Garde Manger Banquet

Our day started early. The whole class was in the kitchen by 5:00 am. Everyone seemed fairly
calm, though we definitely had our game faces on. I felt like we had all the time in the world to get everything out and ready. The time flew by and we were cranking to put the finishing touches on our dishes and get them out on time, along with getting the kitchen cleaned up and presentable. (Thank you Laurie!)
Our guest, about 100 of our family and closest friends, along with the PCI administration staff, were expected at 10:30 to view and taste our creations.
We had prepared over a thousand "bites" from about 45 different recipes. This was on top of the terrines, galantines and mousselines. Pork bellies and grilled sausages. A Nicoise Salad platter, a Caesar Salad station, a fresh oyster station, an assortment of breads and cheeses and a scattering of desserts. We had a great turnout. Maybe a little too great. It was a feeding frenzy! The food was Houdini food. Now you see it, now you don't. All our set up and hard work was gone in a flash.




















Our party was a success.
I think Chef was proud and we were definitely a happy class.

A great day.
Goodnight.

Garde Manger - Banquet Prep

Cooling Terrines


The countdown has begun. Three days until show time. I got into class an hour early this morning, which means by 6:00 am, and made a duck consomme. This will be for one of my "small bites" - our banquet's theme - that I will serve shooter style with a mini duck won ton.
We each have anywhere from one to four small bites to prepare along with the class recipes we all have been working on. It has been interesting working as a group on this project. It can be challenging with 15 people. We are responsible for the complete planning and execution of all aspects of a banquet. We worked most of the
day on Sunday, setting up the room and deciding on the lay out of stations and our food plating plan. It was pretty painful at times, especially for the guys that were suffering from too many libations from the night before.
We got it all done. Chef wasn't about to let us go home until we had it all mapped out.

Pork Tenderloin Roulades













Forming the Chicken Galantines

We finished off the last of our galantines and terrines ,
baking them off and putting them away to chill.

Goodnight

Garde Manger - Curing and Brining

What a great day in the kitchen. (And it wasn't the Vodka) We were hopping. Chef was back to his bubbly personality and we really started to dive in to prepping for our banquet. We were extremely productive today and I think Chef is starting to gain a little confidence in us that we might just pull this event off.
We began by cooking the pork that we will use for the rillettes. It needed to cook for a couple of hours so we started it first thing. We prepared a cure mix for the gravlax and a brine for the smoked duck. Most of the recipes we are working on now will take a few days to prepare.
When these tasks were done we had a demo on butchering a duck. It wasn't nearly as bad as the chicken massacre a few weeks ago, though I did stop at a market on the way home today and buy a whole duck. I needed to go through the process one more time to really get it to sink in. I still have a bit of trouble with producing and that darn airline breast.
Anyway, after getting our ducks in a row, we placed the pieces in the brining solution, or wet cure as it is sometimes referred to . We used the brine soaking method where the meat was completely submerged in a solution of salt, water, sugar, and herbs and seasonings. In addition to curing meats, brining also helps with flavor development and boosting moisture content.
With the duck safely soaking, where it will remain for the next 24 hours, we moved on to preparing a salmon for dry curing - which is what gravlax is.
We wrapped it in cheesecloth then covered it completely with the curing mixture. This was a combination of salt sugar black pepper and dill.
We laid it in a pan that had a little vodka and lemon juice in it then pressed another pan on top of it and tied it down so the salmon would press evenly into the curing mixture. This will stay overnight and we will turn it over first thing in the morning.
When the pork was cooked, we cooled and processed it, along with the reserved stock and spices until it was a smooth consistency. Where a confit is slowly cooked then stored in it's own rendered fat, rillettes are made by stewing boned meats in broth and fat with vegetables and aromatics. This mixture is typically stored in crocks or pots, covered with a layer of fat that acts as a seal, and served with bread or as a topping for canapes or a filling for profiteroles.
Finally, we made up a marinade for the reaming duck and left that to macerate overnight. Tomorrow we will slow cook it in rendered duck fat to produce some more duck confit.
Like I said, a very productive day.

Goodnight.

