Aftermath

Class is over... what now?

Grades are posted. They were up less than a week after I walked out of the VistaTech Center, head held high. 

3.3. That means I am most DEFINITELY in the program.  I might have been one of the first ones to the advising office to turn in the remaining section of the Culinary Arts application. She checked everything out, filled out the rest of my file, and sent me on my wait. Now... it's the waiting game.

I will receive an acceptance letter, more details of the program, and I will talk with an advisor about which rotation I want to start. During the wait, I'm going to research and share with you everything I can before I enter into the program. I'll figure out how I'm going to pay for it, I'll practice a ton of techniques, and most importantly, I won't leave you hanging until next fall.

Stay tuned!

The Final Test: This Is IT

DISCLAIMER: Today was the only day there were no pictures. I hope my words can paint a vivid image of my experience and my nerves… Enjoy!

Seven weeks went by so fast.

Chopping, slicing, dicing, simmering, tasting, laughing, smelling… all of that culminated into one final showdown. The Final Practical.

Homework quizzes have been done and graded. Whatever you got on that was what you got, what you didn't finish was a plain zero. The end arrived. You either studied or you didn't. You either got those knife cuts and the smell of Old Bay down to a T or you didn't. You either passed this exam or you didn't get into the Culinary Arts Program. If this is scaring even you, imagine how the class felt.

I walked in twenty minutes early. L was already there and we went around smelling spices and checking out large equipment. Surprise! Some spices were those we have never heard of. We scrambled to figure out what it was and what it smelled like before we had to return to the demo kitchen. Once Chef Gabriel and Loving arrived, everything was put away. At that point, it was time to prove our worthiness.

We set up our station first. Mise en place. Then we sat back in the demo kitchen and began our written exam.

What is a demi-glace? I know that it's half veal stock and half espagnole reduced. While taking the written exam, I completely forgot. What are the five grading criteria for stock? Clarity, Flavor, Body, Aroma and… No fat? That is what I marked. The last answer was color.

Once I turned that exam in, that was it. I couldn't dwell on it. Either I passed or I didn't. Don't worry, the other millions of questions I was sure I answered correctly, but I am not without mistakes.

Knife cut time. This was the most nerve-wracking. I barely finished last time and that was a few cuts. Here were the cuts we were given:

Medium and large dice of potato

Batonnet of potato.

Small and julienne of carrot

Short julienne of onion

Roast a pepper, slice it, deseed it

Chop parsley

Mince garlic

Perform two of tomato concassé

Perform oblique cut of carrot

Perform weird cut of carrot we don't remember learning

All this in 1 hour 15 minutes.

Ready…. Set… GO!

I have been more scared in my life, but most scares are artificial. This was real. I nicked myself with my knife and kept going. I peeled, diced, julienned, evened out… but soon there was only five minutes left.

I still had to chop garlic, do my tomato concasse, perform the last two carrot cuts, chop parsley, and julienne onion.

I julienned the onion. I minced the garlic. I started the parsley with thirty seconds to go because at least I could have SOMETHING.

11:15 came. I threw my hands up in exasperation… 11:15 went… the buzzer didn't stop.

1 hour and 15 minutes meant 11:30… not 11:15.

Chef Loving came over and calmed me down. He let me know I still had 15 minutes. It was the scariest thirty seconds of that day, but with relief, tears poured out of my eyes. I let out a humorless chuckle as he placed a hand on my should. It wasn't the time for a meltdown. He said now wasn't the time to mess up, helped me figure out what to clean up, and said to keep going. I did. I finished my cuts. My parsley was not perfect, but I finished with time to clean my station.

They scored in front of us. Each cut was out of five (the tomatoes and extra carrot cuts were not on there) I got 5/5 on both the medium cut of potato and the batonnet, 4/5 on all of the other cuts, but a 3/5 on the parsley because it was rough. I didn't care… that was an awesome score to me!

Next we warmed our stock from the week prior and let the chefs taste it.

5/5 Taste and Body, 4/5 Aroma, Color, and Clarity. PASSED.

We made a roux with clarified butter and flour. I used half of my stock and a little roux to start my Velouté. It immediately started to reduce when I suddenly got an idea. My girls around me had a thicker sauce, but L said you can't base anything off of anyone else's because they might be wrong. I added more stock and put in more roux so that it looked like Velouté instead of adding roux little by little until it simmered into a Velouté look. With that method, my sauce stopped reducing. It sloshed around, it had good nappé (coating consistency), so I place it in a little cup and waited.

