The first day of level three didn't start out quite the way I would have hoped. While simply slicing the root off a shallot, as I've done numerous times before, I sliced the top part of my thumb. Then later in the day as i went to clean off my vegetable peeler, it somehow slipped through my hand and sliced my left ring finger, causing a torrent of blood to pour out, which then in turn caused me to feel like i was going go faint so then if had to go sit down for a while catching whatever breeze was coming through the window. Sort of embarrassing, but I do not like blood. Besides the bloody start to the day ('ll blame it on the fact that we were in a new environment) the rest of the day went pretty well. Level three is completely different from levels one and two. Instead of focusing on learning all the French techniques and vocabulary, we are focusing on our timing and our consistency. Instead of being divided into teams, we are separated into stations of four students, with everyone making a different dish. Each week for the first four days we make the four same dishes everyday. This week it's sauteed porkchops with green peppercorn sauce, beef consomme, apple tart and sauteed skate with brown butter sauce. In addition to the four dishes we have to make, we are also responsible for making an amuse bouche everyday after they give us one special ingredient to make the amuse bouche from. In case you were wondering what an amuse bouche is (no it is not just the namesake of my blog), it's a small bite of something that is intended to wake up your palate before the meal. Yesterday our ingredient was gravlax and today we had stilton cheese, pear and pancetta to work with. Being able to make an amuse bouche everyday brightens up the repetitiveness of the recipes that we have to make everyday.
Everyday the chefs put a timeline up on the board for when every dish will be due. The amuse bouche is usually due at 11:45, consomme at 12, skate at 12:15, pork at 12:30 and the apple tart at 12:45. The morning is typically pretty calm up until 11:25 when everyone suddenly starts plating their amuse bouche and firing up their other dishes. It can get pretty hectic, but at the same time its also pretty exciting. Yesterday we named our amuse bouche "Fish and Chips." It was gravlax on top of a fried potato chip with lemon creme fraiche and a salad of julienned, carrots, apples and cornichons. It was very yummy and got some praise from the chefs, which is always nice. Today our amuse wasn't as much of a success, but it was still good. We cut out small pieces of the dough that we used to make the apple tart, baked them and topped it with a slice of crispy pancetta, a creamy Stilton sauce, a pear poached in simple syrup and then flambeed in brandy and topped it all off with a drop of salted caramel sauce. It wasn't the chef's favorite of the day, but it was still fun to make. Instead of levels one and two where we got feedback when we brought up our plates to the chefs, in level three, we don't get our feedback until the afternoon and we get it in front of the whole class, which adds that extra pressure to do as well as we can.
Yesterday I was responsible for making pork chops and today I made the apple tart, which was more difficult that I anticipated. The apple tart is really all about getting the timing right. We have to make the dough, then put it in the freezer to chill for an hour, then we have to roll it out and allow it time to chill again while its in the tart mold. Then we have to arrange the apple slices perfectly on top, put it in the oven and make sure that we allow it time to cool before 12:45 when the plates need to be at the chef. I was a little off with my timing today because the eggs were late arriving to the classroom, so my tart tough didn't get into the freezer early enough. So even thought it wasn't as brown as I would have liked it to be, I had to take it out of the oven so that it would have enough time not to be "nuclear hot" in the center, as the chef called it.
Tomorrow I take on the consomme...hopefully it works!
No comments:
Post a Comment