Chef Jelani Port, 2009 CCAP alumni,
and Jill Smith, CCAP Arizona director, reviewed practice salads and omelets
this past Saturday when nearly two dozen students from across the state
participated in competition practice at Paradise Valley High School near
Phoenix.
First, the good news: both praised
- generally! - the taste of both salads and omelets.
Now, let's just break down the
comments.
Omelets
Taste:
Generally, taste was judged to
be good. Competitors are reminded
to be aware of the amount of salt and pepper. If the salt and
pepper are premeasured, competitors should use all of the seasoning
provided. If it is not measured, use your own best judgment.
Texture:
Omelets must be creamy, with a
curd-like texture. Exteriors need
to be an even golden shade, with no browning visible.
Shape:
Shape your omelet into a nice, fat cigar shape, tapered at each end.
Salads
Taste:
Balance the vinaigrette! This means you'll need to assess the relative
taste of the lime/vinegar vs. the oil, salt and pepper. Remember, the
vinaigrette needs to be fully emulsified. ALSO: make sure the vinaigrette
is completely strained from the
vegetables before you
plate your salad. This will help insure there's no puddle of vinaigrette
under your salad.
Texture:
This salad works in part because each element (jicama, cucumber, tomato,
pepper) is in balance. You help to insure this by making each
vegetable into exactly the same size dice. As Chef Jelani says,
"Consistency is critical in the cuts: does the cucumber look like the pepper
looks like the tomato. It's about attention to details." Cilantro needs
to be finely minced: "It should look like cilantro dust," Jill says.
Presentation:
Salads can fall apart if your cucumber slices aren't even. Be
sure to fill your salad "cup" to the brim - in other words, a
complete serving.
Make certain your plate is entirely clean
before taking both your presentation
and tasting plates to the judging tables. "Ninety percent of the
plates I saw today were dirty," Chef Jelani notes. "It's important to be
careful and clean up the plate if there's vinaigrette or oil anywhere on
the plate."
Do a review of the steps below for
a quick guide to the salad. By now, the recipes should be memorized completely,
so you just need to fine-tune your techniques.
"You want to kind of 'reverse
engineer' your cooking," Chef Jelani says. "Figure out your weakest
points, and focus on perfecting those techniques. If your dice isn't even,
dice, dice, dice - and measure it!
"A full 80 percent of your
competition points come from technique and appearances, so the details are
critical here.
"It's important to
remember: CCAP is a forever journey. You want to start strong."
Here's a handy "cheat sheet" on salad making! If
you follow these steps, ypu'll shave seconds off your prep time for assembling
the salad. (You can tape lists to the inside cover of your equipment box!)
- · Core, score, blanch and shock your tomato - and then take it out of the ice as soon as it's cool. Put it back on your mise en place tray and leave it alone for now
- · Make vinaigrette, taste. Adjust seasoning and put it on top of the ice bath
- · Peel, dice jicama (small! 1/4 by 1/4 inch) - put it in the vinaigrette - leave that tomato alone! It does NOT go into the vinaigrette YET!
- · Dice bell peppers (small!) - This goes into the vinaigrette!
- · Cut onion into small dice - add to vinaigrette
- · NOW peel, seed and dice that tomato and add it to the vinaigrette
- · Cut cucumber slices for ring mold and plate them into the mold
- · Peel, seed and dice the remaining cucumber and add to vinaigrette
- · TASTE your salad and adjust seasonings
- · Strain all vinaigrette from diced vegetables (use cheesecloth to be certain vegetables are seasoned but not dripping)
- · Put strained vegetables into mold; clean plate for presentation
(A handy last-minute tips list, including what and what not to wear for competition will be posted later this week.)
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