Plans

I'm currently going to be working for Chef Deb, a former graduate of CSR. Deb is a private chef/caterer, and she runs a cooking school (which is a lot like boot camp) for teens and kids. Dad and I will both be teaching a bit for her. I'm applying to a few restaurants as well, keep my knife skills up, thank you Rama. Plans for a little longer term are a bit interesting. I'm trying to get back to Avignon at the moment. I've been contacting people to get back into one of the restaurants, but I need to earn a little money or I can't pay off my school debts. Soooo....Wish me luck on that. I'm going to be starting a new blog/new name up soon, since "Culinary school" is no longer accurate for the website. I'll post links and a new post for you when I've got the whole thing set up. You'll have warning, at the least. I'm still working on some of the pictures since Facebook wasn't playing nice, but I'll get Picasa running.

Graduation day

Right, so this is our very last day. We're cooking the buffet and...that's it. I'll explain more about my plans for after graduation a bit later, but I may have a new blog for you to visit.

Passed the practical

Finished the practical portion of the final exam. Wish me luck on the written.

By the way, I'm still getting pics in, my computer is just overloading a little. I think I have several hundred to upload....

Back in Colorado

We arrived back in the US on Wednesday. Sorry about not being able to update, but I have lots of pictures to go along with the updates I hope to get posted in the next couple of days. It's been kind of a struggle to get back into the swing of things here. I adjusted really well going to France, but coming back...Right, let's just say it's 3pm for me at 7am. Didn't sleep much. ^_^

Pictures will hit Picasa and Facebook (facebook will take a little longer).

Samedi, Mai 2

Today is the first day that Chef Olivier is also working with us. He is a pastry chef, also very, very skilled. We did two desserts to get a little more out of his being there. He owns a restaurant called Food and Mets, it has the best burgers ever. No joke, you can’t come close to it for less than $20 in the states. And he was shocked and very flattered to hear it. (Oh, and he does remember you, Rama. He was very happy that you liked his food so much)

Amuse/entrée-”Fleur de courgette, souffle au foie gras”
Squash blossom stuffed with seared fois gras and chicken mousseline (which was probably one of the most awesome things I’ve ever tasted), sautéed squash tops, red wine reduction

Poisson-”St. Pierre (John Dory fish) en troncon et creueux de langoustines galette croustillante de celeri”
Seared John Dory, celeri root pancake, langoustine froth/bisque, seared langoustine tail (Chef also cooked the head for presentation)

Viande-”Ris de veau braise aux morilles”
Seared sweetbreads, braised morels in a cream sauce, braised mini carrots

Dessert 1-”Quenelle au chocolat au lait, caramel et carambar”
Quenelle of ganache with caramel and carambar crisps (carambar is a caramel candy, popular here)

Dessert 2-”Vert”
Literally means “green”. The whole dessert was green for a monochromatic feel. Financier (cake), matcha ice cream, verveine gelee, verveine whipped cream, manzanar gelee, manzanar citrus marinated apples

Vendredi, Mai 1

Vendredi, Mai 1
Today is the first day that we are working in the kitchen at the University of Wine, so the menu will be interesting. I’ll post the menu quoted (cuz it’s in French) and explain what it is.

Amuse-”Declineison d’asperge”
Asparagus three ways, white asparagus cooked in milk with green onion, white asparagus puree with chives, white asparagus sautéed in butter

Entrée (second dish, usually veg)-”Mitonee de legumes du moment”
Braised carrot, squash blossom stuffed with green part of chard, sautéed green onion, sautéed fava beans, braised artichokes, sautéed pencil asparagus

Poisson (Fish)-”Petite bouille de roche et rouge barbet”
Seared red mullet, toast with rouille (spicy mustard/mayonnaise), rockfish bouille (not quite a real bouillebaise)

Viande (Meat)-”Bateau de pigeon, jambonnette de sa cuisse et blette au blat”
Seared squab breast, white chard and parmesan square, squab leg lollipop (the jambonnette), quenelle of liver/heart/shallots pan fried, pan sauce from squab bones

Dessert-”Harmonie de fraises du basilic”
Butterscotch cookie, basil citrus sorbet, macerated strawberries with citrus, glucose/starch/orange “crisp”, sugared basil

Pain (Bread)-”Anis, campagne, pain brioche”

I worked on the squab, which is surprisingly tasty. Really, you need to see the pictures, cuz words just don’t do these dished justice.
Oh, and by the way Chef Jean Michel, who is our chef here, is amazing. He makes up recipes just from walking around and looking at food quality, he plates on the fly, he’s bloody brilliant. He’s probably the most amazing chef I’ve ever seen. I love France.

