The Final Week

Last week represented the final week of the program and was primarily taken up with preparing two final meals. The week culminated with a festive lunch prepared by all of the students for their friends and family. But prior to this, we had our "final exam" which involved each student preparing "the perfect meal." The only restrictions to this meal were, it had to be three courses and it had to be prepared in the kitchen in three hours. We were allowed to bring our own ingredients and tools, but that was all.

Like most (all!) of the other students, I spent considerable energy and stress deciding what to make. Should I make something classically French? After all, much of the focus of the program was on French food and techniques. Non. That would be too predictable. Besides, French food is something that the judges--comprised of our core teachers (JJ, John, Michael and Charles), Kevin and Rebecca (the Directrice of the program)--all know a considerable amount about and you don't go tugging on superman's cape.

I decided instead to take the following approach: I would cook something that I might have cooked before the program, but do so through the lens of what I had learned over the previous four months. My reasoning for this was to make a meal that was both expressive of who I am and what I like to cook (and eat) while also displaying my newly acquired skills and techniques.

So, after bouncing ideas off of Aileen (she didn't get hurt), I decided to go with a Latin-American inspired menu. Here is what I decided to make:

Black Bean Soup
Pico De Gallo, Fromage Blanc, Tortilla Chips

Rotisserie Chicken
Five Spice Latin Dry Rub
Yucca Fries
Roasted Salsa

Chocolate Torta Fluida
Chipotle
Spicy Salty Mango Slices

It is a menu of dishes that I am somewhat familiar with, but incorporates some ingredients and techniques I learned during the course. For example, if you have been reading prior posts you will know that use of Chipotle in a chocolaty desert was a real revelation for me. So, here I took a desert we made this semester, and added Chipotle. I think it worked pretty well.

I think my meal turned out pretty well. In general, I received compliments on my approach, flavor and presentation. The one consistent negative feedback was that my food was not salty enough. It is a fair enough comment, but at the time I was sort of surprised by it since I didn't think my food was under salted.

After thinking about this some more, I realized something. I have recently started to use less and less salt in my cooking. This is due, in part, to health concerns, both Aileen's and mine. But, I think it is also due to a desire to explore other flavor profiles in my food. I think all too often salt is used as a crutch, a short cut, for adding flavor to a dish in lieu of highlighting other flavors. While it is true that salt helps to accent the other flavors in food, it is also true that too much can over power these flavors.

For me this is the challenge: develop food that tastes good without salt as a predominant flavor.