Sleeping with the fishes
Fish ID & Fab is over, done, all gone, etc. Hugh sigh of relief. And it turns out I'm an even bigger fish stud than I am a meat stud. Today's three tests -- yield, written, ID -- were worth 50% of our final grade. Out of those 50, I pulled off a 49.6. Yes, a 49.6. I was the only person to get a perfect score on the written test... when we got back from lunch, Chef Clark was grading the papers. We all sat down and waited. Randomly, he barked out "Jason!" and of course I tensed up. He motioned for me to approach his desk. When I got there, he extended his hand and said, "Good job." Didn't mention the test, just said good job. Confused, I returned to my seat. But hey, I'm the only person he called up.
Despite my performance today, there's no guarantee what sort of grade I'll get in the class. There's a very popular opinion that Chef Clark simply does not give out A's, or at least does so very, very rarely. Of course, the points I earned today are concrete, black-and-white, indisputable. The tricky part is that the other 50% of my grade is made up of daily performance and fabrication competency -- completely subjective on his part. If he really felt like never giving out an A, he could simply look at your 50 "concrete" points and then adjust the performance points down accordingly until you had a B. In any event, I'm going to expect a B and will be pleasantly surprised if things come out better.
As I mentioned yesterday, today was caviar day. Today we tasted five caviars -- Beluga, Sevruga, Iranian Osetra, Russian Osetra, and a US caviar from (of all places) Kentucky -- as well as herring roe, three tobikos (flying fish roe, the stuff you see on your sushi), and salmon roe. I still don't like the stuff and don't understand the hype. It's incredibly salty with a not-subtle-in-the-least fishy taste and slimy texture. It was mildly interesting to taste the differences between the five caviars, and forced to choose I'd say the Russian Osetra was my favorite, but it's still not something I'm seeking out. I also don't care for vodka, particularly not straight, so all in all this was not my favorite tasting session.
So now, joy of joys, three full weeks off. I'll try to post once a week during break.
Despite my performance today, there's no guarantee what sort of grade I'll get in the class. There's a very popular opinion that Chef Clark simply does not give out A's, or at least does so very, very rarely. Of course, the points I earned today are concrete, black-and-white, indisputable. The tricky part is that the other 50% of my grade is made up of daily performance and fabrication competency -- completely subjective on his part. If he really felt like never giving out an A, he could simply look at your 50 "concrete" points and then adjust the performance points down accordingly until you had a B. In any event, I'm going to expect a B and will be pleasantly surprised if things come out better.
As I mentioned yesterday, today was caviar day. Today we tasted five caviars -- Beluga, Sevruga, Iranian Osetra, Russian Osetra, and a US caviar from (of all places) Kentucky -- as well as herring roe, three tobikos (flying fish roe, the stuff you see on your sushi), and salmon roe. I still don't like the stuff and don't understand the hype. It's incredibly salty with a not-subtle-in-the-least fishy taste and slimy texture. It was mildly interesting to taste the differences between the five caviars, and forced to choose I'd say the Russian Osetra was my favorite, but it's still not something I'm seeking out. I also don't care for vodka, particularly not straight, so all in all this was not my favorite tasting session.
So now, joy of joys, three full weeks off. I'll try to post once a week during break.
posted by JMB at
5:28 PM
1 Comments:
Good question, Ron -- caviar used to be a food for the poor masses because it was so available. Around here (Hudson Valley), there was so much Sturgeon in the Hudson River it was called "Albany Beef," and both the fish and its roe were cheap.
I also learned last week that lobster -- another luxury food item -- used to only be fed to prisoners in Maine. However, the stuff was considered so bad that it was cruel and unusual punishment to feed it to them more than six times a week. Endentured servants also had a provision in their papers stating how often they could be fed lobster in a given week.
jason
By
JMB, at 7:35 AM
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