Like Opening a Fortune Cookie

Mondays are prep day for the week's a la carte menu, and our team is working on a scallop appetizer with porcini mushroom sauce, smoked beef tenderloin with lobster mashed potatoes, honey-peppercorn salmon with spinach couscous, and spaetzle with roasted mushrooms. I just barely got started making brine for the salmon and vegetable stock for the spaetzle when I was selected (with two other classmates) to do the "mystery basket" competency, so for the next hour and a half, I worked solo.

Our challenge was not a "mystery basket" per se, where you get a selection of ingredients to make into something specific. Rather, we had to make two portions of an amuse-bouche, a hot appetizer, risotto, and rib eye with tournéed potatoes, hollandaise sauce, and "vegetable du jour". We had 90 minutes before our first dish was due, then each following course was due 10 minutes later. We took the dishes out to the dining room as scheduled, then returned to the kitchen to keep working. Chef tasted and graded, then we each sat down with him at the end for an evaluation. The competency is worth 100 points of our 300 point total for this class.

I took a few minutes to walk through the refrigerators, carrying a big bowl, and collecting ingredients. Then I spent a few minutes outlining my meal: deviled eggs to start, followed by seared scallops on Asian slaw, then parmesan risotto, then green beans as the accompaniment to my steak. I put water on to boil for the eggs, then made the slaw: sliced Nappa cabbage, grated carrots, slivered shallots, some rice wine vinegar and a pinch of celery seeds. I tucked that into the refrigerated drawer under my work station, then sautéed some bacon. After the eggs were cooked and cooled in an ice bath, I cut them in half (not the long way, but around the shorter "middle"), and cut a bit off the ends so that they would stand up. The filling was made from yolks, dijon mustard, creme fraiche, minced shallots, cornichons, and bacon, and I stuck a nice fat piece of bacon crosswise on top. I filled four, then set them aside in the drawer, as well.

I started the risotto by sautéing shallots in olive oil. I added the rice and stirred it until well coated, then gradually added chicken stock until the rice was cooked, a process which took about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I grated some parmesan, made tomato concassé, cut some basil into chiffonade, and seared off the steak, so that it had pretty grill marks on both sides. I peeled the potatoes, tipped the beans, clarified butter, and made hollandaise. I put the hollandaise on the back of the stove to stay warm, covered with foil. After I delivered my amuse-bouche, I put the potatoes into boiling water to cook. I seared the scallops, then made a quick sauce with sweet chili sauce, butter, and lemon juice. I tossed the scallops in the sauce, plated them atop the slaw, and delivered the second plate. I stirred parmesan and creme fraiche into the risotto, garnished it, and delivered the third plate. I rewarmed the steak, cooked the green beans, sautéed the potatoes and the beans separately in a little butter, thinned out the hollandaise, plated it all up, and delivered the final plate. Time for a glass of orange juice (we missed family meal) and a quick break.

I thought Chef might dis my eggs as "housewifey", even though I've seen photos recently of deviled eggs from upscale restaurant kitchens. I was okay with the scallops. I thought the risotto looked PERFECT. I was afraid the hollandaise was too tangy, and I was wary about the doneness of the steak, which he had ordered medium rare. Turns out, he LOVED the eggs ("I'm a pushover for deviled eggs," he said), but they could have been more zesty. The scallops were perfect. The risotto was bland. "There's nothing there. It's perfectly cooked, though. But you should have used some of those porcini mushrooms, or some herbage. Some love." And the entrée was marred only by some slightly undercooked green beans. I received 84 points, which he said was "fantastic". Of course, the voice in my head says "100 would be fantastic," but I'm just glad it's behind me.

"You're fun to work with and you're a good cook," Chef Glenn said. "You'll be successful in this business."