#67 - (Not) Graduation and variations on a theme

The variations are not on a theme by Paganini.  It's more a theme by Le Cordon Bleu London - that is to say, hygiene.  Kind of.  Sort of.  What can I say, it's more laundry.  But as usual, I've begun in the middle so must loop back to the beginning.

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.

#46 - The best laid plans, a first and Not-the-End-of-the-World

(Warning:  long, rambling post...don't say you weren't warned)

I think the last post ended with a plan for my dessert idea.  Well...it didn't work out quite as envisioned.  In some ways this is a good thing because I now know what won't work.  On the other hand, it wasn't good because (a)  I probably got a bad grade on that set of classes and (b)  I now have an idea of just how far apart Chef CB's and my tastebuds are (something on the magnitude of from here to Pluto).  Which is to say, he said it was "tasteless as hell" and I thought it was way too sweet.  My proposed solution?  Add copious amounts of alcohol somewhere, but make sure it doesn't destabilize my mousse or jelly.  By the way, writing about mousse - I looked at the recipe I had written down for a "pina colada mouse".  Now that might have been an interesting dessert!  So - to start at the beginning (for once):

The concept was sound but the execution was...
We spent Monday morning and afternoon making the components for our entremets.  Tuesday around noon we finished assembling the desserts.  The tuiles had to be put back in the oven to crisp up because they had gotten soggy overnight.  Consequently the ones which had previously been bent into twirls and things snapped when I tried to bend them back after the second baking.  Whoops.  The chocolate was not good to begin with - Monday was so cold in the Patisserie that it had pretty much set by the time I had spread it, before I got around to making patterns and bending it.  Note to self - must work even faster for the final...and I can hear Chef NB laughing in my head as I write this.

lacking...
I had misunderstood my brief a little bit.  Since this was (I thought) part of our restaurant dessert module, I had planned on plating the thing - the plans including making a couple of different sauces and decorations.  Ok, an entremet is always served on a cakeboard.  No day in which you learn something is wasted and I have been learning a lot!  On the other hand, my alcoholic pina colada sauce was a hit downstairs with Reception and the Administration office upstairs, or so I was told.  Anyway, here are the photos of my unsuccessful dessert (fyi, Chef CB thought it was mango jelly - it wasn't).

These photos represent 4 class sessions:  planning (session 1), making components (sessions 2 & 3) and assembly, presentation, critique and filling out paperwork (session 4).  Given the results from this week, I now have a slightly better idea of what might work and what clearly won't.  It may require quite a bit of tweaking for the final dessert plate idea, so I am glad that I hadn't started the portfolio yet.  Sometimes procrastination does pay off!

In which we puzzle Chef FJ
Then it was straight on to a Cuisine practical, which was a bit unusual.  We usually have Cuisine Wednesdays - Fridays.  This one was particularly long.  I thought we finished on time, or a little late which only goes to show how bad my sense of time is.  In any event, one of the guys in my class burned his hand very badly on a pan handle (we had been roasting lobster shells in the oven) and had to go to the hospital.  I had a couple of smaller burns on my left hand (same silly mistake) but they are mostly healed now.

My tomatoes got too vinegared in my dressing because I put them in too early and my lamb's lettuce was "burned by the dressing".  Hence the reason why you always do it later - so the leaves don't go translucent and lose any crispness they may have.  The celeriac salad was yummy, but only after I went home and added another whole spoonful of mustard (we made remoulade - pretty much mayonnaise - by hand in class) and a lot of salt.  Yes, it would have been good if I had done that in class, but such is life.  Still learning all the time.  Chef was a bit unimpressed with the time and wanted to know why we couldn't get it done on time.

So the tips

• Don't dress your salad too early unless you like limp lettuce;
• Don't grab a hot pan (duh! to quote one of the Patisserie chefs);
• Don't put your tomatoes in the dressing too early or they will be "not tasty";
• When in doubt, add a bit of salt;
• When in doubt, don't add vinegar;

Wednesday - a first (but not the end of the world because it wasn't close to perfect)...
I had to go to an osteo because I had tweaked a rib - but the appointment was for 2:30pm (can't be choosy about the time on such late notice).  My practical was slated to end at 2:30, so I went to see Chef FJ (who had also had us the day before).  I thought I would skip class.  As Chef FJ laughs, hahahahaha.  He said I would do class and leave at 1:30pm, but he gave me a break on the assignment - only do the risotto and the stuffed pepper.  I thought about it and asked if I could also try the veal.  Given how slow I am in the kitchen, he thought it was a big risk and was doubtful...so this is what I ended up presenting at the 1hr 34 minute mark (4 minutes over - "You're late!  What am I going to do with you?")

