Exam I done!

This is a picture of what I made for the practical portion of the exam today: Chocolate Ganache Tartlettes, French Nut Tart and Spritzkakor cookies (with chocolate centers).

Today was CRAZY!!! The written portion of our exam went from 8:30-9:30 and then the practical went from 9:30-1:30. Each person had to make a tart, 2 tartlettes and 5 cookies. The kicker is we didn't know what we were making until this morning. Lucky for me I got all items I've made before (I missed two days of class because of food poising over the holidays).

The written portion wasn't too bad. The Chef had prepped us well as to what to know and study.
But the practical... oh the practical... I think a lot of people were thrown off because we had to 1/2 all the recipe's and it's a lot harder to work with such small portions. For the nut tart, I could not get my almond cream to work for the life of me! It took me three times, and even then I wasn't completely confident with my product. I must've wasted at LEAST 12 eggs. (the chefs would kill me if they read this).

From 1:30-2:30 Chef Christopher and Chef Laurie called up individuals to their table (tablecloth and all) to review our products and rate us on overall appearance, product, taste, etc. and to let us know how we did on the written portion.

In the end everything worked out and I did well. I'm happy to have the first exam over and to now know what to expect going forward. (I might add that our next exam in next Tuesday).

We ended the day by baking off some Bourbon-Pecan Cookies that we made the dough for on on Friday and by glazing some brownies we had baked on Friday as well.
It was a LONG LONG day. I came home, poured myself a large glass of wine and am going to just relax for the night... tomorrow we make eclairs!