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.