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.