Caribbean Cruisin'

Days 64 and 65

We made it.

A week's worth of planning, and my buffet team presented a smorgasbord—as in 30-plus dishes—to the school today. It appeared we won over the crowd with our Caribbean theme, considering the platters were basically empty when all was said and done.

It was rewarding to hear compliments from chefs and fellow students. I think what impressed them most was the fact that we pumped so much food out of such a small kitchen. (I'm pretty sure the buffet kitchen isn't much bigger than my apartment's bedroom.)

Dishes included oxtail stew, whole-roasted suckling pig, quesillo (a version of coconut flan), callaloo, guava-and-mango-glazed short ribs, crab cakes with coconut curry, codfish balls with tamarind sauce, jerk chicken kabobs with red currant sauce, curry-crusted rack of lamb, and many, many more. We also presented our charcuterie dishes as part of the mandatory assignment; the dishes included foie gras, a duck terrine with pistachios and head cheese.

I loved experimenting with food that's "new" to me: I've never cooked oxtail or octopus—or a suckling pig for that matter—and I've never tasted soursop. (It was an amazing fruit, by the way.)

On Monday, I'll have one more day of buffet, and then I'm moving on to family meal. Should be fun. I've heard the chef heading the section is great, so I'm looking forward to working with new talent.

Until then, I'm going to close my eyes and dream of the Caribbean's blue and green water and gently crashing waves...