Gearing up for the final stretch

BEFORE: students' evaluation depends
on matching the dish to its rightful owner. 

AFTER: Chef has to try them all, but a
spoonful is all he needs to determine
if the soup is done right.

Gearing up for final, practical exams, Chef Bill challenged his Basic students with a couple of black box days, named for the culinary competitions that present competitors with surprise ingredients, and a short time-frame in which to produce a dish from them. Our students were kept in the dark about what they would cook, though they had already learned how to prepare the dishes at some point in their lessons.

Tom works with melted
chocolate for his mousse

As they set up their stations, ingredients were revealed: all the fixings for cream of mushroom soup and chocolate mousse with Genoise sponge. The deadline for the first – 45 minutes, no more, no less – presented hot, in a warm bowl. The timing for dessert: finished, ready to unmold and plate the following day, when they also had the challenge of producing a risotto and a main course of stuffed chicken supreme.

Joleen whips egg whites for her Genoise sponge.

These challenges were a lead-in to exams last week, both hands-on and written. As the last pen was laid down, the knives laid aside and the ovens shut down, silent tension made way for giddy relief. For better or worse, exams are over.

Building biceps (and breaking down egos) with Chef Bill

These light-as-air profiteroles
evolve from a bicep-
building choux paste. 

This week was the first in the kitchen for the afternoon Cook Basic I. Chef Bill beat us into shape yesterday– literally – insisting on the manual whipping of eggs for génoise sponge, chocolate mousse and whipped cream. The fire in my forearms by mid-afternoon was a welcome relief from Tuesday’s bicep-building lesson on choux paste (like mixing eggs into potters clay...with a spoon.) 

Monday started sedately enough with banana bread, corn muffins and shortbreads. Already in my minimal repertoire of baking, they turned out fairly respectable. From the second day on, though, the learning curve got a bit steeper.

Resty, Devon and Nathan putting the finishing touches on their mousse.

There were several lessons built into the construction of each item that we turned out (with varying degrees of success).  Tuesday’s profiteroles involved the choux paste lesson for the shell along with pastry cream for the filling. Chef’s warning to err on the side of excess for the starch was lost on me, leaving me with a runny filling for the shells and a messy challenge with the piping bag (though I heard no complaints from the taste testers).

Nathan's chocolate mousse with its base of
génoise sponge took a lot of  whipping...
by hand. 

Ego-deflation is part of the collateral damage, with génoise more like bricks than sponges, and flat, runny and less than stellar chocolate mousses. Chef’s plan will break us down to build us up while our own learning curves will help keep our egos in check.