I'm in the Home Stretch..one day and counting.

I left off on Tuesday's happening. Wednesday was my last day in cuisine. It was nice. It was very busy! I was the only one who finished everything on the agenda. We make Fish timbales (a fish mousse) with saffron sauce, seared kangaroo with a sweet potato galatte and crepes, plain and filled with pears. It was a busy day in class - those who failed the desserts section yesterday, 3 of them, had to redo them today in class. It was bittersweet to be done with cuisine. So happy for it to be over, but sad because I am leaving Australia.

Thursday was kinda a slow day in class, patisserie. We had a practice day in preparation for Friday's class/assessment. I made palimers and coffee eclairs. After class, I had to take a cuisine theory exam. It was easy, lots of questions though. There were a few questions that made me scratch my head...but a few points lost here and there won't hurt, I figure. Let's hope that's right.

Today, Friday, was the first day for the patisserie final assessment. It went very well. We did not get feedback, but I knew I did a good job. Herve, the head chef at Le Cordon Bleu, came in to assess the products, along with the head pastry chef from the sister school (TAFE). When we came back from lunch, I found an eclair missing. That meant that Herve ate my eclair, meaning it was good enough for him to eat! That must mean something!! I presented 10 eclairs, all uniform shape, color and shiny/tempered coffee flavored fondant. The eclairs were piped with coffee patisserie cream. They were great! I also had to make two puff pastry doughs, in two different methods, English and French method. The methods are different because of the way you incorporate the butter, all the same ingredients though. It was a good day. Good products!

Tomorrow is my last day in basic, hopefully. Tomorrow is filled with making a fruit flan, vol au vents and palimers, in four hours. Tomorrow will be busy, but I think it will be fun. Tomorrow's class really will be bittersweet - the final day.

In class today, we got to go into the kitchen 30 minutes before the assessment began - meaning 7:30. It was like the running of the bulls, with all the students running in to get all their equipment first. It was crazy. You can get run over and get hurt in the dish room just reaching for a bowl. There are 14 of us. It's crazy at times. There are more than enough bowls, pots and pans, but limited numbers of mixing bowls. This causes alot of chaos, chaos that is not needed! So I just stand back, let them gather their equipment and then I go in. The same thing happens in cuisine, but instead of 14 students there are 43 students trying to gather all their equipment. In the cuisine kitchen there are not enough bowls, pots, pan, trays, strainers, measuring cups and so on....so it is a race to the pot room, a real running of the bulls! People can get hurt. The lesson I learned - make do with what you've got when your given it. It's crazy.

Say some prayers....for tomorrow's assessment! See ya'll soon.