Week 10 Exam

This 10 weeks went by so quickly. That's it for our Stage 1 in Patissierie. For the last week, we had a practical exam where we had to serve a few guests whom we invited. 

We were given the menu on Wednesday and had to work out a workflow together with our partner. We had to plan everything so that on Friday the sequence goes smoothly and make sure the customers get their food on time.

It was a 6 course lunch. Yea.. who can finsih a 6 course lunch right? well, the portions were rather small but my guest said she was stuffed till late evening. Ha Ha.... 

Menu for our guests.

The table was all set and waiting for the guests. I am not sure who did the table arrangements because we were all busy in the kitchen that morning. 

Tomato, Feta Cheese and Fried Tofu Bruschetta on Focaccia.

The first dish , tomato, feta cheese and fried tofu bruschetta tossed in olive oil and basil, served with focaccia. It was a rather simple dish to make. Tomatoes and feta cheese were cut into small pieces. Tofu was cut and fried. We pre-prepared them and only tossed it together when it was time to serve. 

Bruschetta in the making.

The focaccia was toasted on the pan before serving. But unfortunately our focaccia lost its crisp because our dish was ready and waiting for other's before it was served to the guest. The guest commented that the focaccia was a little soft. 

Pumpkin Soup

Second dish up was pumpkin soup. The soup was served in a tiny little espresso cup. To make that little cup of soup, we had to first make one big pot of chicken stock. Then boil pumpkin, celery, leek, onions, bacons and herbs. After simmering for a while, the soup was  pureed and sieved through and reheated again before serving. It was topped with a little cream as garnish. This pumpkin soup is not a vegetarian meal, as you would have guessed by now. It has bacon and chicken stock in it. 

Our guest enjoyed the pumpkin soup, she commented that she normally doesn't like pumpkin soup but this one she really enjoyed!

V

Vol-au-vent filled with Chicken Stroganoff

This is the one that I was most worried about. I made the vol-au-vent case and my partner made the chicken stroganoff. Why was I worried? Well, the puff pastry was a little tricky to make. Puff pastry takes a long time to make because it needs to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes after each fold and we need to do 3 folds for this puff. If I don't get it right, I wont have time to make another dough. 

Vol-au-vent case

 The worst thing is that we were only allowed to make one serve and the portion is just enough for one vol-au-vent. There is no second chance to get it right if you burnt it in the oven.There was a slight hiccups during the baking process because someone opened our oven but luckily our puff rose and was still presentable in the end.

Lamb & Prawn brochette with homemade tomato chutney in a filo basket.

This dish is made up of 2 parts, one part which takes a long time to make and another part which was quick and easy. The quick part was preparing the skewers. The prawns were seasoned and threaded on the skewer. The lamb was seasoned and threaded on the skewer alternated with capsicum, onion, zucchini and mushroom. Both were pan fried right before serving. The timing of this was important to make sure that the dish was served hot. Our guest was very happy with the prawns and lamb skewers. She said it was cooked perfectly and was served hot. 

Filo basket 

The slow part of preparing this dish were the filo basket and the tomato chutney. The filo dough had to be kneaded and left to rest for more than an hour. Then it was stretched to window pane thin and then cut into squares and layered on an upside down dariole mould to bake. My partner did a great job with the filo basket. The first one she did was  little brown on the edge and she wasn't too happy with it. So she made another one which turned out so pretty and golden. It was rather difficult to get it out from the mould though. 

I forgot to take a photo of the tomato chutney, it too took a long time to make. It was in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. The tomato chutney was filled into the filo basket.  I think our guest said the tomato chutney was delicious. 

Rum Baba and Custard tart Dessert.

The last 2 dishes were served together. I was very happy with the result of the custard tart. The colour of the case was golden and the texture was crumbly. We actually managed to get 2 tarts from the recipe. My teammate and I shared one of it. It was very nice. The créme patissiere filling was prepared by my teammate. I think it was so good. Silky smooth and not too sweet. 

Rum Baba

 The rum baba which was made of savarin paste that we did before except that this has currants that has been soaked in rum. Then it is soaked in sugar syrup and glazed with apricot jam and served with strawberry and créme chantilly.  I think we did well on this one too. 

My messy workstation.

Overall, I was very happy with the day. I think my teammate and I really work well together.
It was a rather stressful day but it was great fun. I was so into my work that I didn't even feel hungry the whole day or maybe because I was tasting some of the food that we made. haha. 

Cleaning up took so long. I think we used every single utensil that was in the kitchen. The piles of dishes were horrendous! But everyone helped out and teamwork made it a little easier. 

At the end of the day, our trainer showed us what our guest commented on our dishes. It was mostly good comments. I thanked our trainer and said good bye because we wont have him for the next stage. 

Thanks to my guests who took the time to participate in our summative food tasting. Hope you enjoyed the food as much as I did preparing them. By the way, my guests were Pei and Kendall. That is how I know that they were stuffed until late evening! Ha Ha.