Our Level 6 Dishes

Here are photos of the dishes we made in the restaurant at school for level 6. Also, to give you a visual to go along with my final exam post, the salmon w/ horseradish crust dish and the gingerbread pudding dessert were the 2 courses I had to make for the judges.

Ah, the good old days ;-)

Chicken Consomme with Mushroom Flan and Gougeres





Hamachi with Apple, Fennel and Horseradish



Sauteed Pheasant Mousseline with Parsnip Puree, Fig and Egg Toast



Hanger Steak Bordelaise with Brussels Sprouts, Pommes Dauphine and Pomegranate Seeds



Tournedos of Salmon with Horseradish Crust, Baby Spinach, Spaghetti Squash Cakes and Beurre Blanc with Caviar



Seared Bass With Celery Root-Apple Puree, Mustard Greens, Hen of Woods Mushrooms and Smoked Shallot Sauce



Chocolate-Porcini Cake with Cardamom Crème and Chocolate-Olive Oil Sorbet



Gingerbread Pudding with Malted Crème Anglaise and Caramel Ice Cream

This Is How We Do It

Some flashbacks from school that I never got around to sharing. These pics are from level 4 buffet. This was not my group, but one of the other groups in my class. It was right around July 4th I think and their theme was BBQ.

Pates and sides:



Lots of goodness:



Yes, that is buffalo frog legs:



Whole piggy and beef brisket:



Travis prepping whole piggy:



Coconut creme pies and peanut butter pies:



Tres leches creme brulee, cheesecake and homemade chocolate candies:

Graduation Day

With the craziness of the final behind us, we all gathered the next day for our graduation. It was fun to get together as a class and have no pressures from any of our chefs.

I have made some good friends over the past nine months, and I look forward to following their culinary paths, as well as finally begin mine. (Which hopefully will start soon now that I am back from a 2 week trip to Costa Rica!)

(A full collection of photos can be found in my album)

The Crew

Judge's Table

So after 5 hours in the kitchen our chefs assembled us all together in one of them. We were congratulated on our efforts, and were told that overall the service went smoothly and as well as they had hoped.

So, now it was time for the judges to give us their feedback. At the beginning of the night, we were all given an ID number. Everyone whose number started with the letter A, was graded by 1 panel of 4 judges, and the rest of us who had a number beginning with the letter B, were judged by a separate panel of 4. Were were going to get our feedback together, in our groups, in an effort to learn as much as possible from all of our classmates.

"This will be the last time in your careers that you will be able to get constructive criticism on your food without your job being on the line for it", our Chef said as we headed out, "Learn as much as you can from this experience".

We filed into the dining room, and were each handed a VERY needed glass of champagne. My group sat down in front of our panel of judges, consisting of the following:

Judge 1 (S.R.'s Sous Chef)
Judge 2 (AKA Rockstar Chef)
Judge 3 (V.T. Pastry Chef)
Judge 4

And then we got our feedback. The Chefs were very constructive, and a lot of their criticisms were directed more on the actual recipes, which they understand we have no control over (for example, chocolate porcini brownie??? Um, yuck!). But they also had a lot of good advice on our actual cooking techniques.

For my salmon dish. the panel complimented me on being the only one who actually served hot plates to them, and noted that my presentation on the plate was tight and very neat and clean. Judge 1 felt I used too much caviar in my sauce (I did put in a touch more than I should have, but I like caviar!). However, he noted that this is an expensive item and should be used sparingly. Judges 1 and 3 though my salmon was cooked to medium, as opposed to the medium rare I was supposed to achieve, and judge 2 commented on the liquid from the spinach leaking onto the sauce, so he gave me some helpful tips on how to prevent that in the future. Judge 4 told me the biggest thing I should take away from the entire experience is how important it is to learn consistency in your cooking. This is something that they don't expect a student to master, but I should continue to work on it and with time, it will come. This is because he had only written down 4 words on his scoresheet for my salmon dish, which were "best dish all night". The salmon that he got was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and he personally enjoyed the balance of caviar in my sauce. That was good to hear, and in hindsight I was kicking myself for overlooking the obvious, which was that I should have been more in tune to the fact that each piece of salmon would cook at different rates, and I should have taken some out of the oven sooner than others. I was just so crazed with getting the other components done, i did not even think about it.

