Quiet But Deadly

Today was the last day of the "mystery basket" menu competitions, and Silvia and Andy were in the spotlight, preparing four dishes in 90 minutes. On Tuesday, Andy showed me his secret weapon: a 2" high "toy" box grater, to be part of his amuse-bouche plating. He put together an "interactive" plate of plain toasts, a small spoon filled with diced and seasoned heirloom tomatoes, a shotglass of kalamata tapenade, a chunk of parmesan cheese, and the grater -- a "build your own" crostini. "I'm thinking big," he said. "I want to break the 90 point barrier."

And so he did, scoring a 91. My real hero, though, is Silvia, who came out of nowhere to score a stunning 94 points. Chef Glen was especially impressed with her hot appetizer, which was required to include a poached egg. She presented hers in a hollowed out tomato, along with some spicy tomato sauce. Her entrée plate was also impeccable, perfectly cooked steak, potatoes and hollandaise. "I'll tell you a secret," she said. "I dropped one of the cooked potatoes on the floor! And I picked it up and used it. Of course," she clarified, "I washed it off first. But I was afraid that was going to doom me." Far from it. She should drop a potato every day. I'm serious. I'm going to be looking her up in a couple of years when I need a southern California caterer.

Today was our last day of a la carte service in the restaurant, and tomorrow is our last buffet, at least from the kitchen. Next week, we start our three final weeks of class, and we'll be in Advanced Garde Manger, producing cold buffet items. Chef Al popped in to our morning planning session to tell us that we need to bring all our knives on Monday, and they need to be sharp.

Duh.