Today was more about sauces. But FIRST, my group had to fabricate 18 chickens! That means taking apart a whole chicken, cutting off the first joint of the wing, opening up the pockets between the legs and the breast, then cutting the breast away from the ribcage, then taking off the leg and thigh (make sure you get that "oyster"!!) then cleaning the carvas of skin and fat so it can be used for making stock. That's a lot of chicken!
After we finished with this, it was time for another lecture on sauces. It's interesting, but I always thought mother sauces were stand alone sauces, but they are actually components used to get you other places, so to speak. Chef Pete talked about Tomato Sauce, another mother sauce. There are two French Tomato sauces, one modern, which consists of tomato concasse, shallots, wine and thyme which is then pureed and strained (which makes it a coulis). The Classic French Tomato Sauce uses roux, tomato (no garlic) and stock. Then of course the many derivatives of the sauce: if you add meat to the tomato sauce it is a bolognese. If you add capers, anchovies,crushed red peppers and olives to the tomato sauce, you get Sauce Putanesca. There are many more sauces that can be made from this. Apparently, with sauces, you are limited only by your imagination and taste buds!
Next we covered Sauce Veloute. Veloute (vel-oo-tay) translates as "velvety". It consists of white stock and white roux. By adding other ingredients, you can alter the flavor profile however you like. If you add egg yolks, the sauce would be called Sauce Allemande. If you add tarragon to tomato sauce, it becomes Sauce Estragon. Once again, you are limited only by your imagination when it comes to making a sauce and adding a flavor profile. We made Sauce Veloute with Chef Pete, then went to our respective kitchens.
Lunch today was Tomato Soup and Cauliflower soup, served together in one bowl. The entree was Sauted Chicken with Sauce Robert (a derivative of Sauce Espangnole). We also made Grilled Bibb lettuce and Beer Battered Mushrooms. I was in charge of slicing the chicken and while doing so, cut my finger (much like the chicken slices I was carving, lol) and had to stop to wash my hands and put on a bandaid. The knife was really sharp and the cut hurts like the dickens! I will live to carve another day, however. At least we got good marks on the main course! Dessert was Oeufs a la Neige (Eggs in Snow)-which is egg shaped meringues poached in milk. The milk it then used to make Creme Anglaise. The topped it off with spun sugar, so it looked like a nest of gold sitting on the plate! Everything is SO good! It's hard to imagine food getting better and better!
Tomorrow I am going to be in charge of Hot Plate and running the board. We make a timeline and assign tasks to make sure that everything gets done in a timely fashion. Wish me luck!
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