Saucier Week 3, Day 3. Final Exam. Rodney and I made Sweet corn fritters in class. They turned out very well. We plated at 5pm instead of the usual 715pm so that we could clean up for the exam. We were paid a visit by the Meat Fab chefs to get ready for Monday. There will be no production, but there will be videos and lecture. I'd feel a lot better if I didn't know about all the questions I got wrong. I messed up the cost card on the test. I knew something was fishy in the numbers, but I just couldn't put my finger on it until I got home. There were two soup questions that had me dumbfounded. I'm hoping for the best, but the perfectionist in me is disappointed. Another class in the books.

Saucier Week 3, Day 2. Practicals. The sautes for the practical were Chicken Marsala and Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Beurre Nantais. Yesterday, Chef Holtermann introduced a new Associate Chef to the class. Mark graduated from SCI five years ago and has cooked in Alaska and Colorado. Today Mark was grading our sautes. They threw him right into the fire. Our knife cuts were julienne of parsnips and brunoise of bell pepper. The Blue team went last so I felt pretty good after getting advice from fellow classmates. I got a point deducted for my inconsistent bell pepper brunoise and another deduction for the slight overdoneness of my salmon. I got a perfect score on the Chicken Marsala though I felt that Chef Mark wanted to take a point off somewhere. It felt anticlimatic, maybe it was the wait to present to the Chef. There was a long line after the time limit to get graded. I spent the extra time cleaning my plate. It's good to have that out of the way. It makes up for the practical in Basics.

Before the practicals, it was class as usual. Shelby and I made Shrimp Puffs and small suaces from Chicken Veloute: Allemande and Supreme. Shelby spent about an hour spooning the shrimp puff mixture into quenelles for deep-frying until someone told us we had to wrap them in gyoza wrappers. It was a mad dash to the finish but we got it done in time for family meal. The meal today was quite large for some reason. There were steaks to taste the small Espagnole sauces, gratin potatoes, enchiladas, General Tso's chicken, and our shrimp puffs, as well as all the soups. I was worried that I'd be too stuffed to cook for the practical, but going last helped. Tomorrow is more production and then a final exam.

Saucier Week 3, Day 1. On Saturday, I volunteered to help Chef Holtermann with Foods from Provence Class. The menu was:
Pate de Fromage de Chevre aux Herbs Fraiches (Goat Cheese and Herb Dip)
Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence - Chicken sauted in butter with herbs
Saucisson en Croute - sausages wrapped in puff pastry
Bouillabaisse Marseillais
Daube de Boeuf - beef stew
Gratins Daupinois - yummy potato dish made with cream and Gruyere
Ratatouille
Tarte aux Pommes et Fenouil Caramelise - Apple tart with caramelized fennel
Tarte au Citron - lemon tart

When I first arrived in the kitchen at 8am, Chef Holtermann had me go outside and pick some fresh rosemary for the marinade in the Daube de Boeuf. While picking it I was questioning why I paid 2-3 dollars for this stuff in supermarkets. The stuff was growing like weeds in the patch I picked from. Later on I helped Jen, the baker extraordinaire, by squeezing two cups of lemon juice, peeling a lot of apples, and caramelizing the fennel. Chef Holtermann also had me brown the chicken. The students in the class basically learn about the region and do knife cuts. The Chef and the volunteers do most of the cooking. At the end of the class after all the students took their fill, I grabbed the rest of the sausage, the goat cheese, and the remaining bouillabaisse. Volunteering does have its benefits. By the way, long story short, I ran out of gas for the gingerbread house competition. I'm not as young as I used to be. Maybe Fallingwater was a bit ambitious, but I am a dreamer.

We're pretty much coming into the home stretch. The Blue team has rotated into Sauces. I made three small sauces derived from Bechamel: Cheddar Cheese, Mornay, and Soubise. Shelby made a Smoked Mariara sauce that Chef Holtermann praised highly. The soup team made soups and the stock team made stocks. I guess I now know why this class is only three weeks long. But I sometimes think that we're not being prepared for reality; that is, the repetition of cooking the same foods day after day in a restaurant. Maybe when we work in the a la carte kitchen, L'Academie, or the fine dining restaurant, L'Ecole, reality will set in.

