CCA says I can be a chef - for the time being.
I passed skills final with a fluorish: a 98 of 100 on the pork chop, a 96 of 100 on the salmon. Naturally, let me focus first on that which went wrong.
The pork chop was a shade overdone, not quite enough pink in the middle. We pulled the damn thing at 129 degrees and it carried over to probably 138 or so. If you ask me, the pork was perfect, medium to medium rare. Chef also said my pommes duchesse was not uniform, which I think is bullshit. My pommes duchesse were perfect. Instead of plating them separately, I leaned one slightly over the other to give the plate more height. That may have pressed one down a bit, but my duchesse were uniform. Nonetheless, there's your 2 points. Though, I give us a 100 in the pork. And, man, that tabouli salad was genius.
On the salmon, the rice pilaf was under-salted and a little cold, and the tourned zucchini was not uniform. There's your 4 points. The zucchini was my fault. Just after sauteeing them, I felt there was too much butter, so I went to set them on a paper towel to get rid ofthe excess butter before plating. One little tourne ended up on the floor, so I had to cut another, by which time the rice got cold. So it goes.
Day one of finals, which I may have mentioned, was a grilled pork chop with chasseur sauce, broccoli, pommes duchesse and tabouli salad. Day two was salmon poached in court boullion, tourned zucchini and rice pilaf with a cous cous salad.
On the tabouli we were allowed room for experimentation. On the cous cous we were given the option of using a varity of dried fruit along with pine nuts. Jessica and I settled apricot and cranberry, primarily for the color but also because I wanted tart fruit so I could make a pasty chutney from them. Rather than the boring metod of chopping the fruit and tossing it into the tabouli, I boiled it up with red wine vinegar and a dash of sugar to give it some stick, then molded it as a base for the cous cous. So I had a base of deep red and orange, a top of gold. It looked good, like the tabouli, and tasted like a PB&J. Good. Very good.
Skills is over. So it goes. I am again unemployed. So it goes. Not to worry, family. I've got a handle on everything. For now, however, I am absolutely exhausted. The week off of school will be a nice break, but I am already looking forward to butchery. More later, so hold tight.
ZZZZZZ.
I passed skills final with a fluorish: a 98 of 100 on the pork chop, a 96 of 100 on the salmon. Naturally, let me focus first on that which went wrong.
The pork chop was a shade overdone, not quite enough pink in the middle. We pulled the damn thing at 129 degrees and it carried over to probably 138 or so. If you ask me, the pork was perfect, medium to medium rare. Chef also said my pommes duchesse was not uniform, which I think is bullshit. My pommes duchesse were perfect. Instead of plating them separately, I leaned one slightly over the other to give the plate more height. That may have pressed one down a bit, but my duchesse were uniform. Nonetheless, there's your 2 points. Though, I give us a 100 in the pork. And, man, that tabouli salad was genius.
On the salmon, the rice pilaf was under-salted and a little cold, and the tourned zucchini was not uniform. There's your 4 points. The zucchini was my fault. Just after sauteeing them, I felt there was too much butter, so I went to set them on a paper towel to get rid ofthe excess butter before plating. One little tourne ended up on the floor, so I had to cut another, by which time the rice got cold. So it goes.
Day one of finals, which I may have mentioned, was a grilled pork chop with chasseur sauce, broccoli, pommes duchesse and tabouli salad. Day two was salmon poached in court boullion, tourned zucchini and rice pilaf with a cous cous salad.
On the tabouli we were allowed room for experimentation. On the cous cous we were given the option of using a varity of dried fruit along with pine nuts. Jessica and I settled apricot and cranberry, primarily for the color but also because I wanted tart fruit so I could make a pasty chutney from them. Rather than the boring metod of chopping the fruit and tossing it into the tabouli, I boiled it up with red wine vinegar and a dash of sugar to give it some stick, then molded it as a base for the cous cous. So I had a base of deep red and orange, a top of gold. It looked good, like the tabouli, and tasted like a PB&J. Good. Very good.
Skills is over. So it goes. I am again unemployed. So it goes. Not to worry, family. I've got a handle on everything. For now, however, I am absolutely exhausted. The week off of school will be a nice break, but I am already looking forward to butchery. More later, so hold tight.
ZZZZZZ.
