Last week, I completed my rotation at the chef’s table. The timing couldn’t have been more impeccable as I had just the week before obsessively watched an entire season of HELL’S KITCHEN with GORDON RAMSAY. Here I am with my clipboard getting ready to knock some chef’s in line.

On Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay runs a tight ship, and he commands respect. All the aspiring chef’s address him in military fashion answering all his inquiries with an enthusiastic, ‘YES, CHEF!’ Well, truth be told, I didn’t lay down the law quite so forcefully. Though I was successful in getting HELEN to respond to me with a ‘Yes, Chef.’ Admittedly, it was less enthusiastic and more giggly. But hey. Everyone’s got to start somewhere, right? Here is Helen dropping off some marvelous tuber rolls at the pass (this is where dishes pass hands from the kitchen to the wait staff).

Nina was on the Latin station this week. She wasn’t quite as enthusiastic with the ‘YES, CHEF.’ Well, actually, I don’t think she was into it at all. She kind of looks like she’s thinking to herself, ‘WHATEVER. I just make nachos.’

She DOES make a mean plate of nachos though. So I let it slide…

This is SONJA, and she’s all business. Not really. But the ITALIAN STATION will drive anyone to that. It’s definitely the busiest station in the house. No time for Gordon Ramsay role playing here.

Don’t worry though. She always makes time for the food. Look at this perfect plate of canneloni that Sonja put up to the pass.

The pass is also the unofficial headquarters of the paparazzi.

This has got to be the most well documented pass in the blogosphere.

Last Friday ended with a fun surprise. Anjela had secretly made a cake for Helen’s birthday. She told everyone that it was a special so that Helen wouldn’t get suspicious. Then, unbeknownst to Helen, we gathered everyone in the restaurant and started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’

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HELEN was so surprised! I think it really made her day.

And mine too. The cake was really yummy!

This week is so full of special things that it’s hard to know where to start. Perhaps, I will be narcissistic and start with myself. Today was special for me because I ran a special! It was dubbed the HERBES DE PROVENCE roll. I actually just learned what that was yesterday. So, don’t be fooled by my fancy culinary terminology. I hadn’t intended to make anything like that at all.

But I had spent all this time last week making the perfect wheel of macadamia nut cheese, and it didn’t really go with what I had intended initially.

Meanwhile, we got kicked out of the kitchen temporarily as the news van was back this morning.

This time, they were filming live segments on RAW CHOCOLATE with Megan and Lauren.

While we were waiting, J did a demo on how to juggle meyer lemons.

J also came up with this plating concept which I liked. I learned today that when you plate olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette like this it’s called a ‘broken vinaigrette’.

Anyway, here are the goods. It was basically a cucumber roll stuffed with basil, swiss chard, macadamia cheese, rosemary, chives, marjoram, spiced fennel, and a little grapefruit. Not as pretty as my LAST SPECIAL, but I think it was tastier. One table requested that I come talk to them! And MK even asked for one!

I like how they came out looking kind of tree-like. I was getting a lot of forest/jungle references.

That in itself would have been special enough, but look at this AMAZING dessert my classmate ANJELA came up with!! She made the flower out of coconut butter and bee pollen. The cake is a mango/avocado theme with a cheesecake filling.

This is what it looked like on the inside. Beautiful! And it was delicious. Anjela is continually astounding us with her creativity.

Last but not least, we had a special visitor this week. Bruce Edwards of URBAN HARVEST. Essentially, they are a division of the Oklahoma Food Bank. They actually grow food for clients in need AND teach people about self-sufficiency/growing their own food. INCREDIBLE!! I am so impressed that there is an organization like this here. I hope I can do some volunteering there before I leave…

So for those who have been following the SUNDAY SUPPER SERIES, this week’s menu featured Tyler Spear.

Tyler isn’t actually an academy student. He’s one of the sous chefs here on staff. I was really impressed with Tyler’s presentation. I didn’t realize he was such an artist. He definitely raised the bar on us this week. His plates were so elegant.

His first dish was a winter salad served with warm macadamia cheese and THIS beautiful work of art. It’s a coconut wrap accented with beet juice. Such a bold statement for a little piece of wrap. I love it!

This was the main course…a wild mushroom and tomato terrine with a butternut squash croquette.

I love the lines he made with the sauces. Beautiful.

This blew me away. It’s basically just dried vegetables: zucchini, shallot, tomato. AMAZING!

Dessert was a cappuccino creme brulee with vanilla froth and a maple cacao crisp.

And no. I didn’t save any for you. Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. But for those who are interested, I’m starting a Tyler Spear fan club. And NO. He’s NOT related to Brittney. Tyler is a REAL artist.

