Whose stupid idea was this?
Have asked myself whose stupid idea this was and then remembered it was mine. Wit and wits have temporarily (I hope) deserted me - all I can remember are numbers and sort-of patterns/ratios. Like, short crust pastry is 2 flour to 1 butter. Sweet pastry is not quite that ratio. The sponge (Genoise sponge, not one of the other 5 or something that we've done in the last couple of weeks) is 1 flour to 1...sugar? Butter? Eggs??? Drat - have to look at it again! Luckily that practical exam isn't till Monday morning. At 8am we will be assigned our stations and exam dish which we draw out of a bowl. It would be a hat except that this is a cooking school, not a millinery school.
Still having classes!
There is no study period as such. We had class on Saturday - 8am, then again at 12pm. It was eclairs but they changed the quantities so although the ratios are the same, I can't use it to consolidate the recipe in my mind for next week. Or rather, I could, but then it would be wrong for the exam and they deduct marks for the first 9 minutes or so that you are late, then after 10 minutes, they fail you. Basic Cuisine and Patisserie are full for next term...
So Saturday we did a beef stroganoff, then eclairs in the afternoon with the pastry cream filling - yum. Too bad they are still lumpy and sad looking. On Monday it was meringues shaped like eggs and poached in a syrup and a creme caramel. No photos of the caramel - because we did it in the 2nd week (I think) of Patisserie, but also because I had a problem with mine and it was only just set as we finished class 2 hours in. There wasn't time to cool it and unmold it (it would have gone splat on the plate). Luckily there were two, so I left them for the nice porters who washed so many of our bowls and pots. Have also managed to burn my finger because it slipped when I was checking on the creme caramels in the oven. Ah such is life - as long as I don't do it as part of my practical exams, it's all good. Anyway, this picture is of the oeufs a la neige avec creme Anglaise (aka snow eggs with vanilla sauce).Have unearthed chicken scratches in my notes where I clearly fell asleep during class and was still trying to take notes. I must have had my eyes open, no one nudged me awake and the chefs usually ask people to poke whomever is sleeping through a demo or lecture. Have found further chicken scratches in my study notes. Ability to sleep is currently only in evidence when I am sitting up with my notes. Said ability immediately departs upon trying to go to bed as evidenced by my attempt on Monday at 6:30pm following little sleep and a couple of classes, one of them rather unsuccessful. Of course as soon as I get up to study again, I will fall asleep on my chair...
People have been short of sleep and occasionally, tempers, for the past week or so. Some of them have had their eating patterns affected - even more so than usual. We are getting used to late dinners after our classes which finish at 9pm - hopefully not so many of those next term if the incoming Basic students have a similar schedule to what we had...some of the girls have said that they can't stop eating because they are stressed. Others can't eat and still others can't stop once they start, but they are too stressed to start...
No signs of Iron Chef-hood
Today was my Cuisine practical exam. I went over by 3 minutes. Our kitchen chef was counting down ("Station 3, you have 30 seconds...20 seconds...10 seconds...). I wanted to tell him that although appreciated, he wasn't helping but I was too busy trying to take a deep breath and make sure that I got something on the plate. Also he made me calm down and make sure that I plated accurately. The sauce wasn't reduced enough, not degreased none of my vegetables were cooked enough and there was a bit of disastrous knifework with the parsley chiffonade but at least I had the right ingredients and all of them on the plate. I didn't think we were supposed to brown the potatoes so I didn't. We'll see if that was correct or not. Hopefully a certificate will still come out of this.
Thoroughly demoralized by 2:33pm but I packed the chicken and took it home. I had a friend from Intermediate Patisserie coming over for dinner after her theory exam - and possibly a class, I can't remember. Had a little rebellion against French food and ended up serving smoked salmon and cream cheese to go with the baguette, although the cream cheese was in (messy) quenelles as a nod to presentation (being plan B after I couldn't get the cream cheese out of a mold neatly). Note: cream cheese can be quite crumbly and is hard to quenelle neatly. Also made some poke which I shaped with a tiny measuring cup (see the bowls). Yes, I know - the picture is blurry. Obviously my acquaintance with the focus thing on my camera is still marginal at best.
There was no time to taste anything during the exam to check for seasoning. However, if dinner was anything to go by, it should still have tasted pretty good - assuming the chefs doing the tasting don't like to have chicken with their salt. No, I don't have a picture of the fricassee, either from the exam (I can't believe I even thought there was a chance of getting a shot!) or from dinner (which we ate with rice and broccoli - to hell with glazing vegetables) but you can take my word for it that LM and I both enjoyed it.
Cannot wait until noon on Monday. For better or for ill, our exams will have finished and our classes as well. For now, we will have finished 3 out of our 4 exams by Wednesday afternoon this week, but we still have classes on Thursday through Saturday. Interestingly, we have a demo for Patisserie on Friday at the same time that we are scheduled to have our debriefing sessions with our Cuisine chefs about our exam results. I am curious to see how the school is going to arrange for us to be in two places at once...
Until next time - take a deep breath and remember - it's just food. And get some rest!
No sign of emerging Iron Chef-hood? I'd disagree. Seems like to are managing to jump each hurdle they put in your way.
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