My life through pictures...: Week 2 Fall Quarter

This quarter is shaping up to be one of my favorites, well kind of!

I am only taking 2 classes, but I am there 4 days a week! One class in Intro to Pastry, which is usually taken in your 2nd quarter, but when I was at AI Indy it wasn't offered yet. Then when I got here to AI Atlanta I just didn't take it right away. So now I am stuck in a class with a bunch of 2nd quarter kids! They are driving me nuts! Some of them don't clean anything when we are done and a lot of them work "dirty" instead of clean like you learn to do or should know already! But...on the brighter side, we have a great new Pastry Chef - William (Bill) Lipscomb! He knows a lot and I am eager to learn as much as I can from him!

This week were making custards and creams. So we made Creme Brulee, Chocolate Mousse,

Cheesecake with Chocolate Sauce and Caramel

Chocolate Bread Pudding and Creme Anglaise

My other class is called al a carte. This class is working in the kitchens for our restaurant called Creations. You may have read last quarter that one of my classes I was working in the dining room for Creations, so now I am doing some cooking! I was actually worried and anxious about this class! I was (and kind of still am) intimidated by Chef Ward. He is an ultimate sponge of knowledge and is just a brilliant chef! And I only knew him in passing...so now that I have gotten to be in the kitchens with him for 2 weeks, I feel much more comfortable about the class...but still nervous and anxious because I want to do good and I want to impress him, stand out from the group. There are 14 of us in this class so something will go unnoticed more than if it were only 7 people.

All of that being said, I am having a blast this quarter! I got my feet wet with our first 2 lunch services and I can't wait for the next ones! I love our menu for lunch! If you want to come eat there, the website for more info is www.artinstitute.edu/atlanta/creations but the lunch menu isn't up there yet, so check back. But the contact information to make reservations is listed on there! I hope you can make it!

Here is our menu for lunch this quarter (some of these are test platings):

Appetizers

Portugese Style Mussels - simmered in port wine with herb roasted new potatoes, spiced lamb sausage and charred tomato sauce

Baked Wild Mushroom Polenta - with truffled mascarpone, roasted vegetable caponata and sweet pepper coulis

Panfried Chicken Prosciutto Scallopine - over fava bean succotash with red onion marmalade and red eye pan gravy

Soups

Chickpea Tomato - with broccolini, cilantro-cumin pesto and tamarind chutney

Creations Gumbo - with chicken andouille sausage, blue crab and smoked mussels

Salads

Grilled Duck Breast - over assorted lettuces and endives with blue cheese-port wine dressing, spiced pecans and caramelized pears

(not pictured)

Arugula Salad - tossed with fried calamari, Kalamata olives, bell peppers and red onion with a lemon Dijon vinaigrette, roasted tomato coulis and basil aioli

Tuna Nicoise - baby greens with pan seared yellow fin tuna, tourneed potatoes, haricot vert, quail egg, nicoise olives and grape tomatoes with sherry vinaigrette

Entrees

Grilled Bistro Steak - served medium rare and accompanied by sauce Dianne, onion ring gratin and sauteed broccolini

Shrimp Curry - over coconut rice with warm ginger-grapefruit slaw and red chili shrimp broth

Morrocon Chicken Sliders - chopped, spiced chicken breast mixed with curry mayonnaise, dates and toasted walnuts and served on mini buns accompanied by chickpea fries and harissa ketchup (these were just test plates...so ignore that it is dirty!)

Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli - with caramelized Belgian endive, Parmesan cheese and sage brown butter

Dessert (I make these)

Apple-Brown Sugar Crisp - topped with pecan streusal and coffee caramel sauce accompanied by golden raisin ice cream

Duo of Creme Brulees - flavors change daily and accompanied by assorted cookies and fresh berries

(this week we did chocolate and vanilla creme brulee with lime and butter cookies)

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Tart - with cherry vanilla ice cream and berry coulis

After we were done with the day, Chef pulled out a Monkfish (or called Anglerfish) head that he had in the fridge and played with it! (If you aren't sure what a monkfish is...if you have seen the movie Nemo, remember the seen where he and Dori go down into the dark waters to find the mask they dropped with the address on it. Then they see a "light" that they are drawn to and when they get there they realize it is a fish wanting to eat them! That was a monkfish! Ugly suckers!)