On test days, we were required to create two complete plates of food. There were 2 proteins, 2 starches, 2 vegetable sides, 2 sauces, and 2 garnishes. It was timed. We had to have enough time at the end of class to clean up. Talk about intense. For those days, I had to make a list of things to do in order to get the timing right for both dishes. It consisted of things like start boiling potatoes, cleaning the protein, starting to cook the vegetable, getting the potatoes out of the boiling water.... you get the point. I had everything planned out perfectly to present the first dish halfway through class and the second dish just before time was up.
One of my most memorable tests included making duchesse potatoes. They are delicious and rich. You add egg yolks to mashed potatoes, put them into a pastry bag and pipe them onto a sheet pan, then you brown them in a 400 degree oven. Well, time was running out and the only things I was waiting on were the potatoes I had in the oven. We had to share the ovens so other students were opening and closing them, and cooling it down every time. So I cranked the heat to 500 degrees and prayed they would brown enough. Time was almost out and I had to get them out of the oven so I could finish plating. So I raced over (used my hand towel to get them out of the oven because that's what we used) and as I was pulling them out, my hand slipped too far to the side and touched the inside of the 500 degree oven. Without time to stop and cry and worry about it, I plated my food and got an A on my test. I took pictures to document my first injury of culinary school. Look and see how pretty.
This was the day of.
This one is three days later.
It hurt like no one's business. Luckily, the scar faded and you can barely tell it happened. Next. This one happened during our next test. I was in a hurry and a girl turned the burner on over the handle of my saucepan and didn't bother moving it out of the way. So this is the result of using my hand towel to move the saucepan, but the end touched my arm. I was moving it from the stove to my station, so I couldn't just let go. I let it burn me until I set it down. This one is pretty gross. Plus it hurt. This was taken the day of. I don't have a follow up picture. You can't even tell it happened now.
So I may not have cut myself with a knife in culinary school, but those burns were pretty solid. My dad used to joke that I needed to wear welding gloves to school. My parents thought it would be funny to buy me an Ove' Glove for Christmas. I still use it.
The next story is my favorite. I was in the middle of a test. I was finishing my second dish. It was grilled pork chops. We served mashed potatoes and a gherkin sauce with parsley as a garnish. I had everything finished, I was going to get my pork chop off the grill and between the grill and my station, the pork chop fell on the floor. It was like time stopped - I watched the main part of my dish fall to the floor. Everyone was watching with their mouths dropped open. I panicked in my head and may have started tearing up for just a minute. I ran to get a new one and there weren't any pork chops left. I had to open a box in the walk in, tie it, grill it, keep my sauce from dying, and keep my mashed potatoes hot. I didn't stop running around until the test was over. After I turned in my last plate (got an A, by the way), I had classmates and a chef come over and ask what had happened because they saw it fall or saw me starting over. It was pretty rough. My dropped pork chop fiasco happened the day before I burned my arm on the saucepan.
These times weren't my favorite, but I can laugh about them now. Join me.
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