Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Wednesday.. one week to go!

I very much prefer only two lessons per day.. Demo and practical.  Demonstration 024 was by Chef Gilles, and the dishes were Aubergines Imam Bayildi (Eggplants stuffed with tomatoes and onions), Osso-bucco piemontaise (Braised slices of veal knuckle with tomato garnish) and Gratin de fraises au Sabayon (Strawberry gratin with zabaglione).

As I mentioned earlier, Lessons 24-30 will not be introducing new cooking techniques, so not that much new information.  The Eggplant was absolutely delicious.. It's one of the dishes that I may look to make once I catch my breath when this madness is over in a week.  However, it's not very French at all - Basil, tomatoes, feta, eggplant.. sounds like a Greek dish to me!  Chef Gilles told us a story on how it was named after a dish served at a Wedding, and one of the gifts was Olive oil, which was very expensive at the time, and how the Eggplants absorbed it all. 



Apparently it's a Turkish disk.  Go figure!

Osso-bucco is not bad... but it's hardly French as well - important technique here is Braiser.  The Strawberry dessert was not too bad, and it is definitely French with a Sabayon flavoured with Cointreau... important technique here is whisking over a bain marie.

Practical #024 went smoother than yesterday.  Chef Benoit was observing, and I don't think I made any major errors. I burnt butter twice, but luckily didn't have anything in the pan at the time... My final sauce had weird black flakes in it, I have no idea why.. but thickness was okay and my meat was cooked well.

At the end of class Chef Benoit read the mid-term marks out loud.  I didn't get the lowest or highest mark in the class, but was not entirely happy with my mark.  Chef Benoit made a point of saying he was surprised I hadn't done even better.  I think that's meant as a compliment...

Got home, took a quick nap, and am now about to get ready for the class dinner!

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