I passed my final practical today!! More details to come.
Abby
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Week 26-27 of Culinary School
Week 26 of school was the end of our Asian class. We put on a lunch that we could invite guests to, which was fun. David came, of course, and got to have a delicious Japaneses meal. I was the executive chef, so I got to run around and trouble shoot for everyone and make sure everything got done.
Here are some pictures from our Japanese meal.
Week 27 you could cut the tension with in the air with a knife. Our final practical exams started Tuesday. Some people passed and some people didn’t and get another shot at it on March 4th. The test is the same format as the last semester practical, we draw our menu 30 minutes ahead of time, and have 2.5 hours to cook a fish course and a main course with veg. and starch for 4 people. Mine is on Monday, ie tomorrow, and I’m pretty much in a mild panic at all times. I have been having strange dreams and I think it’s the stress coming out in my sleep.
The class we have been in is Food and Wine Pairing for Chefs. We had presidents day off, and had a field trip (wine tasting in Sonoma) on Friday o we have really only had three days of class. We cook food to go with specific wine, and have a lot of lecture. Next week we have 2 days of class, and then a dinner on Wednesday at the restaurant at school. We get Thursday and Friday off! I cant wait to be done with my practical and have a few days off to recover! I’ll post on Monday PM or Tuesday and let everyone know how I did.
Lots of love to one and all
Abby
Here are some pictures from our Japanese meal.
Week 27 you could cut the tension with in the air with a knife. Our final practical exams started Tuesday. Some people passed and some people didn’t and get another shot at it on March 4th. The test is the same format as the last semester practical, we draw our menu 30 minutes ahead of time, and have 2.5 hours to cook a fish course and a main course with veg. and starch for 4 people. Mine is on Monday, ie tomorrow, and I’m pretty much in a mild panic at all times. I have been having strange dreams and I think it’s the stress coming out in my sleep.
The class we have been in is Food and Wine Pairing for Chefs. We had presidents day off, and had a field trip (wine tasting in Sonoma) on Friday o we have really only had three days of class. We cook food to go with specific wine, and have a lot of lecture. Next week we have 2 days of class, and then a dinner on Wednesday at the restaurant at school. We get Thursday and Friday off! I cant wait to be done with my practical and have a few days off to recover! I’ll post on Monday PM or Tuesday and let everyone know how I did.
Lots of love to one and all
Abby
Feb 16--The Ocean
Last Saturday Abby and I got up, packed a picnic lunch, and headed over to the coast for the day. We went to Bodega Bay, which is where Hitchcock filmed The Birds. We drove out onto Bodega Head and found a picnic table overlooking the water. We had a great view of the seals playing in the surf while we ate. After lunch we hiked around the head and took a few photos.
Next we drove up the coast to Fort Ross, an old Russian settlement from the 1800's. It had exhibits about the settlers and the local Indians. It was a cool place to walk around. Here's Abby by the well.
On our way back down the coast, we saw a bunch of seals sunning themselves on a beach next to the road, so we stopped to check them out. It was nice and windy there, so we decided to fly our kite, too.
All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday in the middle of February.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Week 23-25
Week 23-25
Week 23 was the end of B and P. We made some fancy decorated cakes and prepared for our practical. The practical consisted of baking 36 rolls, in two different shapes, 2 sponge cakes, 12 chocolate éclairs, and 1 pie crust. We had to make all of this and present it in 4 hours. I finished in 3 and got a 86% which was one of the highest grades in the class. This was the first practical that some of our class didn’t pass, so it was pretty intense. The girl taking the test next to me did her piecrust 3 times and didn’t have one that she wanted to turn in. She didn’t pass the test…Yikes!
Week 24
Week 24 – 26 will be my last real class, cuisines of Asia. Monday we went on a field trip to a Sake factory in Oakland, Oakland China town, and an Asian mall in Berkeley. Tuesday – Friday we did Chinese, Japanese and Korean food. The food was fun and we all really enjoyed eating all of the different foods.
