IS THERE A CURVE?
So the midterm is finally over and while I haven't been given my grade I'm confident I passed. In fact I think everyone did.
The midterm was upstairs in the Level 1 kitchen. The two combinations of dishes were the Potato Leek Soup (Potage Julienne D'Arblay) with the Chicken Grandmother-style (Poulet Roti Grandmere), and the Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons (Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise) with the Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes).
We picked numbers out of a bain-marie. The little post-it notes determined which dishes we would get. I'm confident that I could have cooked any of the 20 dishes we prepared for but I was lucky-- my Post-It note read A5, which meant I was to cook the same dishes for the midterm as I did for the mock midterm.
The written part of the test was first and I had to write down the ingredients and processes for the Skate dish. Again, I think I nailed the written but we'll see what the grade was. I'd created a set of color-coded shorthand notes to easily access the recipes during the five minutes we would be given to review them and write down what we had time to. I was able to write out all the ingredient amounts and the processes in shorthand with a minute and a half to spare but really the amounts were the only things I wasn't 100% on.
My Skate dish was due at 9:20 p.m. and my Apple Tart at 10:09 p.m. I began cooking at about 6:15 p.m. While it's determined by chance perhaps it's not the most fair system in the world. I had three hours until my first dish was due and almost another hour after that. That's fine for me but some people had to prepare dishes for a little after 8p.m. We should all be able to do what's needed in the time allowed, sure but some people had a lot more time than others. On the other hand, the problem I ran into was that I had too much time and didn't manage it perfectly.
I was stationed at the first counter area I'd been at in Level 1 so I was making dishes I was comfortable with at a station I was familiar with a student I'd shared that station with, all by chance. it so happened that with two students having not continued with us that there were two counters vacant. They happened to be at our station so we also had some extra space to use (I'm only about 1/16 Irish).
I made my apple tart dough first then began to fillet my fish. I had a half hour. This is where I hit my first snag. I filleted fish without a problem but then could not remove the white skin from the underside wing filet. A half hour later I was just finishing removing the skin. It should only have taken me about 10 minutes, tops. To wit, the wing was mangled and I was only able to portion one piece from it. I salvaged three portions from the filet from the top of the skate wing but had fallen behind on the dish's garniture and the tart prep work. I rolled out the tart dough on the buttered ring, cooled it in the fridge, cleaned up and started my apple compote which I let brown a little more than I usually would. I caught it before it went too far, picked the brown parts out and let it cool.
During the test there were about four chefs in the room with us. Chef J. began calling out times as the minutes passed and directed students to putting their plates on a tray and carrying them down the hallway to the table of waiting judges in the amphitheater. She also called out students when they were late with their
Including Chef J. there were four to five chefs in the room with us. The other chefs walked around the room taking notes and admonishing students occasionaly. I was careful to keep my station clean and made certain when slicing the Golden Delicious Apples for the tart top to keep the slices together as our Chef instructed. At one point he came by (I'm convinced he was checking on this) and nodded when he saw the apples were sliced but not separated. We've learned some things at least!
When 8:45 p.m. rolled around, my tart was cooling above the oven, my potatoes were done (perhaps a little too early), and all my garniture was prepped. I'd even cleaned my station. There wasn't anything left for me to do really and it was too early to plate. I made a mistake here, I put my plates in the oven to warm them and it was too early. About 25 minutes later after cooking the dish when I was plating this would come back to haunt me, the sauce burnt a little on one of the plates and one of my garnitures, a lemon slice next to the fish, left brown marks on the plate where it's juice had been. When I slipped on water from the dishwasher area on the way to my tray everything on my plates moved from their perfectly spaced places and marks were not well hidden. Having been told I used too much sauce during the mock midterm, I overcompensated this time and didn't quite have enough. I used the rolled up wet towels soaking in a metal bowl by the door to clean up my plate the best I could and followed two other students down the hallway to the judges.
Chef M. only took three of the four dishes I'd prepared and unfortunately he chose the worst one, the salvaged filet from the underside of the wing on the plate that burned the sauce and had marks from the lemon slice. It's my fault that all four dishes weren't perfect but it made me wonder if he didn't hate me. Or it's just another life lesson about the pursuit of perfection.
And that was pretty much that. I had plenty of time to carefully cut my tart slices, make my whipped cream quenelles, and find some nice mint sprigs. Again, too much time, I was early and my quenelles were starting to melt. I'd had my plates in the fridge but the room was ungodly hot. We'd been told that the temperature would be high, they weren't kidding. Between the weather heating up and all the ovens going at 375 to 425 F and all the running around, I sweat through the t-shirt under my jacket. My neckerchief was soaked as well as my hat.
After cleaning up the judges met with us to give us a brief recap. They told me that my Skate was slightly overcooked and needed more sauce but that the taste was good. The apple tart tasted good and was not as caramelized as the judge said he would have liked but he also said it was one of the more caramelized tarts prepared that evening.
Final grade TK.
