#25 - Approaching the end of the beginning...

I'm not quite sure how it happened but the reality of the rapidly approaching end of Basic is finally starting to sink in. I think the email from LCB confirming the spelling of my name for the certificate did it for me. That - and everyone else panicking.  I know that it's just food, but somehow that doesn't lessen the stress.  I have had to do more homework and study for this course than I ever did for law school or any other university class and there is still a much higher chance of failure than I have ever had to face before.  Everyone is tired, sleep-deprived and it has been a hard week.  Tempers are starting to flare and there is more bitching and moaning - quite justified.  Things that no one cared about much at the beginning of the term are beginning to grate as we all buckle down to study.

I haven't looked at what we are doing for next week so have no idea if it's going to be harder, but I suspect so.  We still have our full load of classes, each practice run is currently taking 30 minutes too long and we have multiple recipes to learn for Patisserie.  If we limit practices to 2 per dish (unrealistic for patisserie) that is still a minimum of 24 hours of cooking proper, not allowing for shopping for supplies which are too copious for anyone's kitchen to accomodate.  Then there's the theory to learn and I can't say, "who cares what the coagulation temperatures for various permutations of egg are?" because the dish will turn into scrambled eggs instead of whatever it's supposed to be - unless it's supposed to be scrambled eggs, but we are finished with scrambled eggs...no nightmares about food yet, but I fear they may not be far away.

Challenge for the Grand Diplomes
The 16 of us who are preparing for both sets of exams (with corresponding theory, only some of which overlaps) have stopped smiling so much in class.  Chef N told us on Friday night, "You are allowed to smile - this is fun!"  Which it is - when impending exams are not casting a cloud over our days.  No study week, as we had at university...difficulty getting the correct ingredients (guesswork on the flour, fondant is difficult to find), the equipment (enormous mixing bowls, huge balloon wisks, substituting any size ring shape for our tarts and cakes) and finding time to practice everything...have decided to imitate a sponge for the next week.

End of seafood (for now)
Anyway - quick update:  we finished seafood this week with moules marinieres (mussels steamed with white wine and vinegar) and crabe farci (dressed crab).  I never thought it possible to hear the words "too much butter" from a French chef...until Tuesday (or...Wednesday?) afternoon.

The crab and I had a bit of a disagreement.  It wasn't really awake when I lowered it into the court bouillon (basically - stock) so that was fine.  It was the getting through the hard shell which was a bit problematic.  I'm not that tall and it wasn't really possible to get the necessary leverage so I really had to whack the knife in order to cut it up.  The bruise on my hand was much more impressive the next day.

However, I finished the dish - take that, stubborn crab!  Also - it was the first time we used our cleavers.  Not the sharp edge of the blade, but rather the flat side - to crack the bottom of the shell so that we could use it for plating.  You can't tell from the picture (and I managed to kind of hide it from the chef) but I broke part of the shell, which is why I had to put 3 lettuce leaves and tomato petals...to support the broken part of the shell and shore it up while I was stuffing it.

Incidentally, those tomato petals are an excellent way to put tomatoes in sandwiches.  I always hated how if you packed a sandwich in the morning, the tomato would make the bread soggy by lunch time, even with copious amounts of mayonnaise or avocado "to creat a barrier between the tomato and the bread".

Next week we have to make a bearnaise (hollandaise sauce with added herbs) to go with the steak.  Remember when I said that I was sure that hollandaise, in some guise, would return?  Yup...and I found out that the students doing the Cuisine stream who were doing the bearnaise on Friday night were responsible for the massive shortage of eggs.  We ran out of eggs for our patisserie class - we needed them for our cakes and for the mousses and the patisserie recipes are already reduced to the bare minimum.  The Cuisine students who messed up their sauces restarted them - but since they used 2 - 3 egg yolks per recipe (whole recipe) and they did more than one, they needed extra eggs with a corresponding shortage for those of us baking and mixing upstairs.  Maybe it's time to start putting a dozen eggs into my utensils bag...

More sponges - and gentle intro to chocolate...
Then it was on to cakes - the Gateau a la Foret Noire (Black Forest Cake) - my first flat sponge...overworked batter so it came out really dense - NOT what we were aiming for.  The chocolate work went a bit better although - you have to be fast.  Some of the stencilling didn't come off because I hadn't worked that patch while it was still warm enough.  Not great, but not horrible.  We happened to go past a pub in search of dinner after class and I didn't want to schlep the cake in the big box, so I gave it to the first person who asked.  Some man who was very excited for the cake (FYI, the box was cardboard and he couldn't see inside).  Little did he know...