Hooray for internet.

Miercoles, Avril 29

Today was…interesting. Consisted of getting off the plane from our eleven-ish hour flight, waiting three hours to get on the bullet train because apparently it takes from 7am to 11am to cross the terminal, and rididng the train for another three hours. Luckily I got to sleep on the train since I didn’t on the plane. Then we got to the apartment and settled and such. I got the smallest room, but it has a wall against the back of the bed so I’m good with that. We grabbed a little bit to eat at that point, I got a sammich that I’d had the last time I was in France. It was a soft cheese inside the bread and a harder cheese melted on top, and I’m fully aware that my mother will kill me for eating her favorite sammich. Then we went to eat at Numero 75, Chef Brunel’s restaurant and the place I will be staging at. It was very cool. I have pictures, they’re dark, but there. Ummm….I’ll figure out the picture situation somehow too, that may be a little problematic until I get home.

Numero 75

Black olive tapenade-salty, olive chunks, good texture and variety

Yellow olive tapenade-slightly sweet, didn’t like as much, similar texture

Dried tomato pesto-salty, sweet, indicative of sun dried tomato

Mint crème brulee-like a very buttery custard, almost a sweet mint compound butter brulee

Coconut panna cotta with berries-Mild, creamy, not overpowering in flavor, smooth

Chocolate tart-Bitter layer, followed by a caramely crunchy layer, and a sweet fluffy one, with a creamy caramel sauce (high cream content?)

Apple crumble-Made with duck fat instead of butter, creamy and crunchy/soft

Oh, and I slept like the dead. I was completely out. Need more sleep.

Jeudi, Avril 30

Went to a market this morning. It was awesome. I love those little markets. We got cured meats, cheese, baguette, fruit, gummies (If you know me, you know the significance of this), and a couple rotisserie quails. Which are very cool. One of our classmates bit the head off his quail. We did a walking tour of the city, and had a kind of tasting lunch at Les Halles, which you WILL get a picture of, it’s a vertical garden on the outside. It had tons of meats, cheeses, olives, oysters, breads, etc. It was very cool. Very good wine too. Oh, and I got a bottle of wine at the grocery store for 1€85. Be jealous, all of you. ^_^ Then there’s a wine tasting at the Pope’s Palace.

Kay.

I do not have internet connections at my apartment, so updates will be REALLY sporadic for a while. I'm gonna do what I can, but the general format will probably be a three or four day update all at once. On days that we have a menu, I'll list it and then list what we actually did, since there's a little confusion on it. Thanks for your patience.

Bye for now

Hopefully this posts, it's from my phone. I'm in the airport waiting for the plane to France so I thought I'd mention a couple things. I don't know if I'll have stable internet, so updates may not come every day, I'll let you know when I do about that. Regardless, I will try to update as regularly as possible so there's an idea of what is happening. So now I will attempt to enjoy my next hour or so of waiting.

Right then.

Apparently the phone posting hasn't been working right. So.

A couple weeks ago we did gala testing, where we tried out different variations of the same basic recipe for one dish (we worked in partners) for the $65 a plate dinner we put on. My course was amuse bouche and we ended up with toasted brioche, quail fennel sausage, wilted arugula, and a sunny side up quail egg. We called it a "Quail egg florentine" and I was actually pretty happy with it.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we started prep work on the gala, so we had to get all the breads and amuse stuff ready before the actual day. The bread was mainly for display, since the eating breads would be done day of.

Thursday, I was set for front of house and my partner was back of house, so I dealt with people and he got to cook. There were 30 people there and my mom was at my table, so it really wasn't so bad. I ended up making parker house rolls, gluten free bread (which I'd never made before, but was a big hit, so yay!), and my partner made fogasse (see pic), and baguettes.

Friday, we made the same breads, minus fogasse (and I just ended up making some epi loaves instead, again pic, the epis look like stalks of grain) and I was in back of house. Went pretty well, all in all. We got out a bit earlier, so we all cracked a beer from the dinner and talked cuz that was the last class we had before France.