Then onto dessert. It was felt across the board that my cakes were slightly under cooked. If you remember I mentioned that when I checked on them I saw that the tops were cracking and I pulled them out in fear I had over cooked them (in the restaurant, we cooked these in the pizza oven which gave them such an even cooking that when I saw the cracks I panicked). And, here is another time I wanted to kick myself in the butt. I had checked one of the cakes with my cake tester and it pretty much ran clear, so I decided they were done and took them out. Why, I ask you, did I not think to cut one open and check it???I did make EIGHT of them, after all, and only needed to serve FOUR. Good one, Beth, good one. Judge 1 said that it's unfortunate that we were instructed to serve this cake room temp as opposed to warm. He said had I served it warm, I probably would have been saved, because a slightly gooey center would have been really good in that case. He is also a huge fan of gingerbread cake and would never think about serving it room temp, but again we need to do what our chefs tell us so that was beyond our control. As for my malt anglaise that was served on the bottom of the bowl, they all were really happy with it. Judge 4 said I could have bottled it up and sold it for money, and Judge 1 reiterated that with my malt anglaise, had the cake been served to him warm, he would have jumped up on the table and and yelled out of excitement from the combination of the two.

You win some, you lose some.

And This is What It Felt Like........(cont'd from post below)

First order of business was to get the spaghetti squash in the oven that would be used for the squash cakes that went with the salmon dish. Cut the squash, season salt and pepper, olive oil, thyme, butter, oven, done. OK, gear switch...dessert. Right away I got stared on the caramel ice cream. Make the caramel, boil the milk/cream, add caramel, whisk yolks, add to caramel cream, stir until thick, strain, cool over ice, taste and season with salt, sugar and vanilla. Give to proctor to get graded on it before getting combined with the rest of the class and made into one batch of ice cream.

Done. Ok, what next?

The gingerbread cake. Get the 25 or so ingredients that go into this darn cake and then process in the mixer. Continually check on squash. If you burn it you are screwed, they will not give you another one to start over. Back to the cake batter. I see the mixer, but where is the bowl? Who has the bowl? Why is it in the sink dirty? Why didn't you clean it after you used it?? Clean it and get it to me ASAP. Thanks. OK, I have the bowl now, lets go....make cake....dry ingredients in mixer, bring wet ingredients and spices to a boil, add to dry, whisk milk/cream/eggs, add to mixer. Mix, but not too much or there will be too much gluten in the cakes and they will not have the right texture. Check and pray there are no lumps...looking, looking, looks good! yes! find the ramekins, spray molds pour batter into molds. I need 4 but have enough to make 8. Make 8 just in case disaster strikes. Check on the squash again. Why is it not done yet? I need the oven for the the cakes but its at a lower temperature.....hurry up squash and cook!

Ok, they need to finish cooking so next gear change, back to the salmon dish. Need to make the horseradish crust as it needs to set in the fridge for over an hour before cutting into molds. Get the ingredients, prep them, find the food processor to mix them all in. Check on the squash again. It's done! Remove to cool, adjust oven, put in cakes. Back to horseradish crust. Puree the fresh horseradish, add the smoke salmon, puree again. Add butter, mustard, cayenne, salt, pepper. Puree. Add bread crumbs slowly to right consistency, taste, adjust seasoning......oh, shit, the cakes!!!!! Check on the cakes. They are cracking a little on top, but I think they are ok. Take them out to cool. Return to horseradish crust. Finish and roll out the crust on a sheet tray. Put in the freezer to speed up the setting process.

Regroup. What time is it? What do I have left? Chef just said all the ingredients are going to go back to the storeroom in 30 minutes. Get everything I will need for the rest of the night. Damn it, that's gonna take time, I don't have that time to waste. Do it anyway. Hour and a half now till the salmon dish has to be out. Need to finish making the squash cakes, make the sauce, clean the spinach, chop all the shallots. Oh my gosh do I have enough time? Can't worry, just keep going.

