B&P Practical 1

Phase 4, Week 2, Day 8

Baking and Pastry is so weird. The whole thing is like hurry up and wait. After F3 last phase where the clock started and all you did was move as fast as you could for two hours, this phase is slow as molasses in January during an ice storm. It will take us two class periods to produce 2 loaves of French bread, 12 Peanut Butter Cookies, and 12 Biscuits, and some where in there we will take a written test too.

Our row (Jeremy, Jarod, Rachel, myself and two others) decided to do the bread on day one to completion and the other products and test on day two. The remaining members of the class did the opposite. It should work fine that way keep us out of the fray of the majority.

Now, remember, I didn't get to finish my French bread on Monday so I was flying a bit blind. Being a test of course, we are required to work individually and can't ask any questions of our classmates or instructors at this point.  I just kind of went with the flow of the group. We all needed to go into the oven  together because we had to activate the steam function for the crust. However, no one was sure how long we were supposed to leave the steam in the oven before we opened the flue to let the moisture escape. In a panic we released the flue after only 30 seconds. WRONG! Apparently the bread needs the moisture from the steam to make a crispy crust. We should have left the steam in until the crust began to turn brown (10-15 minutes). Oops! So we spent the remainder of the cooking time worrying about how our bread would turn out. Would it be hard as a rock? Too dry? Not the right color?

Baguettes

Result: Not too shabby! I had nice edges and shape, good color. I could have scored a bit deeper and needed more holes in the bread. A 9 out of 10 over all.

Poultry Practical

Phase 3, Week 2, Day 10

Practical menu for today:

Plate 1

Turkey Scaloppine w/ a Mushroom sauce

Potato Croquettes

Mixed Green salad w/ vinaigrette dressing

Plate 2

Poeler Duck Brest with Bigarade sauce a Gastrique

Gratin Dauphinoise

Sauted tourne of Cucumber

I still have not mastered the element of heat or sauce making. Two MAJOR things I need to accomplish and be able to do well before I leave school. Most of my sauces either break, where the oil separates from the main liquid, or I over reduce. Concerning heat, I have no control. My stuff is either not brown enough or burnt. WTF! It's not that hard, but for some reason I can't get it. URGH!!!!

In general, most of my dishes are typically "good with nice flavor", but I'm not really sure what that means. Is that like "Yeah, it's good, I'm not going to send it back," type thing or does it mean "it's good, I'd come back to eat here again."

I'm also trying to work on my plating and presentation, but chefs have such different opinions on what looks good. There are modern styles and classic styles. I don't know which is the right way to go. It boils down to two basic camps: 

•  all garnish should be functional and edible, but not always required if dish is done properly
• garnish is a requirement and should reflect herbs in the dish (ie; NFG , Non Functional Garnish)

The garnish debate is annoying to me because Chef Tim and Chef Bruce are exact opposites on this concept. I don't think our grade is reflective of the garnish, but I wish we could get some more ideas of NFG besides putting a bush of rosemary on my dishes. I tried a lemon spiral on my salad today and both of them scoffed at it. I mean what's the difference between a bush and a peal? I got props for using a bit of salad to top my duck. I guess I'll need to do some research to see if I can come up with a compromise.

Results:

Turkey- Could have used a bit more color

Sauce- Broke (having major issues here!)

Croquetts- Good seasoning, a tad too much pepper

Salad- Very nice vinaigrette, less on the plate with more height. Didn't like my attempt at garnish...

Duck- Good flavor, but should be served medium. A bit over done.

Gastrique- Very good flavor, over reduced

Dauphinois- Very good, nice color and texture

Cucumber- Good

Again; good over all. No grade yet.

Salad with a twist

Turkey Scaloppine

Poeler Duck with Gastrique

F2 Final Practical

Phase 2, Week 6, Day 27 & 28

For the final practical for F2 we were assigned 4 total dishes to prepare over 2 days. Each dish would consist of a protein, starch, vegetable, and a sauce.We didn't know what dishes we were going to make until that morning. I drew the following combinations:

Day 1

Fried Fish w/ Tartar

Pomme Fritse

Green Bean Saute

Roasted Chicken w/ Jus Lie

Rice Pilaf

Glazed Carrots

Day 2

Grilled Pork Chop w/ Sauce Chaucer

Parmisian Rissotto

Glazed Carrots

Beef Stew

Fried Eggplant

Rosti Potatoes

Roast Chicken

Plate one was actually pretty crappy. Things just did not flow well. In the first dish my stuuuuupid roast chicken would not cook! The chicken was in for almost 1.5 hours, and I was still concerned about it, but I was running out of time and I still had a whole other dish to prepare. I pulled it hoping it would continue to cook while I was getting everything else ready. Problem, the chicken took so long my carrots got cold, way cold. I rolled with it anyway....

Result: Very nice chicken (continued to cook while I waited to be graded ;0)), but don't put your sauce on top!!! Rice was a bit under done. Jus Lie was too thick. He liked the cuts of the carrots I used, but they were cold. 19.75/25. Ouch!!!!!

Fish n Chips

I was left with 25 minutes to complete the other dish!!! While waiting for the Stuuuuipd chicken I had preped all stuff for the second dish, so I basically threw it together. Luckily frying doesn't take long. Besides someone snagging the special plate I was going to use, this dish was decent. I made three little tents, 1 of green beans, fish, and fries. Kind of a tapas presentation.

Result: He like the presentation. Beans were good. Fish could have been cut differently, they looked like "fish sticks".Tartar had nice flavor. Fries were seasoned well but could have gone a bit longer in the fryer. 22/25 Better.

New day, new dishes. I drew two pretty easy ones for day two.

Beef Stew

I started with the stew because it always takes longer in the oven than you think it should. I whipped this out first and began mise en place for the second dish while the stew was in the oven. After some of the pieces were tender enough I fried the potatoes and dropped the eggplant. The challenge with this dish was going to be the plating. When I originally saw the dish components, I realized I needed a creative solution and mulled it over. I decided to stack the eggplant and potatoes in a base of the stew. One thing I learned very quickly was that you don't have to plate every bit of product you make. Use enough to look good, you don't need to plate a pound of rossoto or an entire bowl of stew...

Result: "Wow, that is a very nice solution to the beef stew problem. Hey Chef Ava, take a look at this!" When Adolf said that I knew it was going to be a good day. Potato and eggplant, good. Stew, tasty but beef could have gone even longer. 23/25 Awesome

Pork Chop

No issues or complications during the process of completing this dish. Even finished 20 minutes early. The rosotto and sauce chaseur were amazing together. I didn't know I could make stuff that good....

Result: Nice cuts on the carrots again, could have used more glaze. Pork, nice markings. Risotto, good a bit more pepper. 23/25

Overall and 87%. Our grades post on the school portal on Friday. I have no idea where I am at this point....

Roast Chicken

Pork Chop

Beef Stew