The next day (Friday) was our first Charlotte au Chocolat (Chocolate Bavarois encased in light chocolate sponge).  I didn't have the right sized piping tip so any inaccuracies in piping are a lot more apparent - too thin and the cake snaps (like mine did) so you have to make a join and repair it.  Making the bavarois, which is like a mousse except you lighten it by adding whipped cream, has been added to my ever expanding list of things to practice.

For the moment I am concentrating on getting through the next 11 or so days.  We have classes straight through and next week we do truffles in Patisserie.  I forsee many, many days of laundry - cocoa powder tends to stick and chocolate spatters are a lot harder to hide on a white uniform than a dusting of flour or a deluge of milk.

Hopefully today I will make it to ballet class - adrenaline gives a boost to our days as exams approach and the amount of what we have to know sinks in more each day.  The theory is starting not to be so much fun (chocolate is more fun to play with than to learn temperatures for) and I need the activity to clear out my mind...wish me luck, it's the first class this month.  Somehow May has just whooshed by - so much so that I called to wish my niece a happy birthday earlier this week.  Except her birthday is in June!

Well-aimed kick
Tonight I have arranged for a couple of friends to come over for dinner.  Knowing that I have promised to make dinner and they have set aside time to come over is the necessary impetus to make me practice.  I have found reasons to postpone for the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully my lemon meringue and the chicken fricassee will only need one or two practice runs to get the timing right so that I can focus on the others this week.  It's so much easier to learn a recipe when you make it, rather than just sitting and rote learning it.  More delicious when it comes to tasting too...and since we have a max 2.5 hours for all the patisserie, there's also a set amount of time for the practice - going over is not an option because otherwise your kitchen chef (apparently) screams at you to get it done and if you still don't - well, basic is full for next term and visa conditions require that you remain enrolled in your course in order to remain in the country...see where this is going?

Right - must run. Time for a coffee and my grocery shop so that I have time to get set before class. Then it's cooking time - on the menu for tonight - ahi poke (if I can find acceptable fish), mixed green salad with vinaigrette, chicken fricassee with potatoes, carrots, zucchini and baby onion (and possibly rice, since this is my first mini-Hawaii Club in London dinner) and a lemon meringue tart. 

Hawaii Club in London
LM has agreed to give me feedback on the tart as she did this 3 months ag0, although she didn't get the tart on her final.  She got the choux pastry (eclairs) - and of course it was the one for which she wished she had had more practice.

MA and I have started discussions regarding the charter for our multi-national LLC (to be incorporated in Delaware).  We haven't told LM yet, but I think it should be broached after dinner - maybe over the tart.  Not sure about the IRS position, we'll need to check out non-profit status (currently considering UN model but will need to defer to MA's experience and knowledge).

Light at the end of the first tunnel
Am looking forward to the time between end of exams and graduation (22 June 2011) - haven't booked any flights yet, but hoping to get a last minute one to Manhattan to visit friends.  The Columbia alumni in Sydney are also hoping for me to go - they have a shopping list for the alumni store!

Thank you
Somehow I have found out that there are more than 8 readers, which came as a bit of a surprise and for which I am very grateful.  I trust you find the occasional flash of humor in these posts and sources for entertainment.  I am not allowed to give recipes, but if you ever have a question, please ask.  If I don't know it (and chances are that I won't, but you never know) then I know who to ask.

So until next time (which might be after exams! I have a lot of reading, studying, flashcards to do!) I wish all of you well and look forward to (hopefully) giving an account of triumph over the clock.

#24 - In which people have started to panic...

I see that my last post was almost a week ago.  It's a good thing my computer and phone keep track of what day it is - I have lost track of days and had to check with people 3 times yesterday that what day it was (Tuesday, the day that follows Monday, which was the day immediately before).  Also - thanks to those of you who have gently prodded me to get my act together and update.

Apologies as these become a bit more sporadic as a cooking frenzy takes over the next 2 weeks of my life - there will be more tarts, cakes and eclairs than I will ever want to look at again - except we will need to do them, but with much greater refinement and complexity as we progress up the levels.  I found out what the Superior Patisserie students have to do as their Practical exam last night - they have 6 hours of cooking and it incorporates everything they have learned from basic on through to where they are now - I recognized elements from our week 2 in Patisserie. 

