Physiology of Taste - The Final

Today's final consisted of three parts.
The first component was to taste the dish that Chef had prepared for us before school started. After a thorough tasting we had to describe the various elements and tastes that we experienced as we sampled the dish that consisted of a meat, sauce, vegetable, starch and a fruit. We had to reference the 14 tastes we had explored over the past few days.
The meat portion of the dish Chef made was the same recipe from the book I choose to do for my final so I was familiar with the ingredients. Some of the side dishes, however, I were not familiar with so my taste buds were challenged.

The next part of the final was a blind tasting of various herbs, spices and flavors.
I did not do as well as I thought I would. It is very hard hard to put a name to a smell and taste that you can not see.
A humbling experience.

The last part of the final was the main entree that I had to prepare using the provided ingredients.

Grilled Stuffed Pork Chop w/ Celery, Mustard and Cumin
Served over a Mulled Apple Cider and Mustard Reduction
Topped with a Hash of Prosciutto, Apple and Turnips
Shoe string style Sweet Potato Fries
Sauteed Cabbage Slaw

I was pretty confident about this seeings how I had made up a few different dishes with these ingredients for our friends the Taylor's. Virginia, a chef in her own right and David, palate extraordinaire have been our dear friends for more years than I can count. David and my husband go back to second grade and Virginia and I have shared a love for cooking, family, and fun from the time we met. She is my mentor and inspiration. She came over early and we played around with three pork dishes, some turnip recipes and some sauces. David, my husband Eric and daughter, Ryan waited patiently with knife and fork. They all gave the thumbs up to the stuffed pork.
I could have done better. My Sweet potato fries were a bit overdone and my cabbage was so so. I thought my pork chop was better than my practice round though, so I hung on to that.
I got a 45 out of 50.
I was a little disappointed but who has time to dwell on imperfection?
I do but I'm learning not to.

Goodnight