The Final Four....Days of School

I can't believe that my last class was almost a week ago...didn't I just start school the other day?  I know that the program is only 4 months in the classroom and 2 months in internship, but it feels so much shorter.  Plus, due to scheduling and randomness, I don't start my internship until tomorrow morning so I've had a lot of downtime and a lot of time out of the kitchen which feels really weird now.  Chef was right though, once you start in this business, even if you have a couple of days off you'll still find yourself baking.  I made bread (garlic-herb and sun-dried tomato, if you're curious) twice so far this week, and I've been thinking about making some peanut brittle as well.  Also, my school toolbox is now sitting in the middle of our kitchen floor - that seems like the best place for it, right?

So, yes, I got an internship!  I'm very excited to announce that starting tomorrow morning I will be interning at the Main Street Bakery in Port Washington, NY.  I'll still be on LI, but it's technically a shorter distance than I was driving to school so we'll see how it goes.  Chef Mike (my new boss) seems pretty cool and he's got a lot of experience (Hotel Hershey - yum!) and I really feel like he not only has a lot to teach me, but that he wants to teach me.  That is definitely something worth being excited about.  I'm really going to miss being at school with all of my friends, and I'm a wee bit sad that I wasn't asked to be an intern at school to help with the next class (K & D - you're going to be awesome, I know it!), but I think that I'm going somewhere that's going to be a good fit for me, so in the end, that's what's important.

The last days of class were pretty intense in that it was 4 days of finals.  On Monday we had to hand in our individual menu projects and then do our blind practicals.  For the menus, we each had to come up with a theme and make an actual dessert menu, with at least 4 items on it that each had the following 4 elements:

1. Main Component
2. Frozen Component
3. Garnish
4. Sauce

I wound up doing a Hawaiian theme (which, apparently, was a popular choice since I know at least 2 other people who used the same theme) because I wanted something that would lend itself easily to the upcoming summer season, which I know is something that Chef Katie pays attention to.  I wish I'd scanned a picture of the actual menu that I handed in, but at least I can tell you what I put on it:

Cocoa and Kona Torte

flourless chocolate cake layered with crushed chocolate wafers

and kona coffee gelato, served with macadamia nut brittle and

raspberry coulis

Waffles and Ice Cream

mini vanilla-spiced waffles with haupia sauce,

ginger ice cream and toasted coconut

Kauai Strawberry Shortcake

guava chiffon cake layered with macerated strawberries, topped with

vanilla bean ice cream, crème chantilly and chocolate feuilletine cookies

Bananas Foster

caramelized bananas, coconut ice cream, rum sauce and

chocolate covered peanuts

Papaya and Lime

papaya sorbet in a tuille cup topped with candied ginger

and a honey-lime sauce

So what do you think?  I know Dave liked it because there were more fruit options, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.  For the blind practical, you basically walk into class and get a sheet of paper with the item you're making on it and the ingredients, but no instructions.  I was stressing myself out over it so much, memorizing cake mixing methods and all sorts of craziness and didn't wind up getting any of the things I'd actually looked up!  What I did get was fudgy chocolate brownies and fruit mousse.  My mousse came out perfect, and while my brownies tasted fudgy-tastic, they wound up driving me crazy all morning.  I used the wrong size pan so they were super-thick and took a crazy long time to bake.  In the end I took them out of the oven, sliced them and stuck a couple on a plate in the fridge so that they'd be cool enough to present.  Chef Katie said that they were slightly over-mixed and slightly under-done, but I'm still happy and was glad not to be stressed out about it anymore.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent making our team menu projects.  Julie and I had decided on making an ice cream bombe.  It had a fudgy chocolate cake base, with a thick middle layer of peanut butter cheesecake and was topped with butterfinger ice cream.  Then we garnished it with tuille cookies and strawberry sauce.  I thought it looked and tasted awesome and I'm really proud of the work we did together.  If you can believe it, the team that won fan favorite had everything possible happen to them in the lead-up to presentation.  They broke a plate in their dessert, had to run out to the store for more fruit because we ran out, got a pretty nasty burn and if I remember correctly a bloody knuckle to boot (am I hallucinating that part and just making it sound worse, or did that actually happen?).  Diana and Alex, my puffy hat comes off to you - the fact that all of that happened and you still managed to plate and present on time?  Amazing.  Here are some pictures of everyone's final desserts:

Julie's and my dessert

Mark, Terrel and Scott

Diana and Alex

NiAdah and John

Val and Michele

Mihwa and Jen

Karyn and Jamie

Regina and Linda

Mary and Jen

Pretty amazing, right?  Our last day, Thursday, was pretty laid back, but still full of craziness (which is, I'm sure, why you're still reading, eh?).  I woke up extra early so that I could beat the traffic and get some extra studying in before our written final exam.  I looked pretty funny sitting at a table by myself with all of my flashcards, like I was playing a really bizarre game of solitaire that depends on your ability to define autolyse or know where the sacher torte gets it's name from.  We all took the test, and it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  I got a few questions wrong, but I also got the extra credit question right, so I'm not too worried.  The weirdest part of the day came after our test when we presented Chef Katie with our end of class gift.  The whole class had decided to go in on a gift together - we all chipped in and we all signed the card and it seemed like Chef really appreciated our gift.  But that's when the weirdness started...

So she's thanking us for the gift and it's starting to get all mushy when BB (knew it was going to be her!!) hands Chef another card.  Okay, if she wants to give her a private goodbye card, that's fine.  If it was me, I probably would've done it privately, but whatever.  Then, she hands her another envelope.  What's going on here?  She got her a separate present?  It took the Chef a really long time to figure out what it was, but if you weren't looking at her but at the rest of the class you would've seen that everyone else was looking around at each other trying to figure out what the hell was going on.  I think that a lot of people, myself included, were pretty put off by the fact that she gave her own separate (and frankly weird) gift in front of the rest of the class when we'd all (she contributed to our gift as well) gone in on a class gift together.  Plus, you should have seen the look on her face - so smug!  I'll tell you one thing, I'm am feeling pretty fine about not having to see her again until graduation.  Good thing she lives in another borough - hopefully I won't even run into her or have to mention the initials BB again.

The rest of the morning was spent playing Jeopar-Katie.  We were split up into 4 groups and each group got a cowbell to ring in with.  I'll admit it, my group was a little bit competitive...okay we were a lot competitive!  And from the most unlikely source - our sweet little Mishy!  The sweet, adorable girl who keeps insisting that my friend Monica is really her friend, and who blushes like a tomato every time she speaks is apparently game crazy.  Twice during the game she blushed and said, "games aren't fun unless you win!"  Of course after she said it she made her same Mishy face and giggled so it's hard not to laugh - so funny!  Our team actually won the first 2 rounds hands down, but then came final Jeopar-Katie...oh final round, the demise of cocky teams around the world!  We lost...we lost badly.  But it all works out in the end because do you know what the prizes were for the team that won?  Chocolate thermometers!  If I had actually won, no one would've made it out of their alive - I should never be allowed near a chocolate thermometer again.  We all remember this interaction...

Brooke:  What is this red stuff all over my chocolate mold...

CK: You're bleeding!

Brooke: Oh my god!  I am?! (throws hands in front of face, expecting to have cut off a finger)

Alex: You broke your thermometer again!

Brooke: Oh crap...

Good times everybody...good times.  I'd really like to continue with this blog throughout my internship - if you're interested in still reading it, let me know!  And until we all meet again at our graduation, here is the best class (in my oh-so-humble opinion) to come out of kitchen 4: