Some Days are Better Than Others

When I got dressed this morning, I picked up the pair of socks from today's uniform stack and thought, "Oh, good. I love these socks." It occurred to me that I could feel that way every day, if I get rid of the ones with the holes in the (always left) toe. So I stopped at Target this afternoon and got a week's worth of really cool black and/or white socks.

I saw a San Francisco Muni bus this morning at 16th and Potrero with a destination sign above the windshield that read "Nowhere in Particular."

We took the Garde Manger final first thing (49 multiple choice or T/F questions, plus one fill-in: "Name the substance in egg yolks that enables oil to emulsify and become mayonnaise." The answer appears below, if you want to play along.) I'm feeling pretty confident.

The rest of the morning was low key and productive, without the pressure of yesterday's buffet expectations. Our team (all present!) separated the tasks and we worked independently but side-by-side. Andrea made ratatouille and then puff pastry cups ("bouches") to serve it in. Silvia made "black beans with salsa cruda on tortilla disks," but she said, "It's just nachos and they would have been done a lot faster if I didn't have to follow this recipe. And they would have tasted better, too." She's made cooked dried beans three times during the last two weeks and she definitely has a knack for seasoning them. She started cooking pintos for the taco salad that's will be tomorrow's "composed" offering. Travis made three gallons of different kinds of salad dressing: an orange vinaigrette, a chile/ranch, and a third kind that I didn't catch.

I made today's composed salad, "Rohkostsalatteller," (German Vegetable Salad). I think Joe would really like this one, because it's sour. It's basically five kinds of raw vegetables, in a variety of dressings: shredded carrot/horseradish/sour cream; shredded celery root/lemon/white pepper; sliced marinated cucumbers with dill; chiffonade of romaine with sour cream & chive dressing, and "1 tomato wedge," but I made tomato concasse instead. At Andrea's brilliant suggestion, I plated the salad by making a "stack" in a ring mold in the center of the plate: carrot, then celery, then a ring of cucumbers. That was surrounded by shreds of lettuce and a small pile of diced tomatoes and the whole thing was garnished with three dices of tomato on top of the cucumber. I asked Chef Duffy if I should lap the final cucumber slice under the first one, to make an interlocking concentric ring. "Not necessary," he declared. I made ten plates, all the same.

Chef Duffy suggested that I take a plate to Chef Joseph across the hall. His class is in day one of the two-day Basic Skills competency. He paused his supervision, though, to ooh and aah at my little plate, telling the students nearby, "Julia was in my class last December." He looked closely, then picked up his paring knife and removed the three diced tomato pieces from the top of the cucumber and set them carefully to one side. Then he slid the knife under the first cucumber slice to overlap it with the last slice. The resulting ring was slightly peaked in the center, adding some height to the plate. "See, then you only need one of the tomato dices," he said, placing it carefully on top of the cucumbers. He picked up a plastic spoon and took a bite. "Oh! Delicious!," he said, and pushed it towards the students closest to him, who had intently watched the entire procedure. "Try this!" And then he pulled a plate of salmon with rice pilaf and tournéed zucchini closer to him, and picked up a clean plastic fork, ready to evaluate. I went back to the Garde Manger kitchen and adjusted the remaining nine plates, as per his demonstration.

Chef Duffy suggested breakfast for tomorrow, so we're planning to make Eggs Benedict at break. Can't practice the hollandaise enough. Or egg poaching, for that matter. And there's also talk of a group melon carving exercise.

Thanks to my friend Sara, I received the following bit of wisdom today: "Nothing you want is up-stream."

Words to ponder.

And the answer to today's quiz: Lecithin.