The tasting was set for noon, so we all arrived early in the morning to prep. One thing led to another, however, and it kept getting pushed back – in the end, it was at 4 p.m. It was tricky to hold all our food for that long, but in the end I think mine went ok. (I felt bad for the culinary guys who were making lamb and other foods that just don't survive a four-hour delay with any kind of quality.) Here’s a group photo of my contribution:
The theme this time was "international" (which isn’t much of a theme at all when you think about it). I went with four desserts of my own design (described below). I have to give my chef huge props (he is such a sweetheart) because he was the first one there, stopped at every station and asked every student (there were six of us, three culinary and three baking/pastry) all sorts of questions, and he ate a little of everything. In some cases, he ate a lot. While I like it when my cooking brings a smile to the face of friends and family, I have to admit it’s even more gratifying to watch an internationally known chef scarf down my panna cotta and rum financier in their entirety while making excited little cooing noises of pleasure.
The executive grand poobah chef also came through, with one of his underlings. Big Chef ate everyone’s displays instead of letting us do our whole "action station" deal. He took one bite of everything and then passed the plate to his underling and moved on without even looking to see if the guy had a grip on it. At that point, the underling would take a couple bites of the leftovers. It was pretty funny to see, sort of "Devil Wears Prada" but in baggy whites with no cute accessories. That said, Big Chef seemed to really like my scone, and linger over it more than I expected.
Now, my chef had noted (not in a bad way) that there was a lot of rum in one of my desserts. I said that was the point of it, after all. But later, when it was all over, one of the culinary guys came back to the dessert station and said "who made stuff with rum? All the chefs were complaining that they were going to work drunk after eating it."
Well. I think my job here is done.
But seriously... the other two baking and pastry students teamed up to do a bunch of Asian desserts, but I elected to go my own way (shocking, I know). Here is my menu:
The Brit: playing off the idea of a cheese plate instead of dessert, I did a Stilton and walnut scone with chive creme fraiche. The chef running things got me 20 pounds of the most awesome Stilton but alas, I had to return what I did not use. I thought it turned out a little too salty, but guys especially seemed to like this one.
The Lebanese: I based this on a dessert I had at Ali Baba here in Las Vegas, shrunk down to bite-size. It’s a semolina dough filled with sweet al-kunafi cheese and soaked in a syrup of saffron and rosewater. I thought it was the least attractive visually (I think it's downright homely), but it was very popular. I nearly ran out! My chef seemed to like this one in particular, while another chef grilled me on how I made it, where I got the idea, what exactly was in it, and so on, while he devoured it. I always take chefs demanding more information as they eat as a good sign.
The Sicilian: this was the biggest butt pain of the bunch. It’s a Limoncello-rosemary panna cotta ("I see you put a lot of Limoncello in this too, eh?" noted my chef) with blood orange supreme. It was a pain because the panna cotta was so delicate that it was tough to remove it from the fleximold without smashing or denting it. In the end, it involved a lot of running back and forth to the freezer (I’d get one out, then take the tray back so the rest could firm up and not be damaged). I had a lot of ideas for the garnish but none worked. In last minute desperation, I thought well, what else is Sicilian? And I remembered that storied Italian isle grows most of Europe’s blood oranges. Well, there you have it. I know this is a very simple plating, but I like the minimalist white-on-white and rigid geometric lines, played around a bit with the vibrant colors and curves of the fruit garnish. Oh, crap, I’m becoming a hopeless food snob, huh?
The Pirate: yes, that’s what I called it, and I just giggled seeing it written on the menu. It’s a rum and lime-soaked financier (lime to ward off scurvy and rum because, well, what part of "pirate" don’t you understand?) with a ginger preserve center (ginger relieves sea sickness!), topped with a rum and honey marshmallow (arr! more rum it is!) bruleed to order (yay! what’s more piratical than finishing a dessert with a blowtorch??) and garnished with a pineapple chip "petal" that is supposed to evoke the dashing feather in a pirate's hat (at least a well-dressed pirate). The pineapple, actually an oven-dried disc of fresh-cut fruit, was supposed to be crispy and serve as a base, but they never got the right texture. Faced with a tray full of limp roasted pineapple discs, I decided to contort them into the shape of a rose petal and stick them into the top of the hot, just-bruleed marshmallow. My chef loved the result and wanted to know how I did it, because looking at it, I don’t think it’s apparent that I screwed up a crispy pineapple chip base and needed to use them up somehow. Considering it was a last-minute decision, I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it came out, and that all 40 of them were identical.
And finally, speaking of "all 40 of them," here's a shot I just happen to like of my panna cotta awaiting service, staying cool and creamy (my PC are on the center right... on the left are the green tea cakes and sweet potato cakes the other pastry students made, and far right is some amuse bouche one of the culinary students made but forgot to serve!
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