So....Tuesday I leave for France. I'm slightly nervous about the plane (I dun like planes) but I'm so excited about going to France. It'll be awesome. Wish me luck. Oh, and I'll be bringing my laptop and camera so please check back. I'll make sure to get these in via computer not phone.

Wow....

I suck really bad at updating lately. I've had some I trouble, technology-wise, but I'm pretty sure it's been about a month since the last update. So, as far as school goes, we had our second practical exam a couple weeks ago. Dad and I both passed with a decent score, oh, and the day before I cut the tip of my finger off on a mandolin. It's like a tiny flat guillotine and it hurt like you wouldn't believe when I had to cut vegetables the next day. We are currently in the process of testing recipes for our gala, a fine dining plated menu that costs $65 per plate and so far looks very nice. I'm in charge of the amuse bouche (the little before app to tease your palate) as well as the menu. I'm the person prettying the font and using real verbage. Check for pics. I have tons. And they look good. ^_^

Sleep...

Sorry. Short post, falling asleep.

Menu

Scallop and mussel salad with tomato petals, cucumber flowers, and shallots

Trout a la meunier with sauteed shallots and sugar snap pears and striped ravioli with marscapone and mushroom

Chocolate custard cake with mint creme anglais and raspberry whipped cream

The salad was very good, the trout was...lacking, and the dessert was a disaster. No, I don't wanna give you a picture of it. The raspberry never made it into the cream, the mint was too mild against the chocolate, and the "custard" should never have been baked in a water bath. Weird day. No amuse, so we could focus on garnishes more. I was still pretty unhappy with the result today. Dunno what was so weird about it, but it was. I'ma take my eyes out now and sleep. (Contacts. ^_^)

Sorry...

Sorry, spaced a bit.

Monday

Oysters Rockefeller

Whitefish Bouillabaise

Crab, mango, avocado salad

Fish papillote

Genoise roulade

Very, very late. We...had some issues, I think it's mainly from moving from a pastry week. Partially because of Monday, but...I'm feeling frustrated with my performance and the performance of the group as a whole today.

Tuesday

A duo of mussel and crab cake amuse

Poached sole on parsley risotto with crouton and crispy leek

Striped bass with pan seared crispy skin, cracked black pepper pasta, julienned sugar snap peas and yellow peppers, and a tomato beurre blanc

Chocolate eclair with grand marnier pastry cream and fried mint leaf

Not nearly as late as yesterday. I've...been trying to think of garnishes and things for my dishes and I just can't seem to pull it off to satisfaction. I don't really know what else to do at this point. I'm frustrated on a whole other level today. This week has been a little rough so far. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll have some pics up tomorrow, I'm having a little issue with Picasa.

Ritz-Carlton

Very, very cool. Dad and I made gazpacho, babaganoush, white truffle bean salad, and chix stock. The third person who was supposed to be there never showed, but we were still cool. It was originally nine to noon, but we stayed until two to finish up. Oh, and we got food. Nice little perk for the day. No pictures, but the chef promised some from the actual event. Which features our dips in one part of the meal. Woo! Not a bad day. Except that I have work now.

Phyllo dough day

Today we practiced tarts again and made phyllo dough...things. I made baklava, so did one other group, and three did strudels. One apple, one pear, and one mushroom. Pretty good actually. Pics aren't anything special today, but if you want to see them, check Picasa. With the tarts, we all looked at each other's tarts, tasted, and peer graded them. It was interesting getting feedback from everyone about the tarts, and some of it was extremely helpful.

Next week, I'm the team chef for my group, so wish me luck. Oh, and I'm going to go work at the Ritz-Carlton doing a little prep work for a banquet tomorrow along with Dad, so that should be cool. I'll either get a post about it tomorrow or you can check on it Monday.

Aaaand we're back.

Sorry about that. My computer had some major issues, but I'm good now. I will be backdating with dates in the titles and pictures all around. The full picture list is on Picasa right now as well. For today, we're in pastry week, so we made buttercream frostin (NOT what you buy in stores, bleh) and finished cakes. I have a four layer cake with two Grand Marnier pastry cream layers, and one raspberry Grand Marnier layer, topped with buttercream and piped roses. And I got to bring it home. Dad's is a bronco cake, see pic plz. I was VERY happy with mine today. Not a bad day overall.

Wow.

So...Computer wasn't playing nice for a while. I have to mess around with some network/computer issues, but I assure you I will have three days summed up for you on Friday. Thanks for your patience. Oh, and I'll have pictures.

