Chicken, chicken and more chicken. I even dreamt about jointing a chicken! Indeed, my brain is so busy trying to make sense and organise all the culinary knowledge and learning that I am dreaming about my days at Leith’s every night. It’s been a physically exhausting week but I end it feeling elated and fizzing with excitement for more learning, more upskilling and definitely more eating next week!
We expected our first formal assessment to be the pinnacle of week three but that turned out to be one of the least onerous (in terms of time) kitchen sessions. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t without considerable angst and stress but the twice-experienced four hour cooking days were absolutely epic. The written feedback from the formal assessment is still to come but thankfully we were all informed we had passed. This wasn’t assured given, when my chicken thigh returned from service, the inside looked distinctly raw. I could have cried. Or wailed. Stay tuned for next week’s thrilling instalment to discover whether it was cooked or not!
Jointing a chicken last weekend and again on Monday (with considerably sharper knives) felt new but relatively intuitive. In the formal assessment, it all felt alien and wrong. I didn’t even recognise some parts of the bird. It’s odd what pressure and stress can do! Having made the chicken sumac with fattoush salad twice, chicken supreme with tarragon cream sauce, sriracha butter chicken, and a brown chicken and veal stock, I think we can tick chicken off our foundation skills list. And remove chicken from the Ocado order for at least a few weeks!
Mid-week saw us prepare a butter heavy side dish of purple-sprouting broccoli with a never-attempted before beurre noisette with caper, anchovy and pine nut. To say we were all on a knife edge making the beurre noisette would be an understatement. Several people went too far and had to re-start. Mine was too salty but I still scoffed the lot for lunch. Chef’s perks 🙂
A welcome change and sugar injection on Wednesday afternoon. We watched preparation and bake, and devoured, lemon and poppy seed cake; the dampest, most aromatic gingerbread cake; an elegant chocolate and coffee Swiss roll; and cheddar and marmite scones with homemade butter. A well deserved treat! On Thursday, we tackled the lemon cake and scones ourselves. Glorious kitchen session. I’m a big fan of making and eating cheese scones (see my post on cheese scones). The marmite really elevated them to an even deeper umami experience; and the butter flavoured with nutritional yeast to yet another level. Neither lasted the day once delivered back to my family!
Not done with carbs and sugar, we readied ourselves for crepes Suzette and almond meringue biscuits. This alongside simultaneously finishing our brown chicken and veal stock with a final cook, strain and reduction. The depth and intensity in flavour of the final stock was definitely worth the three day process. It’s now been frozen for use in a few weeks’ time in a carbonnade of beef. The cooking session started well with me initially keeping to my time plan. Somewhere between rolling precisely weighed 15g balls of almond meringue between wet hands and flambé-ing Grand Marnier and brandy in a hot saute pan, it all took on a somewhat less controlled edge. Thankfully the results were delicious!
For the final Friday flourish, Grace and Mikey (two of the teachers) showcased the very best of roasting to produce an epic and applause-worthy feast. They cooked roast pork with crackling, roast beef, two separate gravies, apple and sage sauce, fresh horseradish cream, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, roast parsnips, roast carrots with caraway seeds, and buttered cabbage. I have to admit I was defeated by the week and could only manage a sample of the carrots from the groaning selection. The rest of the class formed a stampede, embarking on a hearty ‘dunch’ (as my mum used to say).
Many memories of my mum this week. A great lover and maker of cheese sconces herself. And a daily marmite on toast for breakfast girl. Returning from 11am church on a Sunday to the welcoming aroma of the roast she’d timed to come on filled my senses once again and the memories of ‘grown up’ dinner as a family came flooding back.
It’s been a physically exhausting week but I end it feeling elated and fizzing with excitement for more learning, more upskilling and definitely more eating next week!
@Shelovescake 
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