Week 15 FINALS

Basic Final:

So our chef DID make it back from her surgery. But apparently they were not able to fully fix the problem with this surgery, so she will have to get another one shortly. I don't wish that pain on anyone!

For my final, I made a panko fried chicken with sage gravy; tarragon vegetables; and sauteed gnocchi (clarified butter and parmesan). It was soooooo good.

Chef gave me high praise for the gnocchi and the sage gravy. I was a little nervous about the sage gravy because it was a recipe that I created. And although I liked the flavor a lot, I was not sure how others would like it. Her reaction made me feel really good.

She cut into the chicken and commented that it was cooked right, and the color looked good. And then she tasted the gravy....and without looking up she got a big grin and said "Wow!"

That comment, to me, made the semester all worth it! She said she really liked the flavor of the gravy, and that it went well with the entire plate, especially the chicken. She has a good palate and was able to pick out a number of the seasonings that I used--she could even taste the slight amount of seasoning that I used in the dredging flour! She ended by saying that it was excellent.

So although we do not get our grade for the final (at least not yet), I do know that a professional chef thought that my dish was excellent. It's a little bit humbling. Although I feel I am a good cook, there is just something comforting about a professional acknowledging a job well done, you know?

Garde Manger:

My individual final did not go as well as my basic final or my team final last week, but Chef said I did really well.

I had planned on doing a flight of crostinis. One was to be herbed cream cheese on an olive spread; the next was to be a shrimp like salad on crostini rounds; and the last one was to be a large crostini of sorts called a boqueron (more of a tapas item than an hors d'oeuvre).

The boqueron is a crostini topped with frisee (with vinaigrette I believe) topped with a slice of hard boiled egg, topped with (no joke) an anchovy fillet.

Now, I am not an anchovy fan, but when I first ate this at Zuzu in Napa valley, I was blown away. The anchovy they used was a meaty, body portion--not the oil packed fillet slivers like on pizzas. The flavor was more mild than the oil packed fillets, and it just brought the whole dish to life.

However, when I arrived to class, the buyer had merely provided the oil packed fillets--not the salt packed like I had requested. Sadly, I was not the only person to get either the wrong item, or a different quality than was expected. So although I could have used the oil packed fillets, the flavor would be way off the mark...not to mention that the salt packed bodies add an attractive eye appeal element to the dish...while the oil packed fillets would have looked silly.

So, I had to throw out that idea, and come up with something new. I finally came up with these three hors d'oeuvres:

1) my take on ham and eggs: bite sized crostini rounds topped with a disk of prosciutto, a disk of hard egg white, topped with piped deviled egg. These came out really pretty and tasty!

2) Dill Shrimp Crostini: herbed cream cheese (fresh dill) topped with garlic sauteed shrimp. This was was also really tasty. At first you taste the shrimp and cream cheese, but then the dill gives a really nice kick after swallowing.

3) Prosciutto on olives crostini: This was the one that was my hail mary item that I concocted with the ingredients that I had available to me. The crostini was topped with a black olive spread (really just black olives passed through the food processor until smooth) then topped with a slice of prosciutto and arugula for color. I think if I used smaller slices of baguette, then it would have worked better.

Chef like the presentation and all three items. He understood (and I believe he gave some grading leeway) that some of us had to rearrange our items at the last minute. His suggestion for the prosciutto and olives was that I should have tried to use a sweet spread instead of a salty spread. (this was before he tasted the crostini so I think he was expecting the spread to be a tapenade).

A classmate was standing near and said "Chef, it's not salty." That's when chef finally tasted it. But he stuck to his guns and asked if I used kalamata olives. I explained that they were plain canned black olives and the spread was not salty. But that seemed to make him stick to his guns even more! He gave some good tips on what I could do in the future. But complimented the other items.

So, although things turned out well enough, they could have been better on this individual final for this class. But I am done for the semester and am fine with what I accomplished.

The school offers some summer courses, but I am going to hold off and work over the summer.

There are a bunch of different avenues that I am exploring. Now that I have finally made a clean break from my previous career, I feel like I can really explore (in greater detail) all the paths that a culinary career has to offer. Food writing/journalism? Chef? Pastry Chef? Baker? Food Science? Distributor? Restaurant Management? Sommelier? Importer? My wife and I have even discussed the idea of trying to enroll in the CIA. Yeah, yeah...I know...there are a bunch of pro's and con's to getting that extra piece of paper. and yet life is short, so why not? I realize more and more just how broad the opportunities are in this field and want to keep all options open.

So, for the summer...let's see what kind of job I can land and see how else I can develop my culinary resume!

Below are thumbnail pics of my dishes. enjoy!

This is my basic final. Sadly, chef cut into the chicken before I snapped a pic. So this is my second dish. Same idea, but the original dish was on a bleached white square dish, and the chicken piece was a frenched breast and there was a little more garnish.



These pics are my pics of my final platter: Top is the Dill Shrimp Crostini; Middle is my take on Ham and Eggs; Bottom is the prosciutto on olives crostini.




Here is my Garde Manger team. We had a fun time together! Thanks guys!