Tension, taste and technique

Chefs do a blind taste-test of the soup course. 

 All is quiet in the kitchen again at Liaison College Hamilton Chef School, and the air is heavy with concentration. Our Cook Basic A.M. class is in the midst of their final practical exam, creating a meal from soup through to dessert. Their timing is critical- chefs expect each course to be served at the exact time specified (no sooner, no later), and at the correct temperature (hot dishes served hot, cold ones still chilled).

Each course is blind taste-tested: students are assigned a number, delivering their food to the empty classroom before the chefs enter to sample from each dish.

James pipes decoration onto his dessert plate. 

Cole delivers his chocolate mousse to the test tables.

While the students work through their soup, main course, sauces and dessert, the chefs make careful notes on seasoning, taste, texture, temperature, and technique.

The dessert course offers an opportunity to explore garnish, presentation styles and sugar work. It also marks a drop in the intensity that permeates the campus on exam days.

Even when the last plate has been delivered to the tasting tables, students still wait on edge until their evaluation is complete. One by one they are called to discuss their meals with the chefs, emerging with relief or concern written across their face.

Chef Bill and Chef Dan finish their test notes before liaising with students. 

Waiting to exhale

The mood was noticeably altered at Liaison last week, charging the afternoon ambiance with a tension that was almost tangible. After fifteen weeks of culinary classes, the students were put through the rigours of exams, in the kitchen and in the classroom.

Cook Basic students did all their prep work on Tuesday for their hands-on exam the following day. On a set schedule Wednesday afternoon, they turned out their dishes for the chef-instructors to mark on timing, presentation and taste. The tension subsided as one-by-one they learned how they fared, then headed home to cram for just a few more hours.

The ever-active kitchen was hauntingly silent on Thursday as the students bowed their heads over exam papers, challenged to remember the theory they learned more than ten weeks ago. Though they applied their book knowledge almost daily in the kitchen, they were reserved until after their papers were marked.

Waiting to exhale, three young men checked the job board, shifted and paced, their nervousness disguised in jocular humour. The women made notes, quick calls to family, or chatted in low tones about future plans.

That collective sigh, when it came, was worth the wait. Hugs, laughter, whoops of excitement: they’ll be back for an official graduation, but this was their crowning moment when the air cleared, the mood lifted and they prolonged their goodbyes for one more minute of camaraderie.