Thursday, April 22, 2010

Wednesday, 4/21/10 – Level 3 Day 3 (Garde Manger)

It was a hard night in the world of simulated-restaurant-situation appetizers and salads. So hard, in fact, that we threw in the towel…several times. Seriously, we literally threw in the towel that was used to wipe up the massive spills and mess that we created in such a short time. Our station looked like a war zone – there was cheesecloth soaked in an unidentified brown liquid stuck to the flat top, tomato scraps and seeds shoved under my cutting board and a pile of metal bowls taller than my hair con
bump-it. We were late on both dishes, which was very disappointing because we were doing so well all night up until the last five frantic minutes. Sure, it is only our third day, but the two dishes seemed so easy at first.

Our first dish was a consommé made with veal stock. A consommé, if you remember from Level 1, (Eh? Eh?) is a clarified and fortified stock soup that is served with miniature cubes of mixed vegetables. The process of clarification kind of sounds like a joke: 1. Hand-mix ground beef, egg whites, chopped tomatoes and raw julienned leeks, carrots and celery in a bowl. 2. Slowly add the warm veal stock, then put it all back into a large stockpot and bring to a slow simmer, stirring. 3. A "raft" of the cooked meat and eggs will form on the top, and you help to form it into a doughnut with a wooden spoon and ladle. 4. After simmering for an hour, ladle the clear soup through the middle of the raft and strain through cheesecloth. Wow, that is gross. Consommé has such a rich and warm flavor, though, and it's perfectly clear from the extensive clarification process, making the little vegetable cubes stick out. It is served incredibly hot, often in a side pitcher (in those fancy establishments) and poured over the vegetables in front of the diner. Our dish was seasoned well and overall pretty good except that the green beans were undercooked. Not the end of the world, but hearing that criticism out of a tall French man's mouth (Chef Marc again) makes it seem life-ending.

Our second dish was not as great. Sure, a poached egg on a bed of vegetable cubes covered in hollandaise sounds easy. Piece of cake! We'll just take our time poaching eggs, arranging vegetables onto the plates like little obnoxious round pillows. We've got all the time in the world to make the hollandaise! Go, grab a drink and use the restroom, we're walkin' on sunshine here. WRONG. The dream sequence ends here. Before we knew it, we were 10 minutes from go-time, hadn't yet reheated the eggs and hadn't even started the hollandaise, therefore losing all possibility of it being the creamy, runny, warm delicacy it's supposed to be. We ran out of time, understandably so, and…I'll just say this – when we presented, Chef rolled his eyes and said, "Oh yum, cold poached eggs with mayonnaise." Ouch. I ate a little bit of it – he was being kind.

It's the curse of garde manger, I swear! The last group in our position got verbally reamed in front of everyone, and the station behind us had to re-do their consommé two times! What is it about appetizers and salads that stress us out? We've survived organ meats, finicky pastries, precisely cut carrot cubes and killing innocent crustaceans*, yet we cannot serve a complete hollandaise or a hot poached egg? It's like we're regressing from the progress and ladder-climbing we've been doing over the past 3 months. I only hope we can pull it together before our midterm. But hey, you can't be too hard on yourself; maybe we're letting the pressure take hold of us, and we should just relax and get to work. Easier said than done, but I plan on showing that Salade Nicoise who's boss on Friday.

*among many other untold tales of love and loss

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