So this French dude grows up on a farm and at the age of 12 gets a job at a farm. 16 years and a restaurant later, he becomes the youngest person in the world to receive a Michelin star.
And what does he do?
He moves to America because he believes that he can do the same thing here. So he comes over, opens a job at the Watergate in Washington D.C.. He realizes that there's a lot of things here that we don't have that they have in France.
So what does he do then?
He makes friends with farmers, vendors--anybody, really--and after a while he gets people cultivating crops, growing livestock, going out of their way to catch certain animals, etc. just for him and exactly to his liking. Not only that, but he's been known to travel far and wide to find exactly what he needs for a recipe.
Dude is pretty awesome.
I mean, I not only want to be him, I hope one day I'll look as joyful naked holding a vitamix.
Anyway, to the menu of the week.
I suppose since this is the last class most people have to take before they graduate, the drop-out rate is relatively low if not completely nonexistent by this point, so unfortunately, I'm still stuck in a class with a bajillion people.
But this week's menu was pretty fun.
Potato ravioli appetizer
I liked the filling but this was way
too small even for a tasting portion. It was a lot like eating one
potato chip. (i.e. incredibly depressing)
Chilled melon sauterne consomme
For some reason, our consomme turned out a little too dark and the liquid was cloudy. If I'd done it, I think I would've clarified it again because Chef looked at it once and made the snootiest face.
True story, though--during lecture, when he was writing recipe notes on the board, he wrote "Child consomme" as this dish and no one else noticed! Or maybe no one else thought it was as funny as I thought it was.
At least it was really, really good.
Chartreuse of asparagus
My teammate accidentally overcooked the custard, but it was so good I think I'm going to have to remake this one day and I don't even like asparagus all that much.
Stuffed prime rib au jus with caramelized pearl onions, sauteed green beans, potato pancake, and roasted root vegetables
I can't believe I've never had prime rib before! God, this was crazy delicious. It was at the right doneness and the vegetables went with it so well. Chef had a problem with the jus not being jus-y (juicy?) enough but if I wasn't plating next, I would've licked the plate.
Peach Charlotte with raspberry sauce
I can't believe I spent most of two days of class making this one dish. I really need to step my game up a little. When Chef uploaded the recipes, I read this one over a couple of times and tried to figure out how this was supposed to look like but I think it turned out pretty well. Chef said the French way is to serve it this dark. It pretty much tasted like caramel with peach cobbler. It was a little sacrilegious to not serve it with vanilla bean ice cream and I regret not doing so, but ironically enough, this last kitchen class of the curriculum is the one you're not really supposed to get that creative about. At least I got to plate the way I wanted to.
Next week is Alice Waters mystery basket style. Can't wait!
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