We had our practice practical today. We have to do a double saute and some knife cuts in twenty minutes. The practice sautes today were Pork Medallion Marsala and Sole Amandine. The knife cuts were brunoise and julienne of celery. Hopefully things will be different tomorrow. Celery takes a little more time to square off than carrots. The pork was a piece of cake, but the sole was another story. I burned some almonds, I burned the sauce a bit, and I didn't cut enough brunoise of celery. It was a good learning experience. I think the most important thing is to cook the food until it is done. I learned my lesson from Basics. The time limit is only a portion of the total score, so I can definitely sacrifice that for doneness.

Saucier Week 2, Day 2. My first carpool with Rodney went well. I rushed a bit because I've been staying up way too late. But that will change. Maybe not. We went to Chef Karen to get more info about the trip to Tuscany and Paris. It's a ten day, nine night tour tweaked by the dean at Western Culinary Institute so that it's more geared towards culinary students. He also worked it out so that we stay in three and four star hotels. We have breakfast and dinner everyday, and we are on our own for lunch. Three cities are involved: Bologna, another Italian city, and Paris. We end at the mother school Le Cordon Blue. Chef Karen said that six people have already signed up. I hope to add to that, but I need to secure asource of income first. I plan to tackle that tomorrow with an interview with Bill Davis the owner of Anozira, a staffing company for hotels, resort, and catering events. They were at the job fair during orientation.

In class, we did the cost card for French Onion soup. It costs 0.99 to make a bowl of French Onion soup with our recipe that yields three gallons. The soups team did all the same soups that we did on Week 1, Day 3. Casey was assigned the one I did, Veloute Andalouse (Tomato Soup). I think she did a better job garnishing because she had more rice and had whole parsley leaves in between the roasted pepper strips. The sauce team made tomato sauces and veloutes. Shelby and I tackled the chicken stock today. Not too bad, we only had to cut 16 pounds of mirepoix today and there was no roasting of bones. We did blanch the chicken bones, but I found out later from Kenny that it was unnecessary. There is a debate whether to blanch or not to blanch. Blanching rids the bones of impurities, but it also takes a lot of flavor with it. I'm in favor of not blanching.

Kenny made a paella for family meal. We also had the potato tournees from yesterday's knife cuts. I opted not to eat until the sautes. Today we made Sole Amandine. Anything Amandine means its made with almonds, usually slivered and toasted. I mistakely thawed too many pieces of sole, so I ended up making five pieces. The key to this dish is to get the carmelization of the fish, the color of the toasted almonds, and the sauce all the same color. All the fish haters gave me their sautes. It was just Rodney, Eve, and Manny, but with my three extra pieces of fish, it seemed like a mountain of sole. I ended up taking it home along with some paella because we had to clean up.

Saucier Week 2, Day 1. The Saturday class was pretty interesting. Chef Holtermann taught 15 students about creating a Thanksgiving feast. He made two turkeys, Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings, Cranberry Orange Relish, Sweet Potatoes, Glazed Shallots and Garlic Cloves, Cornbread Andouille Sausage Stuffing, Wild Rice Stuffing, Pumpkin Custard Pie, and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I drove with Rodney to class at 730am. It took me a little while to wake up, but the day went by pretty quickly. I think I'm going to voluteer this weekend as well. Chef Holtermann is teaching a class about the foods of the Provence region in France.

Before class today I met Rodney at the AM catering banquet before going to the other campus to attend a meeting about a Gingerbread House Competition. The Pastry Chefs are building twenty "Gingerbread contrustions" themselves for a charity auction. It's nice because the chefs are providing the gingerbread and the royal icing, which is the primary icing used to hold gingerbread together. I will only say that I plan to enter the competition which must be finished by this Sunday. More will be revealed as I reach completion.

Today the Blue team moved to stocks. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but a vital component in the kitchen nonetheless. Shelby and I spent most of the time cutting ten pounds of onions, five pounds of carrots, and five pounds of celery, and roasting eighty pounds of veal bones. I also spent a great deal of time inside the walkin freezer trying to find calves feet. Who knew they were buried in the corner? At least I know where everything is now. So we didn't actually make stock; we made a veal kit which is everything but the water. It will be used eventually for stock.

