Back to School

Going back for a three class day after a long weekend was a little tough, but we all survived.  The practical was actually pretty fun and Chef gave us a lot of freedom.  In demo, all of the veggies were boiled, which made the entire dish basically a huge plate of boiled meat and vegetables.  The dish was beef poached in bouillon and served with a horseradish sauce; the garnishes were celeriac shaped like a marrow bone and stuffed with marrow, green and white asparagus, sauteed wild mushrooms and turned rutabaga and turned zucchini.  The main challenge was basically fitting all of these things on a plate without making it look gross.  I decided to make a raft out of alternating colors of asparagus and then focused everything around that.  Chef liked the presentation but said that the steak was a little rare, "even for a Frenchman" and that the horseradish sauce was too spicy.  I think I was so excited about using horseradish that I went overboard, forgetting that French people generally avoid any spice at all.