POISSONIER: RED SNAPPER

Tonight's Level Three Poissonier dish is the Baked Red Snapper Fillet With Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp Sauce, Filet De Vivaneau Au Four Avec Pleurotes, Sauce Crevettes. The last group at this station seemed to have some trouble putting the dish out on time-- hopefully, we won't. An update after class...

DISH: Baked Red Snapper Fillet With Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp Sauce, Filet De Vivaneau Au Four Avec Pleurotes, Sauce Crevettes.

RECIPE: Scale two red snappers and fillet saving trimmings to make a fumet. Shell, devein, halve and set aside 16 shrimp, throwing shells in a large pot. Add 250 ml white wine, one small onion, emince, 1/2 fennel bulb, emince, and bouquet garni. Simmer for 20 minutes then strain, add saffron threads, salt and pepper and set aside.

Clean and slice 400g oyster mushrooms then sweat in 40g butter. Add two emince shallots, one chopped garlic clove, one tablespoon parsley, one tablespoon tarragon, salt and pepper and simmer then remove.

Poach shrimp in court bouillon then remove and keep warm.

Reduce 120ml white wine, 120ml white wine vinegar, one garlic clove, smashed, one tablespoon peppercorns, three shallots, ciselees. Add 75ml of fish fumet, reduce to three tablerspoons, add three tablespoons of water. Similar to a hollandaise sauce, add six yolks and whisk in 200g butter, three tablespoons of compote, one tablespoon of minced tarragon, three tablespoons of parsley.

For service: place the oyster mushrooms in a sauteuse with seasoned red snapper on top. Put in oven and bake for five to eight mintues until cooked. Put on a plate, add two shrimp and spoon sauce on the side.

BREAKDOWN: I handed in my assignment about my five and 10-year plans but I think I might have been the only one who did; mine was two pages too so I was a super-nerd (read eyeroll here). We were one of the first groups in the kitchen and we got started right away, knocking out our prep work. The chef filling in for Chef Candy supervising the kitchen made a point of telling us one of our toolboxes were in the way, asked us if we were planning on using the shrimp shells I was peeling and told us to roll-down our shirtsleeves before cooking so as to protect our arms from being burnt (feel like high school at all?) but it was so ungodly hot by the stove that there wasn't anyway we were rolling down our shirtlseeves-- as it is we're downing bottle after bottle of water, at least I am (that air-conditioned pastry room is looking more and more attractive!). There were a few moments of interpersonal drama and not everyone was happy as could be (one of our group had a falling-out with his boss and he was a little worried about a job he doesn't really want but needs until he can find something better) but they were slight and overall we worked well together through the course of the evening.

Chef N., informed us that Chef Soltner was meeting students upstairs for personal career advice sessions. I'd wanted to sign up the other day but by the time I got to where the sign-up sheet was there were no spots left. Turns out there were a few spots and I think my chef having seen the two pages I handed him musing about my future made a point of getting me in to see Chef Soltner.

At 7:30 p.m.as we neared completion of our prep-work, I went upstairs to speak with the chef. I explained my two concerns: having to select pastry or culinary in an externship, and (without telling him about Kitchen Toro) how best to pursue my writing. He said not to worry so much about the pastry to just go get a job when I was ready and as for writing, the best way to continue to improve was to get some practical restaurant experience. They believe it will enhance my understanding of food and my ability to write about it. It's something I've been told before at FCI and it's I'm sold-- as long as I continue to write be it freelance or here. But enough of my navel-gazing.

Here are some other things he said after I sat down wearing my fish-blood stained apron. New York and Las Vegas are the best places to go right now if you're interested in learning about food. I asked about California and he said there were some there too but New York and Vegas were best. He said that some of the best chefs from all over the world are going to Vegas. I'm sold on spending a year in New York after graduating but Vegas is sounding more and more attractive...

He also reiterated the importance to writing about food of learning how to cook professionally. The best food writers he said are those who know how to cook and he insisted there are too few of them. When I asked who were good examples of people who knew both, he noted Mimi Sheraton then Craig Claibourne and Brian Miller. He wasn't too hot about Frank Bruni, "He doesn't know how to cook, does he? Where did he come from?"

"Most chefs can't write," he said (and I'm approximating here, I didn't take notes), "we started in the kitchen from a young age and didn't get that kind of education that enables us to write. I can cook but write a review? Never. If you can write and you can learn how to cook, you can be very successful."

Being the last student he would speak with this evening I thanked him for his advice and for squeezing me in and returned to the kitchen for service.

Back downstairs I'd missed out on the massive amount of whisking that had to be done for the Hollandaise sauce that would top the fish. I heard recaps of dead arms and much sweating. Having been out of the flow for the past 45 minutes I offered to jump in with little things like making garnish, finding the right bowls for service and left much of the plating and cooking to them til halfway through when one of our group had to take an asthma break and another had a slitght case of the dropsies (two bowls of fish on the floor). We were able to move on, we were on time, the food tasted good and I cooked and plated at least eight to 10 dishes by the end of the night. Besides misplacing my book of recipes somewhere between the kitchen and getting home it was a good night.