Beet It

Day 42

I'm loving the amuse bouche thing.

It's a great opportunity to use our creativity—something that we haven't really been able to do much of since we've been focusing so much on techniques. Today, our team roasted beets and sliced them on the mandoline. Next, we spread goat cheese on one side and wrapped it around a roasted asparagus tip. Finally, we drizzled aged balsamic and walnut oil on the plate.

It was beet-iful.

OK, enough of the horrible puns and onto the pork portion of the program. I was assigned saucier today, which means I

preprared the sauteed center-cut pork chop with green peppercorn sauce. The pork chop was perfectly cooked and the sauce was killer. (Whoever has a batch of veal stock at home, I will gladly come over and cook this dish for you. It's that awesome.)

Pommes darphin—shoestring potatoes cooked in clarified butter in a small saute pan then finished in the oven—was the side dish. A bit oversalted, according to the chef's critique. What can I say? I'm a sucker for salt.

None of that tomorrow, though; I'm working the patissier station. Sweet.