The Gold team moved on to soups. They made the same soups that we did on our first day with the addition of Pumpkin Cider Soup and She Crab Soup. Chef also had Molly and Chaz plate a bowl with four soups: Potage Crecy, Black Bean Soup, Potage St Germaine, and White Cheddar Soup. The Green team made Bechamel and Espagnole, two mother sauces. Kenny, the extern assisting Chef Holtermann, made roast pork. Someone made two hotel pans of chicken enchiladas and a bowl of salad. Susan made some mashed potatoes and Kenny made a gravy using the pan juices from the pork.

Saute for today was Pan Seared Salmon with Beurre Nantais. Beurre Nantais is a Beurre Blanc with heavy cream. One fear from Basics was conquered when I was assigned the Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom) last week. Today another one was vanquished as I produced a consistent Beurre Nantais. My salmon was a bit overcooked, but I was too stuffed to eat it anyway. Shelby and Eve also offered me their sautes because they are not fish eaters. Maybe I should bring tupperware to school to bring all this stuff home.

Sauicer Week 1, Day 5. I am both happy and sad that we only have thirteen days in saucier. Happy that my stomach won't burst, but sad because there is much more to learn from Chef Holtermann. Another math lecture today. We did a cost card for veal stock. There was a small crisis when Tara lost her diamond earrings. I believe she found all of them though. The one gripe I have about our uniforms is that the pants packets don't hold small things well. Tara spied a sign on the bulletin board in the back about a trip to France during our summer break next year. There are arranged visits to top restaurants and hotels. It sounds really exciting but cost about $3400 and is limited to the first 30 students. I hope to save up for it. I guess I could always sign up and force myself to save up for it.

Today's production:
Eve - Lobster Bisque
Shelby - Corn Chicken Chowder
Me - Tortilla Soup
Rodney - Seafood Gumbo
Susan - Roasted Garlic Cream Soup - Chef Holtermann's Recipe and Provencal Garlic Soup - Julia Child's Recipe
Kalei Brazillian Black Bean Soup
Blair - Creole Tomato Soup
Jen - Cock-a-Leekie, Scotch Broth, Beef Barley

Eve's Lobster Bisque was super rich and yummy. She said that it was due to reducing heavy cream. I spent a lot of time learning how to grill chicken. Once again I had lots of help: Shelby helped me chop the chicken and garnish, Joe concassed my tomatoes, Deborah deep fried tortilla strips for my garnish, Nelson and Manny deep-fried tortilla chips, Richie roasted two poblanos and one anaheim chile, and James help me deep fry some tortilla strips. I love having all this help. I hope to help out my fellow classmates when I'm on stocks and have little to do. Rodney's Gumbo went real quickly. I lucked out because no one touched the presentation bowl.

The stock team, now consomme masters, lobster consommes along with their stocks. The sauce team had fun with Bearnaise and Hollandaise and all the small sauces derived from them. They made shrimp to try each of the sauces. Family meal also included hushpuppies, and some awesome polenta that I used with my saute. The saute for today was Tournedo Marsala. I really like the fact that we're getting experience using different liqueurs. Thank goodness the filet was only 1.5 ounces, I don't think I could've eaten any more. I'm getting more confident with my sautes. I don't burn things, I actually get a deeper flavor with the reduced sauces I make. Chef said that we're going to start doing double sautes on Wednesday.

Saucier Week 1 Day 4. I highly recommend training for a marathon while going through culinary school. Even if you don't run a marathon eventually, you'll still be able to see your toes. I think we are being spoiled rotten. Rotten to the core. We still have to cook and execute, but the food is getting a bit insane. But before the food orgy started, we had the first of six math lessons on filling out food cost sheets. I like the fact that Chef Holtermann sets a standard by carrying out all decimals to four places without rounding. It makes more sense than just two demical places where a lot of pennies could be lost or gained. Chef showed us that it cost .0197 cents per ounce when making 16 gallons of chicken stock.

