The Albanian Kitchen

The Stephen Center

This particular opportunity is the most multifaceted of my travels so far. Cognitively pulling on knowledge from all of my previous schooling, from culinary, business and I guess a little bit of my fashion school as well. I had to laugh at myself about getting excited over the idea of doing a market survey, to get feedback from the local missionaries that The Stephen Center gets most of its’ business from. There is an art and strategy to putting together a survey- something I learned at UW and it excites me that I might get to do it in "real life" now and not just for a grade.

Me helping with catering job

Some of my time has been spent in the kitchen watching the crew; servers and chefs complete tickets. There, I’m mainly looking at accuracy, timing, communication and cleanliness. I’ve helped with a few of their catering jobs which is a lot of fun too, since God gave me the passion for organization :) 

This has also been a good time to build relationships with the Albanian staff (really the only Albanians I’m in contact with). One of the women in the kitchen is helping me learn Albanian, which is a lot of fun and beginning to become a passion for me (learning languages). Inevitably I’m also learning about the Albanian culture, their food culture in particular. There is one Albanian item on the menu which the 21 year old Albanian chef said he had for breakfast growing up, an egg and pepper sandwich. Picture an omelet with thinly sliced green peppers placed in between two pieces of white bread with a slice of cheese, then placed in a panini press. Haven’t tried it yet but doesn’t sound too bad? The other Albanian dishes I’ve had in restaurants nearby are hard to describe (don't ask me the names) but I would classify them as comfort food meals, warm, hearty and simple.

Albanian lunch (also served with rice)

Ok, back to The Stephen Center- they are blessed to have a good size kitchen to work in but I keep getting the feeling that they need some new equipment and possibly a different layout to really make the kitchen run efficiently.  I’ve taken pictures and created a diagram of the current kitchen and emailed them to some seasoned chefs I know in the industry to get their opinion. Another part of my time has been with the awesome accounting lady who is very helpful, patient and takes the time to explain the printouts I’ve asked for. That has been one huge eye opener, how different the accounting is, not wrong but presented differently than I was taught. Honestly, it took a lot of brain power to understand what numbers meant what as she was breaking it down for me. I’ve also spent a good amount of time analyzing the menu as far as taste and popularity.  

I was joking just the other day, saying it’s hard being a food critic, I had to try the strawberry waffles today :) what is funny, all the staff watches for my reaction when I go to take a bite. In culinary school I encountered this a lot, constantly sampling food I made, other students made, or the chef instructors made.  It’s a humbling feeling because I don’t feel like some expert whose word is law but more so my heart is to help/serve The Stephen Center wherever they need it. And since they ask for my opinion I give it to them.  I’ll share one critique I had, it was with the pancakes. 

Chris doing side by side taste test

Flavor was slightly different and texture was heavier as well. Go to find out they had been using semolina flour (traditionally used for pasta dough) instead of all-purpose flour. We did a side by side comparison and sure enough everyone agreed the all-purpose tasted better and more like home for the Americans and as far as texture was concerned, we changed the consistency of the batter. So there you go. 

Still a good amount of work to do but it's exciting and I pray I'm doing it in God's strength and not my own. Praise God for this serving/learning opportunity for me! He is just simply amazing and filling my heart with love, in more ways than one:) 

God Bless,