A Grand Buffet

Our Garde Manger class culminated into a big banquet at school, a chance for us to show off everything we’ve made and to practice the finer points of presentation. My contribution, along with two classmates? Canapes. In the culinary world, “canapes” is usually followed by a groan. Tiny toast points with a variety of spreads, odd protein fillings and tiny, finicky garnishes. When chef asked who would take these on for prep, almost everyone pulled an immediate “not it.” My only other option was a salad, so I decided to face the challenge. We made three: red pepper cream cheese with artichokes, scallions, and basil oil; smoked shrimp with red pepper jelly cream cheese; roasted chicken with a nut and raisin cream cheese and a curled celery garnish. Canapes deserve their reputation: marinating, searing and baking off the chicken; making all the cream cheeses and garnishes; brining the shrimp for smoking; cutting and toasting all those little toasts. Lots of work, but worth the result. Also on display: a huge fruit platter (mirrored trays are pretty standard), grilled vegetables with cheese (I made the plain and green chile queso frescos in the back), salads, the bacon, sausage, and gallantines we’d made earlier. You want to know something strange? After prepping all that food, I didn’t want any of it. Maybe after staring at it for so long, it wasn’t appealing. Or all the adrenaline kind of took over my appetite. The baking class had a lot of great desserts, and across the room, the cake decorating and sugar sculpture classes showed off their work.  Handling molten hot sugar and twisting it into paper thin shapes is even more intimidating to me than carving ice with a chainsaw. Pretty cool, huh? This summer, foundations of baking and a wine class…just in time for swimsuit season.

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