The Good and the Bad

The chef for our phase II is from the south of France and so we are incorporating some of the culinary overlap with Spanish ingredients as well. I’m noticing the transition between primary use of butter with olive oil.

Thursday we made paella and I got to take the lead on the dish. I’ve never attempted paella before and so this was very exiciting. In addition, it was very labor intensive but worth every bit or work.

For this version, we carmelized the bones of a chicken carcass in olive oil and then roasted a whole head of garlic (cur in half) and built on top of that we vegetables, wine, stock, seafood, sausages. All of these ingredients became the liquid that the rice was cooked in.

This is the second time, we used this method of using the carcass to make a stock on the spot that would enhance the dish. We also made a sauce for a duck recipe that required searing the bones. I really enjoy this and feel that it is an extraordinary preliminary step that distinguishes an pretty good dish from an amazing dish.

Unfortunately, Friday was not so great for me personally. It was just one of those days. After avoiding the whole week, it was finally my “turn” to make the dessert. It was a
St. Honore” – this is a rolled pate sucree cut into disc pieces then topped with a ring of pate a chou. Some remaining pate a chou is used for puffs that are filled with a rum flavored pastry cream and then caramel is used as an adhesive to stick two puffs on top of the baked sucree/chou disc. The center is then filled with more pastry cream and then topped with whipped cream.

I started by making the pate a chou so that I could get the puffs in the oven. I already knew that our team saved some previously made sucree dough so once I finished the pate a chou, I could assemble the base and while it and the puffs were in the oven, I would make the whipped cream and pastry cream and get those into pastry bags and store until service.

First attempt of the chou did not turn out well. It did not rise and it looked like a flat, bagel on top of a cookie. I spoke with one of the chefs and he seemed to think that if I whipped my remaining chou a little longer then it would turn out and he was right. Second attempt turned out fine. Caramel needed not one – or two – but three attempts before we got it right.

Also we stuffed some artichokes with goat cheese as for a  first course and were given free reign over what to add to our goat cheese for a unqiue flavor and I had the idea of orange, thyme and black pepper, which I was convinced (and still am – I know it can be pulled off) would be a hit but chef seemed to think the orange zest was too bitter.

I apologized to my team for being so out of it several times and they seemed to think it wasn’t that big a deal. We were still able to deliver on time and it did get approved by chef to leave the kitchen so maybe I should let it go.

After lunch, we had a meeting with the Admissions Director of the academy to discuss our externships.

I’ll say this… they don’t sugar coat anything. They warned us that the hours will be long and pay would be terrible. I knew this but they also prepapred us for the reality that we may have to do the shit work since no one trust us to do anything else as a new hire. I’m really terrified that I will have to chop carrots or peel potatoes for 9-10 hours a day.

We received a list of possible restaurants and it is all very exciting – I’m interested in at least ten. I can’t believe that by the end of March, I will be working in an actual restaurant.

I’m floored at how fast everything is moving. Life will never be the same.