Look what lovely package I got in the mail this week! I’ve been wanting this book for at least a couple years, but for whatever reason haven’t gotten it. Then, a couple weeks ago, one of my ex-boyfriends resurfaced. I had kind of lost track of him and haven’t seen him in 8-9 years. (Has it been that long? Geez. I’m getting old.)  Anyway, out of the blue, he decided that he was going to buy me THIS book for Christmas. How random is that?

Can I just tell you that I LOVE this book. It’s completely inspirational. It’s truly a work of art. I’ve learned a lot already just from looking at it. I can’t wait to try out some recipes ESP the chocolate cake rolls…

This weekend I am getting some much needed rest thanks to Mother Nature. She just KNEW how badly I needed it. Things are starting to improve today. The restaurant was open for business again.

But yesterday, this was about as close as I got to the outside. Oklahoma declared a state of emergency, and school was closed. This is actually the SECOND state of emergency declared since I’ve been here. They seem to declare states of emergency at the drop of a hat around here. In Minnesota, this would be more like a state of normalcy. But I’m not going to complain because I definitely needed some time to relax. I’ve been spending a lot of time sleeping the last few days. I definitely feel like I’m working through some things. I think I’m finally starting to get ahead of my CANDIDA infection. My symptoms are starting to change again. At first, I was having extreme headaches and mood swings and well…purulent drainage among other things. But those things have started to improve. Now I’m in a stage of extreme sleepiness. I’ve definitely gone through periods like this before esp when I was recovering from LIVER troubles. When one’s liver is under a lot of stress, a unique kind of sleepiness develops. It’s not the kind of thing you can fight through. It’s the kind of thing where you need to drop whatever you’re doing and go to bed. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200. Just got to bed. That’s where I’m at currently. So, I know I’m working out something big.

I went into school today because I was supposed to assist with a detox class, but nobody came because of the weather. So I ordered myself a kale caesar and a pecan bun. And then I went back to sleep. It doesn’t seem like much is happening on the surface. But just below that, something BIG is happening. I’ll keep you posted on my progress…

Well, I’m coming up on my last days on the Italian station. The Italian station has been a thorn in my side, but I’ve learned a lot. I came into it thinking it was going to be a breeze (as this was the station I manned for my work study). But that is a longish story which distracts from the caption for this beautiful sandwich, the VLT. It’s a twist on the BLT. The ‘bacon’ is made from eggplants and I absolutely LOVE it.

This is another big seller in the Italian station…the burger. It’s a portobello burger on a rosemary bun dressed with a basil aioli and garnished with a pickled cucumber (developed by my classmate, Anjela). It’s served with ketchup, mayo, and a side of cheesy kale chips.

These are the wonderful red pepper raviolis. They are stuffed with a walnut pesto, served with a sage cream, and garnished with marjoram leaves.

The pizza bianco is a creamed spinach and pine nut pizza served warm(ish).

Probably our biggest seller is the CANNELONI. This is my favorite. The burger definitely gives it a run for it’s money though. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty in tune with the cannelonis during my tenure. They will undoubtedly be part of my repertoire in some fashion.  I think the canneloni might be the highlight of my Italian experience. The lowlight is probably the prep. OY! The prep. This station is a LOT more work than it was for the last menu.

Truth be told, I kind of crashed and burned on this station last Friday. It was ugly. It was a long and sordid tale involving the prep and typical restaurant drama. I think anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant can probably fill in the gaps. I can tell you that I haven’t played my guitar at all this week because I have cuts on three fingers. I didn’t think it was that obvious, but the other day MK laughed at me from across the restaurant. ‘Looks like you’ve been having some issues with your knife there.’ DOH! Anyway, this is a little tribute to J (Jason, but everyone calls him J) who saved my flaming butt last Friday. I think a lot of people would have lost their cool in that situation. Not J though. I’m still trying to figure out if he’s in a band or not. I’ve heard conflicting accounts.

This week’s Sunday Supper featured the lovely SONJA (who has made a COUPLE of APPEARANCES on my blog thus far). Sonja is originally from Switzerland (did I mention that we had a very international group?). Her first course was stupendous. She actually made bowls out of coconuts. She cut them with a hacksaw, literally. Then, she cleaned them out meticulously and dehydrated them. AMAZING PRESENTATION! The soup was delicous too!

This was the evening’s special menu insert. The Sunday Supper feature is served as a package for the lucky participants.

The entree was a Pineapple Curry Noodle dish featuring everyone’s favorite…kelp noodles! I have definitely developed an addiction to kelp noodles since I’ve arrived here. They do some amazing things with kelp noodles around here. My boyfriend came to visit me a few weeks ago and ordered a case of them when he got home.

