Day one hundred fifteen

Our plate 

Some days are better than others

TGFI so glad about it. Unfortunately it was the worst day for the last two weeks. There was no common sense in people's work. That in turn created a chaos for the whole day. We were late with our food as well. At the end it was a huge relieve that the day was over at the school.

Our menu was:
Pan-fried Pork Cutlets
Sauce Chasseur
Braised Cabbage
Macedoine of Vegetables
Spatzels
Cream of Tomato soup.

I was doing the sauce and the vegetables. The idea of vegetables was interesting. Start with mushrooms and shallots sauté until golden

Day one hundred fourteen

Our plate today

How to prepare a perfect roast beef

Today was the first day of the last menu cycle. For our team it suppose to be the easiest menu, however we had a really busy day.

We prepared:
Roast Beef
Sauce Marchand de Vin
Potatoes au Gratin
Tomatoes filled with Duxelle
Endive a la Meuniere
Minestrone soup

In addition we had skills evaluation test and everyone made chicken consomme. Mine was under-seasoned the chef said more salt (such a surprise:-).  Will put more salt on practical.

For the main menu I coked Sauce Marchand de Vin and the roast beef together with

Day one hundred thirteen

Our plate for today

Making puree of asparagus soup.

The last day for this menu rotation. Today we were a vegetarian team. Tomorrow it will be our last menu for the A la cart cooking.

Today we cooked:
Ravioli Bercy with egg yolk
Millet and Cauliflower Puree
Sautéed Seasonal Green Vegetable
Beurre Noisette
Cream of Asparagus Soup.

Today was not a great day. We were back to the  arguing days and were not able to find a consensus. Result was obvious. Our dish was ok, but not great. Pasta dough was a bit too thick, the filling (ricotta and spinach) was a bit rough because of undercooked spinach. Sauce Beurre Noisette

Day one hundred twelve

Our plate today

How to make perfect fresh pasta.

We are getting closer to the practical. Today we have met with the proctor of the practical. I have a really great chef for the practical. Also there are going to be a series of skills assessments for the next few  days. Tomorrow each of us should grill a steak with a sauce Béarnaise.  Probably there will be also a consomme to make.

Today our team cooked the following menu:
Saute Chicken, Sauce Fines Herbs
Glazed Carrots
Buttered HaricotsVerts
Fresh Pasta
Manhattan Clam Chowder
Mixed Greens with Blue Cheese Dressing.

We were short today for one persone. He did not show up. As the chef said

Day one hundred eleven

Our dish of the day

Shallow poach fish. What you should pay attention for?

Wow, such a nice number of the day 111....

Today we cooked the same menu for the second day. We rotated  though and our team cooked the following dishes:
Shallow Poached Sea Bass with Clams, Bacon, and Pepper
Pommes Frites (French Fries)
Ratatouille
Buttered Asparagus
Corn Chowder
Caesar Salad

I was responsible for the shallow poached fish and asparagus. The fish was a tricky dish. First of all it was shallow poach. Small amount of poaching liquid is heated in a pan, then we had to start with clams (otherwise they won't open), then fish. After adding fish you need to

Day one hundred ten

Our short ribs. Delicious!

Braising. What is important in the process?

Somehow I just realized that there was no updates since Friday...

On Friday it was a new menu for all teams. Our team cooked the following:
Braised Short Ribs
Parmesan Risotto (A la Milanese)
Jardiniere vegetables
Caesar Salad
Puree of Broccoli Soup

I worked on Risotto, Caesar Salad, and helped with Short Ribs. We were able to make a perfect ribs, many people said that it was great. Also we got a couple of

Day one hundred nine

Our plate (final version)

Guess what is the best 'selling' dish? 

Today our team cooked the following:
Vegetarian Chili
Annatto Rise
Tortilla Chips
Puree of Lentil Soup
Mixed Greens with Fire-Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette.

Our dishes were good, very tasty. In some way I start changing my opinion about vegetarian cooking and food. What was really surprising for me, is that our dish was sold out in 25 minutes. We 'sold' more than any other team today. The reason for this (I think) is that we have the same menu for the fourth day in a raw. The only dish that is changed every day is a vegetarian one. I think people are bored with the same fish, poultry, and meat and whant to try something

Day one hundred eight

Our plate today

Back to the fundamentals...

