#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.  

#57 - Sugar, fish, lights, action!

Long day Wednesday
Wednesday was Day 2 of sugar in Patisserie.  I got so used to Patisserie being late sessions (3 - 9pm) that I completely misread my schedule.  I want to say it was because I was on painkillers, but that would be untrue.  On the other hand, although I was still (mostly) in bed at 11:45am, that was more due to the fact that I was trying to get my back into working order.  Back spasms are kind of inconvenient when you have to push, pull and carry things.  Anyway - got a text from one of the girls in class - I was late!  Major rushing (also not good with bad back) and staggered into class.  Managed to finish the bow and ribbon, but I think I didn't pull the sugar enough.  For whatever reason, I didn't cool it enough before I put it together, so the ribbons looked ok when I put them together.  A few minutes later, however...


Then the centrepiece.  A second try - I tried out a couple of things, quite unsuccessfully.  I say unsuccessful because the second try turned out worse than my first try.  Also, I managed to drip some sugar on myself - a couple of burns on my fingers.  The blister on my middle finger burst in class on Friday morning while I was cleaning my knives.  The other one is still on my pointer finger, so we'll see how cleanly they heal.


Wednesday afternoon was the official ceremony to turn on the Christmas lights for Marylebone Village.  I was in class during the time when the street was closed off, but the lights were on when I was on my way home.  I must admit that any Grinch-like tendencies which normally want to rear their heads around this time of year have been quiescent - mainly because lights at nightime are pretty, regardless of the time of the year.  They are just more effective at the moment because the sun sets before 4:15pm so it's pretty dark by the time we get out of class and head home after 9pm.  No Christmas music yet (thank goodness) but the lights, the cold wind at night and breathing air which feels cleaner because of the drop in temperature all help alleviate any slightly depressed feelings that might otherwise make us a little more like Scrooge rather than Tiny Tim.


Cuisine Thursday...
Normally they give us a little leeway when plating now.  I took this to mean that the spinach could go the plate the way I wanted - as a swirl instead of a quenelle.  Apparently not.  I presented my plate and Chef FJ said "funny."  What do you mean?  "Funny plate, funny quenelle, funny lemon...are you feeling all right?"  When a teacher says they can tell you are tired and sore - that's not a good thing.


So the dish - halibut grilled...with Bearnaise sauce and other stuff.  I gave my fish to Chef P in the production kitchen.  I didn't give him the Bearnaise sauce because it was too light in texture (and I hadn't cooked the sabayon well enough at the beginning so I had to fix it by cooking another yolk / sabayon), but at least it tasted ok.  The potato is supposed to look like a rose but having to slice pieces that thin and long, like an apple peel, almost caused a nervous breakdown in class.  Apparently the potato rose tends to do that to people.  The potato is slippery, the peel gets oddly shaped and breaks off in short pieces which makes it hard to fasten into a rose.  Then when you cook it, it expands a bit - great if well assembled, but otherwise it falls apart or looks like mine.  It's supposed to be crispy outside and creamy/soft on the inside of the rose.  The centre was ok but something was wrong with the outside, I just can't remember what.


Then we had our wine tech class. It was the Patisserie wine tech (dessert and wine pairing), which means sweet and sticky wines. I like the flavors much better but generally this is also where we run into fortified wines. Even with the (inelegant) spitting, my ears still got really hot. Good thing it ended a little early so that I could actually get to the theatre in relatively good repair.


Chicago!
Tursday night capped off a slightly crappy practical with a show in the West End - Chicago, in case the heading to this section didn't tip give it away.  It was at the Garrick Theatre, near Leister Square.  I was expecting something like Broadway but this was almost more like off-Broadway.  Some of the singing was good and some of it mediocre (America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, was Roxie Hart) - oh dear..her voice isn't bad but there were a few spots where I couldn't tell what the tune was.  She can carry a tune, but it's like she dropped it for just a couple of notes here and there.  Quite an entertaining show - I'd only seen the movie before - and the staging was great.  I loved having the characters move around the orchestra / band which was sitting up on stage, as a part of the set.


Thoroughly corrupted?
Afterwards I wanted something sweet.  Very unusual, I'm not normally a big sweets person.  My parents would be surprised by this picture.  I was a bit shocked - at the size of the ice cream thing whose name I've forgotten.  Something to do with chocolate.  Anyway, managed to get LM to have a teeny, tiny taste.  Pretty good for that time of the night, although it wasn't something that I could finish on my own.

Friday - Breakfast of champions?
We had an 8am demo on Friday morning. The practical which corresponds to this demo is our mock exam next week. Similar (but not same) conditions during the mock exam. In the meantime, Chef FJ prepared a standing rib roast, a Bordelais sauce, some mushrooms and mac 'n cheese.  Let me just say, normally I hate blue cheese. There is now an exception to this rule, which is gorgonzola in mac 'n cheese. I think they did something like this at some fancy restaurant - Ducasse? - although of course they call it by it's proper name, macaroni gratin. Anyway - wow! I don't think I can post pictures from demo because I don't have permission from the school or the chef, but I have the recipe so it's definitely on my list to make at some point in the near(ish) future.


Our dish for that day's practical was a Dover sole and crayfish timbale.  It was a fish mousse, blanched crayfish and crayfish sauce encased in a fillet of sole, served with more crayfish sauce and a champagne sauce.  Maybe it's because I don't drink, but I could really taste the champagne in the sauce so I put in butter at the end to soften the alcohol.  The result:  "too much butter".  Then Chef JB looked around and asked if he had just said there was too much butter.  We couldn't believe it - on the other hand, it wasn't that the sauce was super buttery (it kind of was, but I don't eat much butter at home either) - his objection was that he couldn't really taste the champagne.  I had put some aside to add at the end but didn't, so I added the reserved champagne and asked him to taste it again (marking was over).  Nope, still too buttery.

Then it was a bit of a hurry because I had dinner plans with MD.  We were going to meet for drinks in Gerrard Street, then head to dinner in Chinatown where her man was going to join us.  But first, the fish, mousse and crayfish needed a home.  I went to my go-to guys and even got a little cuddle.  Apologies for the school uniform - Michael had himself a little laugh but I felt so disgusting and sticky after cuisine, I couldn't bear the thought of changing into my civvies without having a shower first.  Not even the croquembouche decoration helped because it was quite a warm day so we didn't cool down much between end of cuisine and leaving school altogether.  Having seen Chef NH in action, I can only see how far we all have to go before we could even begin to look as smooth as he does when he works.

Harder than it looks (or else any monkey could do it) - aka guess the chef

It's actually like that with all the chefs.  Somehow they make it all look so easy, then we go to class and things fall to pieces.  People forget about the sugar ("Geraldine, I see blue smoke!  Who's burning the sugar?" or "The monkey used scisseaux to cut that.  I don't remember the monkey tearing the foil."  Or "I didn't say it was easy.  I didn't say a 2-year old could do it, did I?"  to which the reply was "No chef - you said a 5-year old could do it with one arm tied behind his back.")  Sometimes we forgot other things ("you can't pour the sugar on the side - you can't get it out")  In any event, it always seems that the thing which looks so easy in demo then is super fiddly in practical.  Occasionally it can make you want to throw the stupid potato across the room.

I'd write more but I have been falling asleep for the last 2 paragraphs so it's time to get some sleep.  so until next time, patience, Grasshopper!