Level 2 – Complete

I suppose this is the equivalent of a final in a college level class (considering the school is an “accredited institution”). And I was nervous as if I was taking a final in college.

The first thing we did was take the written test, or the “theory” portion. This was basically the same as any other written test we took so far. Chef Tom provided the materials we needed to know, in detail, the class before. We were wondering if the other chefs were going to provide the information the way Chef Tom did. You had to either, leave your notes at school and not study them, or just be an idiot, to score less than a 95 on these tests/quizzes.

I did perfectly on the written portion. I may have been the only one to not have a couple of points taken away. At least that’s the impression I got after talking to everyone that night, most of whom seemed to be upset about losing a few points here or there.

After this portion of the test, we had a looong boring lecture on different pieces of restaurant equipment, and how to perform simple maintenance on them. Apparently, one girl passed out and was full on snoring. Everyone got a kick out of that.

After this lecture and a nerve wracking family meal, we had our practical.

We had 20 minutes to perform each of a few different tasks. The first was butchering the chicken. I was most comfortable with this. I practiced this a lot, and decided that I would rock it. I sure did. Let me list a few (hopefully all of the steps)

1) take out the wish bone;
2) manchonner the wings (cut off the tip and the two boned part, and clean the edge of the remaining bone);
3) make a cross (pull back the remaining wing pieces and score a cross into the back of the bird where the wing pieces meet);
4) cut along the inner thighs to start to separate the legs. The cut should connect with the horizontal line of the cross on the back of the bird (Leave as much skin on the breast as possible);
5) pop the thighs (physically pop the thigh bones out of their sockets);
6) being careful to keep the oysters in tact, remove the legs;
7) twist, tear and cut out the remaining back bone;
8) on the inside of the chest, score the cartilage down the center;
9) pop the chest in half (like the thighs) and remove the breast bone;
10) cut the breast in half down the middle;
11) return to the legs and manchonner the tips (expose the end of the drumstick);
12) cut the joint between the legs and thigh; and
13) scrape the meat away from the thigh bone, exposing the bone.

This may not mean a whole lot to you, nor will you be able to butcher the chicken properly if you were simply reading this list, but I promise you it makes perfect sense to anyone who has an idea of what needs to be done, and have been shown before.

The next thing we did was fillet a trout. First we had to remove the scales. I HATE THIS! Scaling fish is such a pain and it’s so messy. Scales flying all over the place, and getting stuck on the knife. Speaking of which, I sharpened my fillet knife the night before, as I found it to be quite dull.

My first fillet was perfect. It was flush against the bone and very clean. The second half was less than perfect. I was starting to get a little nervous about this. I managed to relax and just carefully finish taking off the fillet. It wasn’t bad! It just wasn’t perfect. I removed the bones, clean up the edges, and it was ok.

The next part of the test was to take 2 potatoes and turn as many cocottes as possible. Chef suggested we get 8 out of each potato, though I personally felt my potatoes were on the smaller side and this would be difficult. I pointed it out to him, and he said do the best you could. In 20 minutes I was able to get 8 or 9 piece. They were not as nice as I would have liked. I really go frustrated since my pieces were so thin. Apparently, it was ok, but if I could have only attempted 6 per potato, I would have been happier. And I still would have only turned 8 or 9, but of better quality. One guy got about 15, though his were a little on the small side, and this new girl who will be in our class, got all 16, and apparently they were perfect. Her fillets and chicken were perfect as well, so I was told by the guy working next to her.

Lastly, we needed to make an herbed mayo. This calls for 1 egg yolk, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, salt, white pepper, a teaspoon of vinegar, and 150mL-175mL of oil. I whipped my butt off and made that mayo. The herbs we added were chives, which we chopped and added at the end. I thought it was pretty good, well, I know it was pretty good, but chef felt it could have used a touch more vinegar and a touch more salt. But I know it was good.

I know this because besides the new girl, who apparently did everything pretty perfectly, I got the second highest score in the class (which should make me second in the class, but I guess its 3rd with the new girl). I got an 88 on the practical. The other guy, I’m led to believe got an 89 or 90. Not much higher. But I think an 89. With the combination of the theory and the rest of the quizzes, I got a 95 and change in the class, which I am extremely proud of. It could, theoretically (or empirically) put me at the top of the class, but I personally believe I am second.

Ultimately, I’ve neglected to quote chef mainly due to the fact that I forgot to, but he said something that is very important. When all is said and done, and we graduate, no restaurant or chef will ever ask your grade. They will see what you can do with a knife and how well you cook. So this 95, second in the class business is worth its weight in the useless nonsense it is. (But it’s still a 95!)