Week 7: Brassica Fork & Meat Cuts
- Oct 12, 2017
- 4 min read
Day 1: Event day was finally here! I and one of my team members, Hannah were both able to show up early to begin setting up for all of the guests that were coming through the kitchen. As Hannah began reheating the soup and preparing the final touches I was putting together the table design from top to bottom.
Gathering all of the decorations was so fun! I loved being able to take a simple idea of Brassica Fork and a table design from a piece of paper and turn them into something worthwhile. As the rest of my teammates arrived to class the whole event really started coming together. Once everyone finished their own final touches to the table design we went over our game plan once the guests arrived. We took a look over our prep plan and referred to the schedule to remember who was supposed to be doing what.
Everything came together beautifully! Our design, our soup and our drink was perfectly planned and looked/tasted awesome. For our restaurant Brassica Fork, we decided to use some inspiration from Jurassic Park for our theme and design. The reasoning for the name came from the scientific name of broccoli: brassica oleracea. Which we used as the name for our "signature dish" cream of broccoli soup! Our soup was served in an adorable tiny bread bowl and then the dish was complimented by our sparkling apple-cider. The carbonation from the drink complimented to creaminess of our soup perfectly! I'm so happy we had a reason for everything that we served our guests.
The event went by so quickly and was ran so smoothly. It was just enough of a success that I felt a relief off my shoulders once it was over and a sense of pride as I looked over my table. Yes, the entire soup process was stressful and at time confusing but once a plan was made everything was in place. This definitely lead me to my biggest AHA moment which was how vital it is to have everything go to plan & in order for that to be noticed a plan needs to be in action. I'm very motivated to make plans for any event that needs one in order to ensure that everything runs to schedule!
Here are some pictures of our soup in progress, our table design and how our entire presentation looked once the event started!
Here was out final layout before guests were invited inside the kitchen!
Day 2: A day full of raw meat demonstrations, how delicious! We all entered the class still on our high from our previous event day completely ready to learn about how prepare our dishes for our next event. Chef pulled us all to the front of the kitchen to demonstrate how to prepare a meat dish to serve it in advance.
We began with duck legs which interestingly enough look just like chicken. Chef showed us a way to cure the duck before cooking it. Which is basically a method that allows the essential oils and spices to sink into the meat. Curing adds a delicious taste to the meat and really compliments the natural flavor already present. This method is also used on pork belly for bacon -- which is helpful to know considering that's our next dish for our event. Another technique that Chef taught us was the rub method. This is somewhat the same as the cure but it is left on much longer than the cure would be on the meat. This would be used on meats such as Texas brisket and South Carolina pulled pork.
Once we were finished with learning about how to cure and rub our assigned meats, Chef announced it was time to learn how to prepare and cut a whole & raw chicken. The twist with this demonstration was that we were not allowed to ask questions while we were preparing our own chicken. This was tricky, but not impossible. Once Chef was finished with his demonstration it was time for us to be let loose. As I walked over to my new group we were all determined to cut up a chicken the way we were taught. While determination is important it would've helped more if we took better notes or watched more closely so we could've finished our demo in a shorter amount of time. This lead to my AHA moment of the day, yes there are always going to be days where you feel a little behind on what your task is but it's important to keep moving and focusing on the learning objective from whatever you're focused on doing.
Here's some pictures of Chef showing us the techniques to preparing our meat & some pictures from our group chicken demo.
Here's Chef showing us how to prepare the duck legs in the cure that he showed us in class. It smelt delicious!
A Weekly Concept Integrated From Another Class Into This One...
In ECO 280, I feel lost a lot of the time with the material that we learn and are instructed to study. It becomes almost impossible for me to understand each concept and not to mention everything build off of each other in the course. This reminds me of how I feel when we're set loose to do our own team demonstrations in class. I automatically become overwhelmed and don't know how to take a breathe and just think about how to tackle the task. Yet, in ECO 280 lately I have been making sure to study each chapter more than I would regularly and ask questions when I can. I know that if I mess up on a quiz or on a homework set I'm able to ask for help to get back on track. I can have that mindset with this class too. If I ever feel lost or off-track I know I can ask for help and stay focused on the current objective at hand.
Comments