Pastry day 2

Finished the tarts today. They looked pretty, but I still feel like we aren't finishing fast enough. Is it the demos? Is it the fact that we're watching the entire process and then doing the entire process? I just don't know, but I still don't feel good about how it went. I don't feel like it was a complete disaster, but...the whole day felt a little off.

Menu

Finish tarts

Puff pastry (we're finishing up with them tomorrow)

Pate a choux (it's what eclairs and cream puffs are made out of) that we are also finishing tomorrow

Pastry day 1

The above picture is of Chef Adrienne's tartlets. I feel really unproductive today. While doing pastry is somewhat relaxing, it just seems like we didn't really get anything done.

Menu
Pate brisee (a flaky pastry crust)
Pate sucree (kinda like a sugar cookie in the form of a pie crust)
Pastry cream (a stirred custard)
Lemon curd (lemony stirred custard)

They all turned out okay, but we didn't even assemble them today. The components are resting and we're fixing it up tomorrow. We were supposed to have a test this morning, but we postponed until the afternoon since pastry keeps us in the classroom for a while longer. I wanted to take it early, cuz I studied for it, but I was okay with a little postpone. Then we took too long on the pastry stuff, so the chefs put it to a vote: finish pastry and clean within the next hour (might've been a little less or a little more), or finish what we were working on, do one of the components tomorrow so we could take our test. Three voted for taking it, six against. Gah! I studied ALL WEEKEND to take this test today, and suddenly my study schedule is thrown off for the rest of the week because of this! Ironically, we'd likely have gotten out earlier if we'd just taken the stupid thing...

NOT happy

I'm not mad, necessarily. I'm just not happy today. We had a practice practical exam today, paired with another person (in the real one, we won't be paired). There were a lot of problems today. First, the chicken was frozen, so when we cut it the skin shrunk. The bain marie got kind of pushed to the back, so our sauce and soup were cold. The oven we used wasn't on, so our plates weren't warm when we got food on them. I sauteed the zucchini in the chicken juices, which made it taste good but there was too much liquid and they were squishy. The picture above is the meal. I was proud of the plating, which I came up with, but other than that...unhappy. The good that came out of it is this: I learned what worked and what didn't. I know what needs to be done first and what doesn't need to be done until the last minute. And I know what to watch out for when we actually do the practical. Oh, and I learned that while I'm undersalting on purpose (I like a lot more salt than most people do), the food is still not salted enough. Oh, and the potatoes are quenelles. They're little diamondy shapes. I'm rather proud of those. I think plating was the only thing that chef actually thought was noticeable on our team. Maybe the sauce too.

Vinaigrette

Menu

Composed mediterranean salad with vinaigrette (Mine)

Turned zucchini

Turned potatoes

Tomato sauce

Stuffed chicken leg and thigh

Chicken consomme

Today Dad and I both ended up on vinaigrette, and I'm telling you we do not plan these things. They just happen. Mine was decent, his looked like mayonnaise, but still tasted good (he had to thin it out a bit). I was kinda...off today. Felt a little floaty and weird all day long. Dunno why. But the food tasted okay, we need to have a better idea for plating before we go into this, and I dislike stuffed chicken a little bit. I'm not entirely sure why, but I very much prefer tasting just chicken and sauce. In any case, I now have pictures off to the right of Chefs Adam and Rebecca. It was from our wine tasting today, which I will post some thoughts about as well.

Pomme anna

Menu

Chicken consomme

Stuffed chicken leg and thigh (stuffed with mousseline in half and olive/bread stuffing in the other on Team A)

Braised leek

Pomme anna (potatoes anna, explanation below)

Mushroom sauce

Composed salad

Kay, so my contribution today was the pomme anna. Basically you get some clarified butter in a pan. Make thin slices of potato and layer them into the pan in a rosette, weight it down, cook until crisped on the bottom, and flip it. You then get it back into the pan (and this was not an easy task, believe me), and cook that side. You take it out, let it cool so the starches in the potatoes can seal themselves and make a crispy potato...pancake...thing. After it's cool, you can cut it and heat it back up in the oven to serve. I think it came out okay, but it needed salt. For the rest: I don't like leek that squishy. It tasted fine, but bleh on texture. I LOVED the mushroom sauce, loved it. The chicken was good, but nothing spectacular. The skins weren't as nicely crispy as I'dve liked. Dunno why really, I think it just got served too chilly. The consomme was very good. I love clear soups (as I think I mentioned yesterday) and the flavor on Team B's was nice. I liked it quite a bit. Oh, and the salad was good. Composed its where you have all the ingredients and componenets all separated out so the person eating it can mix it the way they like.

