As I left my apartment, I paused to get the full effect of what this day would hold. I am one of those "I can't wait for...." guys. It's one of my problems. Maybe it's the conditioning we are all taught in the U.S. to always aspire and look ahead to the next step. So today, I wanted to live in the moment and enjoy this last day of school to its fullest.
Arriving at school early I was happy to see Julia and Alan already there and dressed. Alan had some cell phone time glitch that caused him to begin his day and arrive an hour earlier than he had planned. Rumors were rampant with anticipation of the exam dishes. It was not only our exam day, but also the pastry, and the Intermediate Cuisine classes' exam day as well. Spies, moles, double agents, private detectives had all been activated to get the scoop on the produce and meat deliveries to the school to get a hint at what the dishes would be. But first we would have to sit through our final demo #30.
Chef Strill was the Chef responsible for teaching us a Rack of Lamb with parsley crust, Potato Gratin, and Baked Alaska. This demo is truly useless since we were all so consumed with our upcoming Exam. I tried to follow along, but my mind drifted from thoughts of the exam, to glancing around the room at my soon to be scattered classmates, to thoughts of my girlfriend Beth coming tomorrow. The demo did end with a bang as we feasted on the Chef's delicious creations along with a glass of Champagne. Here are some pictures of the event.
Chef Strill was the Chef responsible for teaching us a Rack of Lamb with parsley crust, Potato Gratin, and Baked Alaska. This demo is truly useless since we were all so consumed with our upcoming Exam. I tried to follow along, but my mind drifted from thoughts of the exam, to glancing around the room at my soon to be scattered classmates, to thoughts of my girlfriend Beth coming tomorrow. The demo did end with a bang as we feasted on the Chef's delicious creations along with a glass of Champagne. Here are some pictures of the event.
Baked Alaskan
translator Leanne and Jorge doing the honors
Social after the final Demo
Following the demo we had a couple of hours before the exam. The 3 practical groups were scheduled to start the exam staggered in 30 minute intervals with my group going last. This left almost 3 hours of nervous anticipation before we could prove our Iron Chef skills. Alan and I headed to the corner cafe for some espressos and a strategy session. We ran into Sjoerd who had his recipes spread out at the bar as he drained his --th espresso. Julia soon joined us. We then headed back to school to hangout in the winter garden for more nervous chatter. As time whittled away, our group was the only group left in the winter garden. I am so glad that we took the picture below because, not fully realizing it at the time, this would be the last picture of our group all together.
My Group B's Final Gathering
We then went up to our kitchen 10 minutes early as instructed and were met by our supervising Chef Strill. At this point we each drew a colored chip. Yellow chips would cook the "Veal Stew" and the Blue chips would cook the "Beef Stroganoff". Those were the dishes. I drew the Veal Stew...Yes! NO Sweat.
just before drawing chips to receive our recipe assignments
We were given 2 1/2 hours to complete our tasks. We were presented with our ingredients and an ingredient list for our dish. I took 5 minutes to inventory my produce to insure that I had all the correct stuff. Then I took a few minutes to write an outline for my plan of attack. For those who care about the nitty gritty of cooking here is what I did: (Otherwise, skip down to next section)
-preheat oven to 180
-put some pearl onions in water on heat to soften for peeling later
-Trim the veal into bite sized pieces and trim off all fat
-Blanch the veal in cold water, bring to boil
-While waiting to boil, wash and prep 2 onion, leek, celery, 2 bouquet garnis, and 2 carrots
-drain and rinse veal, clean pot
-put veal, all the above aromatics plus cloves, peppercorn, salt, and water to cover...bring to boil
-cook veal for 1.5 hours
-prep 12 pearl onions, put in sauce pan with water, salt, and butter, cover with parchment and glaze
-wash a bunch of button mushrooms, trim off stems and make them all the same size
-put mushrooms in sauce pan with a little water, salt, butter and a few drops of lemon and bring to boil. cook for 3-4 mins, drain and keep warm
-Finely chop 1/2 onion for rice pilaf. measure out rice and water. sweat onion in butter, add rice, water, put in oven
-make a roux for sauce and put in fridge.
-after veal cooking for 1 hour, scoop out 500 ml of "veal stock" and add to the cold roux on heat and whisk
-add some cream, remove from heat and add a liaison of cream and eggs to thicken. Strain w/ chinois. set aside warm
-drain veal and keep warm
-bring it all together and place on a platter.
-preheat oven to 180
-put some pearl onions in water on heat to soften for peeling later
-Trim the veal into bite sized pieces and trim off all fat
-Blanch the veal in cold water, bring to boil
-While waiting to boil, wash and prep 2 onion, leek, celery, 2 bouquet garnis, and 2 carrots
-drain and rinse veal, clean pot
-put veal, all the above aromatics plus cloves, peppercorn, salt, and water to cover...bring to boil
-cook veal for 1.5 hours
-prep 12 pearl onions, put in sauce pan with water, salt, and butter, cover with parchment and glaze
-wash a bunch of button mushrooms, trim off stems and make them all the same size
-put mushrooms in sauce pan with a little water, salt, butter and a few drops of lemon and bring to boil. cook for 3-4 mins, drain and keep warm
-Finely chop 1/2 onion for rice pilaf. measure out rice and water. sweat onion in butter, add rice, water, put in oven
-make a roux for sauce and put in fridge.
-after veal cooking for 1 hour, scoop out 500 ml of "veal stock" and add to the cold roux on heat and whisk
-add some cream, remove from heat and add a liaison of cream and eggs to thicken. Strain w/ chinois. set aside warm
-drain veal and keep warm
-bring it all together and place on a platter.
This is considered a rustic French stew and not meant to look fancy. I tried to present it as such. I had to create a platter for 4 people. There were 3 outside judges that would judge our platters after our departure. This is my platter on the right. The design of this dish is that it must all be white. The rice, onions, mushroom, meat...none of them can be browned in any way. I was happy with my end result.
Afterward, there were a flurry of "how did you do's" in the winter garden. We all decided to meet up at Alan's for drinks and dinner later. I emptied my locker and ran home to unload the uniforms, knife set, and all my gadgets. Phewwwww. It's actually over!
Alan and Chef Lesourd trade hats
I ran back out and headed to Alan's place. Initially the group was as pictured below and later Allis, and Christos joined us.
Bernie joined with Julia, Kelsey, and Allis. After graduation, Bernie andhis wife will head to Morocco for a 2 week cooking course
Julia and Wen Bo
We left Alan's and went to the same Chinese restaurant that he and I had visited last week. Alan thought it would be a great idea to have Wen Bo and E (who is an assistant) who are both Chinese, order for the entire group of us. What a great idea! It was an awesome meal with food coming at us every few minutes.
Piling in to the restaurant
Bernie and Wen Bo peaking into the kitchen
It was a whirlwind day. I am tired and relieved that classes are finished. It'll be nice to be a casual tourist again as I resume our exploration of Paris. I hugged Julia goodbye after dinner since she will not be at the graduation, and I never had a chance to say goodbye to Jennifer since she's leaving for Taiwan tomorrow. Two good friends that I hope I can keep for the long term. Sadly, the class is already dispersing as suddenly as it had originally come together.
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