Culinary mission accomplished...
Saturday, January 6
Our team's Friday Night Dinner was a success by all accounts! We were well prepared and organized and on Friday afternoon everything ran quite smoothly as we headed into a stressful period before service...
... there was shakuhachi music when people entered the room
... at each place setting, there was cutlery and chopsticks that was a top of an origami crane (100 made by Yuki and I during our spare time)
... on the tables, were floating candles in vases, table runners made of sari material, and flower arrangements especially made by Yuki that afternoon
... there was green tea for people upon arrival
.... the food came out smoothy and fairly quickly and hopefully I can put up photos to show you shortly (I continue to have problems uploading the photos from my laptop to the blog)... dal soup topped with a chutney, fried curry leaf and a small piece of roasted pappadam... beautiful seaweed and vegetable salad with sesame ginger dressing... the tasting plate with my teriyaki portobello kebabs, Japanese pickles, forbidden rice and Japanese rice with burdock and chesnuts, roasted caulifower with curry and fresh mango chutney on top of a bamboo leaf... and the beautiful dessert with chai and green tea ice creams, served with a sesame tuille and pomegrante and blood orange sauces or coulis.
... all the plates seem to come back empty from the tables
... when we went out after the dinner for the usual introduction of the cooking team, we got a standing ovation with much clapping, and many compliments and questions, including:
.... "With your seaweed salad, you probably have a lot of converts to seaweed now," commented one woman. I was thrilled and said that I wanted people to try seaweed and have a good experience with it as it's so good for you, especially women, as it's packed with calcium and lots of minerals. Another woman asked what was in the sesame ginger dressing as she loved it and I told her the basic ingredients.
... "How long does it take to prepare the meal?" We answered that we started preparations on Wednesday but it takes weeks to plan out and test the menu.
... "The dal was delicious... how did you make it?" Milan answered that it's his mom's recipe that's been passed through the generations and the main thing about dal and curry is to use fresh curry leaves, and that's how you get the beautiful curry flavour. Also he said that the yoghurt served with the dal (optional) was freshly made at home and comes from a 30 year old culture from his mom
... "How do you divide up the work?" We answered that we all take on different tasks and help each other out.
... "How do you make such delicious ice cream without milk?" Dina said that the chai ice cream was made with coconut milk and the green tea one was made with almond milk.
... "What would the Barefoot Contessa said about not using butter in your meal?" We just smiled and didn't really have an answer to that one except to say that perhaps she should try using less butter as we didn't use any butter and a lot of fat in our food and I bet you didn't feel that there was a lot missing from the meal.
... "When is the school coming out with a cookbook?" Our chef instructor said that they have thought about it but there are no plans at present.
Our president and some teachers and faculty were also present and said they loved the food and the ambiance we created, as well as friends and family who came up to us afterwards. So, we were all very pleased about all the positive comments and the food that we prepared with so much passion and attention to detail. Happy times!!! I can't believe it's done and it's such a relief!!! Now there are only a few practical cooking exams, assignments and a written exam before we end on January 17. The end is near...
Our team's Friday Night Dinner was a success by all accounts! We were well prepared and organized and on Friday afternoon everything ran quite smoothly as we headed into a stressful period before service...
... there was shakuhachi music when people entered the room
... at each place setting, there was cutlery and chopsticks that was a top of an origami crane (100 made by Yuki and I during our spare time)
... on the tables, were floating candles in vases, table runners made of sari material, and flower arrangements especially made by Yuki that afternoon
... there was green tea for people upon arrival
.... the food came out smoothy and fairly quickly and hopefully I can put up photos to show you shortly (I continue to have problems uploading the photos from my laptop to the blog)... dal soup topped with a chutney, fried curry leaf and a small piece of roasted pappadam... beautiful seaweed and vegetable salad with sesame ginger dressing... the tasting plate with my teriyaki portobello kebabs, Japanese pickles, forbidden rice and Japanese rice with burdock and chesnuts, roasted caulifower with curry and fresh mango chutney on top of a bamboo leaf... and the beautiful dessert with chai and green tea ice creams, served with a sesame tuille and pomegrante and blood orange sauces or coulis.
... all the plates seem to come back empty from the tables
... when we went out after the dinner for the usual introduction of the cooking team, we got a standing ovation with much clapping, and many compliments and questions, including:
.... "With your seaweed salad, you probably have a lot of converts to seaweed now," commented one woman. I was thrilled and said that I wanted people to try seaweed and have a good experience with it as it's so good for you, especially women, as it's packed with calcium and lots of minerals. Another woman asked what was in the sesame ginger dressing as she loved it and I told her the basic ingredients.
... "How long does it take to prepare the meal?" We answered that we started preparations on Wednesday but it takes weeks to plan out and test the menu.
... "The dal was delicious... how did you make it?" Milan answered that it's his mom's recipe that's been passed through the generations and the main thing about dal and curry is to use fresh curry leaves, and that's how you get the beautiful curry flavour. Also he said that the yoghurt served with the dal (optional) was freshly made at home and comes from a 30 year old culture from his mom
... "How do you divide up the work?" We answered that we all take on different tasks and help each other out.
... "How do you make such delicious ice cream without milk?" Dina said that the chai ice cream was made with coconut milk and the green tea one was made with almond milk.
... "What would the Barefoot Contessa said about not using butter in your meal?" We just smiled and didn't really have an answer to that one except to say that perhaps she should try using less butter as we didn't use any butter and a lot of fat in our food and I bet you didn't feel that there was a lot missing from the meal.
... "When is the school coming out with a cookbook?" Our chef instructor said that they have thought about it but there are no plans at present.
Our president and some teachers and faculty were also present and said they loved the food and the ambiance we created, as well as friends and family who came up to us afterwards. So, we were all very pleased about all the positive comments and the food that we prepared with so much passion and attention to detail. Happy times!!! I can't believe it's done and it's such a relief!!! Now there are only a few practical cooking exams, assignments and a written exam before we end on January 17. The end is near...
posted by Caroline at 10:05 AM
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