Piggy...

I'll get to the menu in a minute. I got to cut up a piggy today! Not the whole one, we had ribs and loin. But it was still pretty cool, that was one of my favorite things ever. Tomorrow we take apart a chicken for a grade. Nervous about that one, I wasn't great at chicken. Anyway.

Menu
Braised pork loin (Mine for today)
Turned steamed potatoes (see tourne on 1.19.09)
Turned glazed carrots
Lentil soup with applewood smoked bacon
Salad with vinaigrette (see a pattern? Check pics for differences)

The way the pork was cooked wasn't ideal for the cut of meat. The loin isn't all that tough and braising is for tough meat, generally. So it was a little more tough than I'd have liked (overcooked texture). I braised it in coffee and chicken stock, which turned out better than I'dve thought, but the meat didn't taste of coffee. The sauce did a bit, but I'm thinking a little more coffee in the future (or at least more grounds in satchels). I do like cooking with coffee though. It's...temperamental, so it's a challenge. ^_^ The veg came out good, I liked the other side's carrot glaze. I'm rather fond of sweet veggies, so that was nice (two days in a row, even). Potatoes were good, about like yesterday. Kinda like mini mashed potatoes. I like tourne, it just takes a lot of work to get it right. The soups were pretty good too. I'm not fond of soup, in general. I don't really like eating it, I don't really like making it, but I'll try it. As a rule, I like the clear ones, more like broths and consommes than anything. I like Japanese clear soups very much. Oh, and miso even though it doesn't count. But stuff with chunks in it? Just not my thing. So I'm a little biased. Maybe Dad can give a better idea of the soup, he really likes them.

Tourne

No, this is not my team's main dish. This is Team B's, I'm on A this week. But I wanted to show the tournes and theirs was visible and looked better.


Menu
Pork loin
Potato tourne (which is a seven sided round shape, you'll see it)
Sweet glazed turnip tourne
Salad (this'll be pretty standard)
Cannellini bean soup (my contribution)
Apricot demi glace


Pretty happy with the soup other than the beans being slightly undercooked (which I personally like). Wasn't all that happy with the teamwork. We didn't do so well today, and I know we can do better. Tomorrow we have another practical, pretty sure tourne will be on it, and a similar menu. Our group leader has put us on a sort of rotation, so tomorrow I'm on grill. Or whatever meat product we end up with. Oh, and today the meat was dry, so I was sad.

Whoops, sorry.

So…A ton happened in the past few days and I forgot to even put the daily menu in. I’ll fix that now.

Thursday menu-
Endive orange salad with a shallot vinaigrette
Mushroom leek soup
Grilled salmon
Steamed veg
Beurre blanc (white wine butter sauce)
Gaufrettes (waffle cut fries)

I was working on the beurre, and I ended up plating the salmon and the salad. I also did the soup garnish, it was deep fried julienned leek. Which was actually very tasty. I don’t recall what Dad did on Thursday, but I’m sure he posted something. See my picasa site (to the right) for pictures on that.

Friday menu-
Vichyssoise (potato leek soup)
Grilled ono (Also known as Wahoo, it’s a fish with a shark-like texture)
Salad with hard boiled eggs and vinaigrette
Rice with veg
Beurre rouge (red wine butter sauce, which I prefer, but it’s purple)

I worked on the ono. I also got to plate it, since the day before with the salmon, I screwed up which direction the grill marks faced. I redeemed myself, it looked much better. Unfortunately, our soup came out lukewarm (our plates weren’t warm enough and we pulled the soup too early), and our main plate only had warm fish on it, since we got 11 minutes to plate and 7 of those had fish cooking. There was no way we could get seven plates done in four minutes. Just not happening. So the rice and sauces were colder than the fish. But I’m pretty happy with how our plate came out considering we got an extra addition to the plate at last minute and it got messed up at last minute. It had a lot of changes, but we got the plate out looking pretty nice. That one is above if you’d like to see. We got asparagus added, but it didn’t come out right, so we ended up with an asparagus coulis (basically it was pureed asparagus and a little liquid) which tasted just like asparagus. I liked it.

