I know, I have a whole month to catch up on.  Since International class, I had Advanced Garde Manger, and now i’m down in my restaurant practical.  Today is my final final black box test at 12:30 today so I actually had the morning off.

I’ll let you know how that all goes, but the good news is that I’m done on Friday and I have my externship set up at Jake’s Grill in Portland, right across the street from school.   www.jakesgrill.com

Region:  China, Japan

Soup:  Hot & Sour Soup

App:  Sushi Roll with Salmon, Salmon Nigiri

Salad:  Snow Peas and Tomato Sushi

Entree:  Seared Beef Filet and Red Onion Sushi

Dessert:  Rice Pudding

Drink:  Oolong Tea

Region:  Indonesia, Thai, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Pakistan

Since John’s Mom is from Vietnam, we focused on that theme, but I did my favorite Lumpia from the Phillipines which remind me of my old roommate Cecile who’s from there and made them for me.

Soup:  Beef Pho

App:  Lumpia

Salad:  Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Entree:  Banh Xao

Dessert:  Tapioca Pearls in Coconut Cream

Drink:  Coconut Juice with grass jelly (don’t ask)

Region:  North America, Central America, Caribbean, South America

Theme:  Mexico

Soup:  Tortilla Soup

App:  Guacamole

Salad:  Caribbean Fruit Salad

Entree:  Mole Poblano (Chicken in Chocolate Sauce)

Dessert:  Vanilla Ice Cream with Mango and Chili Powder

Drink:  Coffee with Cinammon, Clove and Orange Zest

My team is myself, Justin, John and John

Region:  North and South Europe

Soup:  Acordas

App:  Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Salad:  We mistakingly made a Caeser forgetting that it’s from Mexico and not the region we were in today.  It was hilarious

Entree:  Paella, which I did with clams, mussels, chorizo and chicken

Drink:  Sangria

Dessert:  Orange Mousse

I started my 2nd week of this class a few days ago and it’s one of the best classes.  We have Chef Franz as our instructor who was a chef for 45 years, hails from Austria and is very very experienced.  He brings a wealth of knowledge to this class and it’s an honor to have him.

This class is a bit different than others because it is up to us to decide what we want to cook each day.  The class is broken down into 5 teams, each at a different table each day.  Each table is also broken down into 5 different regions of the world.  We rotate tables everyday so that we have to cook from a different region, and we’ll do each region about 3 times.  We have to plate and present a soup, appetizer, entree, salad, drink and dessert EVERYDAY and we get to decide what our menu is going to be.

I will do a seperate post of the menu’s that we did each day.

So, my intro to baking and pastry was absolutely no knowledge of doughs or pies or anything.  But it was one class that I was extremely excited to take.  Our Chef instructor was Chef Peter, who’s also the dean of the school and very knowledgeable about all things baking.  Our class was the same group that I had Garde Manger with so we were all really enjoying ourselves and making Chef Peter a happy guy.  Our finished products were all turning out well, our breads were rising and our puff pastry dough turned out really great with all 1,000 + layers looking perfect.  This dough took us about 3 days to do because of all the laminating that occurs, which is the folding and stretching process, not applying a plastic layer around it.

Here’s some of the things I made:  Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Tart with a technique on top to get the design called Feathering, Puff Pastries, Finished Production items for the day, and a brioche dough shaped into a sun.  We actually added Gruyere Cheese to the dough then covered it with a spicy salt blend of salt, cayenne and pepper.

I know, i know, i’m way behind….i had summer break the week of Aug. 11-15 and didn’t touch the computer once.  I have lots to update you all on but i have to get a paper done now for class tomorrow.  I promise to get all updates in this week, hopefully by Wednesday.

Today was our black box final and I got 14.8 out of 15!!  We had to plate a salad and an appetizer using all of the following ingredients at least once:  scallops, romaine, asiago cheese, shitake mushroom, heirloom cherry tomatoes, green beans.

I did a caeser salad with an asiago chip as the garnish, homemade croutons and made the caeser dressing.  It turned out perfect.  I got 15 out of 15 on that.

Then I pan-seared the scallops that had a rub on it of paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper.  I plated this with a greenbean/tomato salad that was tossed with a champagne-mustard vinaigrette, the sauce was creme fraiche and my garnish was the shitake mushroom that I tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper then quickly pan-seared it to sit on top of the scallops.  She took off .5 on this plate because I should have used more creme fraiche on the plate since it balanced the cool with the spice of the scallop.  So between those 2 averaged out, I ended up with 14.8.

Tomorrow all we have left is our written final and then we get to make sandwiches in the kitchen and plate them with our potato salad and coleslaw we made yesterday.

Lisa is getting me at school at noon then I fly home to Belleville for summer break to hang out with my family at 2:00 tomorrow.

This week is already almost over, which means that tomorrow is our blackbox final and then Friday is our written final.  And another class is over and we’re off for a week for summer break.

Today I won my semifinal in the Mayo race and i’m in the final tomorrow with my pal Justin. I have pics and video from one of my classmates of the race and i’ll upload them here as soon as I get them.

I am going to study now and going to see Dolly Parton…yes Dolly Parton, on Thursday night!!!  I’m very excited.  Lisa not so much, but she’s going to go with me.

I’m headed home to Belleville on Friday so i’ll get this blog updated with photos, videos and recipes next week.