Razor thin margin between my team and world domination.
Friday. It's mystery basket day. Most of us are fairly competitive, so there is a slightly heightened attitude hanging on the air like smoke. I've been with the same 7 people since day one of American Cuisine. Zach, naturally. Jesus, though his attendance is infrequent. Janet, the dessert genius. Teresa, the youngest in class, yet doling out business with lead pipe cruelty. Pam, the elder, always packing a killer secret recipe. Jason, class cut up that can pull bizarre, interesting dishes out of thin air, and along with Zach perhaps the least fearful of experimenting. Brian, holding his own these days, though I suspect it's been a long road for him. That's my team.
The object of mystery basket day is to use all of the given ingredients to make the number of courses required. We drew two entrees, a cold appetizer, a mignardise (think of it as the mint that comes with the check), a vegetable side and a custard.
Our mystery basket was finally unveiled at about a quarter to 8. Our ingredients:
-Halibut filets that appeared to be very much on their way out
-Duck breasts
-Sunburst squash
-Japanese eggplant
-Button mushrooms
-Arbol chilis
-Celery root
-Russet potatoes
-Fresh ginger
-Mangos
-Fava beans
-Dried figs
-Puff pastry dough
Not a bad draw of goods to work with. We had a lot of options. It took the team about 15 minutes of riffing to come up with our menu. I offered up olive oil poached halibut with a mango, ginger and arbol coulis. Pam has a strong port wine reduction that she had used on artichokes back in Euro, so we decide to add figs into it and serve it over the duck, which was supposed to be pan seared and roasted off in order to render down the fat cap on the breasts. I decided we'd serve it over celery root mashed potatoes. Janet, dessert einstein she is, decided on a mignardise of chocolate mousse with a prickly pear syrup; I offered up serving it on individual spoons. Jason presented the idea of marinating the button mushrooms in balsamic as our cold app, serving it with greens and shaved parmesan. Jason also came up with a sweet corn custard, like a quiche, in puff pastry rather than a pie crust, and he came up with a curry and coconut dish for the eggplant. Jason was really on his game Friday night. Finally, Zach whipped up a succotash with the fava beans and squash. We had a tight menu of imaginative items, everyone was focused and we were rolling with one hour and fifty minutes to get the whole thing together.
There were few problems. Brian killed the first pass at the fig and port reduction sauce, unable to control heat. Someone inadvertently cranked up the heat on my poaching oil, but I caught it before any damage was done to the halibut. Everything came together well. Except for the duck, which after being seared was inexplicably braised. My jaw dropped when Brian plated it up. Rather than a crunchy, crusty layer of fat on the breasts it was a chewy gelatinous inedible layer. Not good. None of us are perfect, but that was a huge mistake.
As usual, when the class in in the midst of a competency, pleasantry goes into the fire. The dish pit turns into a moutain of spent pots and pans in no time, and you find yourself scrambling for clean hardware.
Judging is based on accuracy (utilization of all ingredients), timeliness (have your buffet set up at precisely 9:50), presentation and garnish (make it pretty and entirely edible), flavor (well seasoned, well balanced), originality (meatloaf is nice, but try something more imaginative). There are a couple other categories I can't bring to mind right now, but those are the big ones.
We scored perfect on accuracy and timeliness. Our presentation took a hit due to the succotash dish lacking height. Where we really got nailed was seasoning. The mushrooms had too much vinegar flavor, the mashed potatoes needed salt. Where we outscored everyone was in originality.
In the end, it was team one, which for my culinary dollar had the best cross section of talent in the class with Chris D, Anna, Jessica, Jeff and Joe leading the way. Team one scored a 17.5 while we pulled in a 17.25 - it was close.
Friday. It's mystery basket day. Most of us are fairly competitive, so there is a slightly heightened attitude hanging on the air like smoke. I've been with the same 7 people since day one of American Cuisine. Zach, naturally. Jesus, though his attendance is infrequent. Janet, the dessert genius. Teresa, the youngest in class, yet doling out business with lead pipe cruelty. Pam, the elder, always packing a killer secret recipe. Jason, class cut up that can pull bizarre, interesting dishes out of thin air, and along with Zach perhaps the least fearful of experimenting. Brian, holding his own these days, though I suspect it's been a long road for him. That's my team.
The object of mystery basket day is to use all of the given ingredients to make the number of courses required. We drew two entrees, a cold appetizer, a mignardise (think of it as the mint that comes with the check), a vegetable side and a custard.
Our mystery basket was finally unveiled at about a quarter to 8. Our ingredients:
-Halibut filets that appeared to be very much on their way out
-Duck breasts
-Sunburst squash
-Japanese eggplant
-Button mushrooms
-Arbol chilis
-Celery root
-Russet potatoes
-Fresh ginger
-Mangos
-Fava beans
-Dried figs
-Puff pastry dough
Not a bad draw of goods to work with. We had a lot of options. It took the team about 15 minutes of riffing to come up with our menu. I offered up olive oil poached halibut with a mango, ginger and arbol coulis. Pam has a strong port wine reduction that she had used on artichokes back in Euro, so we decide to add figs into it and serve it over the duck, which was supposed to be pan seared and roasted off in order to render down the fat cap on the breasts. I decided we'd serve it over celery root mashed potatoes. Janet, dessert einstein she is, decided on a mignardise of chocolate mousse with a prickly pear syrup; I offered up serving it on individual spoons. Jason presented the idea of marinating the button mushrooms in balsamic as our cold app, serving it with greens and shaved parmesan. Jason also came up with a sweet corn custard, like a quiche, in puff pastry rather than a pie crust, and he came up with a curry and coconut dish for the eggplant. Jason was really on his game Friday night. Finally, Zach whipped up a succotash with the fava beans and squash. We had a tight menu of imaginative items, everyone was focused and we were rolling with one hour and fifty minutes to get the whole thing together.
There were few problems. Brian killed the first pass at the fig and port reduction sauce, unable to control heat. Someone inadvertently cranked up the heat on my poaching oil, but I caught it before any damage was done to the halibut. Everything came together well. Except for the duck, which after being seared was inexplicably braised. My jaw dropped when Brian plated it up. Rather than a crunchy, crusty layer of fat on the breasts it was a chewy gelatinous inedible layer. Not good. None of us are perfect, but that was a huge mistake.
As usual, when the class in in the midst of a competency, pleasantry goes into the fire. The dish pit turns into a moutain of spent pots and pans in no time, and you find yourself scrambling for clean hardware.
Judging is based on accuracy (utilization of all ingredients), timeliness (have your buffet set up at precisely 9:50), presentation and garnish (make it pretty and entirely edible), flavor (well seasoned, well balanced), originality (meatloaf is nice, but try something more imaginative). There are a couple other categories I can't bring to mind right now, but those are the big ones.
We scored perfect on accuracy and timeliness. Our presentation took a hit due to the succotash dish lacking height. Where we really got nailed was seasoning. The mushrooms had too much vinegar flavor, the mashed potatoes needed salt. Where we outscored everyone was in originality.
In the end, it was team one, which for my culinary dollar had the best cross section of talent in the class with Chris D, Anna, Jessica, Jeff and Joe leading the way. Team one scored a 17.5 while we pulled in a 17.25 - it was close.