The past two days, I’ve been kind of responsible for getting our production chart up and running. I got our menu, ingredients, and rough times written down so we know what’s going on, as well as pitching ideas for plating. It’s been interesting. Granted, I’m not doing that next week because we have team chefs for the week and that’s their job. But it was interesting to get an idea for it and I think it went fairly well.

Beyond that, Dad got his business name and ideas all up and running so that’s pretty cool. It’s B&B Culinary Creations and he’s “hired” me for it (That’s where the second B comes in). So. We’ll see where it goes from here.

Okay, pictures are up

I've switched from facebook over to picasa, I've updated the link on the right, and I won't be using facebook as steadily anymore. The picasa one is a little jumbled, but it'll get better. And it'll get descriptions. Please bear with me for the changes, I don't have a lot of spare time. Thanks.

The site is picasaweb.google.com/pyricin

No more chicken!

Today was grilled salmon, steamed veggies (red pepper and leeks), waffle fries (thinly sliced), cauliflower soup, and endive & orange salad. Turned out pretty well, I have some nice pics. Today, my dad and I got to talk to Chef Deb (she is a graduate of the same program we are in and is a private chef) about our goals and ambitions. It was very cool. She is just packed full of energy and useful information. We only talked for a little while, but we're going to set up some times that we can talk more and get a little more information. The part that was just awesome for me was that she had this book called Alinea. This book is about a restaurant. I saw a show a while back about this restaurant that actually helped me to consider cooking as a career. The chef doesn't cook anything that's just basic, or filling, or anything like that. His style is an ART. There is no other way to describe it. The things he makes are just beautiful and that is my goal. I will work the line, and I will learn the basics, but that is the ultimate goal. Forget anything else, I have an eye for art and I am going to use it. So it was a pretty good day.

Oh, and apparently there has been a little trouble with the pictures. Facebook was set up to let people in regardless of being in there or not, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm going to look into a Picasa hosted album. I'll let you know.

Test scores and practical tests

Test score = 100% Woo! Congratulate me and Dad as well plz. He got 100 too. I'm very happy. We also had a practical exam today, it was on knife cuts. We had ten minutes to cut a carrot medium dice, a stalk of celery small dice, and mince a shallot. I got through the carrot with very nice dice, through the celery with decent dice, and halfway through the shallot with a good mince. I was the closest to finishing on my side, so I'm VERY happy with that (I've been very unhappy with my cuts lately). I'm a bit of a perfectionist, if you hadn't noticed.
We did stuffed chicken again, but this time it was chicken mousseline (which is basically a very pureed and strained chicken mixed with shallots, garlic, egg white, and whipped cream) and yes I'm aware it doesn't sound great but it just tastes like chicken. We also had zucchini (which was my contribution), beurre fondu again (which I love), rice, salad, and minestrone. We switched the service order so it wasn't salad first, but still a three course meal. I did the chicken cuts this time, and made SURE the skin wasn't sliding off and getting cut. It kinda annoyed me yesterday. It looked very good, and I was pretty happy with it. I also did the dressing garnish on the salad and helped with the plate layout for the chicken (which I wasn't entirely happy with). It was very geometrical, which is not my style, nor my favorite. Anyway, I have a bunch of pictures up on facebook. They're labeled with Team A/B, as well as what it is and the date. Enjoy.

First quiz

Today was horrible. Traffic was so stupid. Yes, there was snow. No, you don't have to go 2 miles an hour. We got to class an hour late and missed the test. Because of the snow (and more than a third of the class not making it in time) we only got a tardy and no points were taken. We also had to stay after class to take the test. So it didn't end as badly as it started, but gah, I hate snow drivers. The test wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating. Granted, I overstudied a lot. Obsessively almost. I only got a couple things wrong, and I'm pretty sure I nailed 9/10 product identification questions. Cuz balsamic vinegar is difficult to identify. ^_^ The only ones I almost had trouble with were questions asking us to list the ingredients and amounts of ingredients for particular recipes, but I figured it out after a minute. We made chicken roulade, rice, beurre fondue (butter sauce), salad with vinaigrette, and a barley soup today. First we had to get a goat cheese filling in (and that was my job today). Shallots, green peppers, and red peppers get sweated first, add thyme, and fold into the cheese. That goes into the chicken thighs (that the bones got pulled out of) and the chicken gets rolled around it. Then we seared the chicken and baked it. They were pretty good (see picture of Team B's chicken and rice above). I did the garnishing on that plate. All in all, pretty happy with it. Oh, and we find out our test scores tomorrow.

