final

Do you remember taking finals in college right before winter break? Do you remember (despite your grade) that HUGE sense of relief and excitement that washed over you as you walked out of the room from taking your last final?  It was an awesome feeling...I mean AWESOME!!  All of the hard work, long hours and studying had come to an end.  But all of the fun, traditions, and merriment of the holidays were waiting right there.   I have found this feeling to be totally unique to this setting.  And I'm sure it had something to do with the timing of the exams, the holidays and extended break.  Sure, I have felt relief and accomplishment after completing long, complex projects at work (back in my working days)....but I have always said it never measured up to the feeling I got when I completed finals in college right before Christmas.  In fact, I remember feeling kind of cheated in my working days that THAT feeling was gone.

Well, Christmas came early for me this year...I got to feel THAT college exam feeling all over again this week.  Sure, I felt the exhaustion-butterflies-and oh my goodness, I may vomit from nervousness feeling too - but it was totally worth it.

As you can guess, I took my culinary final a few days ago.  There were three parts to our final: a written exam, a timed knife skills test and a cooking exam.  The written exam would account for half of our final grade, and the knife skills and cooking exam would account for the other half.

We were told to study our homework, lecture notes and textbook for the written exam.  It would be about 40 - 50 questions ranging from multiple choice, true/false and fill-in-the blank.  Early last week I sat down to review some chapters in the textbook - I fell asleep while reading.  Clearly, I had to relearn how to study - which makes sense, as it had been almost two decades since I had taken an exam.  I like to write...I mean physically write things down with a pen and a piece of paper.  My life is made up of lists.  Ah yes, I remember now...I retain information by writing it down.  So, I spent the next several days writing thorough, beautiful notes for each week of lessons (you know, I should save these notes and offer them to the highest bidder for the next semester of CP1 students...just kidding).  And then I spent a couple more days reviewing my lovely notes.  On Monday afternoon I had reached the point where I either knew the material for the written test or I didn't...nothing else was getting in.

The knife skills test is going to sound SO much easier than it was.  But give it a try for yourself and you'll quickly see my point.   You see, I thought it sounded easier than it was too.  I have been practicing knife skills since the first day of class on September 5.  As we got closer to the final I started practicing the finer cuts more often.  I really focused on getting the each cut precise.  For the test, we would have to julienne a potato (1/8 x 1/8 x 2), brunois a carrot (1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8), and small dice an onion within 5 minutes.  I felt that I was doing pretty well during my practice....and then I decided to time myself.  I sucked!!!  It was so much harder than I thought it would be.  On my first timed trial I only got through the potato and part of the carrot - major suckage!!!  I cut so many carrots, potatoes and onions this past weekend trying to improve my speed without totally screwing up my technique.  I improved, but I also made peace with the fact that this would be the weakest part of my exam (well, hopefully).

Chef gave us the details of our cooking exam about two weeks in advance: fabricate a whole chicken, roast a skin-on, bone-in breast, grill two legs, fry two wings, saute a skinless, boneless breast, braise two thighs, saute mushrooms, cook glazed carrots, cook simmered rice, cook rice pilaf, and prepare macaroni and cheese using a bechamel sauce...and no recipes.  The test was totally about technique.  Mystery Basket class was for creative flavoring, not our final.  He wanted perfectly cooked food.  It felt weird to have this information in advance, but I kind of think Chef wanted to see if we would do something with this advance info or would we just show up to the final and figure it out on the fly.  Table 3 took full advantage and quickly divvied up the dishes, devised our timeline, and made our mise en place list.  With three of us at Table 3, no one had a lot of dishes to prepare and we had at a little more than 3 hours do to it in.  The only tricky part was that the dishes had to be presented in certain blocks, but even that wasn't a big issue.  Each of us spent the week prior to the final perfecting our dishes.  I roasted many chicken breasts taking notes with each attempt on temperature, time, and doneness - and repeat.  I did the same drill with the pilaf and carrots.  I had these dishes down - in my kitchen, on my stove, in my oven - now it was time to see if I could do it in the school's kitchen where the stove area is claustrophobic, I can't reach the back burners, people are always opening the doors to the ovens (which isn't helpful when you are cooking food in those ovens), the burner heat is either off, high or hotter than high, and where people will move your pots right off the stove (this is never done maliciously, but it's still a pain in the....).

I felt really good during the written exam.  I came across a few tricky questions, but for the most part, I knew the answers.  Chef showed us our grade for the written test at the end of class...I got a 98.  I was super excited, but I also felt a teeny, tiny bit disappointed - but just for a split second. I know that sounds silly and I am slightly embarrassed to admit it.  I never thought answering all of the questions correctly was within reach going into the test.  But I only missed two questions...I was so close to a perfect score and for a kind-of-crazy-type A-perfectionist like me coming that close to a perfect score came with a touch of disappointment.  But I got a 98 and I'm shouting that from the rooftop with pride!!!

I survived the knife skills test.  I didn't cut my fingers, so that was good.  I got my knife on each product and produced a sample of each cut, but I did not finish cutting any of the vegetables.  Chef knew that most of us wouldn't finish within time, so he encouraged us to at least get a sample of each cut.  The cuts I made were good...I was pleased.  I'll keep working on the speed.

And now for the cooking portion of this program...Chef looks, smells, tastes and shares his feedback whenever we turn in food.  But tonight he warned us that he would evaluate our food without saying anything to us...SUPER INTIMIDATING!!!!  Aside from that, the evening went quite well.  I took a few precautions to help ensure there weren’t any “hiccups” like labeling all of my pots and using a still oven which no one ever uses.  I was crazy organized.  Table 3 worked great together as always - checking in on one another, sampling each other's food, offering assistance when needed - I just adore my table!  Everything went smoothly cooking my dishes, but I had no idea what Chef thought of them.  Our feedback would come in the form of our grade that would be available online the next day.  Hmmm....I wanted more feedback.  I have been trying to be less focused on my grade and more focused on my learning, so this form of feedback wasn't helping my effort.  And I truly cared more about what Chef had to say about the food I made than the darn grade at this point.  So, I waited until class was over and most everyone had left and I asked for some specific feedback.  I mostly wanted to hear about the chicken, because it is so hard to gauge whether it is cooked properly or not.  You can't taste it first - you have to turn it in uncut to Chef and the piece is too small to get a good temperature reading.  This one comes down to practice.  Drum roll, please....the chicken was near-perfect...whew, what a relief.

And then it hit me...THAT feeling.  My final exam was over and the holiday fun was waiting for me.  Relief.  Pride.  Accomplishment.  Of course, now I'm in a mad dash to get a million things done before the kids get out of school and company arrives.  But each time I start to feel a little stressed about the holidays I take myself back to Monday night when I walked out of school with a huge smile on my face (and yes, teary eyes too) and THAT awesome feeling washes over me again.