Shhhh, don't mention hollandaise to Brian

This week was our last week in basics, for me a bittersweet ending, for others, just bitter.
I had hoped we would see Chef Stephan again for our last class but a medical issue with a family member has seen us being taught by Chef Tony on and off over the last several weeks.  The differences between Stephan and Tony are vast in both their teaching styles as well as how they run the class.  Tony is a world weary, in the weeds hardened kind of guy.  A madman who is a below the knee amputee who broke his femur in a skiing accident this winter during a handicapped ski race, hobbles around the three story school on his crutches clutching a plastic container of iced coffee in his teeth to open the doors, is never seen without a baseball hat and still can't wait to get on his motorcycle again. 
Chef Stephan on the other hand is quiet, reserved, exacting, always seen with his chef hat on and an impeccable white coat and best of all for me he has a fabulously dry and wry sense of humour.

Lynn and I arrived as usual at the crack of dawn (an hour early) for class.  We hung out in the sun in the doorway drinking our coffee and pondering the upcoming midterm practicum and written exams. As soon as we saw Chef Tony pull up out front we knew that we were not going to see Chef Stephan today.
The last class of Basics is run differently.  We get a brief lecture on all of the mother sauces to reinforce what we learned over the 14 weeks and then we all head off to the kitchen to make the five mother sauces. 
Those trained at CIA or Johnson and Wales will scoff at one of our five sauces, but Roberta, the school director and founder,  was taught by Madeleine Kamman who had a very old school French background.  Our five mother sauces are Hollandaise, Mayonnaise, B�chamel, Veloute and Espagnole.  The controversial sauce here is Mayonnaise who many consider to be a cold small sauce of Hollandaise.  They would include a tomato sauce instead. 
The debate rages on.
There were 7 of us and 10 burners, 4 of which had stock simmering and butter clarifying.  It wasn't a pretty sight. I spent much of the time making the dark roux for my espagnole by holding my spoon in the air to get in between the shoulders of someone who was making an acidic reduction for a hollandaise and another who was trying to make her roux for her bechemel.  Here is an attempt to capture the stove scene for you, I obviously needed to be 3 feet taller.

Chef Tony was trying to make some of us break our sauces so that during the practicum we would know how to fix them. 
For poor Sharon he dumped all of his oil into his mayonaise at once, Heather had hydrolysis in her espagnole and needed to use an alternative starch to fix it, she also made 'scrambled eggs' twice when trying to make her hollandiase, but in the end everyone made it through unscathed. 

Do me a favour, just don't mention the word Hollandaise to Brian okay?

While we were all shoving and kicking and spitting at each other to get our sauces out, our T.A.'s were busy making us lunch.  Yea, they had to cook for us, alas, we had to do all the dishes.  Ah well.

They made grilled steaks,  a nice sauce made from our espagnole, grilled asparagus, using our b�chamel they made some bitchin scalloped potatoes and then they made a chocolate mousse for dessert.  We just won't mention the wild mushrooms that they forgot to cook. 

Here we all are tucking in, Tony even got us a bottle of wine to share.

One of the tough things about going to such an accelerated program is we don't all get to do each technique.  We 'see' it done by someone in the class, and we are expected to know how to execute all of the techniques for our practicum, but ultimately we are expected to practice on our own.  I have been doing this all along and can make mayonnaise, hollandaise, veloute and b�chamel without blinking an eye.
Braises?
No problem.
Dry poaching?
Been there, done that.
Pilaf?
Pffffft.

Baking is my nemesis.  I have been practicing though.
I've made semi puff pastry and lemon curd

Last week I made a chocolate genoise with a buttercream frosting.

Here she is:

Friday night I thought I would attempt another savory souffl�.  I had not made one since week one.

Here it is:

Now I need to get all my notes together.  I will publish in a seperate post our study sheets so you can have a laugh.  I need to practice Danish as this could well appear and ughhhh(!) a Bavarian.
I'm gonna be a busy girl.

Comments

[Grommie]

A little chef reminder: cooking is an art and baking is a science. Use good recipes to bake and follow instructions implicitly.

[Karan]

What's next in cooking school?
and
Where's Brian...gotta ask him about that Hollandaise....

[Ryan F. ONeil]

"I need to practice Danish"

Oh, my, I am dense: "Why would they need to know a Scandanavian languague for their Basics class?" Sigh. Good luck with the practicum!

[Air Jordan]

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art. Do you agree?

[pinnacle security]

The culinary mecca of the region. No doubt on its elegant flavors.