Week 9 - Homemade Pasta Truther
I was blessed in week 9 by being assigned to the demo kitchen for the entire week. There are three main kitchens you can be assigned to, all of which have their own pros and cons, but the underlying theme of them all (which is true of all professional kitchens) is that they are chaos incarnate. But if you are truly lucky, you get a turn in demo kitchen which only has six students at a time and approximately three hundred percent more equipment. Suffice to say, it was a more relaxing experience than fighting 20 people over three available measuring spoons.
On Monday I made beef rendang with rice and crispy won tons. Yum! I also made a white soda bread that I will not be following up on other than to say I added too much baking soda and it tasted like chemicals. My bad.
Tuesday was pasta day! I’ve always believed that homemade pasta is not worth the effort and my theory was both proven and disproven. It is not nearly as hard as I feared, it is just extremely time consuming. And if I’m being my most real, authentic self - dried pasta is easier to get the al dente bite I prefer! That being said, making my cappelletti with tomato cream sauce was very rewarding. I also made tiramisu which was good if not extremely boozy. Luckily I made the single-serve portion in a martini glass so at least it was on theme.
As always we had lectures on Wednesday, most of which were dessert related. The head pastry chef at Ballymaloe House, JR Ryall, came and gave a demonstration in the afternoon that was very impressive. Before I came to Ballymaloe, my boss gave me his cook book so I will have to see how closely I can recreate his demo when I return home. That evening I went to see Gladiator II with a few friends. It was so bad and completely incredible at the same time. Paul Mescal’s nose and general face/body is so important to me. In one scene he bit the arm off a CGI monkey thing and I laughed so loud I’m shocked I wasn’t kicked out of the theater. I hope Hollywood never stops making big, dumb, loud action movies (title of my memoir - big, dumb, loud. Please don’t steal).
Thursday morning we woke up to a light snow/sleet situation which I was very excited about and made my fellow demo kitcheners listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas album during weigh-up time. Is it crazy if I say that it is one of the best albums ever recorded, Christmas or not? Congrats to the Vince Guaraldi Trio y'all can really play. I did another attempt at white soda bread which I’m happy to report came out perfectly non-chemically. I also made dingle pie and a mashed potato with parsley and peas. The Dingle pie - which is essentially lamb pot pie - came out unintentionally patriotic. Please don’t mistake this for any glad tidings towards my homeland or our current political climate! I just liked the star cookie cutter!!
Friday I made carrot and tahini soup, creamed kale, and lemon tartlets. The tartlets were meant to be much cuter than they came out. But cooking is the least important thing about Friday because that is the day I became a civil engineer. After demo on Friday evening, the front of house team needed to hit the ground running with decor for the pop-up dinner the following evening. I roped myself into figuring out how to construct and suspend a giant wreath/crown/halo of branches above the tables. Luckily my housemate is an architect and not in the way I just claimed to be a civil engineer - she actually is one. Between the two of us and two of our tallest classmates we figured it out. And Rory - one of the heads of school and the chicest man to walk the planet - loved it so much he asked if he could keep it up through Christmas.
Decorating committee continued until late Friday so there was none of our typical weekend frivolity that night. But don't worry , I’m writing from the future and can guarantee you we made up for it the following night. Civil engineer, out.