Today I completed the last exam of my first year!!!!!! It was the year end practical which gives us the go ahead to come back next year! Words can not express how excited I am to be done! I am excited to move on to my work term and gain hands on practical experience on my own. Today's test included: baking rolls, Cream of Asparagus Soup, Cold Poached Salmon, with a mayo based garnish, frenched lamb with appropriate veg and starch. We were allowed to interpret those items and be as creative as possible. Tuesday night I worked on the plates, coming up with what I hoped would give me a passing grade! I believe that I have success! My Chef gave me great feed back, stating my salmon plate was one of the nicest and best he has seen in years!
We were marked on creativity, technical merit and applied skills. Marks were given for safety/sanitation/tools and equipment. A la Carte - which is timeline, work sheets, sequence of production and service timing. We were graded on our stocks, soups, poaching technique, using our garnish appropriately, meat cookery and on and on. It took some work to prepare the A la Carte sheets but in the end I was pleased with my timing, presentation and the feed back on the taste of my courses.
Attached are some pictures of my dishes. The three spoons being the cold salmon plate. I used micro beet greens in the middle of the dish for the practical instead of the basil you see in my home photo. Each piece of salmon was wrapped in a different garnish with a different flavor on each one, complimenting one another. For the lamb I marinated it in olive oil, basil, thyme,rosemary and black pepper and pan seared it to medium finish accompanied with a side of wild mushroom risotto drizzled with white truffle oil, red pepper rounds, frenched green beans and a shallot balsamic reduction. The soup pic is not mine (I forgot to take a picture!) but it was a simple asparagus soup with a ball of sweet potato, a dollop of sour cream, grilled asparagus spears and phyllo paper swirls. My rolls were made into a nice crusty roll.
I will be blogging through the summer months to update my progress at my co-op placement. I am off now to eat Italian food and drink a great deal of Chef Juice! All of this cooking is making me hungry! (and thirsty)
