#92 - It eventually goes away...

For better or for worse...
Cuisine final is over and I am still recovering.  15 of us going into the kitchen - they had people going in 2 by 2 (opposite sides of the kitchen) and I was second to last - had to wait almost an hour before I got to go in and set up my station.  There was last minute panic in the hallway, a few questions for the Patisserie chefs who were walking past as they set up for their tasting from Group C and a few nervous trips to the bathroom.  At least it was before and not during the exam...


There have been sporadic instances this week where I just wanted to curl up in a little ball on the floor and have a nervous breakdown.  But we don't do that - we're chefs and we deal with it.  Or as one of my friends told me when I told her I just wanted to die, "do it after the exam."  As you can tell, we're a sympathetic lot.  The bright side is that the feeling does go away - eventually - and there are 4 of us from my cuisine group who will be repeating this experience on Friday morning in staggered starts.  The enthusiasm with which we look forward to Friday is as palpable as that which might accompany a doctor's appointment which involves taking off your clothes and being put in positions you normally wouldn't engage in with someone who isn't your spouse / lover / [insert word of your choice here].  It has also reduced even those of us with pretty extensive vocabularies to mostly 4-letter words which you wouldn't say in front of the very young or the extremely elderly, especially when something boils away.  You will note that I have not said "boiled over" - I stopped doing that last Thursday.


The exam...
I didn't take in my time plan because I figured if I had to check it too often I'd been in deep s#$* and looking at it wouldn't fix matters whereas looking at my mise en place told me where to go next.  It was a busy but not horrific 4 hours and if it hadn't been for the couple of things which went wrong (and if I had had another couple of pots and burners) I think I could have done it in a little less time.


Things were pretty on track in terms of timing right up until I had to plate my starter.  Of course that's when things start to go pear shaped.  I recovered from burning my carrots (had to scoop out a couple more, but luckily I had a whole extra carrot so that was no drama) and burning away my wine (for the Hollandaise) twice.  Then...as I was starting plating, disaster struck - my egg broke and the backup wasn't usable because it looked awful.  So I had to poach another egg.  This then threw off my hollandaise schedule a little bit and it was cold by the time I had to plate it - so I tried to recover it with a little hot water - hopefully it didn't split but it started to look thin although it went over the egg fine.  This time I remembered the lemon and the salt so although the tartlet didn't look as pretty as during the mock exam (and I didn't make a spare) hopefully it will taste better.  Also - I presented 2 minutes early!  I suppose I could have used those 2 minutes to try to fix the hollandaise a bit more, but really, I wasn't in the mood to mess with it any more than I already had.


Then the main...everything on track again except for a minor hiccup with the mousse which I will tell you about after the debrief on Monday.  I also dropped the bowl which had my pigeon legs marinating in it, so I had to clean up the floor and wash the legs (I was going to do that anyway).  I don't know how that affects the hygiene marks - I didn't have any spare pigeons and I had to make the legs so since they were going to cook in gently boiling oil for about an hour or so, I figured any bugs would be long since cooked away.  The dish ended up looking quite nice - I think everything was there, including the parsley chiffonade.  And finally the pigeon was cooked, but it's possible one of them was slightly over - ugh, will it never go right???  Time - 2 minutes over because I had to clear my station down so that I could plate - and there were a lot of components:  glazed vegetables, cutting the bottom off the braised and stuffed lettuce, the sauce, the chiffonade, the potatos fondant, the confit pigeon legs where we have to debone the thigh, then pan fry to get the skin crispy (and which took forever), the glaze for the stuffed/braised lettuce and the sauce.  Think one pot or something similar for each of those things which then has to go on 2 very hot plates.


My station was a shambles.  It seemed like crap was proliferating everywhere, but never the stuff I needed.  Another small pot would have been nice (we had an extra one during the mock exam so it was a real nuisance not to have one today).  Also, they said we could trade our used pots for clean ones, but there weren't any in the washup area for the first hour of my time so I either washed my own or I had to do other stuff while waiting for my pots to get cleaned - I can tell you where my 2 minutes went.  In the meantime, there was quite a bit of "hot pan!" and "mind your backs" but otherwise, it was intensely quiet in the kitchen except for the sound of pots going on stoves and oven doors opening.  Oh, ridiculous - I couldn't open my oven unless I used both hands, which meant a little bit of juggling.  Small in the grand scheme of things, but awful when seconds count.


Good night...
The next time you hear from me, hopefully the Patisserie will also be finished and I will be able to tell you that it felt good.  Until then, may you have enough pots and pans (or whatever) to do what you need to do.  And may you beat the clock...

#66 - Wallowing...

...5 minutes of discouragement
Good news:  my hand is healed, 3 weeks after the burn.  Bad news:  hand won't be ready for me to take finals for another 3 months.  Thus spake the Consultant (cosmetic/plastic surgeon at the burn unit) after I told him what tomorrow's Patisserie final entailed.  For the moment, homework is to moisturize my hands 4 times a day (just to get the burned part used to being touched again and to desensitize the nerves) then to do my hand exercises in a bowlful of uncooked pasta.  Yes, I have hand exercises...so I indulged in a few tears while I tried to figure out what next, then decided it won't do any good until I hear back from LCB administration about what to do for my finals.  For the moment, focus is to get hand working as quickly as possible.  Yes, yes, it takes time.