Forgot to mention

I have a test tomorrow, wish me luck. Oh, and I added a "random photos" category in my facebook. Enjoy.

Oils

Last one. Let me know what you think of them.

1. Grape Seed

I gotta be honest, I didn't really smell much of anything on this one. It was thin, fairly clean feel for an oil, and was very slightly nutty.

2. Sunflower

Again, I couldn't smell much of anything on this one. It tastes a bit like sunflower seeds, and it's a little more viscous than the grape seed.

3. Canola

Not a lot of smell, thicker than the other two, tastes like oil. Lot of people already have and idea of this one anyway.

4. Olive (Pure)
Light smell, light flavor. This is fairly thin as far as olive oil is concerned.

5. Carli EVOO (Italian)
The next three are different brands from different areas, but they are all EVOO olive oils. This one was a nice strong smell to it, kind of delicate. The color was better on this on than on the pure (picture doesn't do it justice).

6. Almazara EVOO (Spanish)
Smelled slightly fruity. The color was even darker than the carli and it tasted a little bit like butter (Dad said something about movie theater popcorn). This one was my favorite.

7. D'opio EVOO (French)
Smelled like grass. No kidding, go outside and smell grass clippings and that's what this smelled like. Tasted like it too. It was a little peppery as well.

8. Walnut
Strong sweet nutty smell to this one. Tasted like walnuts. Definitely a salad dressing oil, something you'd want to taste in the food.

9. Sesame
Smelled and tasted like toasted sesame seeds (which is what they did to the seeds before they made the oil). Very nice, but very strong. Too much...would be obvious.

10. Mustard

Smells like lemon/mustard. So it smells a little citrusy and you'd think it wouldn't be so bad, yes? I tasted this one and it just tasted like oil at first. It's viscous and thick, but I sat for a minute thinking it wasn't so bad. Then the flavor hit me over the head with a board. It's like spicy Chinese mustard. And I grew up hating that mustard. Oh, it was a bad couple of minutes, this stuff leaves the tongue very slowly. Do not overdo this sucker, it will hurt.

Vinegars

These were...hard to keep tasting. I drank so much water for these tastings.

1. White Vinegar

This one was fairly pungent. It's kind of bitey and sour, but it burns off quickly and you don't notice the flavor anymore after a bit.

2. Rice Vinegar

Lighter smell than the white vinegar, but still a bit of a bite to it. It's slightly sweet and it reminds me a bit of sake. It's slower to leave the tongue.

3. Apple Cider Vinegar

Bitey smell. Tart, slightly sweet, and a little fruity. Flavor burns off quick.

4. Champagne Vinegar

Sharp smelling, but slightly flowery. Slower than the apple cider to leave the tongue and I tasted this more toward the front of my mouth than the back (like with the others).

5. White Wine Vinegar

Lighter smell than the champagne. Slightly sweet, fairly acidic.

6. Red Wine Vinegar

Less bitey than the white wine, with a slightly lighter smell (not by much).

7. White Balsamic Vinegar

Bite on the smell, with a little sweetness. Flavor is a bit sweet, with no real bite in the back of the throat. It's very gentle and leaves the tongue quickly. This is one of my favorites.

8. Balsamic Vinegar

More pungent than the white balsamic. Has more of a bite as well, but it's still a bit sweet. A bit stronger and more viscous.

9. Sherry Vinegar

Less of a scent on this than the balsamics. Leaves the tongue very slowly. Bit of a bite, and the flavor is fairly strong. Little sweetness comparatively.

10. Malt Vinegar

Lightish smell. Potent taste, but less bite than the sherry had (I don't know how much of this is due to having tasted quite a bit beforehand).

11. 6 yr Balsamic Vinegar

Smells sweet, with very little bite. Tastes very sweet as well. Smooth, viscous, with no sourness on the back end, and slow to leave the tongue. Lingers quite a bit. I'm fond of this one.

12. 12 yr Balsamic Vinegar

And even more fond of this one. Smells sweet, but with a woody, rich scent to it. Again, it's sweet, but even more viscosity. It has even less bite, less sourness, and leaves the tongue even slower than the 6 year.