Week 25 we did one more day of Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. I helped my teammate Cara kill a live crab, which was pretty interesting, and delicious when she coated it in yummy chili paste and stir-fried it. Some of the ingredients are a little weird, like dried whole itty bitty fish, dried itty shrimp, shrimp paste (which needs to be toasted before used which smokes and smells up the entire kitchen. EEwwwww!!!) and last but certainly not least fish sauce! Fish sauce is like Asia’s ketchup. It is one of those things that is ok until you find out how it is made. They take millions of whole little fish and pack them in giant open top barrels in between layers of salt. They let this ferment for 1 year bringing it outside to sit in the 95 degree heat of Thailand until it becomes juicy (eeww) and then they drain off the juice and you have …fish sauce! My chef, Chef Ken, had us make a dipping sauce for our Vietnamese food. The sauce was made from fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, chili peppers, and raw garlic. We made this sauce at 7:02 in the morning. Pre-coffee fish sauce tasting is not fair!
Besides fish sauce I was elected to be the executive chef for our last day of class restaurant project. Next Friday we are having a Japanese restaurant at our school during lunchtime. Sushi, hibachi, and tempura galore. It should be really fun.
Only 5 more weeks of school and we're selling our furniture to our co-workers. We're already thinking about the move home.
I’m off to make crepes for David for our faux Valentines Day. We made a big steak dinner last night and crepes with strawberries this morning. We both work on Thursday so we thought we would celebrate early.
Lots of love to everyone, and I cant wait to see you all soon!!!
Abby
Week 23 was the end of B and P. We made some fancy decorated cakes and prepared for our practical. The practical consisted of baking 36 rolls, in two different shapes, 2 sponge cakes, 12 chocolate éclairs, and 1 pie crust. We had to make all of this and present it in 4 hours. I finished in 3 and got a 86% which was one of the highest grades in the class. This was the first practical that some of our class didn’t pass, so it was pretty intense. The girl taking the test next to me did her piecrust 3 times and didn’t have one that she wanted to turn in. She didn’t pass the test…Yikes!
Week 24
Week 24 – 26 will be my last real class, cuisines of Asia. Monday we went on a field trip to a Sake factory in Oakland, Oakland China town, and an Asian mall in Berkeley. Tuesday – Friday we did Chinese, Japanese and Korean food. The food was fun and we all really enjoyed eating all of the different foods.
Week 25 we did one more day of Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. I helped my teammate Cara kill a live crab, which was pretty interesting, and delicious when she coated it in yummy chili paste and stir-fried it. Some of the ingredients are a little weird, like dried whole itty bitty fish, dried itty shrimp, shrimp paste (which needs to be toasted before used which smokes and smells up the entire kitchen. EEwwwww!!!) and last but certainly not least fish sauce! Fish sauce is like Asia’s ketchup. It is one of those things that is ok until you find out how it is made. They take millions of whole little fish and pack them in giant open top barrels in between layers of salt. They let this ferment for 1 year bringing it outside to sit in the 95 degree heat of Thailand until it becomes juicy (eeww) and then they drain off the juice and you have …fish sauce! My chef, Chef Ken, had us make a dipping sauce for our Vietnamese food. The sauce was made from fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, chili peppers, and raw garlic. We made this sauce at 7:02 in the morning. Pre-coffee fish sauce tasting is not fair!
Besides fish sauce I was elected to be the executive chef for our last day of class restaurant project. Next Friday we are having a Japanese restaurant at our school during lunchtime. Sushi, hibachi, and tempura galore. It should be really fun.
Only 5 more weeks of school and we're selling our furniture to our co-workers. We're already thinking about the move home.
I’m off to make crepes for David for our faux Valentines Day. We made a big steak dinner last night and crepes with strawberries this morning. We both work on Thursday so we thought we would celebrate early.
Lots of love to everyone, and I cant wait to see you all soon!!!
Abby
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