...in lots of good food and stimulating company
Luckily last week I had planned to go to a supper club thing run by one of the people from class at LCB.  Mrs J makes yummy food and I got to partake!  See this link:  https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/pages/Mrs-Js-Secret-Kitchen/141786465854903.  Also, really good conversation, I'm sorry I didn't have a notepad and pen.  We had some artists and an art dealer at my table so there was lots of talk about what is/not art, preferences, how it reflects the politics and economics of the day (what I needed paper for), etc. etc.  Hearing the artist's point of view, the dealer's point of view and the insurer's point of view in light of my own (shallow) layperson's view was educational and fascinating - that is to say, the other people were.

The artists were quite sweet.  They asked me if it was hard to eat "regular" food given what we had been learning at cooking school.  I don't know about others, but I told them that since I injured my hand, I have had a lot of beans (and cheese) on toast.  Before, I used to eat 2-minute noodles.  At the moment, I can't make them so that hasn't happened.

FYI - Important
Anyway, the point is this - sometimes you just want a quick and simple something to eat.  Also, just because we can cook something and make it look fancy doesn't mean that we don't appreciate something someone made, however simple they think it is.  There's a certain something that is added when a meal is prepared for you by someone else.  Technical skills are an added bonus, but really, maybe it just comes down to the thought put into it, even if it is a cup of tea and a piece of toast.  The fact that someone made the effort into making something just for you makes it absolutely amazing.

It seems to be a common misconception that a chef will not appreciate something you make them because they can do it better.  I have been told by a chef in no uncertain terms that this is NOT the case, so if you are ever tempted to cook for someone but are intimidated, don't be.

But back to the food...
Mrs J, with KA assisting, made us a delicious dinner.  The amuse bouche turned out larger than planned so I just suggested we call it an extra starter instead of an amuse.  I don't know if that was actually done or not - I am a bit sleep deprived and not thinking too clearly at the moment, but I wanted to get this down while it was fresh in my mind.  Anyway - it was coddled scotch quail eggs (I think) - soft boiled quail eggs wrapped in sausage meat, crumbed...and really yummy.  This is from a person who doesn't eat runny egg yolks and doesn't eat pork.

Somehow they turned out 16 dishes in a tiny space.  Starter was a seared scallop with cauliflower puree (yum!), some kind of crunchy praline thing with a spice whose name I can't remember and some garnish.

Main was beef wellington with foie gras, vegetables, yummy sauce.  The beef wellingtons were individually sized - a nice touch.  Apparently they were sized that way because of the space constraints of the oven, but I didn't know that until later.  I thought I would want my beef more well done but I really enjoyed it this way - pink in the middle (something else I normally don't do!).  Apparently the logistics of doing individual sized portions was a nightmare and both of the chefs have vowed never to do that again.

We had a little beggar at the table - a very cute and friendly 15 year-old who tapped my hand when he felt that his share of attention was not being paid.  Unfortunately for the cutie pie, I am impervious to large eyes and furry coats and no foie gras was forthcoming his way from my plate.  Or scallop.  Or beef.  Or anything else, actually.  He eventually gave up on me.  Attention is all very nice but what he really wanted was the yummy food.

Then dessert - wow, just the way I like it.  A bitter chocolate tarte with a hint of orange peel in the tarte shell.  Mrs J wasn't satisfied with the tarte shell but I actually preferred it to the filling.  The ice cream wasn't my favorite, but I don't feel bad saying that since it was a stand-in for the one that had been planned (but which didn't work out).  It was really rich though, so I only had part of it which was plenty.  It was possible to eat a bit more of it because it wasn't too sweet (85% cocoa will do that).  They say there's caffeine in dark chocolate, but I am almost asleep so evidently it's not currently effective.

So here are some shots of the kitchen - staff food (chili con carne), mixed veggies, what happens to the sink, stove and kitchen when the dishwasher stops working (I think that's what someone said)...I'm amazed at what they did in the kitchen - it was a regular, domestic kitchen and somehow they managed to turn out a multi-course meal for 16 (?) plus staff food.  There was also a little outside area - I can't remember if they actually cooked outside or if they were just storing some things out of the way there while dinner service was going on.

Also, we had a bit of fun with the paying for the meal.  You make a donation for the cost of the meal (or whatever) and we messed around with her teapot.  Sorry HJ!

Community service warning - Hunter cars (or something like that)


So it was quite late and I wasn't going to take the tube.  We got a quote from a minicab company but when I told the driver my address (the same information we had given the dispatcher, by the way) he told me a different address.  Given we were in the middle of nowhere, it's really cold and I was exhausted, I wasn't inclined to argue.  However, it makes me really cranky when someone says one thing in order for you to choose them, then says something else when it's kind of too late (i.e. you're already in the car).  Maybe it's because I take giving my word seriously, but I take other people's words seriously too and I felt like they had lied.  I paid the driver but I told him he should sort things out with his dispatcher because what they had done wasn't cool.

My suggestion - I haven't tried it yet, but you can bet I'll try it on Friday for graduation - is to use a reputable company (even if they are bit more expensive).  I have a feeling you are less likely to have these last minute changes to fares with lame excuses ("it's 11 miles".  Um ok, except what changed from when I gave the same information to your dispatcher???)  I'll let you know how it turns out with using a larger car service.

So until next time, don't worry, be happy...