Culinary School Blog: Final Exam & Graduation

Well the culinary school adventure is finally complete. I had my final written and practical exam yesterday and all went well; everyone, as expected, passed and some did outstanding work under the pressure. The day started with a brief written exam. It was really just a formality and I am sure that Chef Pascal made it easy to get everyone into the kitchen in the right frame of mind. After the written exam, we all drew numbers out of a hat (actually an ice bucket from the restaurant) that would determine our recipes for the final and the service times for those plates. Each person would get 2 recipes for the final; there could be an appetizer paired with a meat/poultry dish or fish paired with a dessert. Four servings of each are required. There were 16 recipes in total and the different combinations would be prepared by the class; 4 appetizer/4 meat + 4 fish/4 dessert. They were:

Appetizers

Warm Shrimp & Charred Squid
Tuna & Scallop Ceviche
Asparagus & Leeks in Puff Pastry
Rose-hued Chicken Consommé

Fish

Fillet of Red Snapper with Mussels and Chorizo
Cod & Smoked Salmon Wallet
Fish Stew with Garlic Mayonnaise
Sautéed Sea Bass with Glazed Belgian Endive

Meat/Poultry

Sautéed Breast of Duckling
Broiled Lamb Chops
Braised Blade of Beef
Beef Tournedos with Artichokes, Mushrooms, and Marrow

Desserts

Tea Flan and Madeleines
Warm Chocolate Cake with Apricot-Cognac Sauce
Individual Caramelized Pear Tart
Panna Cotta with Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote

I drew the Red Snapper with Mussels and Chorizo and the Pear Tart with service times of 1:42 PM and 2:38 PM. The dishes were one of the easier combinations but the services times sucked because it meant I was one of the last to go out. This was bad because there was TOO much time to get ready, it allows you to second guess yourself and that the judges are tired and full by the time they got to my dishes.

I had tried to think out the possible combinations during my study/prep for the exam and knew that if I drew the tart I should start the ice cream that is served with it first. That went well. I then got my puff pastry dough ready and cut it into the pear shape that it needed to be in and then started poaching the pears. Once the pears were started, I switched back to the fish.

The snapper itself really requires no time at all to cook. It is pan sautéed at the last minute but the other ingredients take some time to prep. The mussels have to soak for a while in salt water then they are steamed in fish fumet and white wine until they open. The steaming liquid is reserved as the base for the soup/sauce on that dish. The potatoes had to be cut and pan sautéed to golden brown (my favorite color for the past few months) and then reheated at service time. Then sweat some cabbage, onions and garlic, bacon lardons and that is it. As you can probably tell, there is too much time for this. The potential problems will come at plating and service time.

We had been coached by Chef Pascal for weeks that we should start our plating early even at the risk of the plated food being served a little cold. Well, I thought that I started early enough but I was sending my plates out right under the wire. I was so rushed that I forgot to put the potatoes on the plate. I did not know this until 10 minutes later when Chef Pascal come back into the pastry kitchen where I was working on the pear tart, and asked me if I forgot anything - he then told me about the missing potatoes. I thought that it would be a huge deal and was bummed, until I saw my grades. It apparently was no big deal to the judges, since in their words, everything else was cooked “perfectly”.

After we are finished serving and cleaning up our area we get a few minutes to change into a clean chef’s jacket and then back into the restaurant to hear the judge's critique. There are 3 panels of judges with 4 judges each. The judges are other chef’s that have volunteered to judge the final exam. It is pretty darn hard to sit in front of this panel with 7 – 8 of your classmates and have the judges pick apart your dishes. Even for those who got good reviews the judges had to make some “constructive” comments.

As soon as the critiques were delivered, we took a class picture and then marched upstairs to the auditorium for the graduation ceremony.

There were awards for:

Best Creative Menu Project – Mark Zitelli, Looney Tunes
Highest GPA - Mark Zitelli.

Attendance – Beau Harris

The class had the most students ever graduate with honors ( GPA of 95 or higer). The Honor Students were:

Edwin Alderman

Meg Colleran

Jay Devlin

Mark Hallman

Lulu Kalman

Sandy Lee

Mark Zitelli

Comments

Congratulations Mark!

It is nice that you went to school with some "older" students.

Thanks for giving the details of your final test. I have really appreciated this peek into your cooking school experience.

Good luck to you and Kelly with your next adventure.

Posted by: Terri | April 21, 2005 at 10:41 AM

There were 16 recipes in total and the different combinations would be prepared by the class; 4 appetizer/4 meat + 4 fish/4 dessert.And I also want to Graduation in cooking.

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