Here are the Potages du Jour:
JB - Garbure
Eve - Thai Shrimp Soup
Shelby - Vichyssoise
Me - Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom Soup)
Rodney - Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
Susan - Soup aux gros Morceaux de Tomates (Chunky Style Cream of Tomato Soup)
Kalei -Roasted Fennel Soup
Blair - Muligatawny
Jen - Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings

JB's Garbure is made with duck confit. Chef said that it was a soup that kept the doctor away. You first drank the broth, then ate the solids, and then sopped up the rest with bread soaked with red wine. Shelby's Vichyssoise came out well, but Chef said that he cooked the potatoes too long which led to a pasty consistency. I was peeling and chopping mushrooms forever. I think I may be finally at peace with the friendly fungi. Three quarts of mushrooms takes a long time, but I had lots of great help from Shelby, Molly, and Eve. I couldn't have finished on time without their help. Rodney actually made his soup with chicken not turkey, but it was still excellent. Kalei had to leave early but managed to finish his soup. Blair's soup looked really good, but there was way too much ginger in it. Jen's soup will be part of a class on Saturday taught by Chef Holtermann to the public. The topic is about making a Thanksgiving feast. Quite a few people from the Blue team including myself are going to help out.

I realize that this is nothing like a restaurant situation where repetition is the norm. That may be what the stock group is facing, but making a gallon of different soup a day is lots of fun. Sauces might be interesting. They got to make small sauces using the tomato sauce from yesterday. Chef got us a bunch of steaks for family meal intending for us to sample the sauces, but there was a problem with the demiglace and a lot of the brown sauces weren't up to par. We'll just have to wait until next week when the teams rotate. The stock team got make consommes today. Everyone made super clear soup with different garnishes. They also made some penne with sauce bolognese. Jen made another magical tray of biscotti. I realize now that she has been testing out a recipe for the Chef for his class on Sautrday.

Chef conveniently made our knife cuts potato batonnets (1/4" x 1/4" X 2"). Each day we do a knife cut to practice for the final. Jim, the Kitchen Manager for the day with Molly, made French Fries with our cuts to go with our sautes. As if everyone didn't have enough red meat for today, the saute was Boeuf Hache Au Poivre. In other words, we made a hamburger. But not any old hamburger. We encrusted it with crushed black peppercorns and topped it with a creamy dijon red wine sauce. Again I thought I might have charred it a bit too much, but Chef liked the color. What suprised me the most was when he cut into it, it was medium rare, just like he asked for. I was certain I went too far with the doneness. I'm gaining more confidence in my saute skills bit by bit. As stuffed as I was, I couldn't stop eating the saute with the fries. They were the best fries that I've had in quite some time. These are the fries that In-N-Out could have if they only cut their spuds a bit thicker.

Saucier Week 1, Day 3. Another busy day of production. I got an easy soup today, so I was having a good time. Here's what the Blue team did:
JB - Oxtail Soup
Eve - Clear Gazpacho made with Tomato Water
Shelby - Split Pea Soup
Me - Curried Cream of Cauliflower Soup
Rodney - Minestrone Soup
Susan - New England Clam Chowder
Kalei -French Onion Soup
Blair - Tuscan Bean Soup

JB's soup had great flavor. Eve spent the entire time making the garnish for the gazpacho. The mold for the tower was a section of PVC tubing. The Tomato Water is inspired by Charlie Trotter. I highly recommend making a batch. It's like drinking a tomato; it's super refreshing. Kalei made super French Onion Soup. He spent a lot time carefully caramelizing the onions. Shelby's soup had yummy pieces of ham hock. I wish it was cold outside so we could appreciate the warmth of these soups. Then again, its nice to be able to sit outside, eat a bowl of soup, and not worry about freezing to death. Rodney's Minestrone was a knife cut soup. He spent the entire time cutting vegetables. His soup turned out very well. Susan's Chowder also came out well. Although it would have helped if Chef halved her recipe, she made about two gallons of soup herself. Blair didn't get to finish her soup because it was quite involved.