Last week

So - recap since last post:  we had a wine technical class last Wednesday (18 May).  I tasted all 6 wines and predictably didn't like any of them.  They all made my mouth feel puckered up inside (apparently that was caused by the tannins).  I also accidentally swallowed some wine (the first Chardonnay we tried).  It's a good thing that class was scheduled for our last class that day, it would not have been good to go into a kitchen and have to cook after that.

We also had our patisserie classes - getting on to slightly more advanced cakes now.  Thursday night was the Chocolate Almond Sponge cake (aka Sachertorte) with a marzipan rose.  The masking at the end was a bit problematic on the sides of the cake, but it looks pretty from the top and according to reports, it tasted good.  I had a tiny taste from when I cut the cake into halves/quarters and gave it away to various people - I liked it, but the crumb was more than enough.

Then on Friday night we did our last potential exam dish - the Genoise Spongecake with buttercream frosting and raspberry jam.  We had to make our own jam (piece of cake!) and apparently the frosting that Michael, my partner, and I made was really good, so I feel a little more confident about trying the whole thing at home on my own.  The problem with doing things in pairs in class for something like this is that when it comes to the exam, we will have to do all the components on our own:  the batter, the jam, the soaking syrup, the frosting, cut, trim, fill, then assemble it all and complete it with piping.  I only remembered when I had to pipe the chocolate on top of the frosting piping Chef G's comment that it is easier to pipe smaller patterns because any uneveness is not quite as apparent.  Whoops.  This cake also went to other people who would be able to eat it.

We had a cuisine practical on Saturday  morning at 8am - more chicken butchery - taking apart all the pieces and skinning it.  It was Supreme of Chicken (i.e. chicken breast) stuffed with chicken mousse and herbes de Provence, poached and served with a Tomato Butter sauce (mine was too thick - more a coulis) and courgette spaghetti- zucchini sliced on a mandolin and sauteed with some garlic and butter.

Life actually
I even made it to a movie - maybe 4 weeks ago?  I'm not sure...it was the most recent Scream movie.  I should not go to those - as silly and stupid as it was, it still scared me.  Total movies seen in London:  2.  Total cultural experiences:  1 ballet (Covent Garden), 1 concert (Southbank) and...do visits to markets count?  No museums yet.  They are still on my list but are always lower on the list of priorities as the kitchen and related things take over my life.

There is a lot of ground to cover and I realize that I have forgotten to include much in the way of social life.  There hasn't been one as such, but I have managed to catch the odd dinner with friends who are not LCB related (MA, who is in town from Hawaii for work for the next 3 months or so) and JB, who is currently posted to Rome during the week (also for work), SO who has the cutest little daughter (they live in Oxford) and my dear PC who was in town over the long weekend in April.

There have been a couple of trips to Kua'Aina burger in Carnaby Street - yesterday I made a mental note of the days when they serve the Lion Vanilla Macadamia nut coffee and now have forgotten them in the exhausted haze which has dogged the last few days.  Most of my other friends are from LCB, a couple of whom have had little parties, as they had to move after the course started.  Unfortunately I didn't take many photos of the one from the week (two weeks?) before,  but here are photos from Saturday:

Recognize any of the food?

Our hosts - Pedro & Angela

 

 

I think most of the people there were from those who are enrolled to do the grand diplome.  Apparently some of the people in the other group are a bit more comptetitive - they have more people who have industry experience, whereas my group doesn't seem to have reached that stage.  Yet.  Who knows - tempers have been known to run hot in the kitchen when ingredients go missing.

The girlfriends/husbands/etc. who also came may have been a bit overwhelmed with the shop talk, but that only came later.  We were all concious of wanting to talk anything except food for the first little while.  We have spent all these weeks together, but as most conversations revolve around organizing some fun time or discussing class, people are still getting to know each other.  I am sure that lifelong friendships will be forged during the next few months, but I am equally sure that lifelong antipathy may develop as well.  There is no way that we can all spend so much time together and not get on each other's nerves and given the strong personalities and wide age ranges involved, I am sure that cliques are already starting to form.

In the meantime, the girlfriends/husbands/etc. are finally understanding what their respective other halves are talking about when it comes to a bad day or things that went wrong.  They said they can put it into context - and they have good naturedly tried to support their tired, grumpy and hungry chefs when they get home.  ("Look honey - I just spent the last 2.5 making this and this is what went wrong and...just try a bite!")  Apparently they have also started to go to the gym, if they haven't already, and those who do exercise, have to do more.

