Stuffed lamb, super demo by Philippe C.and fish practical

Today was a 3 lesson-day. Not too bad. At the moment, everybody is tired. You can see it in their eyes, the way they react to things, people skipping classes, etc.

The end is near... today was lesson 27 I think, only 2 more to go and on Tuesday our final practical exam.

In a way this course was more intensive compared to the first 'basic'one. the speed is much higher, although I di'dn't learn that much new things. 30 demo's and 30 practicals in just 5 weeks is pretty intensive indeed!

Well, today started off in the cafe - not a bad start, as ususal. 2 espresso's, a nice chat and off to school around the corner.

Part 1.
Practical: Big piece of lamb (cut it, debone it, trim it, fat off etc) we had to stuff with raisins, dades, dried fruit and season the thing with olive oil and herbs. Sounds good! As a sidedish we made couscous with fruits/nuts/tomatos. And a jus from the (lamb) bones of course.
When I took out the sautee pan from the oven at 200C and left it on the stove, I decided to wash my hands quickly.... when I returned, I moved the pan a bit to the side - oops, too late... that was hot! @%#*& !!
Chef Clergue was supervising our class. He's our superchef; He's honest about the results, whether it's edible or crap, he tells you how to improve and he actually gives you tips how you can change things. Nice man.

And we had to make our technical dish that we are also making at the exam. A Bearnaise sauce. Not difficult, but a tricky sauce. It consists of herbs, a reduction of vinegar/white wine, yolks, a bit of water and clarified butter. It can go wrong fairly quickly. The sauce can split or be overcooked easily. I think I did OK.

Levi working on the couscous.

Damien plating-up.

Then our demo at 12.30; Chef Philippe in charge again. Personally, I think he's the best chef in the whole school, I've already said that before.
Today, we were in for a fantastic demo. Very full program, and chef was working at full speed. And, when he had some sort of quiet moment during the demo (stirring in a pot or so) he would discuss the wines that would go with these dishes. Great guy!

Starter: Salmon (forgot the details.. sorry)
Mains: Fish in a salt/bread crust with beurre blanc and vegetable 'pizza'
dessert: walnut tart and icecream

The main course was a lot (and I mean a lot) of chopping vegetables. And making dough for the crust and for the side dish, some sort of vegetable pizza. I've never seen a fish being baked in this dough/salt combination. I always do it in only a course salt/eggwhite mixture. The advantage of this new mixture is that it seals off the fish completely - no air can get in or out during cooking in the oven. He did a SUPER demo and his presentation of the dishes was fabulous.
Just the pictures:

seabream still in the salt/bread crust.

Fillet of seabream

starter with salmon/salad part1

dessert

starter with salmon/salad part2

encore dessert

After this, we had our fish practical. We could work in pairs, so that saved us a lot of time with all the vegetables chopping , gutting fish, making dough etc.

Chef Xavier was in charge during the practical. Two of us were knackered and didn't show for this pretty exhausting practical (but I wished the never smiling always whining bitchy agressive atmosphere spoiling and probable very unsuccesful ex-cagefighter and kicked-out-of-the-army bitch with a shit attitude wouldn't show, but no, unfortunately she was there... sucking-up to chef again; oops,sorry!). In the end the practical was not that bad....

The results:

Rafaele with his bread/salt crust fish. And James' fish also.

good job, I think.

My fish plate.

Chef Xavier Cotte discussing the results with petit chef Damien. Chef always gave us good and honest feedback - very nice. That's exactly what we want to hear.