#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...

#80 - 2 pigeons, a chicken breast, a headless chicken and a mock final exam

It truly sounds like a poultry heavy beginning of a joke, doesn't it?  And it kind of was, except perhaps not in the way you might think.


Studying...kind of (and a day of non-stop eating)
Yesterday we spent getting ready for today's mock final.  Part of the preparation involved getting lunch - always an excellent idea.  Since I haven't been here for the first 8 weeks of term, I was excused (as I understood it) from attending the Patisserie tutorial sessions - there weren't any marks to discuss.  There was some discussion after class and a half-hearted study session.  As you can see, we were working super hard.


I noticed that the LCB cafe had a croquembouche on display.  It was one that had been done by one of our Patisserie chefs the day before - well, the assembly and the decorations had been done the day before.  A croquembouch basically means "break in the mouth" - a reference to the fact that the filled profiteroles are stuck together with caramel, which crunches when you eat it.  There are other variations (like filling the profiterole with ice cream and dipping it in chocolate) but then they are known as something else - I don't know what the something else is.  In this case, the actual profiteroles and the praline base had been done the week before.  So here is an example of something we might be able to do in a couple of hours, once we've had at least 15 years of experience and are talented...I know it's hard to see, but those are pulled sugar roses and sugar tendril-y things.  I tried to do something like that in class the other day when I was putting my ugly sugar sculpture together, but had to take them off because they just looked like mistakes from bad assembly.  Inspirational in the skill displayed, discouraging to know just how far we have to go to even begin to approach this kind of ease and skill.


Anyway, lunch...we went to this yummy burger place called Meat Liquor which is actually on the way home from class - a dangerous location.  I had a private giggle to myself that we spend time thinking of ways to plate fancy food pretty, but given a choice, this is what we go for.  There were a bunch of mushroom and swiss burgers, I had a bacon cheeseburger (see below) and 3 orders of chili cheese fries.  One of the guys liked his burger so much that he finished most of his girlfriend's burger, then ordered a second one.




Several beers (for them) and a coke (for me) later, people dispersed - some to go back to school for a couple of things, some to go home and work on their portfolios (basically the school making sure we prepare for our final exams - you have to write out recipes and methods) and a few of us to do other errands.  I went with a couple of guys to drop off some knives at this Japanese knife shop near the old school where they will sharpen the blades on a stone - a much better result than just using a steel before and after each class.  In fact the fellow did such a good job that I didn't even know I had nicked myself today until way later when I wondered why my finger was stinging.

Dinner in Poland and France
Then I went to meet a friend for dinner.  CL started basic at the same time I did for both cuisine and patisserie.  She decided not to continue on as she had a lot of travelling to do (I can't remember if she did Intermediate - they do say that memory is one of the first things to go with age...) so it was good to catch up and hear what was going on with her life.  We went to this Polish place (I think - she had heard about it from other people) and it was really good.  Her dish was kind of like a fancy version of what I fondly believe to be Hungarian Goulash since it was served with something that resembled spatzle (except made with veal escalopes) and I had a topside beef something-or-other braised in consomme - just what I wanted - a beef and vegetable dinner with a beefy veggie soup for dinner.



Then we had dessert at CL's favorite crepe place, almost next door to the restaurant.  I got ice cream with chocolate sauce and she got a chocolate and banana crepe.  Apparently the crepe is usually better (this one was kind of crunchy - not good).  Then I had her try the ice cream.  Also not good - there was something wrong with it, it tasted really fake and chemical-y.  A shame really - they had the right crepe pan / burner things that I've seen on the streets of Paris and it smelled pretty good.  I think they must have pre-made CL's crepe and it got dried out somehow.  As you can see, this photo was taken before either of us had tasted the ice cream.  There was an after photo as well, but I freely confess that vanity has prevented me from posting that photo.


4 hours of confusion...
Jetlag may finally be starting to abate - I slept in until 6am or something this morning - whenever it was that my alarm went off.  Of course that may have something to do with being up a little past midnight, getting ready for this morning's cuisine practical.  Rather, a double practical class - because we were running through our 4-hour final exam to see where we were in terms of timing and results.


There were 15 of us in the kitchen.  I've been in the kitchen exactly once before, so someone had to show me where the numbers were on the ovens so that I knew where I was for my station.  They staggered our start times by 10 minutes per side of kitchen so that we wouldn't all pile on top of each other while setting up.  Fine in theory, but in practice - well, there were a few things we didn't know, so we weren't as efficient as we could have been.  Or rather, I know I could have been more efficient if certain things had been clarified earlier on.  Anyway - a demoralizing morning a little bit.  I knew what had to be done with each component, but I kept losing my place and the induction burners have a few tricks with which I was unfamiliar.  This meant I had to stop a few times to regroup and try to remember where I was in relation to where I wanted to be.  I got told by a friend that sometimes it's good not to think.  


