WOW!

Our soup practical was today, I mentioned it my last blog. Consomme and New England Clam Chowder. As far apart in the soup world as you can get. Ultra clear beef broth that uses a technique called CLEARMEAT, served hot in a hot bowl compared to a bechamel style soup with lots of chunks, bits and pieces of stuff. Maybe not the most appetizing way to describe soups, but you get what I mean.

We have to make windows, a restaurant term, when we present anything to the chefs to grade. Nowhere does 11:15 look like 11:30, but there I was 15 minutes early. Sent back sulking to my station to try and keep my chowder for 15 minutes without the clams getting chewy. So picky, these chefs. Finally get it up there, get the review and promptly turned and dump my chowder on the floor. I felt like Charlie Brown, Aaarrrrggghhh!

Consomme takes a long time to clarify thru the CLEARMEAT. I open a small window in the raft that is the CLEARMEAT and start to ladle out the broth thru 4 layers of cheesecloth. Season with salt and warm my bowl to serve it. I taste it and it tastes like cloves. I had put two cloves in my CLEARMEAT and I was tasting cloves. Oh well, at least it was clear as could be. I drop off my Consomme one minute from the window close and walk away as he has about six in front of me. One of the students tells me that when the chef tasted my Consomme, he said, "Oh Wow!" I'm figuring it was the extra clove I put in and was expecting to hear about it.

He calls me up after class, tells me he has a friend who is opening up a restaurant in Santa Monica, a Tapas bar, and he is looking for students to work. Two days a week. I tell him I'd love the opportunity, not really, so I say sure. He will put my name on top of the list to be considered. Wow. Then he says my Consomme was the best in the class.

WOW!