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.
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