I found out that the Magic Biscotti Fairy is actually Jen. She made it again today with dried cranberries and pine nuts, but it got a little burnt on the edges. It still went down very well. The sauce team made shrimp puffs for the class. Not too bad. There was also pasta and a chicken tomato sauce. It's very nice having a family-meal type break, but I keep forgetting that we have more to eat afterwards with our sautes. Today it was Pork Medallion Maderia. My saute turned out pretty well. I was surprised because I thought I may have burnt the pork, but it all turned out well in the end. Here's the recipe:

Pork Medallion Maderia
pork cutlet
salt, pepper, flour
1 tbsp clarified butter
1 tbsp raw butter
2 oz Maderia
2 oz Demiglace
1 tbsp shallot, sliced
chopped parsley

Season both sides of the pork cutlet. Dredge in flour. Heat skillet with clarified butter. Place cutlet in pan. Flip when the first side get a nice brown color. Add the shallots to sweat(no color). Remove the cutlet when cooked through. Pour off excess calrified butter and add Maderia. Then add the demiglace. Reduce and stir it until it coats the back of a spoon; this is called nappe. Thin with veal stock if necessary. Season to taste. Monte au beurre with the raw butter. Plate, sauce, and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Saucier Week 1, Day 2. First day of production. We were on our feet from 3pm until 945pm. I didn't really feel it until the end of the day. I was mistaken yesterday when I said Blue team was doing stocks, we're starting off with soups. Chef Holtermann opened class with a lecture about retaining food knowledge and using the association technique to remember things. He likes to tell the story of certain names of soups. Today he told us about Veloute a la Andalouse. Andalucia is a region in Spain that is known for its tomatoes. Thus Veloute a la Andalouse is a fancy name for tomato soup.

Chef went through the Blue Group and assigned each person a soup. I got Veloute a la Andalouse. When I looked at the ingredients, I thought it was going to be easy. There's veloute, tomato puree, Sauce Soubise, and chicken stock. This is simmered for twenty minutes finished with a liaison(egg yolks and heavy cream) and monter a beurre. I guess it really was as easy as that, but I kept stressing over the veloute because I didn't know how thick it should be. It turned out very well. In fact, everybody's soup came out well. Rodney made Potage St Germain (a green pea soup), Eve made Black Bean soup, Shelby made White Cheddar soup, Zac made Potage Crecy, JB's soup Potage Parmentier was made into two more soups Potage Julienne Darblay and another one, Blair made Cream of Watercress, and Jen made Soup Cultivateur. During presentation, Chef made bowls of soup with ladels of different soups. The Potage St Germain matched well with the Potage Crecy. Peas and carrots are a classic combination after all. He also matched the Black Bean soup with the White Cheddar soup. Next week, he going to try to fit four soups into one bowl.

The Green team made stocks and the Gold team made sauces (Bechamel, Espagnole, and Jus de Veau Lie). After the presentation, we got to eat our soups. Tara made some chicken to go along with the soups. I spied Manny's oxtail stock and got a few people to try some oxtail. I guess I shouldn't have been too shocked that a lot of people haven't have it before. It's so fatty and flavorful. A sheet pan of biscotti also turned up from the bakeshop. It was crisp with a slight chewiness to make you want to keep eating it.

After the break, we did sautes. Today it was a Chicken breast in a Brandy Dijon Cream sauce. It's pretty simple. Seaon a chicken breast and dredge it with flour. Brown it in clarified butter. Then drain off excess clarified butter and add two ounces of brandy. Flambee until the alcohol is cooked off. Next add two ounces of heavy cream and a little bit of mustard to thicken. Plate and sprinkle with chopped parsley. We made our own sautes by group while the other groups started cleanup. I used a little too much mustard so my sauce was gloppy. Chef said to thin it out with chicken stock next time. Cleanup was a little unorganized, so we got out later.

I'm sad to report that Zac is leaving our class for the AM session. He got a job at a fancy restaurant at night, so he'll be doing double duty.

Saucier Week 1, Day 1. Today is the first day of thirteen days in the Sauicer kitchen. We get two less days due to Thanksgiving. Our instructor is Chef Bernard Holtermann. He's from Germany and is in his fourth year of teaching. After fifty years in the industry, he loves Arizona and never wants to leave.

