On one hand, it was great to be back in a school environment, learning things in a dedicated education zone, as opposed to sucking all the knowledge that you can while you're on the job and treading water. On the other hand, it actually made me miss working in proper restaurants, where you get the thrill of the chase... that rush of service, and the simple pride from putting out plates of individually presented dishes. We get to do a bit of that when functions are on, and there's a little more freedom (and budget) to play with. I'm seriously considering getting an outside hospo job once I move off base, just to stay in touch with the real world. Even if it's only serving food, it's good to be in a slightly less homogenous working atmosphere.
Fortunately, unlike Chisholm where we couldn't take photos of our work because we weren't allowed to take valuables such as phones and cameras to TAFE, I had my camera along for the ride. Unfortunately, I was mostly busy cooking or helping to plate up dishes in our four-person team, so our tutor had to take photos for us, and I didn't go into much detail over how to use my camera properly. Some pictures are better than none at all, I figure!
Scallop and blue eyed cod boudin blanc served on baby spinach with a seafood reduction and balsamic dressing. I didn't realise that there was another way to have sausage on the menu without all the bad connotations that the mere word 'sausage' brings. I think we all got sick of the taste of this by the end of the week, it's basically white fishy mush with a bit of dill, cream and Pernod that's gone through enough steps to look like a sausage. About the only thing it's got going for it is that it's not your typical snag made with random intestine or questionable skin/contents! To me, a dish like this just doesn't scream anything amazing. Actually, it seems like the yuppie food equivalent of mutton dressed as lamb.
Roulade of Atlantic salmon with shiitake mushrooms and beurre rouge on a bed of rocket. This was actually quite tasty in the end, after a few modifications we made to the original idea. Version one involved rolling the salmon fillet around a farce, which was some of the boudin blanc mix from above. We thought that diners should get something more surprising (read: different to the first course) when they got to the centre of the roulade, so a bit of baby spinach was rolled into the middle for contrasting colour, texture, and flavour. The beurre rouge looked dramatic on the plate (you can't really tell from the photos), and tasted fantastic as well.
Duck breast filled with apple and raisins on buttered zucchini noodles and carrot confit. This was by far my favourite dish that we made. I'm guessing that the adjective 'stuffed' is another one of those clumsy menu words, even though we all know what it is and what it means. Duck is always something special in my culinary world, and this is probably just a result of me being psychologically tuned to know that duck doesn't come into one's life very often, so when it does, one must definitely take time to appreciate it. Even the zucchini and carrot were tasty, and they were just there to boost the duck!
Braised ox-tail wrapped in crepinette on soft polenta and petit legumes. I've been a fan of ox-tail ever since being brought up on my Dad's ox-tail soup, which seldom failed to make me feel better whenever I had it. Seeing how it all came together in the crepinette was interesting too, as I've only ever seen crepinette used on a Marco Pierre White video, if I recall correctly. So I thought it was crazy out-there fancy French stuff, and it probably is, but now that I've seen it done and tasted the results, it's actually simpler than it looks. I've never loved turning vegetables, and don't see the point in turning them, no matter how cute they look... just think of the wastage! This dish has to win the quiet achiever award... it seems quite unassuming, but is actually packed with flavour. Slow cooking does indeed have its merits.
The dessert plate was actually a trio of vanilla bean pannacotta, mini corella pear tart, and milk chocolate 'millefeuille' with honeycomb cream, but we were a bit rushed getting it out, and the camera was somewhat forgotten by then. I think the coolest thing about desserts was seeing honeycomb get made (Mister Hart, what a mess!). We spent most of a day playing with chocolate and made moulded chocolates, as well as filled chocolates. The above is a shot of my chocolate sculpture, made from simple shapes and the assistance of some rings and silicone/rubber 'noodles' used as moulds. I think it looks sort of like an obscure awards ceremony trophy. You can't really tell, but there's a heck of a lot of chocolate there - the base is about 2.5cm thick with a 15cm diameter, and the whole thing stands around 25cm high. Those curvy bits are around 2cm thick, but the balls are more like Easter egg thickness. Consider it an award for Most Amount Of Chocolate Eaten In A Single Week Without Being Physically Ill!
We'll see if it makes it through the weekend. :)
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