Group Demo

I am now in my final phase of culinary school. A phase III student.

In addition to my responsibilities as an extern at “Il Restaurant”, I had to make time to meet with my group about executing a 3-4 course meal in front of the president of the academy, various staff, and all of our classmates.

Sure the idea sounds like it could be fun – in concept. But we found out quickly that this is VERY serious business. This is our final impression on the school before we graduate.

The drama begins with picking our group – this is a big deal because you need to be sure that you are working with people who are committed to doing a good job – because your grade depends on it.

I was lucky enough to work with the guys I carpooled with and another very talented classmate. We were a very solid group.

The other piece of news that we found out was that deciding when to conduct your group demo is just as key as who you are doing your demo with. It was brought to our attention that the earlier you go – the less critical your evaluation is – because they are more sympathetic to that fact that it is the first demo and no one really knows what they are doing.

Very cleverly, we assembled our group and immediately reported our team to the academic dean and took the first slot. Of course this also meant that we would have much less time to prepare than our other classmates and it would be a nightmare trying to juggle our girst few weeks of externing with our school responsibilities but we decided that it would be worth it to be finished, which would mean that for the rest of the time, we would get to kick back and watch everyone else’s demo.

And a nightmare it was… it seemed like every moment that we weren’t in the kitchen at our externships, we were in the kitchen at school practicing.

The format is a s follows:

A group has 3 hours to describe and execute a menu in front of the school community.

The recipes have to be printed for the entire class in addition to budget breakdowns, as we are each limited to $250 to feed 13 people.

And when they say 3 hours – they mean it. A large part of the grade is making sure that you have accounted for every minute – dead time – or silence is unacceptable. Someone in the group has to make sure that something is being said for all three hours.

Once the menu is agreed upon, we then have to meet with the president of the academy for final approval.

After a few meetings, our menu was as follows:

Asparagus Soup with Goat Cheese Fondu and Crispy Italian Speck (prosciutto) served with a Puff Pastry Batton

Parmesan Flan with Green Vegetable Garnish and Anchovy Oil

Morrocan Inspired Lamb Ribs with Preserved Lemon Cous Cous and Pepper Creme Fraiche

Tomato Consume and Homemade Mozerella Salad

Cheesecake Timbale with Pineapple and Kumquat Compote

We knew we could pull it off but were not excited about the commitment required.

Everytime our group got together to practice, we would spend the first hour complaining about how much of a pain in the ass it was and how it was ruining our already non-existent lives.

Finally the day arrived… and I would love to say it went off without a hitch but that would be a lie. Three hours is a long, long time to have to talk about pureeing asparagus, roasting pepper marinade, where kumquats orginated, etc.

But after two hours, we were bored with being nervous and just had to move on.

My soup started off strong – asparagus were blanched to perfection, given all the practice I had doing it every day at the restaurant. Vegetable stock was as tasty as veg stock could be, goat cheese fondu perfect and creamy. 

Where things went wrong…

Once the asaragus were blanched, they need to be pureed. Because asparagus are so fiberous, they need to be pureed HARDCORE – preferably in a robo coup and even then it might need to be passed through a foodmill or tamis to ensure a smooth texture. Here is where I learned a very valuable lesson. This was my dish and I would be responsible for it, regardless of who I put in charge. We were assigned student assistant during the demo, and it just so happened that our assistants were strong students who had always done well in all of classroom activities so my instruction was simply “Please puree the s$#t out of this so it’s smooth…” and with that I returned to the classroom to resume the demo. When I got the nod from my classmate who returned the soup in the pot I requested so I could heat it, season and serve.

But just as I was about to serve, I noticed chunks in the soup and fearful that my times was up and that I had no alternative but to serve as is, I served it. Big, Big mistake. Fibers were all throughout making it almost inedible, despite it’s very inviting presentation.

One by one, we presented our dishes until finally, we were DONE!

We then had to be evaluated in front of the entire audience, which I was not expecting but the president of the academy was very pleased with us. The criticisms were, in our opinion minor – certain elements could have been explained more but he told us that our demo was excellent and informed the rest of our class that we had set the bar very high. Our recipes perfectly written, our costs very well prepared and on budget, our timing perfect, the tastes and presentention of each dish very well done.

The instructor gave me some greif for my soup, where I took the opportunity to ask if it would have been appropriate to stop the demo to finish the soup according to the way I intended the dish to be and he said that I abolutely should have, which I should have known. I should have pureed it again or passed it and this is were I learned that I need to be in control of my dish until the very end. If I had been an executive chef at a restaurant and served it to a paying customer, I couldn’t have said to them, “Well I put this person in charge of it, it’s their fault.” – my name is on the door and therefore it was my mistake.

Thankfully, and perhaprs because it was the first demo, he said “but I’m not going to kill you on it… I’m simply going to numb you…”

Thank you chef…

Luckily, I also prepared the dessert with one of my teammates, which the chef described as excellent.

All in all, it was a very, very good demo and chef was very pleased with us. He told us we set the bar very high. Perhaps it seems like I’m bragging. I am.

We were going to get so drunk later that night…