In which Chef FJ was (a little) impressed - still not quite the end of the world
And yet, when I showed him the plate, everything was there except the Bayonne ham (because they didn't have any in the production kitchen).  He wanted to know if I had done everything myself.  Yes, Chef!  I did...obviously not pefect, but I'm not sure I will ever get even close.  A few things wrong with the timing, but it wasn't horrible, or so I hope.  Others in class started to plate (and I assume present their dishes) soon after - but it was a nice feeling to get it all done and everyone was very encouraging as well.  I have found out the secret to saving some time...which is not to worry about wasting a little bit.  They threw out that little bit of carrot so I may as well use it to get the perfect little cubes rather than using as little as possible.  The less wastage will come later (I hope).  The chefs have been saying to treat our class days as we might an exam - given the nerves, shaking hands and nausea since I had to finish and go, I can only say that the Stanislawsky (sp?) school has something to say for it.  Anyway, I still had to clean up before I could leave.

Chef FJ thought I took too long cleaning up, but having a look at my station (after I had cleaned away as much that was unnecessary as possible), wouldn't this take you longer than 5 minutes to clean up?  Cleanup duly completed and all my knives cleaned, even had time for a quick shower before getting to the osteo (a little early).  Must go back next week, but am back in working order.

More quail (cute, until they get blood everywhere)
Yesterday we had to make quail again.  Puff pastry, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads...oops, forgot to tell the guys in the real estate agency there are sweetbreads in the puff pastry friands.  I hope they like them.  Or at least don't dislike them.  We also did a mousse with minced chicken and thigh meat from the quail to spread around the quail, livers and sweetbreads to keep them from drying out.  It was fairly warm in the Cuisine kitchen, which kept things a bit tricky with the pastry.

I have the leftover pastry scraps from some of the other students because we had discussed making mini-palmiers as part of our petit fours.  The idea was subsequently abandoned, but I have the scraps in the fridge.  I suppose this means I can used the poached pears to make some sort of puff pastry something-or-other so that nothing is wasted.  Photos later, if I do them.  This is a much nicer thought than what I was thinking while cleaning the quail carcasses for the sauce (yes, we butchered 2 of them).

You can't have blood and organs in the sauce because it will not be nice.  On chickens this is fairly easy to address.  In quails I have resorted to using the back of my knife to scrape out all the spongy (and wormy looking!) bits because it's kind of hard to get quail blood off your hands and the spongy bits feel disgusting.  Plus you can't get all of it out unless you use something to get into those little nooks and crannies.

Switching gears - back to desserts, then ballet, then...
We finished our meeting about the Superior Dinner Event (now less than a week away, eek!) and it was still early enough that I got over to ballet class just in time for some exercise.  It makes it a lot easier to sleep at night since it clears all the food stuff out of your head.  Unless, that is, you're like me and you go grocery shopping at 9:30pm after cooking in class.  I didn't want veal or quail (with livers and sweetbread) but Waitrose was selling a couple of salmon pieces for 30p.  I was going to cook last night anyway, so I bought them.  They were very nice on their own.  They didn't taste as good with my salad dressing - something about the Cajun spices I put on the salmon not quite matching the dressing which tasted really good with the seafood ravioli (relax, only 6 raviolis!) but it was an interesting experiment.

I also roasted and marinated some bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) because they make a nice snack with french bread and we start our boulangerie modules on Monday.  It feels so much more multi-task-y (even if it's just putting something in the oven) to think that you have 2 pots, a couple of bowls and the oven all going on at once, even if it's all easy, simple stuff.  Apparently I am not quite tired of cooking and I knew we wouldn't be cooking at school today.

For now, it is Friday night.  I have put on a load of washing (yes, more laundry - I dropped a piece of quail yesterday and it left marks down the front of my apron), written this entry and am about to go meet several of my London friends for dinner.  We are celebrating a new job and seeing each other again after a while.

There has been a fair amount of sun this week, which always makes things seem so much brighter.  There have been lots of discussions about technique, feasibility of various ideas, potential execution problems, an experiment or three as we prepare for our Student Event.  Tickets went on sale yesterday (or possibly the day before) - today there was a sign up at reception informing students that they are all sold out - quite encouraging.