In some ways it was a repeat of the first day of Basics. Everyone gave a little spiel about their background, hopes, and dreams. I guess now that we knew each other a little more, it was good to get reacquainted and refocused as to what our goals are. The previous class left us some soups as a snack. We had seafood gumbo, pasta fagoul, mushroom soup, and a creamy chicken soup. Chef split the class into three groups: Blue, Gold, and Green. We're each rotating through stocks, soups, and sauces and sautes. I'm in the Blue group, so I get to make huge kettles of stock first. A veal kit, used to make veal stock, consists of 100 pounds of bones and 20 pounds of mirepoix. This fits into one of three huge steam kettles in the kitchen.

Today was the first day of the new crop of Basics kids. Their uniforms are a little fancier than ours and they get white neckerchiefs. It was also the first day for the new catering kids. We got out of class at 8pm so I decided to stick around for the meal. Besides the usual first day pizza, the menu consisted of salad, pasta primavera, linguini with red clam sauce, assorted cookies, and the omnipresent melon plate.

Week 6, Day 5. Last day of Basics. We end the block with a final test and egg cookery. The test caused problems for a lot of kids because we didn't have the weekend to prepare for it. I prepared by getting eleven hours of sleep. I had a dream about eating in a restaurant. The woman next to me had a cheesecake for her entree and was eating a different one for dessert. I awoke with visions of omlete varations dancing in my head: egg white with fried parsley and intact egg yolks, breakfast sausage and carmelized apples, and oranges. Yesterday I experimented with medium-boiled egg omlete with bacon and cheese garnished with avocado slices. The medium-boiled eggs just didn't seem right. I think poached eggs would have been better.

The kitchen was all about eggs. We made sunny side up, over easy, and omletes. There was definitely less tension in the atmosphere after the test. In class, I didn't really want to mess around, so I made a simple omlete with breakfast sausage and cheeses. I never knew how restaurants made omletes like they did with the sunny yellow glow. Now all those secrets have been revealed to me. They are probably in cookbooks, but I didn't bother to learn them. The key is flipping the omlete and a teflon pan doesn't hurt either. I've never flipped an omlete before. I always just filled it with the top side still a little runny, then folded it. But if you flip it you have two chances to get a sunny presentation side. Whichever is the magic side goes on the bottom, the omlete is filled, folded, and finished in the oven if necessary. This is the American omlete. The French omlete takes about 30 seconds to make and involves shaking and rolling.

We also had the infamous Atomic Coffee. I encourage people to brew this at home. It's a very tasty beverage chock full of caffiene due to the cold pressing. What I don't encourage is what Rick did, which is drink twelve cups of the stuff. On to Saucier!

Week 6, Day 3. My practical was today. It could have gone better. My menu was:
Salad: Spinach with Hot Bacon Dressing
Soup: Consomme Brunoise
Entree: Grilled Salmon
Sauce: Hollandaise
Starch: Rice Pilaf
Vegetable: Asparagus with Compound Butter

The salad and the soup went fine. The entree was where bad things happened. I chose a thick piece of salmon so I needed to finish it in the oven. I took it out of the oven too soon because I was running out of time. I realize now that it's more important to cook food properly than beat the clock. I was caught up in "the game" and I wanted to win. I also tried to do a bit too much on my own. Eve was a super help, and I could have utilized her more. The asparagus was underdone as well. I tried to steam it, but it wasn't tender when I served it. Finals is not a good time to try new things. The Hollandaise was perfect, but I didn't keep it warm and it broke. My saving grace with the rice pilaf. I've eaten rice in some form a majority of the meals in my life, so I'm glad that turned out well. I learned a lot of organizational skills today, but I just wish I wasn't being graded.

Eve did the menu yesterday. She did very well. Her menu was:
Salad: Bound Shrimp Salad
Soup: Cream of Mushroom
Entree: Schnitzel a la Holstein
Sauce: Lemon Beurre blanc
Starch: Rissoto
Vegetable: Braised Cabbage

Eve makes a mean rissoto. Rick and I polished off her entree in no time. Yesterday was a much better day. I don't think I would have done as well as Eve did because Cream of Mushroom, Rissoto, and Beurre blanc are my weaknesses.Two more days, two more tests.

