Thursday I had the day off and only had practical at 6:30pm. Being my first practical in intermediate cuisine I was extra nervous. Anthony came over in the morning- we picked apart my report card and then had a glorious walk to Les Halles. We walked there to meet Bruna, her mom, Lara, and Laura for lunch. Laura unfortunately had to drop out of intermediate because of scheduling with her kids. We had lunch outside and the sun felt amazing. In standard culinary school fashion- we all went to the kitchen supply store before lunch...I held off (though I could have bought spatulas and whisks until the cows came home!)
Getting on the Metro- I needed to get in the zone. Like when I was an athlete, I always listen to the same songs before I go into practical- sometimes I think it's superstition, other times I think I just need to get pumped up! We got there SO early and I was pacing like an idiot. Waiting impatiently outside the 2GS, I saw the Chef Clergue was the proctor of a basic practical. WHAT? I so wished that I had him for my sole bercy recipe, and here these little brats are getting the most amazing Chef critiquing their SOLE? He came out periodically and rolled his eyes at some of the students. We eavesdropped listening to the feedback from Chef...lots of dishes were cold, some over salted, some not salty enough. By no means am I an expert, but I felt good thinking about those recipes. I never thought I would say this: but I really thank Chef Cotte for being so hard on me in the beginning. Had I not plated my puff pastry with poached egg and albufera sauce cold, I wouldn't know one of the most important lessons that I've learned here. I also thank Caals for telling me that I had a finger print on my plate when we did the poached chicken with riz au gras and sauce supreme. Plating things EXTREMELY hot and making sure I have a completely clean plate are some of the things that are just instinct to me now. So while I was jealous that the basic students had Clergue, I'm glad that we had who we did...as I learned from them.
We walked in to the big salle and I felt rusty. It had been over a week since I'd been in the kitchen and I hoped that I remembered what I had to do! We had a new Chef- another visitor for the practical. I didn't really like him very much. He's extremely hard to understand and when I said to him 'je ne comprend pas' he yelled "YOU GO TO A FRENCH SCHOOL!" I just said "oui Chef" but was thinking to myself that I can understand every other Chef in school, just not you! I prepped the guinea fowl (luckily it did NOT have it's feet) and got it in the oven, I began working on cannelling my vegetables and slicing them thinly. We had to make 1/2 moons with them, so we used an apple corer to take out the middles...it was actually fun, but cannelling celery is VERY difficult. All in all my dish was good- I got 3.5s and 4.0s across the board but the Chef got to me a little. I was annoyed that the school would have a stranger giving us our grades- he doesn't know me!
Friday we had 8:30 demo with Caals. He was a mess! He was completely all over the place with the recipes and I'll be shocked if Monday morning I get it right. I tried to keep my notes organized, but he was jumping around from entree to plat to dessert and not really making much sense to me (or anyone for that matter). Monday afternoon we have a Chef Clergue demo! I'm so excited...I just love that man and can't wait for his fabulous demo!
A Bientot!
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