The midterm was upstairs in the Level 1 kitchen. The two combinations of dishes were the Potato Leek Soup (Potage Julienne D'Arblay) with the Chicken Grandmother-style (Poulet Roti Grandmere), and the Sauteed Skate Wing in Brown Butter, with Capers, Lemon and Croutons (Aile De Raie À La Grenobloise) with the Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes).
We picked numbers out of a bain-marie. The little post-it notes determined which dishes we would get. I'm confident that I could have cooked any of the 20 dishes we prepared for but I was lucky-- my Post-It note read A5, which meant I was to cook the same dishes for the midterm as I did for the mock midterm.
The written part of the test was first and I had to write down the ingredients and processes for the Skate dish. Again, I think I nailed the written but we'll see what the grade was. I'd created a set of color-coded shorthand notes to easily access the recipes during the five minutes we would be given to review them and write down what we had time to. I was able to write out all the ingredient amounts and the processes in shorthand with a minute and a half to spare but really the amounts were the only things I wasn't 100% on.
My Skate dish was due at 9:20 p.m. and my Apple Tart at 10:09 p.m. I began cooking at about 6:15 p.m. While it's determined by chance perhaps it's not the most fair system in the world. I had three hours until my first dish was due and almost another hour after that. That's fine for me but some people had to prepare dishes for a little after 8p.m. We should all be able to do what's needed in the time allowed, sure but some people had a lot more time than others. On the other hand, the problem I ran into was that I had too much time and didn't manage it perfectly.
I was stationed at the first counter area I'd been at in Level 1 so I was making dishes I was comfortable with at a station I was familiar with a student I'd shared that station with, all by chance. it so happened that with two students having not continued with us that there were two counters vacant. They happened to be at our station so we also had some extra space to use (I'm only about 1/16 Irish).
I made my apple tart dough first then began to fillet my fish. I had a half hour. This is where I hit my first snag. I filleted fish without a problem but then could not remove the white skin from the underside wing filet. A half hour later I was just finishing removing the skin. It should only have taken me about 10 minutes, tops. To wit, the wing was mangled and I was only able to portion one piece from it. I salvaged three portions from the filet from the top of the skate wing but had fallen behind on the dish's garniture and the tart prep work. I rolled out the tart dough on the buttered ring, cooled it in the fridge, cleaned up and started my apple compote which I let brown a little more than I usually would. I caught it before it went too far, picked the brown parts out and let it cool.
During the test there were about four chefs in the room with us. Chef J. began calling out times as the minutes passed and directed students to putting their plates on a tray and carrying them down the hallway to the table of waiting judges in the amphitheater. She also called out students when they were late with their
Including Chef J. there were four to five chefs in the room with us. The other chefs walked around the room taking notes and admonishing students occasionaly. I was careful to keep my station clean and made certain when slicing the Golden Delicious Apples for the tart top to keep the slices together as our Chef instructed. At one point he came by (I'm convinced he was checking on this) and nodded when he saw the apples were sliced but not separated. We've learned some things at least!
When 8:45 p.m. rolled around, my tart was cooling above the oven, my potatoes were done (perhaps a little too early), and all my garniture was prepped. I'd even cleaned my station. There wasn't anything left for me to do really and it was too early to plate. I made a mistake here, I put my plates in the oven to warm them and it was too early. About 25 minutes later after cooking the dish when I was plating this would come back to haunt me, the sauce burnt a little on one of the plates and one of my garnitures, a lemon slice next to the fish, left brown marks on the plate where it's juice had been. When I slipped on water from the dishwasher area on the way to my tray everything on my plates moved from their perfectly spaced places and marks were not well hidden. Having been told I used too much sauce during the mock midterm, I overcompensated this time and didn't quite have enough. I used the rolled up wet towels soaking in a metal bowl by the door to clean up my plate the best I could and followed two other students down the hallway to the judges.
Chef M. only took three of the four dishes I'd prepared and unfortunately he chose the worst one, the salvaged filet from the underside of the wing on the plate that burned the sauce and had marks from the lemon slice. It's my fault that all four dishes weren't perfect but it made me wonder if he didn't hate me. Or it's just another life lesson about the pursuit of perfection.
And that was pretty much that. I had plenty of time to carefully cut my tart slices, make my whipped cream quenelles, and find some nice mint sprigs. Again, too much time, I was early and my quenelles were starting to melt. I'd had my plates in the fridge but the room was ungodly hot. We'd been told that the temperature would be high, they weren't kidding. Between the weather heating up and all the ovens going at 375 to 425 F and all the running around, I sweat through the t-shirt under my jacket. My neckerchief was soaked as well as my hat.
After cleaning up the judges met with us to give us a brief recap. They told me that my Skate was slightly overcooked and needed more sauce but that the taste was good. The apple tart tasted good and was not as caramelized as the judge said he would have liked but he also said it was one of the more caramelized tarts prepared that evening.
Final grade TK.
posted by Turo at 2:19 PM
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