Food For Thought

Friends:  I thought I was going to write this post all about the Market workshop we had on Friday, but that’s not what’s on my mind right now.  But I will give you all the quick hits.

I wasn’t especially happy with the group I had for the workshop, but we managed to pull off a pretty interesting menu:

Amuse Bouche:  “Molecular” Gin and Tonic with Mint. The picture is one from my “practice” version at home - what a terrible burden to have to eat the "mistakes"! I got the bubble problem solved in the workshop.  Perhaps could have been a palate cleanser mid-menu instead of an amuse – good advice.

Appetizer:   Golden Beet, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad.  Not heavy on technique, but wasn’t bad.  A little more acid from the grapefruit would have helped (and if it had been a real pink grapefruit!)

 

Fish Course:  Fried Calamari with Popcorn Puree and Red Pepper/Cumin Sauce.  If I’d only saved a few pieces of popcorn for the plating! A little more colour on the calamari too....

Entrée:  Steak Frites with Sauce Andalouse.  My plan on this one went a bit awry.  If I’ve made frites once I’ve made them a million times – results in this case were rather disappointing. Don’t ask how they got fucked up…!

Dessert:  Lemon Foam with Thai Basil Crème Anglaise.  Next time, a little more green from the basil for colour contrast (and I got a helpful tip today on how to extract chlorophyll for colour).  And I set the foam with gelatin instead of a more traditional technique like poaching.  It had a good punch of taste though.

The popcorn thing was probably the biggest hit of the workshop.  I think the Chefs really liked it – they certainly ate a fair bit of it, and the spoons came out every time another Chef wandered through the class.  The look on Chef 1’s face when I was popping the corn was priceless.  And we managed to pull together a beer pairing for the calamari (Beau’s Lug Tread) and the steak (Lake of Bays Crosswind Pale Ale).  I’m not sure anyone has ever done that before.

I really would have preferred not to have to lead the group, but I’m what the Myers-Briggs personality test calls the INTJ type.  A little more extroversion and I’d be a military field marshal, but I’m more the type to step into the gap when no one seems to be taking charge.  More or less what happened in this one.  

But I had a bit of fun, and when Chef 1 asked us to price our menu, I said $80 per person, which would have been about 38%.  I had a bit of leftovers, and given that we bought our stuff retail instead of wholesale (as most kitchens would), it would have probably made a profit.

But enough of all that… here’s what’s really on my mind the weekend before my exam. Perhaps it’s a bit disjointed, but that’s how my mind is working right now.

I’ve noticed over the last week or so that everyone has suddenly become a little more friendly and talkative.  I’ve talked to girls in the Pastry program in the locker room, had long conversations in the student lounge, and dinner and drinks a few times with various people.  Emotions -especially hope and anxiety – are very close to the surface right now.   One minute you’re flopped on the couch in the lounge, and the next minute someone is telling you that they aren’t sure that their dream of being a Chef is living up to their parents’ expectations.  Another minute you’re sharing a beer, and it turns into a philosophical discussion about the primal nature of our sense of taste and the formative childhood moments of eating grandmother’s cannelloni. It's truly amazing what people will tell you if you look like you are willing to listen.

   

Chef 1 warned us not to party too hard this weekend – he told us to save it for after the exam.  I think most people are taking that advice to heart.  I’ve had my nose in the book much of today (and got an amazing and helpful pep talk from The Stig), and my apartment is just messy enough that if I feel like procrastinating that I’ll at least do something productive.   Knowing me, the anxiety attack will kick in around dinner time tomorrow – I’ll start pacing and muttering bullshit to myself, have terrible and confusing dreams tomorrow night and then the calm will descend on Monday morning.  I’ll be in fine form by exam time early Tuesday morning. 

And I will say this – the support I’ve had from family, friends, and even perfect strangers this week has been amazing.  All the phone calls, emails, texts, Facebook messages, Tweets, and other comments have been truly overwhelming.  Please keep sending those my way.

Thanks friends.