Practical exams for advanced food prep were yesterday. I made chicken fricassee, a fresh potato/parsley hash brown and asparagus spears with walnuts and lemon. The meal was terrific with a couple of exceptions: my chicken fricassee was undercooked! I was mortified when Tom sliced into it and it was blood red. I wanted to take it away but the chef/instructors soldiered on. It seems that doneness is but one element of the three dishes upon which I was tested. The walnuts were overtoasted and bitter, not a good addition to asparagus.
On the plus side, my skills are solid. My sauce was perfect and the fresh potato/parsley hash brown blew the instructors away.
The meal was fine, nothing fancy, but it had good flavors and textural variety.
Unfortunately, I lowered my score by attempting the culinary equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. I put grated Gruyere cheese on the asparagus. The shreds of cheese looked like uncooked potato and the cheese added nothing to the dish. It seems that cooking is a lot like writing eliminate any ingredient (or words) that don’t enhance the finished product.
I probably scraped through with a high B.