Garde Manger

Do you ever feel like life is just moving too fast? I need a pause button for my life so I can catch up.
How did Easter sneak up so fast and why in the world did I tell my children that as long as they came home the Easter Bunny would make them a basket? Was I crazy? Four Easter Baskets, a graduation party, Easter Brunch and head-on into my Garde Manger unit and the start of our banquet preparations. Calgon or Zanex take me away. (Maybe both)

Garde Manger is a term that was originally used to describe a food storage area.. Preserved foods such as hams, sausages, and cheeses were held in this area. Over time, this term has evolved to define the station in a professional kitchen that prepares and specializes in cold foods. Hoers d' oeuvres, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, condiments, sauces, pates, terrines, fresh sausages and cheeses. This two week course will end with our whole class working together to present a "Garde Manager" banquet.
Today was spent mostly on banquet planning and learning and practicing a basic vinaigrette, and mayonnaise.
After that we were all dismissed early so we could sit in on the demo of Martin Yan that was visiting the school. What a treat. One of the original TV chefs, his knife skills were amazing. He only used one knife for everything he did. I was hoping that he would demo his boning of and entire chicken in twenty eight seconds but he didn't. He made a few dishes including a whole cooked fish. (I tried to get a picture but I was not quick enough - as you can see) Accomplished, entertaining and efficient, I felt like I was watching a piece of history.
I went to buy his new book and his famous knife that he designed after class, but it was a mob scene. I guess I'll have to go to Sur La Tab and pay full price.
Oh well.

Goodnight.

Essential Skills 2 - Pasta

I like pasta for breakfast. It's comforting. Like oatmeal but with much more flavor. Maybe I just prefer savory to sweet in the morning, anyways, it's nice to not have to worry about making breakfast in the morning before I leave.

We rolled out our pasta and turned it into fettuccine and raviolis. This was all quite labor intensive. We used a large hand cranked past machine, carefully feeding our dough through it and bringing the rollers closer together after each feed, until we reached the desired thickness.
We then attached the fettuccine cutter and fed the flattened pasta sheets through this cutter to create our ribbons . We formed the raviolis by hand with sheets of very thin pasta. A true labor of love.

Our filling for the ravioli was a mixture of goat cheese, Parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
Chef, using a very quick and simple technique, created fettuccine Alfredo right in the pan. He tossed the cooked pasta, which only took a very short time to cook, with a little pasta water, Parmesan cheese and butter.
It was delicious.
The raviolis were carefully boiled (more like a simmer) and then served with a variation of the classic Alfredo. (Adding cream and omitting the pasta water



We took a break to preview the Garde-Manger Banquet that another class was putting on. It was incredible. Chef told us to take a good look because he expected us to take what we saw to a new level.

Nothing like a little pressure. It's hard to believe that we will be putting on a banquet like this in just a month! I get to invite 10 people. Who wants to come??


























Tomorrow is the written final, a few last pasta recipes, and setting up for for our practical on Monday. My days are starting to blur together.

Goodnight.

Culinary School Day Four - Serve Safe

I had to make my own coffee this morning. Only day four and my husband dropped the ball.

Oh well, it was nice waking up to coffee for the first few days. I should have known it wasn't going to last. I accidently "on purpose" left the bathroom door open while I blew dry my hair just to make sure he knew I was up.

I endured the last day of lecture and the last "scary video" of yet another hazzard in the food indusrty. This one focused on the big bad egg buisness. Thank goodness for Dateline out there trying to keep people honest and eggs safe!

Another lucky day. One of the culinary classes were having their Garde Manger banquet!! Instead of just veiwing the displays, we were invited go through the buffet line. (I finished my practice test early so I was able to go through the line a few times--being prepared pays off!)

Looking at all the beautiful dishes I would soon be learning to make really got me excited. I had to taste them all.

Salads, wonderful little sandwiches, cured and smoked meats, sausages, cheeses, pâté, terrines.
I even managed to sneak out a sampling of some of the pâté and terrines I had missed on my rounds.

I knew after today that I was in real trouble. I came home and before I could talk myself out of it, I went for a long run.

It's all about balance.


Goodnight.