Tartlet Florentine avec Oeuf Poche et Sauce Hollandaise (Tartlet with Poached Egg, Sauteed Spinach and Hollandaise Sauce)
The starter wasn't too bad but I messed up the timing a bit.  Things actually take a little while longer in these ovens, possibly because the old ones often seemed to run super hot.  This means that the 10 minutes I allocated to the tartlet shell was insufficient and I was cutting things close so I wouldn't have to reheat - not a good idea until you know how the kitchen equipment works.  (Really - the ovens have a light, but it took a couple of tries to figure out they don't stay on if you take your finger off the button.)  Then being a bit discombobulated and not feeling really comfortable, I missed a couple of very basic things - like seasoning the Hollandaise sauce.  I tasted it, but only after I had presented the plate - ick.  It needed lots of salt and some lemon juice in the worst way.  Also, it was overcooked - I wasn't sure what that meant because it wasn't scrambled, but eventually found out that it was probably because my sauce was too thick (did I mention the lemon juice?) so it wasn't quite the right consistency.  Spinach needs a bit of work - it's the English kind so quite a bit tougher than the Popeye the Sailor Man kind.  You actually have to blanch it now instead of just sauteeing it, which is what we used to do.


Also, the eggs were old.  How do I know?  The whites just bloomed everywhere when I put in the second and third eggs.  The first one was fine - I'm normally pretty good with eggs, even the slightly old ones, but we don't have slotted spoons and I was having difficulties coaxing the whites to envelope the yolks.  I do know that if it happens in the exam, I'm going to request better eggs or something.  And perhaps take them out of the fridge a little earlier, although I think that has less to do with the whites going everywhere than the age of the eggs.


The main
Verdict: deep fried pigeon legs (instead of confit - yummy, but not what they were looking for) and the pigeon crown was woefully undercooked.  I venture to say that perhaps it was still not cooked at all?  I'm unsure whether the chef was going a little bit easy on me because he knows it's only my second day in the new cuisine kitchens - I hope not because it would suck to feel like you're on track only to find out they were easing you in.  There isn't time to be eased in!


I messed up the lettuce a little bit but I think that's an easy fix for next time.  I wasn't happy with the timing (starter was 15 minutes behind where I wanted to be, 10 minutes beyond actual service time and the main was 15 minutes behind the actual service time - a fail if it had happened in the exam).  Luckily there were a few things that did go right - both sauces (the pigeon and the lettuce glaze), the vegetables (although still need to practice turning - dratted turnips!) and the glazes...and a silly oversight - the parsley chiffonade, which is a stupid thing to lose points for in the exam.  Still a possibility of passing the final, which would make me so happy.  I got my review back - they call you out of the room to give you individual comments - I was so unhappy on the way out but it's always good to be told that it's not bad.  Especially from a chef who is as amazing as Chef EB.  I'm not sure if he ever says something is good - usually he says it's ok.  But then again, he may say that to other people - I just don't hear it and that's fine because the day that I hear that something is good is going to be a day when I skip out of school.


There is hope on the horizon and I just have a bit of focused work to do.


As much confusion as there was in my head today, there is hope that it will be so much easier next time.  Who knows, one of these days I might even figure out the induction burners without actually standing over the silly thing.


So until next time, I wish you ease of focus, clarity of mind and satisfaction in what you do.  

#70 - Happy (belated) New Year

End of the holidays
The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur.  Somewhere in the midst of many departures from the islands of those who migrated here temporarily to be with their families (and in some cases, to escape grim, gray and cold weather) and the occasional computer issue, I have fallen woefully behind.  Hopefully you have all had happy and safe holidays.

Back to the basics
New Year's eve was a relatively quiet affair, for which I thank the various children in attendance.  Who knew you could still be tired after sleeping for almost a week straight?  We had dinner chez sister and brother-in-law with several babies (tears at various points in the evening since it was past their bedtimes) and lots of parents.  As always in any Hawaiian gathering, there was obviously not enough to eat...most of the food was take out, but we did prepare a couple of things at home.


2012
Cooking still requires some careful handling of various utensils and a lot of time so I went back to the basics on NYE.  We went up the hill to see the fireworks.  Apparently the crackdown on aerials has worked - they have been illegal for at least 15 years, possibly 20 but that hasn't always deterred the naughty pyromaniacs from setting them off.  This usually resulted in a number of fires so the fire department was kept busy unless it was a rainy year.  Not so this year but the only ones we really saw were the official ones:  Ala Moana and Aloha Tower Marketplace.  We got a good view of both, then the diehards who were still present were served fruit salad.  Yes - that fruit salad from basic Patisserie.  Luckily this time it didn't take 2.5 hours to make and I didn't have to submit the fruits for inspection by the chef.

Sunday morning we managed to get ourselves up and down to the water.  Brunch time!  The usual chef at the made-to-order omelette station was promoted so he wasn't there.  However, I had fun chatting with the new chef and even better, I got to have my omelette the way I like it - most likely overcooked by LCB standards but perfect for me.

