# Culinary grades



## coosie (Feb 22, 2008)

I have a question that probably cannot be answered here but I will ask anyway. Never know who reads here. The culinary school I attend has their final exams every four weeks for each month long subject. My practical was today. The students were broken down into 4 person groups at the beginning of the month and these were the teammates we had to work with for the entire month. I won't go into how painful that was. Let me say though that one of my team was dropped in the first week and another we were not sure about until today. The region my group was assigned to represent was Provence. We were to prepare a menu: 5 appetizers, 8 entrees and 5 desserts. Each person in the group was to prepare two items from the menu. I prepared the menu. Two of the recipes I put together through research and experimentation, not from cookbooks. Here is what happened: I made a whole chicken, stuffed it with appropriate herbs to the region, tucked French goat cheese with garlic under the skin, and oiled the exterior with olive oil and rubbed with dried herbs d' provence. I brought the herbs from home as the school is notorious for not having the items we requisition. I also made a soup pistou that I acquired the recipe for. My teammates made floating island, artichike appetizer that I developed the recipe for, a trout en papillote, and poached pears with strawberries in honey thyme sauce. The chefs critique: The chicken was wonderful with just the right herbs, cooked correctly, flavor was great, but the request was for single serving and slicing a couple slices off the breast for the tasting didn't change the fact that it was made for more than one person. The soup was very tasty. Teammate 1: The floating island sauce was cooked to too high a temp making hard candy instead of caramel sauce, the artichokes were not cleaned sufficiently and were not blanched long enough. Teammate 2: The trout was cooked in an aluminum foil packet instead of parchment paper and the aluminum started reacting to the lemon on the fish, there was no comment on the poached pears. The end scores were: mine for chicken and soup-85%; Islands and artichokes-87%;, fish and pears 87%. She said I had put myself at an advantage over the other students by bringing my herbs in. I guess that means she took points away for that. Also I imagine I lost points for cooking a whole chicken instead of just a breast. I will find out tomorrow. What is the opinion here? Was the scoring fair? i will appreciate all sides to the arguement.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I'd say it was extremely fair. People get an F for not answering the question. In your case you were asked for one serving and your provided what, four? When a customer orders one chicken breast you serve one chicken breast, not two, no extra thighs, you serve the chicken breast.

All of the comments are about the basic skills you need to know blindfolded. You need to make a caramel sauce correct, or at least know what do do when you overcook it. Overcooking it makes it taste burnt and bitter. En Papillote means what? It doesn't mean wrapped in foil that's for sure. Everything in this class has a specific known standard. There is little leeway for a pistou or a meringue. If push comes to shove, one could probably trace the benchmark floating island back to someone's preparation somewhere way back when and that's the standard they follow with very little variation.


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## ajoe (Jan 14, 2008)

I am not, nor have I ever been a culinary student. Nor am I a professional chef. But you asked for all sides of the argument, so here you go.

Forget worrying about things being fair! Simply put; it is what it is. Accept it and move on. Instead of worrying about things you cannot change, spend your time learning, practicing, and on self-evaluation.

Constantly worrying about life being fair is a certain path to unhappiness.

Read the Desiderata: http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm.


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## coosie (Feb 22, 2008)

kuan;211939 said:


> I'd say it was extremely fair. People get an F for not answering the question. In your case you were asked for one serving and your provided what, four? When a customer orders one chicken breast you serve one chicken breast, not two, no extra thighs, you serve the chicken breast.
> /quote]
> Actually, after reading over my OP (after reading your reply) I did neglect to add that I had presented her with one serving and had the whole chicken on the side for her to see the finished product for presentation since it was a recipe she would not find in a cookbook. When I got there today she said (without my asking) that she had changed some grades last night. Mine was raised and my teammates were lowered. (we do not get a group grade) She said she had no complaints with the quality of the food I served, that it was within region requested and that she had made a mistake in giving my grade lower than my teammates since there were problems with the quality of their food. She had not taken any points off for the whole chicken, since I had served her a single portion and said that the comment about it being too much was not a grade lowering problem. She had graded me on the quality of their food initially and didn't realize that mistake until she got home. Needless to say, I am a much happier camper today.


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