When it was time for me to decide where to apply for an internship, I had no idea where to start because honestly I wanted to go anywhere. One day I was talking to my friend and he expressed his desire to work in Dubai. The second he said Dubai I loved it and whatever he said after Dubai I honestly did not pay attention to. All I did was mumble some words and move my head back and forth. Anyway, fast forward to applying, doing an interview and getting accepted for a 4 month internship. The adventure can begin.
I arrived at the airport, and was taken to the accommodation. The next day I signed a few documents, got my schedule and got introduced to the Head Chef. I was excited and nervous but I was ready to be exposed to the culinary world. The first couple of weeks I was at the breakfast buffet, basically starting from the first meal people would eat to start the day till the afternoon when obviously people would also eat their lunch. It felt really good because I thought of it as a cycle starting point being breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Later on during the internship, I loved being introduced to the pre-preparations and preparations of the industry. You learn some things about yourself you never thought you carried in your arsenal whether it was personal or professional i.e. waking up very early and by early I mean 3-4am, and anyone can relate to this because really no one wants to wake up at that hour but I actually enjoyed it and it made me look forward to the next day.
After completing the first couple of weeks I was transferred to the main kitchen. The main kitchen consisted of 5 different kitchens: Hot, Cold, Pastry, Meats and Poultry Butchery, and Fish Butchery. The main kitchen was specifically for the room service orders and I started out in the hot kitchen to once again know how it all ran. Most of the orders are sent out from there. Only one chef would work per shift so it was only him and me. I felt like I had a little more responsibility when it came to work, I had to push myself mentally to help out as much as I could. Whenever there were a lot of orders the chef form the cold kitchen would come to join in the “battle”. Sometimes I had the opportunity to actually observe how they would function efficiently when it came to little orders, which I enjoyed since I was just standing doing nothing. I learned a lot in the hot kitchen and I felt it was my biggest challenge in that area of work. Overall when it came to the hot kitchen I pushed myself in terms of responsibility, teamwork and work efficiency.
Well this is the first part of my brief Dubai internship I hope you enjoyed reading, I will continue it in the second part when I get transferred to the Butchery and Bar and Restaurant outlet. One thing I forgot to mention is when I got moved to the Main Kitchen I started waking up late for the afternoon shift.
Sincerely from an Orange,
CT
The Baked Orange 