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May 04, 2005
Midterms - Round TWO
Ok. In case I haven't mentioned it a couple hundred times... it is midterm week again.
Monday night's midterm was a walk in the park, and the instructor even passed out fun-size snickers to go along with it.
Last night we just cooked our normal menu for this week and I posted those pictures last night.
Tonight we drew numbers for numbered menus that we had to cook as a table. We did pretty good, there were a few low points but there were also a few real high points so hopefully they will cancel each other out. There were 4 students at my table and we each did a part of the menu.
M made the butternut squash soup and it started out really good, but every time she tasted it ... she felt as though it was missing something. After passing around spoons we decided it needed a little more apple flavor, and when she added apple cider.. a little too much fell in the pot. The combination of the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice also gave the soup a little more of a brown tint than a typical orange color.
E made the salad and the potato croquettes. Both turned out really good. Our chef-instructor is a smart-a$$ and would ask who made each dish.. and when we pointed to E his remark was "Really?" like he was surprised or something.
J made the chicken and dumplings. Chef took one bite of the dumpling and asked who made it. We all pointed to J and Chef looked him straight in the eye and said.. "Those are some damn Slap Yo Mama good dumplings." After the Chef's critique we went back to the table to eat and start cleaning up and we all agreed, they were some "daayum" good chicken and dumplings.
I made the Snap Peas and the Corn Custard. My corn custard turned out great, even though it didn't want to neatly invert out of the pan it was baked in. Chef even complemented me on my knifecuts, which I struggle with. I have a hard time drawing a straight line with a ruler.. much less cutting a perfect 1/8" by 1/8" by 1/8" cube out of a carrot. The snap peas had a very good flavor but were a little limp. I was kinda disappointed that I had overcooked them so much, but then ... every other table who had snap peas had the same result, so Chef determined that they were in the culinary ICU before we even started cooking so that made me feel better.
We quickly cleaned up the kitchen and then took a written test. The test was a royal PITA and I hope he curves it.
Tomorrow night, I'm told that we aren't having a true "test" but that the Chef that teaches that class will be walking around observing us and our techniques a little more closely than normal and will derive some sort of grade from that.
Gonna go finish laundry.. the Chef wont be to generous with the grades if I show up without a uniform.
Posted by FutureFoodTVStar at May 4, 2005 10:35 PM
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