Hey guys, I tried to write last night on my way home on the train but my phone died :-)
So....what an exciting evening! I'm not sure if I mentioned it in Saturday’s post, but my chef didn’t come in, so I had to take my carrots home. So, I walked into class to find not one BUT three new chefs in the front of the kitchen….yes, there was no chef Nick, after I brought my dried out carrots to class again lol, to say the least, I put them right in the compost.
So I walk to my station, put my knife kit down and begin to set up my station. That’s when my good friend Caroline comes up behind me and says to me “Have you looked on the board” I shook my head no, she continues to say “we have to make ratatouille” My mouth dropped, all I could think about was that movie and the recipe seemed so hard to make. So I go up front to check out the board and was stunned and frazzled to see that a ratatouille needed to be presented to the chef by 8:30 and a roasted beet and goat cheese timbale with apple and vinaigrette needed to be presented by 10:15. I was ssssooooo unprepared, I hadn’t really read Lesson 3 (I only skimmed it). I know it’s EXCUSES but I thought Chef Nick was coming and was going to allow us to à l’anglaise and à l’étuvée some vegetables (since we were only shown a quick demo on Saturday) wellll guess not.
By the time most of us had finished setting up our work station it was time to begin the lecture. We worked on product identification, mostly vegetables, herbs, and fruits that many think are vegetable (avocado, tomato, eggplant, and peppers, interesting huh?) We even tasted various potatoes, squashes, and mushrooms in order to learn the difference. Before we knew it, it was time to do a demo on the ratatouille (a vegetable ragout). Once she was done we all scurried off to our station to get our mise en place (put in place) together, which means to have everything cut and measured before we begin cooking. So my partner and I have to present one dish, so we share out our work, and begin to cut our various vegetables (tomatoes, onions, eggplant, zucchini and more). Before I knew it our stainless steel marmite and sauteuse (different pans) were sizzling away. We put the serving plate in the oven for a few seconds (this helps to keep the food warm when you plate it), got a ring mold, and dished out our ratatouille. Not totally confident (it is our first dish) we go to the chef for her approval, she looks at the plate and says it looks nice then tastes it. She closed her eyes and chewed, then said nothing, pure silence…I’m looking like uuuummmmmm can I get some kind of response. She finally opens her eyes and her mouth lol and says excellent, it taste perfect, you guys did a great job. TALK ABOUT EX-CI-TED!!!! I WAS THRILLED!!!!!!! I hurried to semi-clean up my station so I could take a break and eat my family meal, which was chicken, mashed potatoes, and other stuff that I didn’t put on my plate because I was going to eat MY RATATOUILLE!!!! *bbm dancing face*
Not before long we were watching the demo for the salad, which seemed pretty easy, compared to the dish we just made (which wasn’t too hard). So I had to peel and finely dice a couple of roasted beets (not fun btw). We mix up a goat cheese spread (goat cheese, olive oil, and salt) and made our own vinaigrette. So I get ready to plate, I get my ring mold; put a layer of the diced beets and then a layer of goat cheese spread. I put a lot of focus on making sure my spread was leveled off by using a metal spatula and wiped the edges of the mold to capture any escaping beet juices. I removed the mold, topped my pretty circle of goodness with some frisée (a type of lettuce) and herbs. I surrounded my circle with finely diced apples and drizzled the vinaigrette. It looked amazing and pretty…SO PRETTY THAT I REALIZED I LEFT MY PHONE IN MY LOCKER…so I couldn’t take a pic, sorry guys, won’t do that again. So by the time I walked to the front to show chef, I look at my plate and I see more beet juices have escaped and are running into the vinaigrette, yea, that wasn’t the plan. But chef loved it! She said she likes the pink color randomly floating around; it looks nice on the plate, so I was happy about my escaped beet juices.
Nonetheless, I had an AMAZING time, just another confirmation that this is where I belong, happy I’m following my passion, make sure you are too!
*smooches and deuces*
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