That's it, that's all...

Well this culinary adventure started about a month ago, and I'm sitting here in disbelief in how it's actually over, how quickly it passed, how hard it was, how many cuts my hands have suffered, and how I'm going to miss my classmates, most of whom are now returning to their regularly scheduled lives.  Two are continuing on to Intermediate and some said they would return for their graduation from Superior.

The Basic Cuisine Intensive course started with twelve students.  Quickly, one of them transferred over to Pastry, and two dropped out before the final.  Of the nine of us who attempted the final exam, only eight passed.  It was heart-breaking to hear this morning that one of us got a 48% on the final exam, and thus wouldn't graduate.  I believe it is possible for him to challenge the results, but doubtful it will make a difference.  He worked so hard, but I think a large part of it for him was the language barrier.  He really deserved to pass, but he really fucked up his Bernaise sauce.  Rough deal.  I guess they weren't kidding on the first day of classes when they said that the Ottawa school is known to be the hardest and they actually do fail students.  As an aside, at the Superior level, two sessions ago, only 6 of 10 students passed.  Yikes!

My final dish was certainly not my best, but it was my best effort given the stress levels involved.  I got an 8/10 on the Bon D'economat (shocking!) and above a 3/5 on my veal chops, so it's as good as I could reasonably expect and in line with what I was doing during the regular session.  Most people do 20% worse than a regular practical, but if that had happened, I would have been perilously close to failing.

Graduation was a non-event really.  They briefly introduced the school staff, and then handed out the certificates, a bronze pin (which I will cherish even more than my ITIL foundation pin -GEEK JOKE-), and a class photo.  Chef Benoit handed me mine, shook my hand, and asked me if I was continuing, and I said "Unfortunately, I have to return to my real life." and he looked disappointed but we both laughed.  The later stages are definitely interesting, including butchery of a lamb, advanced plating, costing, etc. but I'm not sure if my story includes me devoting 6 more months of my life towards this hobby.

Last night, most of us went out for drinks, and I asked my classmates two questions:  What did you learn?  If you knew how it would actually be, would you have done it?

Some answers to the first question were:
- Lots about sauces
- Different cooking methods
- How to cook different kinds of meats
- Knife skills

The answer to the second question was a universal YES.  Some people talked about the opportunity cost and financial cost (you can definitely do a lot with the tuition and 5 weeks of holidays) but all said it was a wonderful experience that they are glad they did.

What I learned can be summarized in classical French style cutting and turning vegetables.  Take the time to do something right, because people take way too many short cuts in life.  At the end of the day, there is a right way to do something, and a wrong way.. and often people are in too much of a rush to do things properly.  Also, with proper practice, technique gets really good and fast.. (Chef Benoit and Chef Gilles can turn carrots in under 10 seconds, whereas it still takes me closer to 90).

Thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed the ride.

Point final.
-THC

Now we wait...

Quick update:  I just finished my final exam... For the written portion, I had to write a Bon D'economat for the Civet de Lapin a la Francaise, and I completely forgot that there was pasta there.  Other than that, I hit most of the ingredients, if not the amounts so I'm happy with that.  For the practical portion I had Côte de veau à la crème, petits pois à la française with one starch and that went actually quite well, even though it was super busy.  My sauce was thickened a bit too much, but it was absolutely delicious.  I hope my meat was cooked, and I think my peas turned out well even though I over cooked my lardons.  Oh and I managed to turn 9 potatoes.  I used every minute of the 2:30 and hopefully I passed.  They will let me know by the end of the day if I did not, as you cannot attend graduation if you don't pass.  It looks like only seven of us will be attending graduation, two people have early morning flights tomorrow so won't be able to make it.

Overall, I feel good. I messed up a couple of things, but it was definitely edible and I did my best.

It doesn't seem fair to have to wait around for a phone call, so I'm not!  Going out drinking with my classmates instead!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!
-THC

Breakfast of Champions...

Spent a restless night thinking about the exam.  Finally rolled out of bed around 5:30am, and took a shower.

Right now I'm eating my usual pre-competition meal of instant oatmeal.  In the words of one of my best friends "gotta have oatmeal, that sticks to your bones!"  Also having a coffee and some scrambled eggs.

I feel pretty Zen about the whole situation.  I've done as much as I was willing to invest energy wise into this challenge, I have managed to write a blog for pretty much a month straight so I'm on top of things.  No I didn't do an all-nighter trying to memorize if it uses 10ml of olive oil or 20ml.  And right now I don't care.  5 hours from now it'll be all over!   Wooohoooooooo.

I'll do a post-mortem afterwards and (hopefully) talk about graduation tomorrow.

Stay Classy!
-THC

Class is done.. D-day tomorrow.

Today was the last day of classes.  I'm actually a bit bummed but gonna be really glad 24 hours from now when my exam is done.  We had lesson 30, which was lamb tenderloin cooked in a salt crust, and also an apple donut thing.  I was super tired, so I skipped out on the practical because there were a lot of knife work involved, and I had cut myself first thing in the morning grabbing something out of my bag so I didn't want to chance it.  Besides, it wasn't an exam dish, or marked for that matter.  Of the 9 people, only 6 people did this last practical.  After the demo, we had the course evaluation, as well as drawing for the order.  I drew an A, so I'll be the first one entering the kitchen, which is a bit unnerving since there will be 3 Chefs watching us, and only two of us for the first ten minutes.  After that, every ten minutes, another two people come in.

Anyway I'd better study some more... stupid Bon D'economat and memorizing recipes.  Stupid.

