advanced garde manger

Another three weeks down, three more weeks to go! I finished my last class "Advanced Garde Manger" last week with a bang! We learned how to make sushi. It was delicious, but I think I would still rather just go out for sushi. Variety is one of the things I look for in sushi, and it's just too expensive to achieve at home if you don't have a lot of people to feed.




Going back to the first week, we worked with a lot of meat (mainly sausage-making). I'll just say, that I never want to work with that much meat again.

We finished off our little "sausagefest" with a BBQ buffet.

Our salt dough center-piece
Another group's salt dough center-piece

Week 2 was probably everyone's least favorite. Not only did we have to deal with a lot of meats, but the food that we produced seemed almost inedible. However, we did get to work with a lot of powdered gelatin. My favorite part was making the Chaud Froid platter. My design was inspired by the Solar System.

And here we have the Chicken Gallantine, Vegetable Terrine, and Pate en Croute:

These cold meat concoctions and the vegetables coated with balsamic gelatin are definitely NOT kosher.

And for our last week, besides the sushi, we also made one of my favorite dishes since my time in culinary school: Insalata Caprese (Caprese Salad)

I know the ingredients (heirloom tomatoes, mozarella, basil, spinach, and a balsamic vinaigrette) were quite simple, but it was extremely refreshing and tasty.

We also pickled a few things and made an antipasti platter.

I'm not sure if you guys can tell the difference, but I got myself a new camera for Christmas! Hopefully the pictures come out better. I sure can tell the difference!

I can't believe I'm in my last three weeks of culinary school. After that, I will be doing an externship for 6 weeks, and then I have my graduation ceremony in April. It is going to fly by like no other!

Right now, I'm in the middle of setting up an externship at Providence with the head chef at our school. I was quite honored when my Advanced Garde Manger chef approached me about it, because Providence looks AMAZING. It's unpaid, but the experience alone would be awesome. More updates on that later! I'm super excited for what's to come! =]

sweet

Hello everyone! I hope you had a delicious holiday season!

I know this is a little late, but the last class I completed was Advanced Baking and Pastries. I really loved the first week of it! The next two weeks were ok, but making truffles, marshmallows, and toffee is not the most exciting thing to do. This class confirmed that I definitely want to go into more pastries after school. So here are some photos from the class:

Banded Chocolate Mousse Cake

Charlotte Royale (looks like a brain to me)

Crepes Suzette

Frozen Souffle

Creme Brulee (my chocolate writing is not the greatest)

Chocolate Pot de Creme w/ Earthquake Cookies


Candy Platter

L'opera Cake

Sacher Torte

Reduced Sugar Apple Spice Cake

Making Truffles

Truffle and Toffee Platter

Flan w/ Sugar Cage

As with all my classes/dishes, there are triumphs and failures. I think my favorite part was plating the desserts and playing with the sauce designs. I learned that simple is better.

I'm currently in my Advanced Garde Manger class. I will let you guys know how that goes!

As for now, I have to look for a restaurant job to fulfill my externship requirement. I plan on staying at the restaurant I get hired into for a little while if all things go well. Wish me luck!