Mise En Place

Yesterday was the last LAST day at El Bulli. We did the mise en place for Oriol´s wedding on Sunday. Oriol Castro is one of the two sous chefs - and a crazy man - and we love him for that. So it was the other sous chef, the chefs des parties, me, and Tomo. Tomo is a Japanese stagiaire who´s been trying to get into El Bulli for three years. He emailed Albert Raurich - the chef de cuisine - every week for three years - until Albert finally relented. Tomo-san is doing the sushi for the wedding - fatty tuna and salmon and I think one other fish. The big part of my day was spent shelling 120 Brittany blue lobster tails - with my bare hands - almost bare - wearing the surgical gloves that are essential in the kitchen. The lobsters were cooked in ocean water only - drawn from the beach below El Bulli - then let to cool just long enough so it was not so much like picking up a boiling hot rock - just an almost boiling hot rock. Then you pop off the claws at the base, then snap off the head from the tail. The tail you take and gently crack either between your hands, or lean on to it on a sturdy table - you don´t want to damage the meat - though it is firm. Brittany bleu lobsters are supposed to have the highest ratio of meat to shell. The claws are cracked separately - and the legs picked through. But what hurts my Chinese heart is that most of the heads are just thrown away. Some are saved for stock - but not all. Yesterday, Mauro - the dark and handsome half of El Bulli´s Italian chef de partie couple - his girlfriend Loretta the beautiful blonde in pastry - Mauro mercifully made risotto - with a fond from a fair amount of the heads. Amazing. And after my fish fest at Rafa´s the night before I could not have beared having another piece of seafood - but for this Chinese girl, Mauro´s lobster risotto soothed my body and soul.