Have been watching the chefs even more closely during demonstrations.  I think I have counted up to 7 pots and pans going on at once while things are still being done for other preparations.  Way better than watching...is it Masterchef which is full of amateurs cooking?  We can't predict the lines which always makes it more entertaining.

Until next time, may you have as enjoyable a week as I have had with all my classes and phone calls home.  If everyone could have even half as nice a week, what a happy world we would live in.  As it is, people seem pretty cheery and happy most of the time anyway.  Everyone has been telling each other to have a nice day (I heard them) and smiling at each other.

#23 - Things I don't understand about the UK...

There are a few things that have puzzled me since my arrival in London and I still haven't worked them out.

Miscellaneous
For instance, why does the deodorant/anti-perspirant need to work for 48 hours?  Camping or being somewhere without hot running water and soap for a certain period of time (like my apartment when the boiler pressure turned off) is understandable.  But if you are home and have access to a shower/bath - why?

And speaking of boilers - mine wasn't working the other night.  It was late, it was freezing and I was tired from class.  I eventually figured it out - there was a certain amount of desperation because the boiler controls both the hot water and the radiators.  Also, because I cannot get into my bed when I am dirty.

Differences in language can be amusing too.  In the US, saying someone is "spunky" usually refers to their personality.  In Australia, it refers to their appearance, in a good way.  In the UK, apparently it refers to...hm, how to put this...male bodily emissions.  So not a compliment here to say that someone is spunky.  There's also a whole thing on thongs, but I won't get into that.  Suffice to say that between the US, Australian, South African and Hong Kong interpretations of the word, it gets interesting.  The conversation in our locker room, by the way, was in reference to rubber slippers.

So - words that can cause confusion, depending on where you are:
thongs, slippers, spunky, next week (geography seems to determine interpretation).  Feel free to add any suggestions to this list because I am too tired to think of any more.

Liquid soap - they have the usual arrows (one way makes the pump pop up, the other way makes it go down and you can usually lock it down).  I haven't been able to make them work, so I just refill the one bottle that got unlocked (but a friend who lives around the corner) and refill that.  Yes, I am not smarter than my soap pump.  Who cares?

OCD is only a problem if it functions with your normal daily functioning.  I haven't done the research (if you do, I will believe you as long as your source isn't Wikipedia).  Anyway - I had tutorials for my Cuisine and Patisserie classes yesterday.  My Patisserie mentor told me to stop cleaning so much (in response to my question as to why I am so slow in class).  He said, "in the time you've taken to clean, you could have made something."  Which is true - I am going to test it next week and see if I get pulled up on it.

Am very disorganized.  Everything looks so organized, but it's all a facade.  Nowhere is it more apparent than in the kitchen when I have neglected to collect the other 3 bowls you will need when you got the first two.  It seems the chefs all have eyes in the backs of their heads.  They seem to see everything (and they talk).  Apparently they notice when we make 5 trips to the sink area to get various pieces of equipment.

Fashion - I think I am sartorially challenged.  Spending most of my time in uniform makes for a lazy attitude towards every day dressing (I walk 4 minutes to class, change, then might go out for quick dinner with friends before coming back home).  Total time spent traipsing around London in street clothes on a school day:  10 minutes - 4 hours...anyway - back to my point.  During the 4 hour window, I have seen many inappropriately short skirts.  A (male) taxi driver told me that is the fashion now.  See?  Fashion challenged - I am being told what is in by a taxi driver.  So I thought I was being a granny but one of the younger girls in my course (she turns 19 in a month) also made the comment that the girls in London dress like prostitutes.  Might be a bit harsh, but accurate nonetheless.  If you have to keep tugging the hem of your skirt/dress down (and you don't have to lean a little to do it!) then it is probably too short, and possibly too tight.

Back to food
Somehow this week has whizzed by and I now have to update more photos.

I can't make soup...no time to take pictures of my chicken and mushroom soup (the soup wouldn't thicken...but the chicken julienne was nice) or the potato and leek (?) soup with julienned vegetables (watery soup flavorwise, but the first time my julienne was acceptable)...



French Onion Soup
with burned croutons

More troubled soups:  burned croutons on the French Onion soup because I forgot about them, and soup a bit bitter because I overcooked the onions.



