Culinary School-Basic-Part II

The Basic curriculum was full of terms and techniques that had to be mastered. After a week or so my class began to get in the grove and we felt pretty good about our performance. Then it happened. It seems that when my partner and I were preparing sauce diable we were a little out of sync. Sauce Diable is a reduction sauce that is made up of veal stock, white wine, tomato puree, lemon juice, black peppercorns, cayenne pepper and finished with parsley. Two novice cooks battling through school, stressed and short on time (time constraints were placed on all activities at FCI to develop "restaurant speed" ability) probably shouldn't be allowed around cayenne pepper. Our sauce burned Chef Denis' mouth so bad he had to dismiss the class early. We think, after a quick chalk talk, that we both seasoned the sauce...at least twice. He really didn't say much to us other than a rather LOUD explanation about why a Chef has to be able to taste everything throughout a shift and we pretty much ruined that for the day.

Oh Well.