Today was a new day and the new menu out of four days rotation. Our team cooked the following today:

• Beef Stew with Assorted Vegetables
• Roasted Garlic Puree Potatoes
• Gaufrette Potatoes
• Chicken Consomme (today garnish was vegetables cut julienne)
• Mixed Green Salad with Honey-Poppy Seed - Citrus Vinaigrette.

Gaufrette potatoes is a waffles of potatoes (cut on special mandoline). When you cut them cooking method is deep frying. The result is a crispy potato chips with waffle pattern. We used a couple per plate as a presentational garnish.

Roasted garlic puree potatoes is a way to

Day one hundred seven

Our tasting plate today

Making noodles from squash...

Second day in A'la cart cooking. Today our team prepared:
Poached salmon with sauce Béarnaise
Boiled parsley potatoes
summer squash noodles
chicken consomme

Our tasting plate was good, we were able to present it almost on time. Chef's feedback was mostly positive.

I made these squash noodles. Was a bit confused at the tasting, as the chef said less color during cooking. I understood it less color - less cooking. They were

Day one hundred six

Our tasting plate, chicken is somewhere on a plate

 Plating - can you lose your main component?

Today we have started a new block A'la cart cooking (Skills III). This block is a preparation for our practical, which is about two weeks away. The dishes we are going to cook is basically what we did in Fundamentals, but in a larger scale. We have the same menu (actually four of them) for the next four days and four teams are going to rotate around this menu. Then we will have another menu for the next four days and so on.

Also today reminds me good days back to the Fundamentals, when I was a team sous chef. This is not because the 'power' I have, but because we have the same class sous chef we had then and one more team sous chef, so it's really looks like old team working together. And yes, we have

Day one hundred five

Arugula and watermelon salad

Presentation is a key.

TGFI! And finally it's the end of the block, the last day of Banquet. Unfortunately it was not the best and easiest block, however it's over and I look forward to studying A la cart.

Today it was our menu. We prepared salad with arugula, watermelon, feta cheese, pine nuts, and balsamic dressing with a drizzle of faux balsamico on top. For the main course we made grilled lamb chops, with cous cous, grilled asparagus, orange bell pepper, and arugula-mint pesto. For the vegetarian option we had grilled portobello mushroom filled with sun-dried tomato and peas risotto on the bed of lentil puree (to have a complete protein).

In general our menu was good and well thought. The food was tasty and we were able to present them on time. What can be improved? A little bit less dressing on the salad arugula did not take much dressing. The lamb was grilled as

Day one hundred four

Our buffet today, love this salad with duck confit

Faux balsamico, how you can do it?

The second day of the menu. Today I was responsible... I was a floater, so basically I was not responsible for anything, only to help other guys when they need help. Our team worked on lamb, beans, stuffed tomatoes, and kale. First thing in the morning we fabricated lamb roasts. We split in half three legs of lamb and made six roasts. We tied them with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Then we seared them and placed into slow oven (around 190 F) for two and a half hours.

The rest of the time I was working on some preparation for tomorrow. I made a vegetable stock and faux balsamico. Stock is not so interesting, so let's talk about

Day one hundred three

Poached salmon (we used sugar snap peas today)

New exciting menu.

Today we have the last menu scheduled for us. It will be the menu for tomorrow as well, and then, on Friday, we will cook ours menu.

The menu today included:
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Salad of Frisee, Endive, Watercress, and Duck Confit with Sherry Vinaigrette
Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder with White Beans
Baked Stuffed Tomatoes
Sauteed Swiss Chard
Deep Poached Salmon with Beurre Blanc
Tourne Parsley Potatoes
Sugar Snap Peas
Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce
Grilled Vegetables

Our team was responsible for the slow poached salmon, tourne potatoes, and sugar snap peas. It was interesting to see how some task people find daunting. Tourne potatoes was a

Day one hundred two

Our sampling plates for today

Making a puree soup right consistency

Second day of the same menu. We have two more menues till the end of the week, two days we will be cooking menu as per course guide and on Friday it will be our menu project, four teams will cook each own menu. Very excited to see cooking on  Friday.

Today I made a corn veloute. This is basically a thick soup or sauce, depends on the use. We used it as sauce for a wild rice quinoa cakes.

To make a veloute you sweat vegetables (onion, leak, celery - no dark vegetables, as you want light color). Then you introduce blond roux (flour cooked in fat). When roux is hot, add stock in small increments, whisking constantly so there will be no lamps. Add sachet for a flavor and simmer for approximately 20 minutes to develop flavor and cook off the raw taste of flour. Then you add corn

Day one hundred one

Our buffet today (view from salad side).
It seems quite ordinary:-(

Creamy Black Peppercorn Dressing.

