Week 2, day 3

Sorry about the post I missed yesterday, crazy days and a lot going on.

Wednesday, I can't believe it is already half way through the poaching week here in Stratford. The day was gorgeous, no hint of winter yet, which is a very good thing! Practical cookery started off the day. I really have to focus on my knife skills, as my lack of paying attention to detail would have cause my dish to fail if it had been an exam. Lots of chopping is in store for the next few weeks here after school hours before my exams in week four. On a more positive note, the "beurre blanc" that I made in class turned out very well, and the chef even said I did a good job on it, which is quite a compliment, as chef Steele is a very particular man who tells you exactly what he thinks of your dish. Along with the Beurre Blanc, my group cooked a Poached Supreme of Salmon with Turned Potatoes, and Provencal Vegetables. It tasted very good, however the presentation was poor due to the vegetables being chopped imperfectly.
Nutrition class followed, very uneventfully, and then Culinary Management followed nutrition. Culinary management is a very fast paced class, as we were learning about the structure of a french full course meal just last week, and now we are on to sauces, and their importance in french cookery. Sauces are one of the most important things in nearly all french dishes, which was unknown to myself until this afternoon. The french words that we had to memorize are turning out to be a fair amount easier than I imagined, but still a bit of a challenge, as I have so much other work that needs to be done, it feels lower on my priority list than it maybe should be. There is a lot of knowledge and theory behind this class however, and I am learning about the importance behind the way dishes are served, what they must be served with, in what order, and how to compliment a whole meal with sauces, and other dishes.
Tomorrow I will be having another wine class, which again adds another aspect on food and complimenting drinks with meals as well as a newly found high appreciation for wines. I am looking forward very much to the wine tour that I will be taking in the Niagara region near the end of the month.
After class, I got my exam meal handed out on a piece of paper. Two meals for two days to be exact. The first being Fettuccine, Hollandaise, 1 cup of julienne vegetables, 2 soft boiled eggs, Sauce Andalouse, and a French folded omelette. I have made none of these in the practical cookery class yet, so hopefully I can at least learn the french folded omelette and make it in class in the next week. The others I will be practicing at home whenever I can, providing I can attain all the commodities required. This exam will take place on Monday in week 4 here, which is only a week and a half away. I will be the second person presenting on top of this, at 10:30 in the morning which leaves very little time for error or mistakes. On Thursday of that week, I will be performing my second practical exam. The recipe I have been given is Escalope of de veau aux champignon  and Asparagus and Oyster Mushroom Ragout.
After receiving our exam recipes today, I had a meeting with the gastronomic food writer in residence, Clotilde Dusoulier. She is a food writer, and has a very popular blog called "chocolate and zucchini" and she is assisting the chef school students this year on our writing project that we had to hand in a few weeks ago. She went through them, and made grammatical corrections, as well as figured out how we could write them better. Today I had my meeting with her, and my piece of writing turned out a lot better than I thought it would. My description of my favourite food, haggis, was very good however I did not talk about how my experiences have lead me to enjoy this meal. This was the only big problem with it, so I have 2 weeks to add that, but I should be able to get a very high mark on this assignment. It was very nice talking with someone that makes a living writing about food, and that has such an esteemed blog. I have learned a lot, and hopefully this will reflect on my future blogs, and on all my writing in the future.
Tomorrow proves to be an exciting day, the afternoon will be a visit to Bradshaws, the local kitchenware store here in stratford, where I just may get some free cookware, and where there will be free food! It is the open house, so I will be there tomorrow afternoon, and I am really looking forward to receiving my very own amazing set of amazing saucepans as a door prize! (I'm really hoping)
I'll tell you how awesome they are if I win them, or anything at all in tomorrows blog.