Mais laisse tomber, et laisse tomber. C'est même plus la peine, c'est même plus la peine
(Maitre Gims feat Dry- One Shot)
Basic Cuisine Exam
After 9 weeks of cooking, cutting and burning, we've finally reached the end of the term. Exams at Cordon Bleu is divided into the written exam, which we had last week, and the practical exam, in which we would be given 10 dishes from our term to study, and then on exam day would be made to 1. write out all the required ingredients and 2. make the dish by heard or "Par cœur!" as the chefs yelled out throughout the term.
The written exam was jokingly easy, if you paid attention to class and then brute force memorize the glossary. It was still a bit challenging because some words were not on the glossary. I still remember freaking out freaking out on page one and thinking"WTF IS A BERCY SAUCE????!? It wasn't on the glossary! OMG IMGONNAFAILLLLL" and then feeling better when the rest of the exam had questions like "The best Parmesan cheese comes from a town in Holland. True / False."
Anyways to the practical exam. On exam day, we each drew a different dish to cook upon entering the kitchen. I drew the rabbit dish, which I guess means I pulled a rabbit out of the hat (hah). We had 15 minutes to fill in the ingredients list of the dish, then they would take away our answer sheet and give us the correct ingredients list, and we would start to cook the dish. We had 2.5 hours to complete the dish, and would have points deducted for every minute more needed. As in regular practical, you are given only enough ingredients to cook the dish, and you have only one shot to do it right.
The entire exam wasn't that difficult, and I was fairly comfortable with the dish. Moreover, the two proctoring chefs present in the practical exam gave a good amount of hints to help you like "Are you sure you want to use veal stock, or would you want to use chicken stock?" or "Hmmm you may want to use this piece of meat that you are discarding..... Just a thought." We were suppose to cook four-people's worth of food, which is different than the one-person portion that normally do in practical. Otherwise, the whole exam was fairly straightforward. I did everything just fine, except I almost forgot to sear the organs of the rabbit. I furiously seared them in the last 10 minutes.
Oh we also had to turn and cook an artichoke, which as you may remember I really didn't want to screw up. I did just fine, no problem at all.
Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of my dish. All I could say is I really liked the sauce that I made. I hope I passed my exam.
Quote from this class:
As I started searing the rabbit pieces halfway through the exam.
Proctor Chef: Hey don't you want to cook the head too? *Points towards the severed rabbit head that I left on my tray*
(In my mind: Shit do I need to cook the head? Shit shit. Not, I remember that we discard the head. But why would the Chef say that? Do I really not cook it? ERMAHGERD!)
Me: No.... I don't think it's fine.
Chef: Yeah it would be weird to serve a cooked head on a plate, wouldn't it?
Me: Well in China, they sometimes serve the pig's head along with the rest of a roast pig.
Chef: Ew really? Anyways, this looks really funny, no? *Picks up head and starts playing with it*
(In my head: Dude, seriously? Now? You're making jokes with a mutilated dead rabbit's head now?)
Me: Oui Chef, très amusant.
Chef: Ah hahahaah doesn't this kind of look like a cat? *Points the severed head at me and wiggles it around, its eyes staring blankly at me*
Me: ha yeah um........... *Continue cutting shallots
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