Exam III - complete

This past week ended our unit on Puff Pastry. I actually really enjoyed this section, minus the baking.

On Thursday we made "speedy" Vol au Vents. We filled them with some savory fillings - Duxelle (a mushroom mixture), Scrambled Eggs and a Tomato sauce. It's nice to switch it up in class since we're always making and eating sweets.

1.31.08: Chef Christopher filling the speedy Vol au Vents with the different fillings

My plate... no, I didn't eat it all. There's a chive goat cheese under the tomato reduction so I ate that one.

1.31.08: Dartois aux Pommes
The Chef gave us some leeway to be creative and use different ingredients for the filling. My partner, Emily, and I added some figs, cinnamon and nutmeg to the apples.

As I stated in my last post, we had our Puff Pastry exam on Friday. I didn't study very much going into it. The Chef told us that it would mostly be on puff pastry, but that all our tests are cumulative and can include questions from day 1 of class.
Long story short, I left the written portion knowing I didn't get 100 and completed the practical portion not very happy with the way my items turned out. (Photo below)

Turns out I did better than I expected. I didn't get 100, but only got part of one questions wrong. Most of the questions are multiple parts so I only got off a couple of points from the written. And to my shock and welcomed surprised, the Chef loved my items. I was the last in the class to receive my critique from the Chef and he was very positive and encouraging. He told me that my Pithivier (the sun-looking item) was absolutely beautiful and professional quality work. He then went on to tell me a story of how one of his previous students actually went to the store during lunch on exam day and bought items to present to the Chefs as part of his own work!

George came to pick me up from Lisa's after school yesterday and we drove back to Philadelphia in a horrible rain storm. We then went to dinner with our good friends Stacey and Adam at Tangerine.

I'm driving back to Pleasantville tomorrow and will start reading up on our next unit in class - Veinnoiserie.