The day we lost our balls...
Tuesday, December 5
So, today we lost our balls, tempeh balls that is, during our Friday Night Dinner practice 2 in front of a panel of 10 reviewers. They were delicious. Tempeh ground in a food processor and mixed with sauted garlic, onions and other minced vegetables, then formed into balls and covered with Japanese panko flakes and flash fried, and served with a homemade Indian curry and chutney. One person on the panel of reviewers thought there was too much protein and starch in our meal overall so they told us to remove them. We were surprised and disheartened as we put so much effort into making them perfectly and thought they were delicious. Even the people on our team, including me, who was skeptical about using tempeh on our main course plate as our experience with tempeh too date has not been too impressive, were delighted with them. But, one day they're in and on another day they're out. The other thing on our plate they didn't like was the seared brussel sprouts with a coconut sauce. They're out as well. So, what are we left with? Some sauted broccoli rabe and a smaller portion of chestnut and burdock brown sweet rice. And, we have to go back to the drawing board for the other items. Also, our homemade grilled chapatis with the dal soup were too large. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sesame ginger dressing for the salad, but they wanted less salad in general, less seaweed and more finely chopped, no edamame beans and one person held up some of my matchstick carrots and daikon that I had carefully put into approximately 2" x 1/8" matchsticks and said they were too large and not consistently all the same. I had done them by chopping as there were only for 10 people today, and knew they were not exactly all the same, but didn't think it would be a big deal. Now, that I know it is, the only way to do this is with the mandoline and out it will come next time for perfect consistent matchsticks. I learned my lesson. Also, it's always risker to do something different than a more traditional salad but we all had all liked the idea of a seaweed salad and even the people who didn't like seaweed in our team loved the salad. It was quite disheartening especially after we all spent so much time and effort on the entire meal, and particularly since we had worked late last night and came in early this morning to prepare the meal and were pleased with it. Everything seemed to go so well during the preparations to date and we really liked our entire meal. We thought we would get some criticisms but it was hard to take all the small negative points, some we didn't agree with, without expression and say thank you to the panel for their comments. Ah, the lessons of humbleness and detachment. They did like the dal soup, but it will have to be in a smaller portion, and the dessert at the end of a ginger and sesame tuille cup with separate green tea and cardommon almond milk ice cream balls with coulis of both orange ginger and pomegrante. Everyone usually loves the desserts.
Afterwards, we walked back into the kitchen and grabbed some spoons and finished off the remaining cardommon and green tea almond milk ice cream in consolation. Our chef who is our lead coach for us for the Friday Night Dinner came back afterwards and said that he didn't agree with a lot of what was said but we had to go with the panel's comments and revise our meal for round 2 in two weeks. By then, we were all exhausted from the preparation and stress of the whole exercise, and full of ice cream, and started thinking of new items for the menu without much energy or enthusiasm. The chef said the best thing we could do is to not think about it right now, in particular tonight, however, he knows from experience that when you're living and breathing this and have to come up with something quickly, it's hard to turn off everything.
So, we're back to the drawing board or cutting board again tomorrow and of course I am exhausted but already thinking of replacements, but I do miss our balls...
So, today we lost our balls, tempeh balls that is, during our Friday Night Dinner practice 2 in front of a panel of 10 reviewers. They were delicious. Tempeh ground in a food processor and mixed with sauted garlic, onions and other minced vegetables, then formed into balls and covered with Japanese panko flakes and flash fried, and served with a homemade Indian curry and chutney. One person on the panel of reviewers thought there was too much protein and starch in our meal overall so they told us to remove them. We were surprised and disheartened as we put so much effort into making them perfectly and thought they were delicious. Even the people on our team, including me, who was skeptical about using tempeh on our main course plate as our experience with tempeh too date has not been too impressive, were delighted with them. But, one day they're in and on another day they're out. The other thing on our plate they didn't like was the seared brussel sprouts with a coconut sauce. They're out as well. So, what are we left with? Some sauted broccoli rabe and a smaller portion of chestnut and burdock brown sweet rice. And, we have to go back to the drawing board for the other items. Also, our homemade grilled chapatis with the dal soup were too large. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sesame ginger dressing for the salad, but they wanted less salad in general, less seaweed and more finely chopped, no edamame beans and one person held up some of my matchstick carrots and daikon that I had carefully put into approximately 2" x 1/8" matchsticks and said they were too large and not consistently all the same. I had done them by chopping as there were only for 10 people today, and knew they were not exactly all the same, but didn't think it would be a big deal. Now, that I know it is, the only way to do this is with the mandoline and out it will come next time for perfect consistent matchsticks. I learned my lesson. Also, it's always risker to do something different than a more traditional salad but we all had all liked the idea of a seaweed salad and even the people who didn't like seaweed in our team loved the salad. It was quite disheartening especially after we all spent so much time and effort on the entire meal, and particularly since we had worked late last night and came in early this morning to prepare the meal and were pleased with it. Everything seemed to go so well during the preparations to date and we really liked our entire meal. We thought we would get some criticisms but it was hard to take all the small negative points, some we didn't agree with, without expression and say thank you to the panel for their comments. Ah, the lessons of humbleness and detachment. They did like the dal soup, but it will have to be in a smaller portion, and the dessert at the end of a ginger and sesame tuille cup with separate green tea and cardommon almond milk ice cream balls with coulis of both orange ginger and pomegrante. Everyone usually loves the desserts.
Afterwards, we walked back into the kitchen and grabbed some spoons and finished off the remaining cardommon and green tea almond milk ice cream in consolation. Our chef who is our lead coach for us for the Friday Night Dinner came back afterwards and said that he didn't agree with a lot of what was said but we had to go with the panel's comments and revise our meal for round 2 in two weeks. By then, we were all exhausted from the preparation and stress of the whole exercise, and full of ice cream, and started thinking of new items for the menu without much energy or enthusiasm. The chef said the best thing we could do is to not think about it right now, in particular tonight, however, he knows from experience that when you're living and breathing this and have to come up with something quickly, it's hard to turn off everything.
So, we're back to the drawing board or cutting board again tomorrow and of course I am exhausted but already thinking of replacements, but I do miss our balls...
posted by Caroline at 8:02 PM
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