Judges' Table

Last night marked the end of Level III, we had a written test and our Midterm practical exam.

First of all, my body clock is totally on Chef’s time – whenever I get home from school I can’t get to bed until 2:30 am because my adrenaline is still racing – last night was no different. After class, I was burning the midnight oil with a celebratory cocktail at the SoHo Grand Hotel with some pals from class after a long, hot night in the kitchen.

Here’s how the night went down. All of my fellow students arrived early to get our written test out of the way, and focus on the main test for the night – rockin’ out two dishes and presenting them to the judges at the exact predetermined times.

When we arrived in the classroom, we were assigned to stations and took the written exam immediately. The written exam had one question: write down all the ingredients to the Consommé (we have been making) and detail the procedure from start to finish.

Finally, we learned what we had to cook for the night – half the students were assigned to actually make Consommé and a seared pork chop with a very involved sauce and the rest of us (including me) made bass steamed in parchment paper and Genoise with Crème Anglaise. I was extremely happy with what I had to cook. I’ve done Genoise many times and I finally understand how to make my Crème Anglaise perfectly.

As for the bass, there is a lot involved to complete the dish, including making a tomato fondue, mushroom duxelles, filleting and marinating the bass, cutting the garniture vegetables (carrots, leeks and celery) into a fine julienne and cooking them each separately, cutting the parchment envelopes and assembling the whole thing prior to getting it into a 450 oven. I really wanted to be exactly on time so knowing that assembly takes a good amount of time I started early and was ready with time to spare.

Each of us gets a number to wear on our hat so when you present your four plates the judges can match you to the food. Out of the oven, my parchment packages were nicely puffed and browned but I was worried that one or two of the fillets might have been slightly over done since they were on the smallish side compared to the other pieces of fish. Out of the four fish dishes presented one judge said hers was a little over done (I was mentally prepared to hear that) but the others were cooked properly. That’s just the tough part of cooking in parchment, you can’t see the fish inside so you just have to guesstimate how long you think it needs to be cooked for and hope for the best. My other critique was that the fish was a little peppery – I was surprised about that comment but took it in stride.

Lastly, my Genoise was “fantastic and beautifully presented and the Crème Anglaise was da’ bomb,” remarked the three judges. Alright, so I hit that one out of the park!

After it was all over, I was dehydrated, a little dizzy and I had to cool off, my T-shirt and Chef’s jacket was soaked in perspiration. I swear I lost 10 lbs. in water weight last night and forget about eating – there’s just no time for that nonsense! Standing by that 450 degree oven all night took its toll on me and at many points during the night I felt sick and slightly nauseous and would lose my balance if I got up to fast from grabbing something out of the oven – being unsteady on my feet was a problem and I tried to drink as much water as possible but I couldn’t keep up. Sweat was beading up on people’s faces, including my own, and the kitchen felt like a sauna.

A few of us ended the night with a round of cocktails and laughter – happy this milestone is behind us. Now on to Level IV were we will tackle production, family meal and buffet meals. So stay tuned – there’s more tales from the kitchen to come!

Side note: Thank you to all that wished me good luck and encouragement, your good wishes were with me all night.

Mockery

The other night in preparation for our Mid-term we had a “mock” Mid-term cooking exam. This was a practical test of our cooking skills – here’s how it went down.

Out of the 16 recipes we’ve made so far any two can appear on our Mid-term, Chef assigns numbers to stations and we pick a piece of paper out of a bowl to 1. figure out where we are cooking and 2. learn what we are cooking. At the point everyone has their assigned station, Chef unveils the dishes for the night. Half the class is making Consommé and a pork entrée the other half will make bass en papillote and génoise – I’m working on the latter.

We have 5 minutes to jot down on a piece of paper anything we want about the recipes from our book – but once that 5 minutes is up our book gets put away and all we have to rely on is what we wrote on that page in 5 minutes. A little stressful…

So we are off! I quickly start to go to work on filleting the fish and getting it into a marinade for later use. Then I work on the fish garniture including mushroom duxelles, tomato fondue, and julienned carrots, leeks and celery. All of these items need to be prepped and ready to go when the fish is ready to be steamed in the parchment paper envelope and cook for 10 minutes.

As that is happening, I am making simple syrup for the cake, and starting my génoise batter. Three eggs and 75 grams of sugar are whisked together over a bain marie in order to “cook” the eggs gently for a few minutes. The mixture should reach 110 degrees but no more than 120 degrees or you will scramble your eggs.

Two main challenges are the station set up and the time limit laid out for the dishes. I have to share an oven, I have one burner and half a flat top as my heat sources. Tricky juggling and careful planning is key here as I can cook only a few things at a time and timing of the dishes counts towards our grade. The fish needs to be completed first the génoise presented at a later time.

As I whip through my tasks, I make sure I have all the ingredients I need for the night because an hour or so into cooking all the fresh ingredients made available to us are taken away. Getting your mise en place all set from the get-go is vital.

Timing flew by, with really no time to take a break, I was pushing myself through each dish to make it perfect and get it out on time. My fish took longer than I expected to put together. Cutting the parchment paper and assembling the components held me back a little. The bass was quite thick so I also wanted to ensure it was cooked properly and I let it steam in the parchment for about 11 minutes in the oven. The timing was off and I was about 8 minutes late plating the fish. I brought my completed four plates over to the Chef and Asst. Chef so they could review and grade the dish.

Just when you think you can breathe another time crunch is upon you. The génoise at this point is out of the oven and on a cooling rack. Almonds need to be toasted golden brown to decorate the cake, apricot jam needs to be heated so it is spreadable, the cake needs to be cut into three layers, and apricot glaze needs to be heated up to coat the outside of the cake so the almonds stick. Lastly, a crème anglaise needs to be prepared and chilled to serve as a dessert sauce for the final plating.

Lots to do in little time. I burnt my almonds the first time the smell of char filled my area. So I had to do it again and I raced to complete all the components. In the end I was able to plate early and get it to Chef a minute before it was due.

At the end of the night, Chef and Asst Chef meet with the students individually and went over the night’s progress. I faired well, timing needs to be worked on for the first dish, seasoning always needs to be checked and my crème anglaise was a little grainy. Otherwise the highlights were that my fish was cooked properly, the génoise was wonderful and my station was orderly and clean throughout the night.

As far as this mock Mid-term went I’m happy to be able to grasp what the real one will be like and the next few weeks in the kitchen will prepare me to handle the demands of timing and practice the dishes over and over.