And this week...fish and seafood

8am Monday - butchering a whole Lemon Sole, including gutting, filleting and skinning...rolled with a mushroom duxelles - the one on which I cut my finger somewhere in week 3 and poached in a fish fumet (fish broth) which we had to make from the bones.  We are all hurrying more in the kitchen now and can't believe there was a time when it took us 2 1/2 hours to cut up some vegetables and make a salad with dressing.  Now we are stressing out that it took 20 minutes to take apart the stupid chicken instead of 10.

A whole fish resulted in 4 little pieces of fish (you only plate 3 because it looks better on the plate) with a piped mashed potato border and the sauce...

Yesterday morning we got to do it again, this time with a rainbow trout.  Luckily I already knew how to gut a fish, but it wasn't done in demo and they didn't mention it so I was a little unprepared to have to gut the thing at 8:15 in the morning (well, we had to scale it first).  The butchery went pretty smoothly, but after class we all got together in our little huddles and had our own little debrief.  It appears which chef you have in the kitchen also determines how you season your food.  Oh - and my hollandaise sauce split.  Whatever the reason, I'm sure we'll have to do something like it again at some stage.  So - the trout a la meuniere, which I'm sure my dad would have loved but for the very burned butter...this is what the dish looks like just before I take it to the chef for feedback.

This is what my workstation looks like in the aftermath of the flurry of plating (no time to clean!) and things haphazardly pushed wherever - after feedback.  Ugh - first time I overcooked my fish!

Tonight we have to kill a crab (yes, it has to come to us alive) and make a stuffed crab in its own shell and a dish of mussels (moules mariniere).  That is one that many of us are looking forward to, although there is one unfortunate student who is allergic to certain shellfish, mussels being one of them.  He is in the other group, so I am guessing someone will go to class prepared with a baguette and stick a bottle of white wine in the fridge for after!  Some people are not enthused with the idea of putting a live crab in boiling water - we can't freeze it because our fridges aren't cold enough (especially as they will have been opened and closed so many times during the preceding 9 hours) and we can't use our knives to kill it because we need the shell intact for the presentation.

It is a late start today - 12pm - for which I am grateful.  Some of the girls and I got together after class yesterday to practice turning our vegetables.  The ideal is a football shape (for Americans and Australians) - an oval with points on both ends and 7 even facets.  Right now the chefs are willing to settle for however many facets as long as we don't waste a lot of potato and they are all about the same size.  And now - our practice has been documented...

 






There has been a little consternation from all of us as some of the ingredients we need to practice for patisserie are not available in normal places.  No fondant in the supermarket and the plain flour doesn't indicate whether it is strong flour or soft flour - I suppose I will find out when I try to make my pastry for the lemon meringue tart.  Also - no one sells butter in anything more than 250g (8 ozs).  I bought 12 blocks last night and had to lug them home - each thing that we have to practice uses ridiculous amounts of butter and as pretty as they are to look at, I am not sure I will be able to eat many of these things ever again.

Back to life...
As for life in London - it is, despite my many hours at the school or at home, trying to organize my mind for the following day, still delightful.  We have lunch or drinks out in the sun if there is a break between classes.  The days are still lenthening, so there is light past 9pm - which is perfect for the nights when we don't finish class until then, generally Thursday and Friday nights (and tonight).  The mornings are still cold - some may say brisk, but those are the ones who like the cold more than I do.  They require a warm jacket and a brisk walk to school.

There is a lot of construction going on in London as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics.  Tube stations are being upgraded, new train line/s being put in, streets having things done to them and sounds of construction going from morning until...well, I'm not sure when they stop since I usually get home later.  Everyone generally wants to wind down from the day at the pub and I think that when the school moves to Bloomsbury Square in January, the local businesses will really notice the difference.  You can tell when there's a break between classes because the streets and cafes are suddenly awash with white jackets emblazoned with the blue LCB crest paired with crocs and houndstooth checked pants.  Starbucks gets a lot of people coming in, desperate for a coffee to keep them awake for the 3 hour lecture coming up (or in progress) after they have already had up to 6 hours of class.

Now I must once again gear up to go to class.  A demo for 2.5 hours - this is the target time for our demo chefs, but classes have been known to run over the allocated 3 hours, which can cause a bit of a scramble for the next class - then a break (nap and review of notes) before being back and ready to go in the kitchen at 6pm.

So until next time, happy resting!