Beef roulades with Asian salad
Outrigger Canoe Club -
got a new chef a few months ago
and the menu has changed accordingly,
mostly for the better)

Then it was the last minute flurry of catch ups with friends before they left town.  It occurred to me that I was pretty busy for someone who didn't have to do anything.  I love catching up with all my friends but sometimes it seems like a year (or several) between catch ups is a long time.  Somehow communication loses a lot of its immediacy when reduced to emails or text messages.  I think this is especially true since writing leaves out a lot of nuance while allowing the reader's own moods to creep in, sometimes to the detriment of the communication.  But again, I digress.

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea was at the Kahala Hotel.  I liked the savory options and the flourless chocolate cake - the remainder of the tea left me rather uninspired and I can't tell if I am being extra critical because I don't like sweets or because they weren't executed well, which is entirely possible.  Strongly disapproved of the scones (I like mine fluffy) and the clotted cream (it wasn't clotted cream).  There was quite a lot of yuzu jelly / cream in the pastries - a nod to the Asian influence in using the citrus, although it tasted a bit strange to a palate only just getting used to it.  At present I still find it indescribable beyond the citrus tang with a bit of sourness/bitterness behind it.

Then more cooking - baby steps...
I tried poached eggs and Hollandaise again.  We have a friend who cannot have gluten or dairy so I made vegetables for her instead.  The quenelles were just for the presentation so she would have something pretty.  All bets were off for the second serve and everyone dug in - much better for family dining but it's nice to be able to place something pretty in front of your friends and family.  Poaching eggs was interesting - mainly because I got a request to have the yolks fully cooked through (success and no gray ring, but there was a moment of annoyance when I thought I had overcooked it).  No English muffins so we used toast instead.  As always, I held my breath as I brought the sauce back to temperature because this is usually when my sauce splits.

The week ended with sunset and dinner by the water with friends and family.

So until next time, may your holidays be as drama-free and happy as mine have been.

#55 - Tired, confused...and a little cooked

Cause for celebration
My memory stick adaptor may have gotten laundered, but 24 hours in a plastic bag with some rice grains seems to have dried it out and I can get photos off my camera card!  So on with the post.

A little cooked - Monday - Day 1 of sugar, Session 1...
Everyone said to be ready to get burns and blisters when we started our sugar module.  I was lucky enough to get away today with a couple of minor burns (but stay tuned - we don't finish until next week) when we did our poured sugar.  I forgot to grease my measuring cup for the sugar fountain, so it stuck to the sides.  One of the porters saw what I had done wrong, so he whispered that I should also pour the sugar down the centre of the ice cubes, not the side of the measuring cup for my coral.  I thanked him profusely and got a wink in reply, especially when Chef CB told me the same thing a few minutes later, although his language was a tad more colorful.  Yes, I am forgetful.

Anyway - sugar duly poured, I have quite a few things to work on for next time.  A few unintended things happened, but over the next few days a design should take shape because we have to do one of these for our final exam - a minimum of 2 - 3 platforms because our petit fours (the truffles and sable biscuits) are supposed to be able to rest on these.

Session 2 - The Rose
This is the one where we had to pull out our gloves.  I had bought mine last term while getting other supplies.  Even better, I remembered to take them to class!  So while some of the guys were whimpering from the heat, the girls who had gloves were happily pulling our sugar to make it satiny and shiny.  The final part of pulling the sugar got to be a bit of hard work - I had to basically lay over my hands over my sugar in order to press it after I'd pulled it.  We had to make sure it was shiny and silvery, keep it under a heat lamp, then pull bits off of it to make a rose and some leaves.

Eggs and potatoes
Also, as promised in the last post, here are a couple of pictures from the poached eggs and Hollandaise yesterday - oh, and the fondant potato.  A small piece of potato (well, we'll have to cook two pieces) slowly confited in an obscene amount of butter and only enough chicken stock to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Not that the poaching of eggs needs a lot of practice, but I forgot a couple of things so now I think I'm set.  The only thing is the potato - AM and I cooked them for about an hour and twenty minutes - and they still could have used a bit more cooking.  Thank goodness the final exam is 4 hours long.  I have to say, the egg could have been worse.  Still not my favorite with the runny yolk, but surprisingly edible.

We are all tired and confused.  I'm a bit sad because I hate being confused - I hope it passes soon because we've still got a fair amount of work left to do and I think this is when we will really need to dig in and work hard.  I'm trying to think the last time I shed a few tears over exams - hm, not since Intermediate when I wasn't sure if I'd make it through the practical exams, actually.

At least I have the comfort that my shortcrust pastry for the exam has the right consistency this time, even though it's still too thick (and it's see through when I line the moulds).  One of these days...
So until next time - may you be less tired and confused than I am.