This is the mango cascade. Look at the beautiful wafers she made. Sonja is the resident expert with coconut wraps and wafers. You should check out her BLOG and see what else she’s up to…

Well, this week has been exciting and drama filled. On Thursday, we did two catering events that were really well received (a four course lunch for seventy people and a five course dinner for three hundred people – that’s almost 1800 plates for anyone who’s counting). This was exciting for me because (I don’t know if I mentioned this previously but) this is what I do. I’m a caterer. So, it was right up my alley. AND incidentally, this is what I want to do when I graduate. The events came off without a hitch. But anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant would know that there is a lot of drama that goes into these kinds of things.

For lunch, I was in charge of the canneloni. I actually developed a mantra that I kept repeating to myself to keep from getting too stressed out while drama swirled all around me. It started out as, ‘Whatever. I just make canneloni.’ I had this friend once who was in a band with this really narcissistic drama queen. And I would often wonder to myself how he managed to deal with the situation. Something really dramatic had happened at some point (which I don’t even remember now). But I remember that his response was, ‘Whatever. I play bass.’ So, I decided to adapt his technique. I think it worked. I actually got really in the zone with the cannelonis by the end. I’m definitely going to have to make these for my first catering function.

The lovely KELLY was trying to adapt this technique too, but alas. It didn’t work as well for her. Because her mantra would inevitably get too long…’Whatever. I just make pastries. And iron shirts for people. And wash dishes.’ And my favorite was…’I can’t be bothered to find my pants.’ She’s never going to live that down.

The first lunch plate was the beautiful tuber roll.

Here is an action shot of Kelly and Ladan plating for this course.

Next, we had canneloni. Hey, that’s me!

Barbequed Mushroom, Parsnip Mash, and Vegetable Slaw.

And finally the beautiful pear frangipane tart.

As soon as we breathed a sigh of relief, it was time to start getting ready for the evening event…a celebrity chef dinner featuring demos by MATTHEW KENNEY (he talked about the event HERE).  HELEN was assisting with this.  We were so busy in the kitchen that we didn’t get to see any of it.  But I got really good feedback from people as I was walking out to my car in my chef coat.

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The evening event was actually crazy enough that I don’t have many pictures. I did take the time to take this picture of Anjela’s plating technique for the desserts. It came out beautifully, but poor Kelly almost had a nervous breakdown for a second.

Well, as they say in show business, the show must go on. With all the drama that goes on, it’s easy to get discouraged sometimes. Plus, being artistically inclined, I’m a sensitive soul. I’ve worked in restaurants a LONG time. And in that time, I’ve developed a number of defense techniques that are mostly fullproof. But sometimes, everyone gets pulled into the fray. I was definitely on the downbeat yesterday. I was exhausted and ready to quit. But a person finds inspiration sometimes in the unlikeliest of places. And for me yesterday, it was CONAN O’BRIAN. I’ve always loved Conan, but today I love him even more.

Last sunday was the start of our ‘Sunday Supper’ series. This is one of our special projects. Every week, it features a different student from the ACADEMY. Essentially, the assignment is to come up with a three course menu to offer up as a special on the Sunday dinner menu. This week, the supper featured Nina Rohling. Look at this beautiful caprese salad she made! I was so excited when I saw this. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE caprese salads, but they DO NOT love me back. They make me have horrible asthma attacks. Not Nina’s version though. It’s so good. It literally melts in your mouth.

Course two was this wonderful Mushroom Ragout with a Raw Risotto. Delicious. As you might have guessed, Nina’s menu was Italian themed. It’s funny. Because this week, we started our new rotations. I’m on the Italian station (more on this later). And Nina is right next to me on the Asian Station. She did the Italian menu, and I’m planning on doing an Asian menu for mine. Kind of a switcheroo.

For dessert, Nina made the most amazing spumoni featuring three flavors (raspberry, chocolate, and pistachio). Absolutely incredible.

The night was a smashing success. The restaurant was really busy for a Sunday night. I was there for almost the entire serve, and it seemed like almost everyone was ordering the special. Way to set the bar really high, Nina.

Can I just tell you that keeping up with MATTHEW KENNEY is hard work? It seems like every week he’s jetting off to one or two exotic locations. Last week, it was Peru and San Fransisco. But in between trips, he sat down with our class to talk to us about our business plans. We have a number of special projects planned to prepare us for when we graduate. One of them is writing a business plan. There is actually going to be a ‘Top Chef’-like business plan contest where our plans will be evaluated by Matthew Kenney and Dara Prentice (the owners of 105 DEGREES). They will choose which business they would hypothetically invest in. I actually never changed out of my pajamas last weekend. I was glued in front of my computer working on this (and maybe watching the VIKINGS game).

Business has been picking up a lot since the first of the year. It probably didn’t hurt that the news van was here a bunch last week HIGHLIGHTING the detox workshop.

OKLAHOMA TODAY has also been doing a feature on the restaurant this week. Here I am getting busted by the photographer. I’m not supposed to take HIS picture. It’s the other way around. I turned out alright though. He got over it as soon as I started bribing him with chocolate.