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.