Chefs Lexie, Pete and Dale started out the day talking about the lunch menu for today. It was our first day in our assigned kitchens! How cool! In Garde Manger we made individual Roguefort Tarts "deconstructed". We rolled out Pate Frisee dough and then used a 2 inch round cutter to cut out circles. These were then baked on a cookie sheet with a wire rack on top of them so the rise of the dough was limited and left to cool. We made a Royale (from earlier in the week if you remember, a custard can be either sweet or savory), then mixed in Roguefort cheese that had been thinned with egg yolks in a Robot Coupe food processor and put them in a buttered timbal (small cup) which were then put in a bain marie (water bath) and baked in the oven. We made a red pepper coulis (puree) from red peppers (what a surprise), onions, chicken broth and white wine with a dash of Pernod. Mmmmmmmm....
Hot plate made Magret de Carnard (duck breast) with a brown sauce, zucchini "spaghetti" made with the mandoline, mashed potatoes with fines herbs and sauteed mushrooms. Wow! No wonder Chef Pete gained 20 pounds coming back here! This was served with a Tempranillo wine from Spain. A good choice for this dish.
Pastry made focaccia bread and boules. For dessert we had a cheese plate with no less than 6 cheeses to pick from!! The cheese course was served with a ruby port. Again, a great choice, although there are still people who do not like port!
First time I have left the lectures til last and dove right into the lunch menu, lol! We had a lecture this morning on sanitation and why we need to be careful with food storage and preparation. Most of it was familiar because we had been practicing these things at the surgery center I worked at. Who would have thought there would be so many similarities?!? At one point Chef Dale asked me how cuts on the hands should be treated-AFTER he had told the class to use "inky" stuff on their cuts and never antibiotic ointment! I had to contradict him-keep them clean and dry and covered, and that antibiotic ointment was good when used sparingly. This did not go over well. I did apologize later, but if you don't want to hear the answer, don't ask the question!! Oh well.....it was after this lecture we all set off to our assigned kitchens so that made things better!
After the lecture, Chef Pete went over our "set-up" duties for each morning in Garde Manger. Then we were assigned our tasks for the day. We did make veal stock today or Fond de Veau. We took the veal bones out of the brine, rinsed them off the blanched them in plain water for several hours. This made all kinds of scum rise to the surface so we drained them again, rinshed them off and put them back into a clean pot, covered them with water, added mirepoix, garlic and bouquet garni and when we left school-after 4pm, it was still bubbling away. We will finish the veal stock tomorrow morning.
I have to say (and I did say it to Chef Pete), that I have not felt this "stupid" in a really long time. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to go from a job where I was expected to know everything, to a classroom situation where I don't know near as much as I thought I did! A new experience, lol.
After school, some of us went over to Kim's house to study. We now have tests every Friday morning.
Once I got back to the B&B, I found out Carl had left a covered plate on the counter labeled April's dinner. (In case you are wondering, a big thick juicy BBQed ribeye steak, again, WOW!) What a sweetheart! And now I need some R&R for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow is after all, another day......
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