Positive Outlook for Friday

Well, I used more tools than a scissor today, that's for sure. In fact, Andrea and I did the work of five people today, more or less: Derrick and Silvia weren't in class, and our fifth team member (the one who's retaking the class, and seems destined to take it again) spent most of the morning making a half gallon of Caeser dressing. In the end, Andrea had to take over from her and finish it. She was seriously flailing.

But we got lots accomplished, all in preparation for tomorrow's activities: we'll be making meat boards for the Buffet, and we have to produce one board in teams of two for evaluation by Chef Al, worth 30 points. Today, we had the Thursday solo "practice": a small platter plus a pint of emulsified vinaigrette, all in an hour. Andrea and I both earned perfect 10s for today's work, so she said that bodes well for our chances tomorrow, when we'll be working together.

Our products this week are more challenging than last week's seafood. They're more monocolored, for one thing, and they're all flat slices. And a lot of them want to fall apart.

Besides constructing our trays and dressings, Andrea and I poached some duck confit in duck fat, then made a terrine, suspending the duck chunks in aspic. We made a terrine of rabbit en croute, lining a mold with dough and filling it with rabbit forcemeat and grilled rabbit tenderloins. We made croutons, using an interesting method: thickly coat a sheet pan with butter and sprinkle it with minced garlic. Put in the cubed bread, in a single layer, and bake it at 250°, stirring a couple of times. We smoked a capon that had been brined overnight. We trimmed three cases of red and white endive and frisee, and put it to soak overnight in ice water, to be used as garnishing tomorrow. We prepped eggs and bacon for breakfast tomorrow morning (actually, Andy sliced the bacon), and before we walked to the parking garage, we stopped in the basement and got flu shots. All in all, a very productive day.