New week and a new menu.

Today our menu was:
Senate Bean soup
Romain salad with creamy Black Peppercorn dressing
Roast breast of duck with tart cherry duck jus
Orzo
Haricot Verts with pearl onions and mushrooms
Beef stew with battonet of carrots, and white and yellow turnips
Buttered fresh pasta
Wild rice cakes
Corn veloute
Succotash
Seasonal mushrooms

Our team cooked soup and made salad. My project of the day was salad. I had to start to cut romaine lettuce and put it into ice cold water to revitalize it. The next step was to make a mayonnaise, as nobody ordered it (or it might happen on purpose). The challenge was

Day one hundred

Candied pecans are yummy. 

Time flies. It was day one hundred yesterday ('business'). Time goes so fast. In less then one month there will be written exam and after that second term practical, when we have to cook one of the six menu. The difference between first term and second term practical is that this time there will be no such things as recipe cards. We suppose to remember dishes and cook them without any auxiliary material.

Yesterday was Friday and it was second day of Southern menu. Mine responsibilities were green salad with candied pecans. It was the first time I made candied pecans. Green salad was more familiar for me:-)

To make candied pecans you blanch them first in boiling water for one minutes (really short period of time kust to warm them up a bit and make them wet). Then you toss pecans (or other nuts you want to candied) with powdered sugar mixed with spices of your choice. I had a mixture of cayenne pepper and salt with powdered sugar. The idea here is to create instantly a sirup which will cover nuts evenly. In the next step you have a choice. You may bake these nuts or

Day ninety nine

Vegetables on buffet

Southern menu.
.
New menu today! That time the menu is Southern American:
BBQ beef brisket with sauce
Sweet pickles (cucumber with onion)
Collard greens
Baked beans
Buttered broccoli
Glazed carrots
Cornbread
Grits (it's like polenta, but a bit finer)
Gambo with shrimp, chicken, and Andouille sausage
Coleslaw
Catfish cornmeal crusted
Ranch dressing
French fries
Seasonal vegetables

It was a big menu. The centrepiece was beef brisket. It was rubbed with mustard and spices for two days and it was smoked for approximately 12 hours after that it was finished in the oven. The meat had very

Day ninety eight

Our buffet today with artichoke as decoration

How mozzarella balls are made.

Today was the second day of the same menu. As we cooked some dishes yesterday and it happened that we did it for two days, we have more time available  and we put a lot of effort to change appearance of our buffet.

We were able to get rid of chafing dishes and used special system of risers with created surfaces to hold plates with food. All these changes came at the cost of another class doing Asian cuisine. It was an initiative of our chef to use this system and the other class was really pissed off, as they have always used it. However, the early bird gets all worms...

With regards to a cooking I can not say anything interesting. I was responsible for a charcuterie sauce, but it was cooked yesterday and all I have to do is to reheat it, check seasoning (it was good), add a bit butter for the finish and that was it.

In a bootcamp today we made fresh mozzarella balls. I have never seen how it made. To make fresh mozzarella balls we need

Day ninety seven

Green Beans on the buffet

Can vegetarian food be good?

Today we cooked a new menu. We made:

• Wisconsin Cheddar and Beer Soup, 
• Iceberg salad with Thousand Island Dressing, 
• Grilled Flat Iron Steaks with compound butter, 
• Green Beans with sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions, 
• Roasted potatoes, 
• Pan fried Pork Cutlets with Sauce Charcuterie, 
• Sautéed Swiss Chard, 
• Roasted Golden beets with Chives, and 
• Warm German Potato salad.

The menu was bigger than last week and also the big change on the menu is that we moved from a big protein items (turkey for example) to the portion size items (pork cutlets/grilled steak).

Our team was responsible for the

Day ninety six

Rosti Potatoes served

Roasti potatoes - quite challenging to make

TGFI. Or it was a Friday, writing this post with a delay. Yesterday I came to San Francisco and we have a friend of us from Moscow here for weekend. So it was a busy evening and today was busy day as well. Now I have time to write here.

There was a second day of the same menu. This time our team was responsible for warm cabbage salad and Rosti Potatoes.

Cabbage salad was simple: shred green cabbage thinly, then render fat from bacon (optional to use bacon, you can make vegetarian salad), add onion, sweat, add cabbage cook sightly (until cabbage softened, but still has a texture), season, and serve.

Roasti Potatoes seem easy, but we had a challenge with