This morning was my first practical (that I was scheduled to take) in over 3 months. New kitchen, new policies, a huge fridge that I need both hands to open after firmly planting both feet, finding the foil, the aluminum cups, the greaseproof paper...and finding out 2 hours into a 2.5hour practical that I get to use all four burners on my stove. It was almost like the first or second practical back in basic where we were all looking for things, only in my case, I was the only one doing it.
Better than yesterday when I kept going back towards the boulangerie after getting things from the washup area, only to go running past the door I needed and towards the emergency escape. Hopefully that's not some Freudian thing.
Cooking again (or, Picking Up Where I Left Off)...
So 8am today, I got my station kind of set up then gloved up. We had to take apart a dover sole and I didn't want to smell like fish all day. It took a little while longer to fillet and skin the fish than I would have liked - I'd like to blame my knife (I hadn't sharpened it properly in a while) but I'm afraid it's just being out of practice. The good thing is the induction burners work really well. The bad news is that I am getting used to them so I was either boiling things over (the crayfish water for blanching, the sauce after I added the cream) or they weren't really going (the champagne sauce was under reduced so still a bit too acidic from the champagne).
This was the last practical I did before injury back in November so I really am picking up where I left off. The sauce stayed in the timbale this time and although it seemed to leak everywhere when I initially unmoulded it, it looked fine once Chef JB took it apart. I have a feeling he might have been lenient on the grading today - or perhaps he was making allowances for my being in an unfamiliar kitchen. It looks easy from the outside when you just look, but if you have to actually put your hands on a cutting board, it's no longer by the washup area which is shared by 3 porters, who actually do the washing up for both kitchens on the various levels.
The super good thing is that there is a lot more equipment. Cuisine kitchens have maurices (silicon spatulas) again. We have a lot of little pots to strain our sauces into when we are finishing and holding them for service. and the 4 burner thing? The others have had a chance to get used to it, but I almost didn't know what to do with myself, having so much space. Tomorrow will be a chance to get organized because we have our mock exam the next day, so I have to review my knife kit and take out anything extraneous, then ensure all my blades are sharp and ready to go.
There's also a little downtime over the next couple of days. There are a couple of blocks of time which are not relevant to me because they are for feedback for the students who have been here for the entire term. I also have a chance to get rid of some of my ingredients because everyone is getting ready to try their desserts. For the Grand Diplomes, the plated dessert portion of the final Patisserie exam is probably the most stressful thing because we have to make up our own recipes and methods (or adapt from things we learned previously) and there are multiple components. The result is a group of people who freak each other out over various things - I'm sure some of them are silly, but it's hard to see that when you're in the middle of it all. We all had a chance to discuss, bitch and moan between classes - there's a cafe with both indoor and outdoor seating. And of course, I've already told you the food and coffee is good.Tonight was dinner with UP. Jamie's Italian on Threadneedle Street. I'd write more but I'm so tired I fell sleep for a while when I was trying to complete the preceding sentence.
Tomorrow is a demo only, so hopefully I'll be able to post photos of the pigeon.
So until next time, good night.
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