I did the worst thing possible…something I promised myself I would never ever do. The regret I feel is monumental, but unfortunately there's no turning back. I have done something so terrible that it has ruined my life; I will never be the same. I have watched "Food Inc."
"Food Inc." is not your average documentary. The producers go undercover in the United States' food industry, from beef processing facilities to corn fields and from McDonald's kitchen to the Perdue chicken coops. It wasn't incredibly gruesome – no bloody headless chickens spraying salmonella everywhere or human fingers falling into the meat grinder; it was, however, very psychologically horrid. The things that are said, or not said for that matter (as most of the huge companies refused to comment) are very upsetting. The choices I make for my own family are my own business, but I really think you should see it if you haven't already. Things are not great in the food industry, and you absolutely must understand what you're eating and feeding your body. You may choose to do nothing about it, but you owe it to yourself to at least understand.
Moving on. We watched the film after taking our Level 2 written exam, a comprehensive test on the entire craziness of the past 6 weeks. I got sidelined by a pastry question, since that felt like so long ago, but did really well overall on the test. We had a lot of time to hang around afterwards before starting our practical in the big kitchens downstairs, hence how I was forced into watching that terribleness.
After dinner, we went downstairs to the ground floor kitchens, right next to the restaurant, and got set up for our practical exam. It's a very different environment down there – we're shoved in right next to each other, elbow to elbow and back-to-back, and since we don't know where anything is kept are left to run around like crazy picking up ingredients and clean bowls. First, we cooked a recipe of crème anglaise, a delicious vanilla sauce. It is a very fickle sauce that is pretty difficult to make, so I'm glad I got that over with in the beginning. It involves blanchiring egg yolks and sugar, or whisking them together until they turn pale and creamy, and adding boiling vanilla milk slowly, careful not to curdle the yolks. The whole thing is then put back on the stove and it is cooked slowly until it's at the perfect consistency, slightly thickened yet not grainy. It sounds easy, but the problem with this delicious sauce is that the egg yolks curdle within mere seconds, and once they do the entire thing is ruined. It's tricky, because you have to pay very close attention to the minute changes in the sauce and monitor the temperature, and then quickly strain it onto an ice bath to stop the cooking. I was so afraid I'd go too far and curdle the entire thing that I stopped a little too early, I think, but it's better to be safe than sorry. We then had to whip up a batch of crème Chantilly, or just vanilla whipped cream. The trick was that we had to make enough, or whip the cream well enough, to be able to pipe it out into 24 different shapes. I was originally worried that I wouldn't have enough because I couldn't stop dipping my fingers into it and tasting it, for science's sake of course (don't tell Chef), but I turned out to have plenty. I'm rocking this whole whipping thing…maybe I should do it by hand every time instead of using my beautiful new KitchenAid!...........yea right.
Finally, we had 15 minutes total to peler a vif an orange (slice off the pith so it's just flesh) and extract the supremes and also create 8 cocottes (little footballs) out of one potato. I wasn't worried about the orange, that's easy. In fact, I taught Steve how to do it and he's now the Citrus Fruit Pith Removal and Supreme Extraction King. It was the cocottes I was worried about, and was fighting like crazy to shape and sculpt those stupid little footballs out of a small Idaho potato – not the easiest thing in the world. In the end I was extremely proud of what I had produced - the best cocottes I'd ever made. Even though it's all about the total exam score, I don't think I did too terribly.
Friday, it's on to a new kitchen with a brand new Chef. Gone are the days of Chef Phil's hilarious stories, Chef Ray's calm guidance and the liberties of trying new recipes in a learning environment where mistakes are welcomed. Level 3 is all about time and precision a.k.a. it's going to be a war zone. I better press my uniform and polish my shoes…I have a feeling I'm being shipped off to boot camp tomorrow.
Hey Jackie, did you rent that movie? I want to see it.
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