These are my improved knife cuts. All of this done in 20 minutes. That is the standard we need for tomorrow’s midterm practical test. In the two hour time allotment we also have to perform other various cooking tasks. There are four different tests we might end up with. An example of one follows:
-make a baguette from scratch
-debone a chicken
-make a hollandaise sauce
-do all the shown knife cuts (1/4 cup of brunoise rutabaga, julienne carrots, small dice potato, turned zucchini)
-make a demi-glace derivative sauce called chasseur (this requires chopping some veggies, caramelizing them, reducing a brown veal stock and then finally preparing the sauce which contains tomato, mushrooms and parsley in it)
-cook one breast of chicken with crispy skin
-present chicken breast on a bed of hot julienne of carrot and leek with sauce
All the recipes have to be memorized. All we can come to school with is a list of the order we will perform the tasks in. Sounds like a challenge…I’ll see how it goes tomorrow.