It seems like the chocolate exam was a million years ago, mostly because we had so little time to practice and so much has happened since it's come and gone. I think there is a photo of our groups sculptures together someplace, but I didn't have time to snap one of mine. We had two hours to temper dark chocolate, make a box and a decoration for the top.
Tempering chocolate is a tedious and, well, temperamental process. You have heat the chocolate over a hot water bath to 45-degrees Celsius, cool it to 27 over an ice bath, and heat it back up to 32. It has to stay between 30-34 the entire time you work with it. This temperature curve manipulates the cocoa butter, the alpha, beta & gamma crystals...blah, blah, blah. A degree or two off, it's ruined. A drop of water, it's ruined. The wind blows the wrong way, it's ruined. (Not really.) Done correctly, the result is a shiny piece of chocolate that has no marbling, resists fingerprints and snaps when you bite into it. It's a messy process and none of my group were blown away by our results. We had just finished our cuisine atelier and didn't have too much left over in the creativity department. Not to mention we only had one session to practice. Alas, it's over and no one made a disaster out of it!
Now, it's full steam ahead with our sugar sculpture and cuisine final exam preparation. For the sugar sculpture, we heat different variations of sugar, water, glucose and tartaric acid to make poured and pulled sugar. The sculpture must include at least one flower with leaves. Working with sugar at these temperatures (over 300-degrees Fahrenheit) is like handling hot lava. Dangerous, yes. We wear gloves to minimize blisters and burns. I feel as though my creative energy is tapped...but I'm trying to come up with something unique to make up for the chocolate bore. To be perfectly honest, I am so distracted by the list for cuisine, it's hard to focus on what kind of flower would wow the jury.
Speaking of the cuisine exam list...it's amazing. Chef Terrien, the "Chef of the Chefs" at LCB--the head honcho--presented the list to us. He said that overall they have been pleased with our group and wanted to create an interesting list from which we will create our menu. The rules are: 4 hours to complete 4 amuse bouche in a shot glass, 4 main dishes and the presentation for each must be identical. The amuse must be vegetarian. The main will have one composed garnish, one simple garnish and one stuffed vegetable. We must write out our recipes, techniques and draw a diagram of our plate to present to the chef, and this must be in French.
Chef Terrien had a basket full of the ingredients on our list so we could see the general size of everything we will have and talked about each one:
*1 free-range guinea fowl
4 very thin slices of Pancetta
*100 g fresh duck foie gras
1 chicken breast
*300 g hericot vert
*1/2 bunch of new spring onions
*300 g fresh Paimpol white beans
1 red bell pepper
300 g cantaloupe
2 zucchini
2 long eggplants
4 small vine-ripened tomatoes
2 plum tomatoes
*4 fresh figs
150 g cultivated mushrooms
1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 bunch basil
*50 g rocket
50 g ginger root
500 g waxy potatoes
1 lemon
1 lime
phyllo pastry
brick pastry
300 ml chicken stock
grated Gruyere
agar agar
gelatin
white & red wine, Port, Vermouth, basic aeromatic veg, spices, eggs, butter, cream and the regular staples. (*required)
Foie gras, figs, cantaloupe, wow. Even guinea fowl is cool because it's so versatile. The veal tenderloin was great, but as I said before, it's a sin to do anything to it but cook it rosé in beaucoup butter. And that's what most people did. Guinea fowl is more diverse. You have white and dark meat to work with and a lot of different preparations to consider. It will be interesting to see how each of us will treat this bird.
As for me...lots of ideas but no plans as of yet. I have my meetings with the superior pastry and cuisine chefs on Wednesday. The plan is to have a menu and sculpture ideas set by then so I can get their input.
Brainstorming, research, trial and error. This is it. What we've all been waiting for : )
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