Day 25: The Exam

Rest assured all of my apple peeling was not in vain; my recipe for the practical exam was in deed Tarte Aux Pommes!  If only Chef Bernarde had been there to see my apple peeling and apple arranging skills in action I think he'd have been very impressed by my improvement.  I've come a long way from Day 4 and backwards apples.

I began my day at 6:10am when I woke from a restless sleep and decided not to wait for the alarm, but to get up and resume studying for my 8:30am practical exam.  I ironed my apron, took a shower, packed my bag, and went to the coffee shop next to school to keep reviewing the ten recipes that could potentially be my project for the practical exam.  When I arrived at school around 8:15am I was informed by my friends that the recipes we were going to be assigned included Tarte Aux Pommes, Pithiviers and Sacristains, or Apple Turnovers and Palmiers.  Puff Pastry, really?!  I was just as glum as everyone else.

When we got to our kitchen we were greeted by Chef Daniel Walter who would be presiding over our kitchen for the exam.  We really lucked out as he is everyone's favorite chef because of his positive attitude and his laid back manner.  This was definitely going to be a plus for our group.  He had each of us choose a plastic chip from a bowl and he assigned our recipes based on the color of our chips.  I chose a green chip along with my friend Maggie and three other girls in my class.  When he assigned us to our spots in the kitchen we saw the recipes for Pithiviers and Sacristains in front of us.  I looked at Maggie and I knew the overwhelmed look in her eye was probably reflected in mine as well, but just as we were trying to determine what to do first Chef Walter took our recipes away and told us he'd made a mistake.

He then shuffled a bunch of papers and gave us the recipe for Tarte Aux Pommes instead!  Relief swept over me in an instant.  While this was not going to be easy it was certainly going to be much easier than the other options because Tarte Aux Pommes means no puff pastry!  No rolling and rolling and rolling the dough and no folding and counting turns either.  I'd really dodged a bullet!

The second part of the exam was the same for everyone.  It was a straightforward skills test.  Each of us had to make one recipe of Sweet Short Pastry and line a tart pan.  This was even more of an advantage for me because since I had to make the dough and line the tart pan for my Tarte Aux Pommes anyway I could line both pans and then choose the best looking one for my tart.  The second pan I lined looked much better than the first one and I was very happy to use it for my main project.

My Tart from Day 4

My Tarte Aux Pommes and My Tart Shell

At the end of the exam we were each assigned a number and told to set our projects out with our number in front of them.  When everything was finally cleaned up I was happy with my results.  I thought my tart looked better this time than last time and certainly was not the worst one on the table.  I cannot believe Basic Pastry is over and I'm not sure what grade I'll end up with for the program, but one thing is for sure I did not fail.  At the end of the day all I really wanted was to graduate into the intermediate program in January and after this morning I am confident that this will be the case.

Until next time Au Revoir and Bon Appetit!