We've definitely done so much in just this short amount of time. Only just last week we were sitting in a white walled room, wondering when we would be able to just see our knife kits. Now we've been through the crash course of basic cuts, stock making, the Mother Sauces, how NOT to ruin a hollandaise :(, and we even got to have our first "meal" and talk about what went well and what we should change.
Today we made an arrangement of sauces and salsas; Rigo even made us tortilla chips from the soft tortillas (they were very good!). Our team captains made some very unique and very tasty compound butters, even one of the pastry chefs from the next kitchen was intrigued! Our spicy garlic butter was high praised and Suzanne's lemon butter would be incredible on a morning biscuit.
By far the best thing we today was get more of our time management down. We were able to make a table full of food in a few hours on our first week. Chef was proud! :D
I can't tell you how amazing the kitchen has smelled the last few days of class. Making beef stocks and chicken stocks smelled like the best parts of Thanksgiving, and today while simmering the tomato sauce I admit I had more than a few bites!
My team's tomato sauce was unfortunately moved a few times, then discarded before we could plate it for the tasting... super sad moment! But you can bet that next time we will not let it walk away.
Jacob used his catering background to make our wonderful garnish
Mitch was so proud of his "carrot in dirt" garnish for his Espagnole sauce! I will admit that it does look super legit.
We are moving right along towards the ultimate goal of being called "Chefs!" So far it's been a very cool journey, I have already learned so much, definitely don't try and put a finished sauce back on the burner! I would say my highlight from the week was learning to make mayonnaise and the hollandaise. They are definitely quite labor intensive but the end result tastes so good!!!
Before this week I had never made my own stocks so that was really cool as well. I can see how that original prep was really miss en place for the whole week, a concept which I would like to try and adapt for my own use. So far I'm loving every minute of class and in no way have looked back on that overnight decision to change my life in this new direction.
Even the view from the dish pit hasn't soured this experience at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment