Bulgogi Bake #3: The Salad Sadness

Did you know we planned to pair a salad with our Bulgogi Bake? The story begins a long time ago when Baker J just started working. Our General Manager was training him back then, spending most of the time together in the kitchen. He was always talking about ideas for new menus because Baker J was ambitious and confident then. One day, our General Manager suggested J create a salad. With much self-confidence, Baker J said he would make one in no time—but it was more like no plan.

It seems that our Baker J thought the suggestion was a suggestion. He believed that he could work on the project in his free time, not treating it as an official project from his workplace. That was why we did not hear anything about his salad project (to be honest, most of the team did not even know such a project existed).

And months have passed. After enough time for the team to realize Baker J’s potential (in making mistakes), we discussed the marketing strategy for the new menu, Bulgogi Bake, with photographs. We concluded that we should pair the Bakes with another item, preferably something new! But it was two days before the photo shoot, so we thought it was too late to add something new.

It seems that Baker J was overhearing this. Then all of a sudden, he decided to revive his salad project. Because he had been making so many mistakes and thought he wanted to cover up his long-overdue mistake of not coming up with the salad, he rushed to get ingredients for his new salad for a chance to improve his status.

Initially, our General Manager suggested J make a salad with Brussels sprouts, which we use for making bulgogi. From that scratch, Baker J bought ingredients on the day.

The next day, Baker J was in the middle of another busy day in the kitchen. The prep list was long, and he and his coworkers needed to fill up the inventory with the oven in mixers in use. Baker J was confident about the list for no reason. And at midday, he jumped into his salad project, taking over the oven to make ingredients for the salad.

His new salad was a warm Brussels sprout Caesar salad. It had rosemary-flavoured sourdough croutons, baked Brussels sprouts, Caesar dressing and grated cheese. After wasting kitchen appliances for his (never-approved) personal project, he proudly served a sample to the manager. The manager was shocked about the low quality, asking him if he meant to sell this.

What’s more shocking was that Baker J told other workers that it was his project with approval, while he did not get any. Everyone else thought he was working with the Boss’ permission, but unfortunately, it was imaginary. 

It was a sad day for him: he wasted the ingredients, his time, passion, and everyone else’s time. His salad project got permanently postponed (or cancelled), and Baker J got scolded after all that effort. Too bad for him! But who knows, he may return later with another type of salad!