Squash cakes. Chop 2 shallots, saute until translucent. Spoon out the squash, whisk eggs, add salt. pepper, curry, squash and sauteed shallots. Mix. Add sifted flour. Mix. Pan fry a small amount to check the seasoning. Too bland. Season again. Move on. Sauce. Need to make the beurre blanc. Chop more shallots, cook in wine and verjus. While that is reducing cook the squash cakes. I will need to make 6 to have enough for 4 dishes. Make some extra just in case. why do they give us these small non-sick pans? I can only fit 3 in at a time??? Keep multi tasking. Sauce reducing, cakes frying. Chop more shallots for the spinach. Flip cakes. Keep chopping, keep an eye on the sauce. If I screw up now, everything has already gone back to the storeroom, I can't start over. I don't have time to anyway. Ok, another batch of cakes, get them going. Back to spinach, wash, spin. Can't get the damn spinner to work. WTF spinner. Bang it. Bang it again. Chef comes over in my fury and bangs it too. Fixes it. Thank you, Chef. Spin it, pick off stems. Look at the sauce, its reduced to one third, add cream, reduce a little more. Back to spinach. God damn these stems, why do I have to pick off all these stems, I don't have time. Keep picking, keep picking, flip squash cakes, keep picking.....sauce looks good. Remove from heat. Squash cakes done, remove from pan. I should really do another batch just in case, ok, get another one going. Back to sauce. Find the immersion blender, add heart stopping amount of butter, blend, blend, blend, oh, shit the squash cakes?!?! Flip them. Crap, too dark. wont be able to use them. Don't have time to make extra. hope nothing goes wrong. Back to sauce. Taste, season, taste, season, taste. Tastes good. Strain, keep warm in water bath.

Breathe.

Time check. It's 8:30. Need to serve my 4 dishes at 9:09. Chef comes in and says we should have the salmon cooking by 8:45 so it can rest and we are not rushed. Hurry, saute the spinach with shallots and garlic. Oh shit, the horseradish crust. Remove from freezer, Get ring molds and make cut outs. Top with extra breadcrumbs and make stupid design on them with paring knife. Keep eve on spinach. Taste, season, cool over an ice bath to stop the cooking. Back to horseradish crust. I need 4 but make 8. These suckers are fragile and I broke a lot of them when in the restaurant. Need to regroup. Prepare for service. Everything on my station not related to service needs to be gone or I'm gonna get major points off for organization and cleanliness.

Clean, organize, clean, organize. Oh, shit, Chef is yelling. It's 8:45. Start cooking my salmon. Shove any unrelated items on my station on the shelf underneath. Crap, I'm gonna get points off for that.

Ok, salmon. Heat oil in pan to hot. Season salmon. We only get 4 pieces, I have to serve 4 judges. Don't screw up there is no do-over. Sear one side and get a good color. Flip. Get color on other side. Wow, first side looks nice. I would eat that. Add shit ton of butter and sprigs of thyme. Baste, baste, baste. Get the sides to cook. Baste. Chef comes by, tells me to get it in the oven so it cooks faster because the pieces are thick. I listen to him because I would be stupid not to. Fish in oven. 20 minutes till service. Get the squash cakes cut in half. Check on salmon. Still not done. Get saute pan and put spinach in and ready to be reheated for service. Get another pan and put the sauce in it and get ready to warm. Check salmon. Looks good, remove and rest them on the wire rack. Organize station. Pick my pieces of dill for the garnish.

Ok, it's show time. Place the horseradish crust cut outs on the salmon and take to the salamander to brown the top. Reheat spinach. Put plates in oven to get warm. Warm sauce. Add caviar. Put the squash cakes in the oven to reheat. Spinach is hot. Set aside. Check on salmon. Another minute more. Remove plates from oven. Shit they are HOT. That's ok, they should be the right temp by the time they get to the judges. Just don't touch them unless you want a third degree burn. Go back and get salmon. Put the spinach over the heat again to make sure its not cold. Plates are on the tray. Let's go! Gloves on. Sauce on 4 plates. Place spinach on 4 plates. Place salmon on spinach. Get squash cakes from oven. Arrange 3 per plate. Top salmon with dill. chef says, "Let's go!" I go. I did it!! I did it!!! I'm on time!!!! Walking with my tray to the dining room. Hand to waiter. Look down on the plates and see that on one of the dishes a little water from the spinach was bleeding into the sauce because I forgot to blot it before plating. Crap, that's not good, but if that is the worst of my problems, I will take it.

HUGE BREATH. Walk back to the kitchen. HUGE SMILE OF RELIEF. OH MY GOSH MY MOUTH IS SO DRY I WILL DIE OF DEHYDRATION!!! I NEED WATER. Don't have time for water. Dessert in 48 minutes and I still need to make the malt anglaise sauce that goes on the bottom and the caramel candy garnish!

