Plating (Burn, Baby, Burn!)

Unlike our other chefs, who either encouraged us to chill before class started or set up the room, Chef K encouraged us to get to work as early as we arrive. Our team all arrived early, and Stalker Kowalski and I began on the mire poix for our braised shortribs, while Squarehead took on the Foi Gras Butter and Dirty Dave trimmed fat from the ribs.

The ribs would eventually be served with soft polenta & roasted garlic puree, sweet and sour turnips. Other teams were assembling the mise for an appetizer of sea scallop carpaccio with grapefruit vinaigrette, baby mizuna salad and tobiko, and and the other entree of grilled poussin (baby chicken) with mousseline potaqtoes and carrots vichy.

The braise took a few hours, so we had to get it into the convection oven first thing. SK browned the mirepoix in one pan, and I browned the seasoned & salted ribs in another. I cranked the heat high to get a good sear going, and went well for the first three minutes -- the blink of an eye it went from deep delicious golden brown to carbony burnt. Whuh? First time I really screwed the pooch in class, and it happened so fast. Fortunately DD was able to salvage the meat by slicing off some of the black.

Wrapped 6 heads of garlic in foil after slicing the tops off, dressed in olive oil and salt, into the oven for an hour, came out perfect. Passed the cloves through a tami, kind of like a drum with a fine mesh attached, to make it a smooth puree without making it gummy, like what a food processor would do. Polenta cooked up quick with chicken stock and milk, finished with cream, butter and the garlic.

Bored, nothing to do after cleaning up our small mess, I quizzed Chef K on how to make shapes with polenta -- simple, just set in the fridge. We took a pan, filled it with a half inch, stuck in the freezer, then cut rounds that we then sauteed to make a nice contrast with the similarly shaped turnips. While sauteing a test in butter, the butter burned. Chef K comes up and makes the observation that I tend to overcook things. I said, no, just today, and DD came to my defense that today was out of character for me. I want to respect our Chef, but I just felt slightly annoyed by her lazy observation. Still, our braised ribs came out superbly, and our polenta was given high complements by Chef K.

Plating the scallops were a bit difficult, due to the sloppy slicing, reportedly done by Dora the Explorer according to her team. The first time I plated it looked a bit circusy, and I tried to wipe up the excesses of oils and roe and start over, and made a big mess -- designing on a computer, I can wipe the slate clean early on a couple of times, exploring all the wrong ways before getting it right. With a plate of food, wiping it clean is a big pain in the ass. So I did it twice, much happier than the first plate.

I browned a piece of pouisson, but the skin was already torn and the leg misshapen. Still, the pan sauce came out nice and thick and the plating not so tricky. With the ribs, the meat had to be put down first to help blockade the soft polenta, or the polenta would just stretch out over everywhere.

On a side note, DtE decided to label her equipment with nail polish, as she has had a hard time keeping track of her stuff. It's a substance that will chip and toxify food. Being that her poorly-made (and now potentially toxic) food is being shared with the entire class, I will be speaking to Chef K first thing tomorrow. If there is no action taken, I will move up the chain of command until things are made well. Oh, the drama!

ADDENDA:
Got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, but feeling run down and unfocused -- hence the burned meat. Cancelled biking plans and just took it easy and went to bed early. Watched a DVD of the German film, "Mostly Martha", on which the American Catherine Zeta-Jones vehicle, "No Reservations" was based. In the German version, when the whimisical sous chef comes over to the chef's house to charm her and her neice, he makes a very lush Mediteranean-influenced Italian meal, centered on pasta, with grilled eggplant, marinated vegetables and other colorful little dishes. In the American version, the whimsical sous chef comes over and makes....pizza. Damn bet your bibby!

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cheerios with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, mashed potatoes with braising liquid, garlic polenta, a bite of braised short ribs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 12:30am, quart of seltzer

LUNCH: 3:30pm, large green salad, 2 pretzels, ramakin of homemade mint chip ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, homemade pizza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Old dough and sauce in the freezer. Mozz looking a bit moldy, cut off the blue and added some grated parm, through on some slices of red onions from the farmer's market. As I stretched the dough with my fists, the whole spinning-the-pizza-to-stretch-the-dough thing kinda clicked, what an efficient and fast way to evenly stretch the dough while making it perfectly round. I gotta get that technique down.