Fingering More Birds

A lot happened this week.

As of the end of today, we only have one more demo class and two more practicals before our final exam.  The rest of next week is filled out with workshops – one a “black box” (similar to the Food Network show “Chopped”) and a five-course menu prepared with ingredients purchased in the Byward Market with a total price limit of $60.  Those are going to be interesting. Have some interesting ideas, but a little iffy on the execution... we shall see.

I don’t know when or how it happened, but I feel like I’ve got my groove on now.  There have been a few times this term where I wondered what the hell I was doing and why I was subjecting myself to almost daily grading on things where I am next to clueless,  but that feeling has passed.  Things that would have seemed hard only a few weeks ago may not yet be easy, but they certainly aren’t scary.

One of the dishes this week was Poussin farci à la française, which is basically deboned Cornish hen stuffed with mixture of julienned vegetables.  Oddly, it’s actually easier to debone a larger bird from the inside than a small one (see Tweety Bird on Toast).  Unlike the deboning of the quails, which at times had the look and feel of a teenager’s illicit rummagings in the back seat of a car (or so I’m told!), with the hen you can at least see what you’re doing.  

Instead of Chef 3’s handsome fingers doing the rummaging this time, we had Chef 1 for the demo – and I have to say, his many years in the industry do count for something.  He pulled most of the carcass out of the bird in one piece – which is pretty cool to see.

 

I had a lot more confidence going into the practical for this one, and most of the other students I spoke to said the same thing.  After the quails, the hen isn’t that bad.  Interesting if that’s the actual strategy here – if the order were reversed between the quail lesson and the hen, I think I would have had a hard time with both, but in this order the second one was easy.  Hmmm….clever.

And when the dishes feel easier, I have a little more time to think about presentation.  On a bad dish when I’m in the weeds, I feel like I’m throwing food at the plate and just hoping it doesn’t slide off.  When I have the extra five or 10 minutes (or honestly, two minutes) to think about what I want to do, I think my plates look pretty good.  I’m still a little confused about Chef 2’s comments on my Brandade, but Chef 3 quite liked what I pulled together for my plates today, an escargots appetizer and cod with endive.  I let myself have some fun with the plates, and he had a couple of useful suggestions on how to balance odd and even numbered elements on the plate.  Chef 3 took a run at my escargots plate before my picture (I actually kinda like the “after” pictures more than the "before").

Other than that I served the cod with the “wrong “ side up (so sue me… it looked better) and that my reduced veal stock sauce was a little cold/gummy, I did pretty well today.

In other news, we had our written exam this week.  It was about a half hour of multiple-guess questions, true or false, and match-this-to-that.  In the final calculation, my grade was about 75%, which wasn’t at all bad compared to some that I saw. I'm told I had the best grade in my Basic class on the written exam, and this score was almost the same.

We also had our class lunch in the Signatures@Cordon Bleu bistro on Thursday.  I’d say a little over half the class came to lunch.  It was very good, as it always is.  The Signatures bistro is a very well-kept secret in Ottawa.  Most notably awesome was the tuna and avocado tartare with tahini sauce appetizer. I felt sorry for the people who got the soup... they missed out. I guess when we are spending nearly $10K a term on tuition, one "free" lunch is in order.

I was a little pissed that none of our Chefs came to lunch – instead we got someone from the school administration.   I recall at the class dinner in Basic Cuisine that I sat next to Chef 1 and we had a rather amusing conversation about the merits/failings of Italian food.  I would have liked that kind of interaction again. So good food, but a rather boring lunch.

And I got myself registered for Superior Cuisine this week.  Monsieur Cointreau can buy himself another case of Champagne after the cheque I just wrote.  Assuming I pass the exam, it’s onwards and upwards in April.

A lot to think about this weekend.  Monday we make the last dish that is on the list for our practical exam, which is sneaking up.  Exam is March 18 at 8:15 AM.