Practicum Portfolio

A finale project of my entire culinary year.

World Cuisine

World Cuisine where we explored different cultures. -India -Spain -Middle East -Greece -Africa This course taught a lot about the cooking techniques in different cultures. I know some of the cooking tech with the biryani traditionally with dough but we used foil. Many familiar dishes such as empanadas, scallops, curries etc. Also some interesting dishes that I haven't tried before like lentils, cous cous etc. This is a great course if you want new dishes from different worlds it is always a breath of fresh air. It is a nice hands on experience tasting new things and working with different ingredients.

A la carte

This class is working at the Bistro in the school. We were assigned a station for example soup, fish, meat, dessert, salad. For me I was assigned Fish, Pasta, and soup, for the fish I was assigned to make trout with lemon caper butter. Simple dish but the timing can be critical because orders can pile up. The result of my dish it became the popular dish in the Bistro which I was happy. Second Station was the Pasta station in which I made Pappardelle with smeji, portabello, oysters. It became a hit in the bistro once again I was way too happy but that didn't come with some problems which are timing, cooking the pasta etc. This is also the first day which we received feedback that my pasta was undercooked it was a bummer but we have to take criticism. Then the soup which I struggled in because sometimes the soup will be cold. Nonetheless I was ok with soup but notes have to be taken to improve.

French Cuisine

French Cuisine where I explored different techniques and classical dishes such as Beef Bourgignon, Braised sweetbreads, steak tare tare. For me steak tare tare was very unusual for me because it is raw not that I am against any raw products. When I got the chance for a sample it was really good very salty, flavorful. For the sweetbreads I wasn't against it because I am used to eating liver, ears, etc. The sweetbreads tasted like chicken a very soft chicken super tender and delicious. Basic sauces like hollandaise sauce, creme anglaise, Béchamel sauce etc. Monter au beurre (mount with butter) to thicken sauces. This course is technical and focuses on presentation because there're only a few components in the plate creativity is definitely needed in order to make the plates feel like restaurant style.

Fundamentals

This is where it all started. I learned the most basic of fundamentals to knife cuts, basic plating techs, stuffing, cutting, thickening soup, sauces, and most of all fun. This class was great taught a lot of what was coming up in the program I had some fun and some challenges especially hollandaise sauce which is normal. Fundamentals also did a good job explaining to me why presentation, timeline, recipes, organization is important because it does pay off big if you are organized. That is the challenge working in the industry organization and time because you don't have all time to make the food everything has to be done in a timely manner. Fundamentals makes you ready on what is coming in the program .

Baking and Pastry

Baking was never my strong suit however I can say that it was a great learning experience for me because the amount of skills and little details in baking will greatly help me in the future. Some of the skills taught to me can't be found in books or maybe other people in the food industry but baking helped me learn the basic fundamentals of baking from making croissants, cakes, Ice creams, Chocolate writing. I learned a lot and dessert may not be my area but it does help when you need to make dessert or bread.