M- too thick, L- too thick, A- too thick… mine?

"Not bad!" he goes. I sighed in contentment. This was happening. I was passing.

After the clean up, it was time for the Identifications. We were split into two groups. I was ready. I knew most of the items, so instead of wasting time, I went as fast as possible. My group started with small equipment. I waltzed around the room, writing down everything I knew, guessing what I didn't (only two pots looking things and I think my guess was pretty good). After that, I sat in a small area and wrote down the uses. I did the same for Large Equipment.

Imagine walking around a room and seeing the things you either used at home or have used while working on campus in a cafeteria. You have to treat this like this is what you want to do. It's not 'studying', it's knowing what you're using. That has to be your mindset in this program. You can't 'memorize' that this is a buffalo chopper and you can use it for chopping carrots. You need to know first hand in the back of your mind- I want to chop my carrots or mince my garlic quickly- I'm getting out the Buffalo Chopper. It soon becomes second nature.

The herbs and spices were my favorite. It was challenging, but I ran around the room inhaling and tasting spices. That can't be paprika because it's burning my tongue something awful… it must be cayenne! Mace smells like nutmeg, ground mustard tastes like crap! This sage stuff is what I can use to make stuffing! For the herbs, I broke those leafs apart and inhaled. That saved me so much because the basil and the mint looked alike. I broke it open- one smelled of Italy, the other like fresh chewed gum. What would I use this mint for?? CRAP! Oh… I can make Mint Julep!

That's how it went. No lunch break, no bathroom break, nothing from 8am-3pm. I finished that and turned in all of my papers. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone, but I knew it wasn't good bye… it was see you when we're in the program, crying on each other's shoulders.

I stepped outside and there was my future hubby, in the same clothes I left him in, but well-rested and looking like love and promise. I was exhausted, I was shaken, I was almost defeated, but I smiled at him. First thing I say? "I need a drink!"

Bahama Breeze, Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea… thanks.

Practic-No's and Velouté Woes

Remember when I gushed about how my boyfriend was 'my rock' and was extra 'supportive'? Not the first day of practicals. In fact, he was a lazy bum and I ended up being five minutes late.

I walked into the class and both Chef Loving and Chef Gabriel were there giving instructions on how we were to start our test. Step one was to set up our mise en place. Then we would:

• Cut the mirepoix and make another stock (apparently our batch spoiled because the refrigerators stopped working that week. I think they used it)

• Take quiz #2 that we were supposed to take a week or two weeks ago.
• Practice knife cuts in a timed manner that would mimic the timed practical the next week.
• Medium and small dice, battonet of potatoes
• Julienne and brunois carrot
• Mince garlic
• Roast a pepper
• Chop parsley
• Julienne an onion
• Do all this in an hour (SURPRISE, they gave us 55 minutes)

• Practice making veloute using their stock and a team effort of roux.
• Learn herbs
• Learn more smallwares

Do you know what we DIDN'T do? Take the actual practical. I'm definitely not complaining, but realize that this is mainly because we didn't have time to learn most of these.

Mirepoix and Standard Sachet

We set up. Mirepoix does not need to be perfect, so I got those out of the way in no time. We got our stock going, and we went to start our quiz.

I didn't study for it because I assumed it would be our herb and spice ID quiz and some other things for the practical, so I studied that instead. I BS'ed on pretty much everything, including what a buerre manie (kneaded butter) and a remouillage (reusing bones and stuff from another stock) was. Some things were pretty easy, but it wasn't the practical, so I'm not extremely nervous about it.

We immediately got back to work in the kitchen. Our timed knife cuts practice was set to start at 11am and end just at lunch. When he said GO, my team (A, L, and M) started on roasting our pepper first, while we worked on our cuts. We reminded each other to turn the pepper, and gave feedback on what our cuts looked like. I peeled everything first (I forgot to peel the garlic. Damn you garlic!).

My approach was to start with the hardest- battonet of potatoes. Then I moved on to the carrots and onion, minced my garlic, finished off my pepper- all while random people were staring at us through the display windows. I was in the process of chopping my parsley when the timer went off! We still had another five minutes, but I have no idea why they stopped early.

Not bad...

Chef Gabriel said I had the idea of the cuts. It was really a generic critique. I basically just need to get my sizes in order and consistency. Of course, the parsley wasn't fine enough, but whatever.

VERY Rough...

