The Best Laid Plans

So yesterday and today were workshop days.  Tuesday was fish (salmon and tuna) and today was salmon for the appetizer, and chicken for the main course.

I spent part of the weekend carefully crafting recipes and coming up with flavour combinations.. even getting a little good advice on the side. But most of the planning was for naught since Chef 2 had other ideas.

Tuesday, the Chef asked us to do a marinated salmon appetizer and be sure to use grapefruit, which wasn't on the original ingredient list.  Ok then... salmon with pink grapefruit, star anise, and vanilla it was.

For the main, tuna.  I was able to salvage my original idea of tuna tartare with frites (and yeah, they actually worked this time!) but had to come up with two other garnitures, which were not part of my plan.  So I stared at the box of ingredients like an idiot for a few minutes and came up with shaved zucchini and carrot salad with thyme, and a mixture of green beans, salsify and butternut squash.  Not that creative, but they tasted pretty good.

I didn't even bother hauling out my books last night because I figured the Chef would have particular ideas about what he wanted today.  And indeed he did.  A cooked salmon appetizer and stuffed chicken breast with polenta.  So nothing exciting here either - I pulled together salmon with a green apple and ginger béchamel topping, and chicken stuffed with oyster mushrooms and a polenta tower with brunoise of carrot, yellow beets and zucchini.  I had a goofy idea to do some molecular shit and make pearls of balsamic vinegar.  Those started falling apart at the last minute, so I plated without them, throwing some peas at the plate to make it look interesting.  Sigh.....

Both days my appetizer was my best dish.  For various reasons I haven't been sleeping that well this week (most days I wake up with half the sheets torn off the bed, if I even sleep through the night at all), so I'm obviously more creative and organized just after the morning espresso touches my soul.  By the time we get to the second plate, the glow is wearing off and my mind gets fuzzy.

But like I said recently about the bitterness of my endive tatin, it's very obvious when I've got my game on and when I don't.  And these workshops require you to not only have some game but be creative too, because even with the best laid plans everything can change.

Such is the life of a Chef, I guess.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.  Some hours in the production kitchen in the morning, a meeting with the Chef to discuss my progress this term, and then our class dinner in the bistro in the evening.  Am hoping they have that amazing chocolate cake on the menu, because I think I'll need it.