Week 6, Day 1. Test and practice practical. The test was not the bear Chef said it was, maybe it was hibernating. After grading the test, we were given the rest of the time to prepare for tonight's practice practical. This was the menu:
Salad: Caesar
Soup: French Onion Gratinee
Entree: Stuffed French Leg with Bacon, Shallots, and Mushrooms (our choice of stuffing)
Sauce: Mushroom, shallots and caper Supreme
Starch: Sauteed Rissole Potatoes
Vegetable: Glazed Juliene Carrots

The hour and fifteen minutes went by like a flash. I had no problem with the Caesar Salad and Eve took care of the French Onion Gratinee, but the chicken was a problem. We didn't get a good piece of caul fat, so it took a bit longer to cook. I took the chicken out with two minutes to go, but it wasn't done yet. Everything else was ready to go. Eve made a superb sauce. When we finally showed our plate to the Chef, he noted the slightly burnt rissole, but when he took a bite of the chicken, he praised the flavor. I offered Joe and Casey some of our chicken and they enjoyed it very much. Eve is up tomorrow and I have the menu on Wednesday. We're going to have to work a bit faster to get everything done on time.

Week 5, Day 5. A day of excesses. I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween candy. Several people brought in their leftover Halloween candy to share with the class. After gorging on a selection of chocolate(Snickers, Hershey Nuggets, Ghiradelli) and non-chocolate items(Starbursts, Laffy Taffy, LemonHeads), I suffered through the sugar low while watching two more videos on meat fabrication. I pretty much have the US primal cuts ingrained in my head. I think whenever I see a cow, I'll see dotted lines on it separating it into the chuck, rib, short loin, sirloin, round, flank, short plate, brisket, and shank. We also played Jeopardy. The score ended in a tie so everybody gets a bonus point. I think Chef Warden felt sorry for the other team because they had lost to our side every time so far.

We had another small planning session with our partners to discuss the filling for our Beef Roulade. A roulade is a thin slice of meat rolled around a filling. Eve and I worked with the idea of an asparagus center. In our palate of colors, we had green from herbs, orange from carrots, and white from cream cheese. We were doodling on the white board in the front of the class, and Chef Warden came over and incorporated our designs into a drawing of a pickup truck. He ain't no Picasso, but he can sure cook and teach.

In the kitchen, we also made Rack of Lamb Persillade and Steak Diane. A persillade is a mixture of bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, and clarified butter. It was packed on top of a rack of lamb(it was only four ribs, so half a normal rack) that was seared and smothered with Dijon mustard. Chef decided to time the cooking to give us more practice with working against the clock. I really didn't feel any pressure; I knew everything would be done on time. Things just worked out that Eve worked on the Lamb and Steak Diane and I make the Beef Roulade. For the roulade, we pounded a tournedo flat. Then we spread on a small amount of cream cheese mixed with chopped parsley. I interspersed the mixture with strips of green and yellow bell pepper and carrot. On top of this I put half of a blanched asparagus spear. This was rolled up and seared in olive oil and clarified butter. Then we sauteed garlic, shallots, and tomatoes. The pan was deglazed first with red wine, then with white wine. After reducing this, we added some demiglace and placed the roulade back in the pan with sliced mushrooms. This was braised for a while and then the roulade was removed to be sliced for presentation. The remaining sauce was reduced and finished with some raw butter. Eve really liked it. I think the cream cheese was a bit pronouced. Chef liked the presentation.

I packed away quite a bit of meat. Besides half of our rack of lamb, a small fillet of Steak Diane, a little Beef Roulade, and some chocolate Guiness tirmisu courtesy of the baking kids, Casey let me have two of her lamb ribs because Shelby didn't want them. I really, really enjoy racks of lamb. And this being a day of excess, I heard the siren call from the banquet room and floated up the stairs. Mexican night. It was like deja vu all over again. The catering class is only three weeks long, so the same menus rotate every three weeks. But it seemed better this time. Fruit salad with juicy watermelon, tart mango, and crunchy jicama seasoned with a touch of cayenne. Chicken mole and Spanish rice to die for. Bacon wrapped shrimp. Tequilla and banana sauce with sweet tortillas. I don't want to think about the weight gain that occurred today. Maybe it'll just be a blip on the chart.