Am I Starting To Make Clucking Noises?

I was on Poultry team again, no class demonstrations, just straight into production. After about six chickens (seriously, it's like a job, with laughing), I moved on to duck (completed another competency: 2 duck breasts with skin, 2 leg/thigh portions). Duck really is like a big chicken. All dark meat. We marinated 18 duck legs and a bunch of reserved duck fat in olive oil, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns. After overnight refrigeration, we'll make duck confit, which I'm looking forward to. And look, ma, no hands: I tunnel-boned a chicken! Ended up with a skin bag of meat, with boned-out legs and thighs, and the wings tucked under "for attitude".

All this cutting up is leaving me frustrated at the grocery store: with the exception of whole chickens, everything's already been cut down into individual portions. I'm gonna have to take a trip to the butcher's.

The topic of general discussion today was last Saturday's Iron Chef competition between three staff Chefs, including our butchery teacher, Chef Allen. The prize was highly sought-after: the winner becomes the Chef of the Carême Room, the public dining room which is also the site of our last class before graduation. The format was interesting: first the Chefs received the mystery basket which included the mandatory ingredients (tofu, artichokes, striped bass fillets). They had fifteen minutes to develop a menu and turn it into the judges (school officials). Then the twist: the Chefs were not allowed to prepare or cook anything themselves: they had to supervise a team of three students. Chef Allen said he "went down in flames, but it was beautiful." He'd developed a menu that was highly technical. One dish required his favorite technique, tunnel-boning, and none of his student-slaves had received the appropriate training. And then there was the tri-color risotto. All in all, it sounded like quite the adventure, and it appears that Chef Glen (who substituted for Chef Joseph briefly last month) will be supervising our final days at CCA. Good luck, sports fans.