Day 4 - The Dishes Begin

Today we got our first chance to display the culinary expertise we've learned in the last three days. My first dish was Glazed Carrots. Besides being graded on presentation and taste, the dish was also graded on the cut of the carrot, the quality of the al dente, the quality and consistency of the glaze. Well I did great on the taste, the cut and the al dente but my glaze was too thin.

I'm not sure what my grade was on the Glazed Carrots but Chef Reyes said it was a very good start. Oh and the carrots were very tasty.

Our second dish of the day was Vichyssoise. It's basically a cold leek, onion and potato soup. This dish required much more cooking time and I don't think I gave it the proper amount of cooking time because my final product again was a little too thin. Flavor, chilliness and presentation were all excellent (notice the chive K for Kitchen Academy) so Chef Perez was overall very happy with my work today.

Would have I loved to hit a home run out of the gate? Sure. But overall I'm very happy with my first two dishes. We were told by both chefs that our class was one of the better classes they have taught in the last 2 years. I didn't see any scores that were lower than a 16 out of 20.

Tomorrow we tackle Mayonnaise, Sauteed Spinach and Haricots Verts Amandine and by the way: I'm having a blast.