Endings ... and Success !

The end of the semester has arrived on the calendar ... and the past 2 weeks have been a frenzy of learning to plan, actually planning out time and structures, and then everyone coming together to develop a wonderful tasting menu highlighting the students' learning and developing skills.

The menu makes only a promise ... it is the delivery to the table which tells the story, and the look of delight on the faces of our customers is the final punctuation mark.

I'd say this brigade has hit better than a homer ... they tore the cover off the ball AND hit it into the lake!

Let the pictures tell the story.

Chefs Emily and Colin arrived a bit before 06h00 to start making bread. The rest of the group drifted in when their planning sheets told them to arrive ... the whole lot was hard at work by mid-morning ... and the tables were set, the drinks prepared, the coulis made,

the fritters fritted and pasta designed to have fresh basil leaves right in the structure of the pasta itself!

Salads were built and plated.

The demi-chicken breast on peach reduction and salsa verde was created.

The pastas were filled with a slightly warmed shrimp filling then cooked and topped with a delicious cream sauce with butter-braised mushroom nuggets.

Lamb racks were frenched and prepped in our dredge of herbs and spices, to be mounted on a teensy potato fritter on a bed of rosemary sweet potato smear.

Teeny tiny cheesecakes had been made and set out with slices of killer-good Meyer lemon semifreddo.

Green Onion Cakes were rolled and fried into dreamy lofty delicious treats!

Warm and cool beverages has been prepped and set out.

Finally, banana slices tossed in our own middle-eastern style dry rub ended the feast.

And ... the crowd went wild!

Well done, everyone. A wonderful final exam, a great semester and HUGE amounts of learning and personal growth. Congratulations to each of you as you continue your journey of learning.

And, as always, an enormous vote of thanks to our wonderful community volunteer, Ruby Trostin, who has made this semester's work go smoothly for us all. Before this final exam Ruby interviewed every student team, ensuring they knew what they were doing and checking their time-estimate as well and ensuring their requisition was correct...THEN she went home and spent hours typing up the full requisition of food Mr Chef to buy! THANK YOU Ruby!! As well, special thanks and a grovel of gratitude to my delightful volunteer kitchen assistant Noah, who has kept us all tidy and this old chef heavily-caffeinated for months!