Beef consomme
with too-brown savory crepe

Beef consomme was still a little too oily and the crepes were too brown.  Agh!  I will never make soup!!!

Basic Breads:
Soda bread and dinner rolls

Basic bread and cakes
Went a bit better.  The bread tasted a bit boring but everyone I gave rolls and bread to seemed to like it - possibly because it was made with a certain something (like, I don't care as long as it's pretty).

Basic cakes:
Lemon cake and madeleines

Cakes - were edible.  A bit too much baking powder in the madeleines resulted in air pockets, but otherwise any stuck edges were on the side not being presented.  I tasted one madeleine and a tiny edge of the cake - the one and the edge were enough.

   





Sienna eating a madeleine

SO & Sienna came down from Oxford to visit their friend Bernice. We managed to meet for coffee before lunch - so Sienna got to do some tasting. Evidently the madeleines have met and passed kid testing - she ate three immediately.


Some research:
Comparing to my test eclairs...

    



Wouldn't you visit this store?

 

This week - more meats and stuff...

A dish to help practice butchery because my chicken fricassee was way behind schedule - where does all the time go?

Poussin with apple compote

The poussin - had problems with potatoes.  I can't cook potatoes either - this is the third time something has happened to them - I hate potatoes!  and forgot to trim the drumstick ends.

Luckily JK and ML each had some spare potatoes so I could plate because mine were not cooperating.  The apples were a bit tart for Chef J, but I thought they were perfect...cut through all the butter and cream.  Oh well - still developing the palate (is that a good thing?)

Then it was offal - yech.  I tried them in demo and told the chef that if I liked liver or sweetbreads, I would have loved the dishes.  As it was, I hated them both.  So today we had to make them...I'm not sure whether I smelled the liver or the sweetbreads while we were in the kitchen, but any residual hunger I might have had from tasting the amazing sole from demo before (on the list for next week) was completely buried.
 

Chef EB refused to taste anyone's liver because he had already done 3 classes worth of tastings today.

Veal liver
with onions & sauteed potatoes

I don't blame him - my one teeny taste yesterday was enough to turn me off liver pretty much forever.  I can confirm that my policy of refusing to eat anything that has ever been on my dissecting table (or a variation of said item) is completely sound, along with the certain discrete exceptions (i.e. fish).  So the liver was well done, as per Chef E's directions, the onions burned to a crisp and beyond repair (I checked my photos from the demo - should have stopped when I had originally stopped) and the potatoes were good except they needed more salt.  Maybe everything needs more salt because we are always so hot in the kitchen that everyone pretty much sweats buckets.  Yes, yes, I know - ladies don't sweat.  Well, we're not ladies - we're chefs!  And I defy anyone to stay cool, calm and collected (and not to sweat) when it is 40 degrees C / 100 degrees F in the kitchen with the clock ticking and the dishes misbehaving.

Veal sweetbreads with
asparagus tips and parisienne potatoes

The sweetbreads (say what?) were beyond yuck - they looked like brains.  Just because something doesn't have latex running all through it like in our fetal pig which we had to dissect for 4 weeks, doesn't mean that it doesn't smell bad or look good.  They also feel kind of rubbery, but not firm - a bit squishy, actually.  So I can make it look pretty on the outside, but this one, which was super thick, should have been cut into small escalopes, then breaded and fried.  As it was, Chef E tasted the potatoes, asparagus and jus - bitter jus and the asparagus had been peeled too much...but the potatoes were good (ok, maybe I don't suck at potatoes quite as much as I thought I did).

So we finished class on time (even me!) and everyone headed to the pub for a drink.  There was a deep sigh of relief as we started drinking down our various beverages (Coke, beer, Pimms...)  I had run out of water during the practical so have been chugging for the last couple of hours.

De-offaling...


My dinner after all the awful offal

I took the longest shower ever - getting the feel of the greasy smoke, even if only in my imagination, took forever.  Then it was scrubbing the day off before I could even think about dinner.  So - the results of looking at innards for two days in a row:  yes, I cooked.  Yes, this is kind of an attempt at presentation, but I really couldn't be bothered.  There's all kinds of fussing about to make things pretty and put them in shapes, which is fine if you are getting graded on it - or being paid lots of money to look it that way.  At home, it's just more dishes to do and I have to do my own dishes - so just as soon throw it all together.

So until next time - no more offal!