Lunch broke up the day. My chicas and I decided to go to Wendy's- the first place we went out together. How sappy! It was cool though, of course they teased me about how messy I am.

After lunch, we added our mirepoix and got to work on Velouté making. The Assistant J scooped us gelatinous globs of stock and said 'I'll give you a little extra because I like you." Giggle. We cooked the stock to a liquid, made our clarified butter, and gathered flour to start our roux. Remember, Velouté is just pale roux and stock.

I make a nice roux and M says she'd hire me to work in her kitchen. Yeah right. I'M going to be the one with the restaurant kitchen, ha! When it came to Velouté making… eh…

My Velouté was way too thick, I figured that much. It did taste pretty good, though. I had no idea what I was doing wrong because it kept reducing into nothing. For my practical, I knew I couldn't mess up and I swore I would find out what happened.

After the stocks finished, they were strained. Mine was a little cloudy, but the flavor was amazing.

It was clean up time, and that's when J, the assistant, reminded us the importance of being a team. Everyone helps out in the kitchen and no one leaves until everyone can. We were family in a manner of speaking.

After clean-up, Chef Gabriel took us through more smallwares and dismissed us.

Adrenaline kicked in at the oddest of times. I felt ready to take on the world… I felt ready to take one of the most important exams of my life.

One. More. Week.

Could I handle it?

Mother Sauces

Are we going to survive final practicals?

We got a surprise this morning. Chef Loving came back! He actually taught us the entire day. Remember I told you about the confusion because there are two different chefs teaching us? Well, the struggle, guys, is real.

I've become addicted after a while. Eye twitches, commence.

He wanted us to make another stock because he didn't see us make it last time. The problem with this is that repeating things we did the week before, we don't have time for new things. How on earth were we going to get ready for practicals in one week? Remember how to make stock, guys? No? Here goes:

• Get your tons of chicken meat with bones (mostly bones) and your chicken feet . I don't remember the amount. I want to say 4 lbs?
• Rinse the nasty blood off those bad boys.
• Place in your stock pot and fill the water up to two inches above the meat. Bring to a light simmer. A LIGHT SIMMER guys. DO NOT BOIL STOCK EVER AT ALL.
• If necessary, skim all of the skum (that weird foamy gunk that floats to the top but don't skim the fat yet).
• Let simmer for at least five hours.
• Add your standard or white mirepoix (2 parts onion or leek or a mixture of both, 1 part carrot or parsnips or a mixture, 1 part celery or celeriac root or a mixture) and your loose (without the sachet part)  sachet d'Épices (we are going to call this a sachet from now on but remember it's parsley stems, whole peppercorns, a sprig of thyme, and a bay leaf). Let all of that simmer for at least an hour.

• Remove the stock from heat, strain (try with a china cap (metal triangular strainer) and a cheesecloth). Skim the fat off the top  before using.

While the stocks cooked lightly simmered, Chef Loving did a demo of all five mother sauces.

Beautiful Mother Sauce Photo Comes From Here.

Velouté, Béchamel, Espagnole, Tomato,  and Hollandaise. I didn't get to try the Velouté. Remember the foreign guy I told you I'm worried about? He doesn't understand that double-dipping is a sin. The Béchamel was delicious. It was like the start of an Alfredo, but without the cheese. The Hollandaise was disgusting! I know people like that, but to me it tasted like sour, lemony mayo. And I HATE mayo! The tomato sauce was delicious, as expected. The Espagnole wasn't memorable. In fact, I don't remember how it tasted, but I know it wasn't one of my favorites.

After lunch, (we chose McDonald's), we added our mirepoix, and once the stock was finished, we reserved a quart to use for sauce making the next week. You'll find out later that was a waste.

We practiced knife cuts again and apparently we wasted a ton. I have no idea how we square things  like a freaking potato off WITHOUT a ton of waste. Chef Loving shamed us and blatantly told us we were his messiest section EVER and that he would FAIL us for being messy and having a ton of waste.

This is the waste of the four of us. It's 'edible waste' though which means it can be used for mirepoix.

After feeling like children, we cleaned together and stood for our lecture of smallwares and what would be on the exam:

Herb and Spice Identification

Small and Large Equipment ID

Written Exam

Knife Cuts

Stock Grading

Velouté Making

Practicals were the next week. I was nervous, but I knew I would make it through. Our group decided we would go to H's house to practice a Velouté and study. We studied for a little bit, but the night was marked by my first visit to The Cheesecake Factory.