You lift me up just to knock me down...

As you may have noticed, I was riding atop a very high horse, especially after the “perfect” genoise cake I made. I still am proud of it, don’t get me wrong. But I am now walking beside the horse, not really thinking about getting back on. At least not yet.

So, what is all this metaphorical talk referring to? I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been recovering from the blow that knocked me off. We had to make pate a choux and a bass papillote. The pate a choux are the cream puffs, which will be dipped in chocolate and filled with whipped cream. The papillote is a fillet of bass, sitting on a bed of tomate fondue and mushroom duxelles (chopped up and cooked down to near mush), with 3 sections of blanched julienne of celery, carrots and leeks, ALL wrapped up in a parchment paper sack.

This dish is a little tricky because you cannot see just how done the fish is. Also, the fact that we cooked it in the convection oven, which is constantly being opened and closed, makes for an unreliable, uncontrollable source of heat.

The enclosing of the fish in the papillote also takes more time than you would expect. I tried to leave myself 20 minutes to prepare, enclose and 8-9 minutes to cook the fish. I was late. The fish was raw, and I earned these words from the Chef: “Failure.”

I didn’t know the fish was going to be raw. I left it in the oven for the specified time. But it just didn’t fly. It pretty much ruined my day, my night, the next day, and a touch of the next night.

Everything is, however, a learning experience. That’s why it’s called school. I like that Chef Rob didn’t candy coat anything. He told it to me like it was: Bad.
I will (and I have) bounce back.