Good bye Dinner
On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend of one of my brothers (they of the walk in the countryside and trip on canal boat fame) - she and her partner took me to a lovely restaurant called Alba near the Barbican - really good Italian food - definitely comfort food. I took a photo of the dessert as research. As delicious as my vegetable soup and slow cooked lamb were, they weren't something I might put in an exam. Probably not the pear either, but it was good for taste, texture and potential ideas (the marscapone cream was really good - definitely on the list for a future dessert). The Alba is a family owned and operated establishment and my hostess had been going there for years. I must say that I will definitely go back - what's not to like? Small but thoughtful menu with something available for the carnivore, the vegetarian and the pescatarian (they're the ones who eat fish but not meat, right?). I was tempted to get the set menu which had a truffle dish on it, but couldn't go past the lamb.Graduation Lunch
As of Friday, 16 December 2011, the term has officially ended for my fellows in Superior Cuisine and Patisserie - they are now chefs, some of them entitled to wear the toque at least for the last few minutes of the graduation ceremony. Today was graduation day for most of those who began this long quest to learn how to cook, improve technique and to share our love of all things food. The party was at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Much better food than what I remember being served when we had our graduation from Basic. This is the final graduating batch of Superior students from 114 Marylebone Lane. From next year, students will be taking classes in Bloomsbury Square.
It was nice to see everyone dressed up and out of their school uniforms. It appears that people dress up more for the Superior Graduation - not that I remember much from when I was in Basic (and I wasn't here for the Intermediate one) but I have to admit people cleaned up very well.
Everyone had put their best shod foot forward and you could feel the palpable air of relief, excitement and (possibly it's my imagination, but who knows?) the need to catch up on just a little more sleep after the marathon Patisserie exam a couple of days ago. Some of people said that a few problems had occurred in one of the exams and sometimes it was little but important things which just went wrong on the day. I think it's always frustrating when you have an element which normally is not a trouble maker all of a sudden causing problems on the day because it tends to throw you off your stride.
The Dorchester was very pretty - a little OTT perhaps, but then again, this was a big occasion for everyone - a culmination of a lot of work and in many cases, some blood, lots of sweat and a lot of tears. Possibly also some grumpy moments, loss of sleep and monumental self control when something didn't go right in class and continued not to go right. Yes, it is personal experience talking...Having had so much time in class, I have to say I cast an eye over our lunch as though we were having it presented to us for tasting and judgment. Maybe not Iron Chef - but definitely consideration on a couple of levels: the first being, could I do this? (Sometimes yes, sometimes maybe...) - and the second one being, what might the chefs say if this was a dish that we were presenting to them.
So I do not have a 3 Michelin star palate - even after al this time and the incredible ingredients we used in class, I still do not like foie gras (although today I hated it less than usual). The toasted brioche was a nice touch although I observed a demonstration of someone's objection to it which is that you get this large slab of foie gras but only a little bit of bread and salad.
The menu said cannon of lamb. I thought the cannon was part of the leg but this looked more like a steak-ish type of cut. Also, it didn't taste particularly lamb-y, but maybe the tastebuds were confused by the foie gras and a piece of the toasted brioche (yummy, by the way) which had preceded it. Again, left the sweetbreads behind. I think they are considered a delicacy nowadays - certainly they seem to be trendy at the moment, both as part of the head-to-tail philosophy of using every part of the animal and as part of the offal-is-trendy-because-it-sounds-kind-of-weird-and-no-one-knows-what-it-is.
Dessert was a mocha and something-or-other parfait, macadamia nut brittle, coconut ice cream (milk ice cream?) and sauce. This one got particular scrutiny as there were several patisserie students at my table from all the levels as well as our head Patisserie chef. The students looked at it from the view of a plated dessert and Chef JW looked at it, comparing it to what had been served during the tasting (when they chose the menu) as well as technical points. The only really technical point is that a parfait is frozen, which these weren't. I thought the mousse might have been a tad heavy on the gelatine, but that might just have been me.
There was some discussion as to how well the chocolate was tempered, some people at the table having had rather recent and harrowing experience with uncooperative chocolate. Split verdict - I thought it was fine, someone else thought not and Chef JW did not weigh in with her opinion. She did observe that there are two LCB graduates who worked in the pastry team of the Dorchester and at least one of them had worked on these desserts. In any event, it tasted good and was quite pretty. They stuck the tuile and chocolate in the dome though, so I'm not sure what Chef GB thought of that - he told us particularly not to do that to our plated desserts.I also found out one of the girls who just completed Basic Patisserie has been reading this blog - rather a compliment. I asked her how she had found it and she said it was because she had been searching for photos of the dishes we had been making in class.
Chefs!
Anyway - they made it and have the medals, papers (lots of papers) and the hats to show it.
Well done chefs!
As for my graduation, hopefully I will be able to time my finals with the next batch of graduating Superior students. This was supposed to be a year of food, but it's turning out to be a bit longer. It's been more of a year of building character - in which food played a large role. I will know more once I hear back from the Academic committe but for now, there will be photos of practice sessions (once my hand is back in shape), possibly some bitching and moaning and now I have a great excuse to eat a lot of things at a lot of places. After all, it's a chance to collect ideas for finals without trying to get too clever. It wasn't far to find a very large silver lining (a break to reorganize, get warm at home for the holidays with family and friends and a chance to see the new school).
So until next time, happy holidays - may your year end as positively as mine bids to do.
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