Thursday and "The Buffet"

Good morning to all of my readers.  I wanted to take a day and night to reflect on this past week in the kitchen before I filled you in on the buffet.

If I were to be honest with you I would have to say that it was very nerve racking for me.  We went from this very comfortable setting (Cake Decorating and Healthy Food) to this environment that I did not understand at all.   This part of the program is designed to get you ready to be out in the real world and it is about "building" things.  I do not understand putting things together at all.  I am a very good "hands on" person if I see a demo but for me to just figure it out is very difficult. 

Also, the menu that we were working from ... now that I am looking at it again and the project is  done I think that it was alright but on Tuesday and Wednesday I had a very hard time figuring out what was a "Canape Set". The menu read ... Smoked Salmon with Caviar and when all was said and done the entire process was not done like a pro in the kitchen.  I was thinking all along maybe very thin sliced salmon in rolls with some caviar (which I in my mind all along I was seeing ... capers) so that was wrong right from the start.  And then it never played in my mind that I needed some sort of base (little bread toasts) and some glue .. or doctored up cream cheese with herbs and then yes, the caviar and a garnish.

I would have to admit now that I need to read the information better and I need to re-read the Chapters in the book that apply.  I will never make it through this if I don't understand the process better and I don't think that I can keep my "A's for just showing up.  It would be really great if that happened but I really can't see it going like that ... I am sure that they expect you to learn something from this and I am sure that I will ... the question is ... what and how much?  Right now I feel very dumb!

At 11:15 AM our buffet was on the display table and almost ready to go.  We were aloud 10 extra minutes to put on the finishing touches like "garnish" .. apparently a really big deal in making it all come together and pop.  

11:15 AM and we are up ... THE BUFFET TABLE POPPED AND IT WAS A SIGHT TO BE SEEN BY ALL.  I was proud of the finished product.       Hal-la-lull a!   We did our first buffet and the word is that next week it should be easier.  I am hoping for myself at least to understand it from the get go and not always be second guessing myself as it really sets me back and I always feel as if I am behind the deadline.  Being ahead of the deadline is a much better feeling.

Here are some of the pictures for you to enjoy.  There were 11 students who put this together.  The 11 students were divided into 3 teams and each team had about 8 items to complete for the buffet table.  We started on Tuesday preparing and on Thursday at 11:15 AM is the display.

For the first time I think that we all came together and did well.  Our instructor Chef Abbey said that we did well ... thank you Chef Abbey!

Tomorrow I will have pictures from a class that I am much more familiar with.  I am going to Chef David's cake decorating class.  And I get to bring my cake home so ... I won't be loosing any weight this weekend.  This is a 5 hour class instead of the usual 3 hour extra credit class and I am very excited as he picked me to be his assistant.  I will post more tomorrow to keep you up to date on the day to day happenings at Dorsey Culinary Academy.

Have a really great day and good bye for now from 1HappyChef.  :)