i'm only here for the food: I finished level one!

We finished level one on Wednesday, and I made it through the final with only a minor mishap.

We started in the morning with our written exam, a comprehensive test which covered the entire level, and then moved on to our practical. It was split into three 30-minute portions.

TAILLAGE: ciseler (fine dice) 1 shallot and 1/2 onion, émincer (thin slice) 1/2 onion, jardinière (.5cm batons) 1 turnip, and julienne (1-2mm batons) 1 carrot.
TOURNAGE: 1 artichoke and 1 potato into 8 cocottes (5 cm, 7-sided ovals)
PREPARE: Artichoke dans un blanc and tomato fondue

Of all the days to cut myself, it happened to be during our final. I nicked my thumb while dicing my onion (on the plus side I got 10 out of 10 for having sharp knives). When you cut/burn/maim yourself in class, you must tell your chef. I was slightly worried it'd result in a lower grade, but more worried because the clock was running down while I was washing, bandaging, and gloving my wound. When chef called out one minute, I still had 2/3 of a giant carrot to julienne. I somehow managed to finish at turbo speed and my results weren't too shabby. I am still quite proud of myself.

The dreaded tournage wasn't too bad. Chalk it down to dumb luck, but mine turned out pretty good.

Last we got to the cooking. Two of the easiest recipes in the book--they are the kind of recipes that don't require a recipe. It was a nice change from the multi-step dishes we'd been cooking the days prior. You basically had to boil an artichoke and then simmer some tomatoes.

All in all exam day was pretty low-key in comparison to a typical day. We even got to sit down and chat between sessions.

The day ended with our ServSafe exam. This is a national exam through the NRA (National Restaurant Association--not to be confused with the National Rifle Association). That test was not fun. I studied, but couldn't remember anything. Here's to hoping I don't have to retake it.

And now to wrap up, a bunch of pictures from the last 2 weeks (during which I took a short hiatus from blogging. Whoops.).