Skills - Secondary Cooking Carrot Cake

Day Two, group two cooking carrot cake dessert with icing and decor of choice and fresh fruit.

Skills - Post Secondary Baking Chocolates

Day Two, group two baking. Chocolates - one molded, and one hand-dipped using two different types of chocolate.

Skills - Post Secondary Cooking Entrees

Day Two cooking group two - entrees featuring leg of lamb, celeriac, one starch, two vegetables, a sauce, and a garnish.

Braised lamb, sous vide lamb, carrot puree, seared
cauliflower, sous vide celery, tourne potato, breaded
celeriac, soy reduction, carrot crisp garnish

Lamb sirloin cooked sous vide, compressed lamb sausage, braised lamb croquette, pommes dauphine, roasted carrots, burnt carrot cream puree, roasted shallot, glazed celeriac, jus

Lamb roll tomato and herb stuffed, celeriac, red peppers,
bacon, sauteed shitakes, sweet potato puree, herb lamb jus.

Lamb, vegetables, parm crisp

Hand rolled gorgenelli, soud vide leg of lamb,
red wine demi with sauteed vegetables, parm crisp

Lamb leg, braised lamb tortellini, celeriac puree, green beans, lamb sauce

Celeriac flan, filo cup, provencal lamb stew, pomme cocotte,
turned carrots, asparagus tips, fresh herbs decoration

Lamb Roulade with Dijon Spinach Duxelle and Spiced Roasted Lamb, Rosemary Pommes Duchesse, Butter Poached Carrot Curls, Pickled Celeriac, Blueberry Red Wine Sauce, Crispy Spiced Onions

Leg of lamb with parsley and puffed rice crust, sweet potato,
 cauliflower chips, butter sauteed asparagus. lamb juice reduction with apple

Rosemary pan seared leg of lamb carved and presented on a sweet potato puree, served alongside glazed mixed vegetables, draped with a rich red wine demi glace.

Catering Truck Prep

Over the weekend I worked in a small catering truck for the first time. It seemed large at first for a food truck, but throw in five chefs trying to get prep work done and it's no longer big. It was equipped with a small walk-in refrigerator, two low-boy refrigerators, four burners, a grill, three ovens, and a large hotbox, along with a three compartment dish sink, a handwashing sink, a prep table, and some shelving units. 

No matter how much of the prep work you do in advance, it is still difficult to serve a four course meal, hors d'ouvres, and evening buffet to 200 people out of a small truck. But with proper planning and space consideration it is possible. 

Some challenges of off-site catering, especially when you are outdoors and without a proper kitchen facility, include having to pack and transport all your own equipment and ingredients, having less to work with (space, gas, ranges, etc.), having to plate outside (wind, rain, etc.), not being able to get back-up if anything is forgotten, keeping food at proper temperatures, transporting plates, having proper time for set-up and take-down, packing up in the dark (with most evening events).

Many of these challenges aren't huge deals, and I actually found it quite fun to work in a catering truck for the first time!

Rustic Farm Wedding

Yesterday I was part of a catering team hired to prepare hors d'oeuvres, a four course plated meal, and evening buffet for 200 wedding guests. The wedding took place on a small farm property in the middle of nowhere, about an hour outside of the city. The team of five chefs did most of the prep work the days before at our kitchen, as we only had a small mobile kitchen to work with on site (more on this tomorrow).

The menu was as follows:

Hors D'ouvres Reception:

• Pork Belly and hot mustard crustini
• Beef briset and horseradish crustini
• Bruschetta crustini
• Guacamole crustini
• Oysters rockefeller
• Mussels in curry sauce
• Mussels in marinera sauce

Seated Dinner:

• Soup: Seafood Chowder, fresh biscuit
• Salad: Mesclun greens, beets, radish, sunflower brittle, maple balsamic vinaigrette
• Main: roasted vegetable medley, boiled baby potatoes, choice of; beef with jus, chicken supreme stuffed with bacon and brie served with maple sauce, grilled salmon with fruit salsa, vegetarian wellington.
• Dessert: Wedding cake

Evening Buffet:

• crustinis
• potato chips
• dip
• mussels

the wedding cake, laced with fresh berries

It is doing events like these that make me realize how much I love catering events and how much I love weddings!!!

Skills - Post Secondary Baking Cakes

Day One baking group two - fancy entremet cakes.

mirror glaze, chocolate crumble

dark chocolate mousse, passionfruit mousse, sponge cake, chocolate ganache, fresh sugared berries, chocolate garnish

purple glaze cake, feather chocolate garnish

layered mousse, cake, fruit glaze, pecans

pistachio cake, layers of mousse, chocolate ganache

chocolate mousse cake, chocolate ganache

cake with layers of fruit

Skills - Secondary Cooking Pork Tenderloin Entree

Cooking group one, day two - entree. The entree had to consist of a roasted pork tenderloin, glazed battonets of carrots, sauteed spinach, gratin dauphinoise (recipe provided), peppercorn sauce (recipe provided) and one garnish of choice. Other than that, there were many variations including the seasoning and sear on the pork, a stuffing or none, the doneness and presentation of the pork, how the potatoes were cut, etc. In the captions I have pointed out some key difference.

raw apple slices

fresh herbs

soft poached egg

cheese tuiles

rolled and filled pork tenederloin

bacon-wrapped pork

Skills - Post Secondary Baking - Marzipan Figures

Group Two, Baking, Day One - Marzipan Figurines. Two each of two different animals from a set list, depending upon province.