ACF Practical Exam

Today I had my practical exam so I could get certified by the American Culinary Federation. The test was in conjunction with my Garde Manger class, which in a previous post I explained my general dislike of. Now, I must say that while I'm still generally uninterested in the class topics, the class is teaching me some possibly useful things, so it's not all bad.

Last week our class had a practice week, which went well, and I tried to fine tune the things that needed work leading up to today. The whole exam required preparation of the following:

Batonnet & Julienne of carrots
Finely chopped parsley
Mirepoix
Chicken stock
Fabrication of a whole chicken into thighs, wings, skinless boneless breast, airline breast (chicken breast with the wing bone attached), drumsticks, and carcass free of usable meat
One entree of choice, preparing the airline breast, proper starch and vegetable

My batonnet & julienne of carrots turned out well, with the minor exception that they were a little short, but they were all the same size so I don't think that effected my score a great deal. Parsley was easy, but most people get impatient and don't chop it fine enough, so go me.
Mirepoix, easy. Chicken stock, easy.
I must say, I freakin rocked that chicken fabrication. My best go yet, plus I even got the stupid oyster muscle clean. Rock.

For my entree I did Indian spiced chicken, curried cauliflower and cardamom rice. My chicken was perfect during practice week, but I put too much salt in my spice mix this week so it ended up a little salty (damn it), but it was perfectly cooked so screw it. My chef complained that my cauliflower was a little undercooked during practice week, so I cooked it longer this time and to his standards it was perfect. Word. Rice is easy, the end.

All in all, I passed with an A/95 and am now certified by the ACF. Which means that I have something to make my resume look good and I don't have to go back over Thanksgiving break to retake the test. Yeah man.


Now I can relax.

Favorites

You know, whenever people ask me my favorite food, or my favorite thing to make, I get pretty pissed. I mean.. not really.. but I hate the question is what I'm sayin'.

I'm in culinary school, I have TONS of favorite foods. I also love making tons of different things, it all depends on what mood I'm in.

Now, I have my "fancy" favorite foods: Goat cheese, super dark chocolate, etc.. But I don't know that I could consider them favorite because I wouldn't want to eat them all the time. They would lose their specialness.

Then I have my comforting favorite foods: Plain cheerios, banana yogurt, oatmeal, cold cream of wheat, skim milk (I have a dairy obsession..). While looking at this list I notice that these are all, for the most part, extremely bland foods. But these are all foods I grew up on and came to adore. I could eat them every day.

As far as my favorite thing to make, I think I've made it obvious that I like to bake cakes, but it's not my favorite. I do love making chili, and I make a mean one at that, but still not my favorite.
I guess sometimes, I like doing the time/labor intensive thing - croissants, apple strudel, bread, etc.. but sometimes I just want to get baked goods into my tummy as quickly as possible - quick breads, cookies, muffins.. or I just want a quick healthy meal that will fill me up - wheat pasta with tuna and veggie sauce or some delicious turkey chili.


So if you ask me either of these questions, I most likely won't punch you in the face, but I might want to.