This was my last production kitchen shift for this term. It didn't start well this morning. I accidentally locked the chef's set of keys inside the dry store, and we had to wait until another staff member turned up with their spare set of keys an hour later to get the chef's keys back.
Things got better after that. I didn't have to assemble any boxes. Instead, I learnt some more basic cuisine skills: e.g. devein foie gras (for the chefs to make torchon out of it), peel a large bowl of taro (for staff meals), prepare fish cakes (shaping the mixture into patties), portion a side of salmon and vacuum-seal the portions, and so forth. I enjoyed these activities a lot.
At the end of my shift, Chef CP showed me how to make chantilly cream properly. I had told him I'd been having problems with it in my practical classes, and he was kind enough to show me what to do. I now realise I had gone from one extreme to another: I used to under-whip the cream, so it was runny; then I over-whipped it, so it was lumpy. That's what been making my life so difficult -- not whipping the cream just right.
Anyway, now I have to concentrate on my upcoming practical exam. More details about that later.
