Hi everyone! I just wanted to give you a little update on how my practical cooking exam went…..really well!!!!! I was absolutely thrilled with the chicken that I made and received 30/30 on it- not bad for a vegetarian who had only cooked chicken once before I also rocked the hollandaise sauce but when I went to keep it warm in a bain marie, I shocked it and it broke. I had to whip together a 2nd batch with only a couple of minutes to spare! I received …

I have been SUPER busy lately, and verrrrrry stressed out, so yes….I apologize- I have missed a couple weeks worth of posting. But I’ll tell you this- it’s been going great! I’m in a fabulous group and we are working really hard and receiving great marks. I also learned out to fillet a fish, and that was so exciting!
What is a little less exciting is that this week….is practical exam week. I am sick today so I am not able to go to school, but tomorrow is the exam so …

Today was one of the first days we didn’t have 1000 things to make, and therefore it was relaxed, and we could really learn! I enjoyed today, especially because I could try a bunch of the dishes!
We started off making batter for the sweet crepes, which had to rest for an hour. While that was happening, I made French toast from start to finish and we got full marks! Not bad for my first try!
After that, myself and a friend got to work on some Country Style Scrambled Eggs- full …

Today we spent the day preparing something that I almost never eat- eggs. I can eat them cooked into some things but never, ever alone…my stomach is just not a fan! It was really cool to learn the exact preparations of all the eggs though, like how a poached egg, and over easy/medium/hard egg, or sunny side up egg should look. We each had to prepare each type of egg individually for marking. Unfortunately, I ran out of time AGAIN and didn’t get to prepare the poached or over hard. …

We had our in-class midterms today and they consisted of a variety of individual cutting skills, as well as cooking several sauces/soups.
The knife skills were very difficult just because of our time restraint. I ended up with some nice cuts, but I was unable to cut two entire potatoes because I ran out of time! I’m kind of embarassed about my marks, but we had a lot to cut, and in a way we hadn’t cut before, so I’ll just keep practicing and hopefully my final exam will be better!
The …

Today was GRAIN day, and it was quite an interesting day for the whole class! We recently switched groups and some are clicking whereas others are….not so much. We made several dishes including Spaetzle, homemade fettucine, tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, gnocchi,  saffron rice, rice pilaf, and risotto milanese.
I tried Spaetzle for the first time which is a German dish and is sort of an egg noodle-dumpling thing. I can’t say I’m a fan of it…but I just googled it and it looks a LOT different from the one we ended …

Yet another monday morning and yet another 4:45am wake-up call. Today I rolled over thinking that my alarm was a joke….a few seconds later I realized that I actually had to get up. Still not used to it, but I’m getting there! After a sketchy drive to school (it was POURING rain, and my car is a little bit……worn) I made it to class in time to find out that apparently we had a quiz on sauces- oops!! I had no idea, so I wracked my brain for facts and …

Wow….so much for my group’s awesome roll. Potato turned out to be a little bit more difficult then expected. Maybe it was the fact that we were making 8 different dishes in 2 hours. Or maybe it was the fact that our group leader was not feeling well at all (almost my entire class is sick with one thing or another). Nonetheless, we tried our best but some things turned out a slightly less than 100% perfect.
We began the class by learning about various types of potatoes and their uses. …

FINALLY, I was able to try some of the food we made. Unfortunately….they involved a lot of eggs, which I really don’t enjoy that much, or eat that often. The lesson was all about a good sauce, and after learning the components and qualities, we set off to make five sauces and one condiment.
I made a mean mayonnaise, which we got top marks on! I normally don’t eat mayo but the difference between a homemade mayo and a store-bough one is tremendous. Mayonnaise is SO easy to make and I …

Today was a great day in the kitchen, my group scored really well on our dishes. We were making thick soups today. We started off with a smoky split-pea soup, that ended up being the perfect texture and consistancy and had some yummy freshly made croutons for a garnish.
After that, we moved on to the vichyssoise, which I am actually going to try and make today with vegetable stock instead of meat-based stock. It looked soooo creamy and our chef loved it, though we almost ran out of time to …