learn about real kaiseki at work from now on. On the other hand, I would have to be real careful when doing dishes… Izakaya is a kind of down-to-earth place, but kaiseki is a real classy thing, and eating utensils used in kaiseki course are often terribly expensive. I'm a bit nervous about that. ----- The practice day (29th) went OK… I think. The preparation kept everyone so busy. I had to wash new dishes for a couple of hours in the morning, and went to my daytime work at another office in the afternoon, then came back to wash more dishes in the evening. But once we started serving kaiseki, we didn’t get too busy because we only had limited number of clients who are the owners’ friends. We finished everything at around 10:30 pm, IIRC. Categories: Kaiseki