REVIEW: Côte de veau à la crème, petits pois à la française

Lesson 29
Côte de veau à la crème, petits pois à la française with one starch

Ingredients List
2 pcs cotes de veau/veal chops
50g beurre/butter
25ml huile vegetale/vegetable oil
25g farine/flour
==Garniture/Garnish==
400g petits pois/peas
50g poitrine de porc fumee/smoked bacon
0.25 pc laitue Boston/Boston lettuce
50g oignons grelots/pearl onions
==Sauce/Sauce==
50ml vin blanc de cuisson/white cooking wine
150g champignons/mushrooms
50ml fond de veau/veal stock
250ml creme/cream
==Finition/To Finish==
sucre/sugarpoivre blanc, 
moulu/white pepper, 
groundsel/ salt


Cooking method: Saute


Debone the veal chop, and tie it up.  Using the extra bones, saisir them, then add the parures from the pearl onions, and also the mushrooms which are peeled and then cut into halves and then at an angle.  Add veal stock and reduce.  Saute the veal chop about 10-15 mins per side in hot oil or butter, make sure to arosser the meat, and give it time to rest after it's done cooking.  Can fariner if you wish.


For the Peas, cut bacon into lardon, and then fry them.  Degrease pan a bit, and cook onions.  Add peas and then add sugar, salt and butter and enough water to be just below peas.  To finish add some lettuce finely chopped to be wilted.


For the sauce, in a separate pan, saute mushrooms in butter.  Deglaze the veal chop pan with white wine, and then add the cream.  Add the veal stock that has been simmering for an hour and passed through a chinois to the cream, adjusting for colour.  Add mushrooms at end.


Suggested starch is potatoes a L'anglaise, lustre with butter.


Comments:  Difficulty is deboning the veal chop, which is same as the beef rib and pork chop.  Rest is just prep work and timing.

And then there were 9...

It was a real downer today when one of the students showed up around lunch and told us that he wouldn't be doing the last few lessons and won't be doing the final, and therefore won't be graduating with us.  He was the oldest guy in the group and we went out for drinks after class a couple of times.  Really nice guy, but he said that he got what he wanted out of the course, so I'm happy for him.  Just kind of hard to say good bye like this.  I told him I really respect him for trying this at his age (my guess is he's in his mid 60s) and I hope I have his energy when I'm older.

The day started with Practical #028, and Chef Christopher from the Production Kitchen.  Chef Benoit showed up about half way through the lesson and took over.  Chef Christopher kept on trying to get me to move faster, but I knew I had plenty of time so I was trying to make everything perfect in terms of my vegetable cuts, and making sure my bird was tied properly, etc.  The dish came out okay.. I kinda burnt one side of the canape and my meat filing was way too dry, but my poultry was perfectly cooked and sauce was a bit thick (since it should have been a jus) but the taste was good, ...  and my potatoes were soggy because i didn't cook them long enough, but my julienne were perfect.  It was passable and since it wasn't an exam dish, I don't really care.

Lesson #029 was Fritots de ris de veau, sauce tartare, persil frit (sweetbreads deep fried, tartar sauce and fried parsley), Cotes de veau a la creme, petits pois a la Francaise (Veal chops with peas French style) and Pets de nonne (deep fried pastry).  The pastry is funny because it translates to "nun's farts" and that's the sound they make as they are cooked and deflate.  I have no idea why you would fry parsley.  Sweetbreads breaded are still gross.

Practical #029 was the Veal chops and went very well.  My only major problem was with the sauce, which I didn't thicken enough but taste was good.  My meat was cooked well, my peas were perfect and so I was happy with the dish.  Another 15 minutes and my sauce would have been reduced to the proper consistency, but Chef Benoit made us serve after 2 hours instead of 2:30 so it was okay.

Tomorrow is the very last day of classes, and lesson 30, which is not an exam dish but I'll go anyway.  Probably be a better idea to stay home and study all day, but I'd probably just end up playing with my new iPod touch which has been severely underutilized.

REVIEW: Mignons de porc Arlonnaise

Lesson 27
Mignons de porc arlonnaise
Ingredients List
1 pc filet de porc/pork tenderloin
20ml huile/oil
sel et poivre/salt and pepper
== Julienne de legumes/Julienne of vegetables==
100g carottes/carrots
100g poireaux/leeks
100g navets/turnips
100g champignons/mushrooms
40g beurre/butter
sel/salt
==Sauce/Sauce==
20g sucre/sugar
40g vinaigre de vin rouge/red wine vinegar
150ml biere blonde/blond beer
200g demi-glace
80g beurre/butter
==Pommes anglaises/Boiled potatoes==
6 pcs pommes de terre/potatoes

Cooking method: Saute


Dry the meat and trim any fat or nerves off.  Tie meat with string by looping around, and underneath.  Then tie sections at approximately every 1.5 inches.   Pat meat dry again and season with salt and pepper.  Cook in hot oil browning each side and arosser with the oil.  Remove meat to a rack and degrease pan.


Julienne carrots, turnips, leeks.  Cut mushroom caps and only use white parts (roughly julienne).  Etuver each of them separately in butter, salt and a little bit of water.


Cook extras for the sauce in hot oil.  Remove meats, add sugar and cook to caramel colour.  Add red wine vinegar, reduce to a syrup, and then add beer.  Reduce again.  Add veal stock, and reduce.  Add to pan used to cook meat and deglaze.  Adjust taste with extra beer, red wine vinegar or sugar.


Turn potatoes a L'Anglaise from cold water with coarse salt.  Lustre with butter to finish.


Comments:  Kinda difficult to tie the meat.  Be careful with the Julienne, must be perfect since this isn't that complicated.  The sauce is difficult to get perfect taste... be prepared to have to change some tastes at the end.  The meat needs to be pretty much golden on all sides in order to be done.  Don't forget to let it rest.. may need to make a loose tinfoil lid.


Tools required:  Chef Knife, scissors, spatula, spoon, tongs, paring knife, peeler, turning knife, brush