Return to station. Clean up. Before I start anything, I need to erase any trace of the salmon dish. Ok, that took 10 minutes. Not too bad. Malt anglaise. Let's go. Boil milk, cream, malt syrup. While that is coming to a boil, whisk egg yolks and sugar to pale yellow color. My arm is tired. All is set. Pour some liquid into the eggs to bring up the temp, whisk, add back to boiling milk mixture. Stir until thick. Strain, cool over ice bath. Get sugar for caramel. Parchment paper, spray it with Pam so nothing sticks. Make caramel, make candy garnish. Done. Time check? I have 20 minutes until service. TWENTY MINUTES!!! I DID IT!!! IT'S ALL A PIECE OF CAKE FROM HERE. Literally.

Holy shit. I made it through my final exam at the French Culinary. Suddenly my legs ache from exhaustion and running around. I grab that glass of water. Plate my desserts and head to the dining room at 9: 57. Exactly on time.

The Big Finale

After 9 months of school, 3 months of working in the kitchen of L'Ecole, and countless cuts and burns, it was finally our time to face the big final exam.

About 2 weeks before the final, I felt pretty confident. I kept thinking to myself that it could not be any worse than the midterm, and I had made it through that. When I took the midterm, I had no idea what to expect. I had also never worked in a "real" kitchen before, so my experience was next to nothing. But, after 3 months at my internship and another 3 in the restaurant at school, I was more than prepared to face this challenge, right?

Maybe.

When you think about it, although we have been cooking the 8 possible dishes for the final in the restaurant kitchen for the past 6 weeks, each person only spends 2 classes on one dish before rotating on. And you do that with a partner, so not only do you have help, but you only really prepare half the dish one night and then switch and prepare the other half the next night. On the final, you are responsible for 2 dishes in their entirety, with no help from anyone. In the kitchen, you have 2 hours to prep the one dish with your partner before orders come in. On the final, you have about three and a half hours to prep 2 dishes all by your lonesome.

Then you have your Chefs. Sometimes it just feels like their sole purpose is to take away any confidence you may have and replace it with the feeling of, "Crap, I am so unprepared for this thing". My Chefs did a good job with this. Especially when they told us how during our final we would be joined by the students in the day program that ended just a few days before ours, who failed their final and had to take it over. They were cooking the same dishes as us, and we had been hearing all along how good their class was.

I tried to practice as many of these dishes at home, but at the end of the day you just don't have the same equipment and ingredients to really do it correctly. So, I would practice bits and pieces. This really left me only with one thing to do to prepare and that was just to memorize all the procedures and come up with a game plan for each possible dish paring as to what to prep first.

Our parings were going to be appetizer/meat or fish/dessert. With fish/dessert, even though the dessert goes out 45 minutes later, you have to do it all first because it takes the longest to cook, cool, make the ice cream, etc. With app/meat, depending on which pairing you got there were separate game plans.

So, on the evening of the final, we all assembled in the the private dining room on the 4th floor close to our level 1 and 2 kitchens. We first had to take a written exam, and then picked our pairings randomly. While we were waiting, Jacques Pepin came in and joked around with us a little to maybe calm our nerves. If you ask me, though, it just made me more nervous. No matter how many times you see him at school, you still can't help but think about how famous he is. Would he still be joking around if he knew how much we sucked??? Ha,ha....

Then if was off to business. I chose my random piece of paper which revealed the salmon dish and the gingerbread cake. I had a neutral feeling for this pairing. I was happy it was not the consomme/steak pairing (the most time consuming with all the sides and garnishes that went with it), but it was the harder of the the 2 fish/dessert pairings.

The next 3 plus hours went pretty smoothly, but without a second to stop and think. They split us up into 2 separate kitchens. In my kitchen was the half of the class that had fish/dessert. I took a sigh of relief when I walked into the kitchen (the same one I had my level 2 class) and saw we each had a whole station to ourselves. This meant I got an entire oven to myself, 2 burners and the whole flat top to myself. This was in contrast to the midterm where in that same amount of space, we had to share with another classmate. I quickly set up my station, sani solution, cutting board, bowls, six pans, pots, pans, tasting spoons, etc.

And then it was off to work......

Celebration Time

Full recap in the next day or so, but I have officially made it through my final exam!!!! What a relief to have it all behind me. It has been a fun 9 months at the FCI :-)