April 9th and Blue C are back in class (cooking in the mornings this first week) and with the knowledge that in 10 weeks time the Course is finished – bar exam week. It’s a bit frightening – a lot frightening actually ! Chatter on our WhatsApp group implied most people were not looking forward to their return – it appears 3 weeks off has tempered the enthusiasm of many ! There is still a feeling amongst many that we have no real idea what we will do at the end of the term- some of us have even told the Teachers we will back again in September to start off from scratch all over again as we don’t want to be away from School !
However here we all are starting the final term – with the exception of one student still sunning themselves on the beach- much to the chagrin of others ! But first day was a bit of a breeze. We had all been forearmed with recipes and a brief time plan at the end of the last term, and our task was to prepare various Chinese specialties as a table of 4. We drew lots to determine which dish each student would tackle and I found myself with responsibility for Bao Buns which was quite fun. Between us we also produced some awesome sticky ribs and various other dumplings,Gyoza and Wontons. The afternoon consisted of Champagne tasting – 6 glasses – so we all went home rather happy on the Monday !
The rest of the week involved some new tasks and skills but many building on stuff we had learnt during the intermediate term. We made a Mustard Beurre Blanc which was similar to Hollandaise and involved more smoked haddock and poached eggs.
Teacher thought it was a shame my egg had burst – No I insisted I did it on purpose to make it more Instagramable ! He thought I was kidding, then said he felt cheated not being able to burst the egg himself ! 😂😂😂
We boned a quail which was similar to the chicken deboning last term but as you can imagine a little more fiddly due to its size. This exercise was amusing for me. I had seen a YouTube video from Australia demonstrating the Quail deboning which started off using scissors to cut out the backbone. When I was spotted doing this I was descended upon quickly to stop me “spatchcocking” the bird.
Stuffed Quail with Spinach and Chorizo.
When I explained that it would work I was frowned upon at first, but I insisted continuing and my end result was almost perfect. There is always more than one way to get to the end result in cooking – especially in filleting, deboning etc – and this was a good demonstration of same as my method appeared to be quicker than the rest of the class. Polenta was also on the menu and I seemed to be the only one who had prepared Polenta at home. So much so I was guiding my table on the cooking and was known as the “Polenta Whisperer” fat lot of good that did! One of my Polenta students got a better mark than I !!!
We all had terrific fun making a Lemon Jelly. It does not sound exciting but this was an exercise of pure Alchemy, or to give it its correct cooking terminology “Clearing”. The first day involved simply making the Lemon Syrup with high quality Sicilian Lemons but the second day is when magic happened.
We crushed egg shells and frothed them with egg whites and added this to the lemon syrup. Heated it up and whisked like crazy for around 6/7 minutes until the liquid started steaming and then rotated the pan on the hob to control the ever expanding crust. 
This we boiled twice and then filtered it through kitchen paper and sieve, ending up with a crystal clear liquid to be used in 3 stages in a Dariole to magically suspend a strawberry in mid Jelly ! And this day was my birthday ! How many people end up making suspended strawberries in Lemon jelly on their birthday !
Capturing the clear liquid
After moving in and out of the fridge to gradually set up the jelly in layers, we ended up with a clear Lemon Jelly with a magnified Strawberry sitting snugly in the middle of it – we all were very excited and pleased with ourselves !
Lastly on Friday we made a Boudin Blanc – A French Sausage – that necessitated being piped into a 2 metre long pigs intestine. Unsurprisingly endless innuendo ensued and people were effectively allowed to show their skills in slipping extremely long condoms on to piping nozzles- great way to end the first week back !
2 metres of what !?
The never ending Story – I mean Sausage !
The Demonstrations for the week were all clearly a step up from the previous term and gave us some insight as to what we will be cooking over the coming weeks. Assiette of rabbit was fascinating and we were shown sweetbreads (which is a personal favourite of mine ) and of which I am no stranger to preparing. An incredible Vegetable sides Demo got us to think about the products which often take up 75% of your plate in a restaurant, this included a decadent Potato Fondant and introduction to an Espuna Gun that produces Foams by using Nitric Acid – that was a new one for all of us. Consommés, Essences and Jus were all on the menu – we are getting into Masterchef territory, but are we ready for it ?