JWU RI, week 2

[KateW]

I am so pleased with yesterday's quiz. I have not gotten it back yet but I feel confident that I did okay. I was worried it would be all about fish fillets (what we read about for Friday's homework) but it wasn't.
Today he starts grading us on our performance in class. How we work with others, how we work on our own dishes, our mise en place, etc.
I am making sauteed red and green peppers today and it looks like another one of those last minute things, so I think I will be helping other people a lot today.
One reason I went into cooking is because I learn well from hands-on, but what I am finding out is that a lot of our learning is from reading, which I do not learn well from. This is a little discouraging, but it is good to know that the actual production is 60% of our grade and quizzes are 10%. The final is 20% and homework is 10%.
Yesterday chef told us we could e mail him by today and tell him to drop our lowest quiz grade. This is a blessing to me because I missed a quiz Friday.
Yesterday's souffles came out...different from the time before. Like I said, I am not an expert on souffles so I am not sure if the difference was good or bad. They were a little less salty, and a little less cooked in the middle. They also fell again. What is the trick to not having your souffles collapse?
Well I have to get going! Until next time.

[ALynch]

In our class, we doubled the amount of egg whites in the recipie, and baked the souffles to order in the salamander. They were wonderful.

We had our first grade on Monday, on our notebooks. However, the chef graded us, based on the person who had the most notes got a perfect score, and it went down from there. I got a C. Is this a normal at JWU to grade students on notes they take, instead of if the student actually knows the material?

Also I would like to appoligze to the Red Snapper that I mulitated in class on Monday, it was my first time to filet a fish, it wasn't pretty. Eventually I got the hang of it, and it turned out really nice. It was served with a fresh fruit vinaigrette, and potatoe salad.

[Greg]

Kate, when I went to J&W 7 years ago, many of the recipes in the book were incorrect. It's one possibility that this one has slipped by, even after all this time (I'm leaning towards this, as the chefs at Miami are modifying the recipe). Another possibility is that you are over or under-beating your egg whites.

Alynch, I was never graded regarding either the quantity or quality of my notes. I almost wish I was, though. Even 7 years later, I use them as a reference. It infuriates me when I know that the answer that I'm trying to find should be in there, but isn't. So, take good notes in class and lots of them. It'll help you out further down the road.

BTW, if either of you could find the time to e-mail me the recipe for the stuffed duckling w/peach sauce (it's from day 2 of continental, if it's still in use), I'd appreciate it. I loaned my copy to my room-mate and never got it back. I don't need the sauce part, as I use a black currant sauce with it. I've done this without the recipe, but it just wasn't as good.

[KateW]

We are not graded on our notes at all. If I were graded on my notes rather than what was actually in my memory, I think I would do a lot better!


Yesterday I was disappointed to find out that I actually did worse on the quiz I thought I did better on. I got an 80.
I made sauteed red, green, and yellow peppers and I think they came out alright. It's always a big crunch at the end because I never think just prepping veggies is going to take so long. But there are always people who have finished what they need to do and they can help with the last bits of whatever I need to do.
I cooked the veggies in a saute pan but I should have put them in a big pot because there were so many of them. Then I screwed up because I thought I was supposed to put them on a show plate but I learned you don't do that with vegetables. I don't know why not. I get so frustrated because people expect you to know things you have never been told, and they expect you to know why. I don't like it that there is always a different student chef of the day because some of them are not patient and that is not conducive to my learning. I don't expect everyone to cater to my learning style, but this schizophrenic, different-thing-every-day approach is getting to me.
Well I have to get going. More later!

[KateW]

Well, at least I'm consistant. The quiz I got back today was also an 80. I think I probably got around an 80 on today's quiz too.
Today wasn't very hard, we had to make a southwestern chicken with custard tarts and there were three of us working on it, so each of us didn't have to do much, and a lot of it was already done yesterday by the team that did the chicken that day.
Tomorrow I am chef of the day. Should be nice and hectic
Chef must have read my paper because today I had to deal with cilantro, and I mentioned in my paper that I had a distaste for cilantro :P
All in all the days go by pretty fast. Everyone is so busy we don't have time to think about or do anything else. At least that's how I feel about it.