Sophmores

I am officially done with the first of 6 levels at the French Culinary Institute! We had our final exam last night. It was a nerve racking experience, but I am happy to have gotten it out of the way and now know what to expect in the levels to come.

For the first level, our practical exam is based on our basic knife skills. Can you cut half that turnip into a perfect 1mm julienne and the other half into perfect 1mm cubes? How much was your yield? Did you waste a lot of product? What about that carrot? Did you cut it into perfect .5cm cubes? Is your station clean? Did you do everything in the time allowed?

These were just some of the things that we were being graded on. When I walked into school, I had that nervous energy that I used to get before a big horse show. It's a great feeling that I have not had in a long time. While the questions being asked of us last night are as basic as they can get, there is always some anxiety when you don't know what to expect. The final was in the prep kitchen next to the restaurant kitchen. Somewhere we have never been before. It's about a third of the size of our regular classroom, so our work areas were a lot smaller too. Then there was the element of not knowing where anything was in that kitchen, and while you were working you had the buzz and energy of the restaurant kitchen preparing for dinner all around you. Overall, I am happy with the outcome. Some of the stuff I had practiced better at home, but under the conditions it was a good night.

The level 2 final is so much worse, I may need to start practicing today! They had to quarter chickens and fillet fish all in a short period of time. And they were also tested on basic knife skills, only the quantities of what they had to cut doubled from the level 1 final, and the time was cut in half. Darn, just when I thought I could finally clear all the potato and carrot scraps out of the refrigerator. As you can imagine there have been a lot a mashed potatoes made with all the practicing of the "football" shapes. And as for the pounds of carrots in the fridge cut into a million different shapes and sizes? I'm thinking a carrot soup is on the agenda for the weekend!