Hollandaise

Fact of the Day: On any DAY the average chef will consume between 3,500-4,000 calories, just in TASTING. This does not include the regular meals that everyone should eat. I'm going to need to bump up the workout schedule...

This past week we have been working on our sauce making for our practical exam on Monday. We have plowed through bechamel, veloute, espagnole and tomato. Today was our hollandaise sauce and from those we had to make a maltise (flavored with a blood orange puree) and a moussleline (folded in heavy cream). We only had the two hours to au sec our emulsion and whip it good. Our group is also behind one morney sauce. It's going to be a busy weekend!

After burning my reduction and starting over, I found myself a little behind. Being as small as I am also holds a bit of a disadvantage when trying to get some leverage and height on the tables not to mention a mixing bowl, sauce pan and whipping room. I was one of the last ones to get started on my whipping but was still making good time. Since I was a little lower than the mixing bowls I was practically mixing the stainless steel off the bowl, instead of "stir/mixing". Then when I was almost done it broke, no big deal easily fixed with a little hot water! Well to get to the hot water, I needed it from the sauce pan that was heating the mixture. So naturally I took off the bowl to get to the water. And in my rush, I set the bowl down on the table and it was hanging off the edge a little, leaning on me. So I took a slight step back and...SPLAT. All over the under table and my knife kit and all over the table.

After yelling some profanities, Chef On Your Toes came over. She grabbed my arm that was now frantically whipping at practically nothing, told me to take some deep breaths and helped me finish my sauce as silent tears ran down my face. It was a mistake. At the end of class we all went over what we did wrong and what could make it better for Monday. As everyone left I went over to assess the damage that I had caused to my area. My close classmates had cleaned up most of it and sprayed my bag off for me. They are great, and then I just started crying. Like Izzy Stevens crying, ugh and I had no idea why. Chef On Your Toes just kept telling me it happens and I wasn't the first one to cry in her class. I apologized and thanked her for helping me out.

So the only thing that I am really sure is, hollandaise is my true enemy on Monday. My pride was hurt because I had to get help, but this is why I'm at school and my table or at least a few of us at the table, are a team and we when said we'd help each other out we meant it. I was upset because something that happens every day in the kitchen happened while I was starting. But now, I know how to make one of the hardest sauces and all the things not to do. Maybe I'll open up a breakfast place...