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.

Oops, I did it again - je suis stupide.... !

Oops, I did it again...... ! Yes, another burn. This time on my left hand, 3 fingers. I was pretty shaken after it happened and was sent outside to get some fresh air. Merde! It hurts.
Mark helped me to put some 'Biogaze'on it, and that is just super stuff. It cools down the blister/burn and relaxes the skin.

Two petite pictures....

I'm OK now, it doesn't really hurt any more. Thank you.

I'll update the burn counter on the blog.... 1 burn on the thumb, 3 on the index finger and 3 on my middle finger (one really long one!) = score of 7 for the counter.

Back on track, 'study', ze butcher is here, written exam today, beer

This blog update is about today, yes, I'm back on track again!
Today, Wednesday, we had the morning off (to study for the written exam), we had the butcher visiting chopping up a lamb, then the written exam and FINALLY beer.

I studied a bit this morning and went to the cafe, eh, to school at 11.00 hrs. Had a few coffee's with ze locals, changed into my smelly uniform and went upstairs to go to class;

Demo by Mr.Bean. Great chef. Seriously, I think he might well be the best chef in the whole school! Very precise, dedicated, knowledgeable, always willing to explain etc etc.

First, chef showed us how to make a good bearnaise sauce. We did this before in Basic Cuisine, but he showed us again because this will be our technical dish for our exam next Tuesday. Not that difficult, I think.
Then we had a visit of the butcher. He showed us how to chop-up a (big) lamb. Very interesting and an impressive performance!
some pictures:

After the butcher was finished chopping up the thing, chef made a dish with lamb and a Catalan dessert.

Then directly after this class, we did the written exam.

It wasn't that difficult and most people were ready within 30 minutes. I think I did OK, results may be in on Friday.

After the exam we went straight to the cafe and had a few pints...

Part 2; This week - Terrien's saucage, present, crayfish killing

Chef Terrien made saucages on Tuesday. They tasted good.
In the big pan: Chef T's big suacage.... oh yeah! Then a picture with the final dish and on the plate is Marc Thivet's little saucage..... Terrien made that litt;e one especially for him.

Chef also made me a small birthday dish: fritters something.

Chef doing origami for plating his creation.

Then a class with the crayfish killing and the mousselline. Levi is about to kill and Monsieur Liu made a creative mousselline..... don't know what happened here!