Don't be hatin'

Midterm prep!

Post-wedding cakes, there was nary a moment for revelry of any kind or self-congratulatory talk, but for the moment when the other inquisitive -and blindly supportive- students from the other classes came in exclaiming at the cakes, "Oh she say you look so pree-tay!" Directly following, we began prepping and practicing for our practical midterm. Our midterm is made up of a written portion of all of our theory, and then a 4-hour practical exam wherein we are given four products to produce and four hours to do them. Certifiably, our exam includes lemon meringue tarts, chocolate eclairs, semolina bread, and chocolate truffles. Wednesday, we did bread and eclairs as well as fruitcake and brioche tropezianne which were additional pieces to our curriculum -all with a deadline to imitate the exam. Had I left the extra pieces until I had finished my exam prep pieces, I would have finished on time. But I finished ten minutes late. Which means I theoretically failed the exam.

Then I kind of hit a wall Wednesday night. And then I felt like I literally hit a wall on Thursday. In a food prep class, especially one as small as ours, illness circulates like tornado season, running around waving its hands over it's head screaming, 'YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!" Except you CAN catch it and that means that you are sick, lying in the middle of the floor in the dark, possibly groaning. I managed to avoid any serious illness but mine was more a feeling of exhaustion.

I took Thursday to see if I could recoup. It is NOT AN OPTION to be sick during midterms. Anxiety anxiety anxiety. So if I'm gonna get sick I HAVE to get sick now. Knock on wood that was my dose for the season. And turns out I wasn't the only one. I was one of six, or HALF of our class, that was away yesterday and our Chef went home early as well with a raging fever.

So TODAY, we were still down three people but most of us where there and so we took another stab at prepping for the midterm. Today was lemon meringue tarts, as well as ICE CREAM DAY! My chef is Italian and therefore extremely particular about ice cream. He competed in an international gelato competition so he has the right to be. We learned chocolate sorbet, chocolate gelato, vanilla bean gelato, passionfruit sorbet and a lemon granita. The chocolate sorbet was wicked good. It had this sandy texture that no one else liked but me. The passionfruit sorbet was amazeballs, I mean seriously good. Like "eat out of my bare hand in the light of the refrigerator in the middle of the night by myself" good. Embarrassing good.

Lemon Tarts were a good exercise. My lemon filling had the texture of a gel insole because I WAY overcooked it. My first batch of tart shells were adequate. My second set were majestic. And then I went and baked them for forty-five minutes. They came out looking like chocolate tart shells. Dangit. Not good for the exam. My tarts officially don't look like the picture anymore. Without a serious degree of forethought, lemon meringue does not travel well. Looks like shaving cream with toasted coconut in it now. With a tart under there somewhere.

Monday we make pate du fruit and marshmallows!!

Find some ice cream. Find your pyjamas. Eat on the floor. Don't be hatin'. Repeat.