There were a couple of highlights of my night. The first was just the sheer amount of production we did in such a short period of time. Between 6 of us, (the 3 of us in level 4, Chef Wanda and 2 make up students) we created family meal for 60-80 people in a little over 2 hours. There was supposed to be some prep work completed on Saturday for Tuesday’s class. Of course we were not aware, so the family meal people didn’t do anything for the next meal (since we were switching groups).
Anyhow, as soon as we got into class, there were two big plastic crates full of chicken. Chef Wanda wanted us to quarter them, and quickly. And we did. We didn’t take so much care in getting the oysters out, or in removing the wish bones. But in about 20 minutes, we must have quartered 40 chickens. I was a little disappointed in the fact that we didn’t put much care into the process, but in the time frame that was presented to us, we did quite well.
After this, my task was the carrots. I had free reign over the carrots. Of course I had to peel about 20lbs. of them first. Then I had to peel parsnips as well, which were on the puny side, which actually made it harder to peel. At the advice/request of one of my classmates (Steve), I made a brown sugar/cinnamon butter mix to coat them in, and they were very delicious.
Besides the carrots and the quartering of the chicken, by 8:30, we had a phenomenal family meal prepared in no time. We also took a test on charcuterie which I am not so thrilled about. I studied last week, but I should have brushed up on it. Oh well.
What I AM thrilled about is I got a grade back for my buffet portion. A 98! 98 out of 100!! That’s pretty money! He took off two points on very random things, things that he could have been guilty of. But he commented that my hard work and dedication showed and that I have a good chance at making it in this career. That was pretty awesome to hear.
The motto of the class was: “if we like it, you will, too.” That is, whatever we make for family meal, if it pleases us, we don’t care if it’s what you want; you’re going to like it. That was fantastic because, as Chef Wanda said, there is some creativity that we’re allowed to play with.
Two days, 2 showers, many hand washes and lots of Purell later, I still have carrot pigment in my left index finger and thumb. Its borderline gross, but it doesn’t rub onto anything.
Oh, so somebody in our family meal group (I’m thinking it was the Chef) put a couple of trays of chicken into a different oven. Long after family meal ended, we found that chicken, charred beyond recognition. We were commenting on how we had JUST enough chicken, when there’s usually more to take home. We were preparing food for the next class when we found smoke coming out of the oven. What I got a great kick out of was Chef Wanda offered some to Chef Janet, and she replied, “are they done?” It was a you had to be there moment. The way she said it in a concerned factual manner, was just hilarious. I enjoyed it immensely. This level is so cool. We get to see a lot, and do a lot.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
CIA Caliber (that’s like elephant hunting ammo)
...or maybe anti aircraft rounds?
Soooo, as you may or may not be aware, we had our second and final buffet to prepare for. The buffet was on Saturday. I haven’t posted since my last buffet, because quite frankly, I’m pooped. That buffet took a lot out of us, but none the less, we had to get back in there and do it all over again. Of course we changed the theme up a bit. We wanted to bring it back to the classics. Focus on the details and produce a lot of small beautiful tasty items.
We did just that and some. In addition to about 5 different canapés, we had 3 carving stations, and some serious desserts. I didn’t know at the time either, but a canapé is basically a small appetizer or hors d'oeuvre. They are usually very intricate with a lot of detail.
Off the top of my head I can recall a few. We had layers of prosciutto on white bread, cut into rounds, with a mint mascarpone spread, as well as a dollop of this mixture on top with a ball of honey dew on top. They looked phenomenal. We had a seared and smoked filet sliced onto a slice of baguette with a dollop of gorgonzola cheese. There was a crab meat and avocado profiterole, which was really delicious. The crowd pleaser, hands down, was the duck leg confit over a bed of caramelized onion and chopped apple, with a slice of brie over a baguette slice. These were incredible!
In fact, as we were cleaning up, there was a student in the room adjacent to ours working on pastries. There are windows between the two rooms so he was watching me pack some of these away to take home, and he just pointed at them and was giving us the thumbs up. And so I offered him one, and he put two fingers up in the air, asking for 2!! He got em. That was a compliment in its own.
I went on a tangent… The production group laid out a platter of 3 kinds of sausages they made. Two were pork, one was lamb. They were all really tasty. Right behind that, Steve and I were at the carving station! We had an entire leg of lamb, 3 turkey breasts and an entire prime rib roast. Steve and I were slicing them to order and placing them on the plates. It was phenomenal. For the lamb, I made a fresh focaccia bread with rosemary, and we sliced that, drizzled a red pepper mayo on it with a few leaves of arugala, and I placed the lamb slices right on the bread. It was money.
We also blew it up for desserts. I spent probably 8 hours on making tiny pastry shells for canapé desserts. Some we filled with a lemon curd, and topped with fruits or swiss meringue (which took me about 20 minutes to pipe out, then we passed a torch over them leaving a beautiful beautiful lightly browned color. There were chocolate ganache with white chocolate swirls, napoleons with pastry cream and raspberries, puff pastry with pistachio ice cream scoops and Chef Rob’s famous tuxedo strawberries.
Oh, how could I forget? We had 3 different rolled/stuffed meats that we cooked sous-vide style. We made a salmon roulade, stuffed with a smoked trout force meat. For this, we flattened out salmon fillets, then layered basil and piped a layer of ground up smoked trout. We then rolled it in plastic, and then twisted it until it was a really tight package. When they were cooked we sliced it and presented it on a layer of aspic. They were gorgeous.
We also did a stuffed duck breast with a pork forcemeat, and boneless turkey legs with an herb stuffing. Everything was truly amazing.
Another chef came in and told Chef Rob that this buffet, and the last, were of CIA caliber. I was watching this chef as we were serving our buffet. He was walking up and down the table just examining… admiring our work. You could see he was amazed.
On Saturday we came in at 12 noon to finalize preparation for 8:30. There was no way we would have completed everything in time if we didn’t come in that early. We were rushing from pretty much the moment we got in.
Again, I have pics, and I will get them up, somehow.
We now move on to family meal. To be honest, I look forward to this transition. I have done so much baking in the past few weeks that I really want to get back into cooking the meats and starches. Chef reassured me that my baking was clutch and everything was fantastic, but I do look forward to hacking some meat, and tackling the mass production of entrée food. The current group of 3 in family meal have been making FANTASTIC family meals, especially compared to the previous levels before us. They have received many compliments, which is rare for family meal. I hope to carry on in their footsteps. On Saturday, the next group is planning an Italian buffet, and then they need to muster up the courage for another buffet. We set the bar high, but I have a feeling chef rob is going to take them higher! I hope so. We’re definitely tearing level 4 a new one.
Soooo, as you may or may not be aware, we had our second and final buffet to prepare for. The buffet was on Saturday. I haven’t posted since my last buffet, because quite frankly, I’m pooped. That buffet took a lot out of us, but none the less, we had to get back in there and do it all over again. Of course we changed the theme up a bit. We wanted to bring it back to the classics. Focus on the details and produce a lot of small beautiful tasty items.
We did just that and some. In addition to about 5 different canapés, we had 3 carving stations, and some serious desserts. I didn’t know at the time either, but a canapé is basically a small appetizer or hors d'oeuvre. They are usually very intricate with a lot of detail.
Off the top of my head I can recall a few. We had layers of prosciutto on white bread, cut into rounds, with a mint mascarpone spread, as well as a dollop of this mixture on top with a ball of honey dew on top. They looked phenomenal. We had a seared and smoked filet sliced onto a slice of baguette with a dollop of gorgonzola cheese. There was a crab meat and avocado profiterole, which was really delicious. The crowd pleaser, hands down, was the duck leg confit over a bed of caramelized onion and chopped apple, with a slice of brie over a baguette slice. These were incredible!
In fact, as we were cleaning up, there was a student in the room adjacent to ours working on pastries. There are windows between the two rooms so he was watching me pack some of these away to take home, and he just pointed at them and was giving us the thumbs up. And so I offered him one, and he put two fingers up in the air, asking for 2!! He got em. That was a compliment in its own.
I went on a tangent… The production group laid out a platter of 3 kinds of sausages they made. Two were pork, one was lamb. They were all really tasty. Right behind that, Steve and I were at the carving station! We had an entire leg of lamb, 3 turkey breasts and an entire prime rib roast. Steve and I were slicing them to order and placing them on the plates. It was phenomenal. For the lamb, I made a fresh focaccia bread with rosemary, and we sliced that, drizzled a red pepper mayo on it with a few leaves of arugala, and I placed the lamb slices right on the bread. It was money.
We also blew it up for desserts. I spent probably 8 hours on making tiny pastry shells for canapé desserts. Some we filled with a lemon curd, and topped with fruits or swiss meringue (which took me about 20 minutes to pipe out, then we passed a torch over them leaving a beautiful beautiful lightly browned color. There were chocolate ganache with white chocolate swirls, napoleons with pastry cream and raspberries, puff pastry with pistachio ice cream scoops and Chef Rob’s famous tuxedo strawberries.
Oh, how could I forget? We had 3 different rolled/stuffed meats that we cooked sous-vide style. We made a salmon roulade, stuffed with a smoked trout force meat. For this, we flattened out salmon fillets, then layered basil and piped a layer of ground up smoked trout. We then rolled it in plastic, and then twisted it until it was a really tight package. When they were cooked we sliced it and presented it on a layer of aspic. They were gorgeous.
We also did a stuffed duck breast with a pork forcemeat, and boneless turkey legs with an herb stuffing. Everything was truly amazing.
Another chef came in and told Chef Rob that this buffet, and the last, were of CIA caliber. I was watching this chef as we were serving our buffet. He was walking up and down the table just examining… admiring our work. You could see he was amazed.
On Saturday we came in at 12 noon to finalize preparation for 8:30. There was no way we would have completed everything in time if we didn’t come in that early. We were rushing from pretty much the moment we got in.
Again, I have pics, and I will get them up, somehow.
We now move on to family meal. To be honest, I look forward to this transition. I have done so much baking in the past few weeks that I really want to get back into cooking the meats and starches. Chef reassured me that my baking was clutch and everything was fantastic, but I do look forward to hacking some meat, and tackling the mass production of entrée food. The current group of 3 in family meal have been making FANTASTIC family meals, especially compared to the previous levels before us. They have received many compliments, which is rare for family meal. I hope to carry on in their footsteps. On Saturday, the next group is planning an Italian buffet, and then they need to muster up the courage for another buffet. We set the bar high, but I have a feeling chef rob is going to take them higher! I hope so. We’re definitely tearing level 4 a new one.
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