Three-course meal fit for ... a chef

Thursday's classroom cooking exercise was as close to reality as we have gotten in 15 weeks at the California Culinary Academy. Trial by fire, literally.

Chef Instructor Dan Fluharty pushes hard, yet consistently encourages us by saying, "You can do this," whenever we face a difficult cooking assignment. On Thursday, he acknowledged as we raggedly wrapped up the day's three-course, 30-ingredient assignment that it was more difficult than most.

We had two hours to do it all: mise en place -- setting up our stations with the ingredients and equipment needed -- preparing the ingredients, cooking, plating and presenting. Chef set up a schedule for service similar to what it would be in a restaurant.

The first course, a mixed-green salad topped with shredded duck confit and a mustard vinaigrette, was due at 4 o'clock.

The second course, a white-bean soup with Spanish chorizo and topped with fried julienne of leek, was due at 4:15 p.m.

The main course was a grilled New York steak, bearnaise sauce, roasted red potatoes, artichoke and cauliflower gratin in a mornay sauce and sun-dried tomato garnish. It was due at 4:30 p.m.

Everyone hit the mark on the first two courses. The main course was another matter, a heavy lift of a total of 21 ingredients and two complex sauces. Add in cooking the steak on a crowded grill top where it seemed all 10 of us gathered at once. Most plates were late to Chef, including mine, which I delivered at 4:45 p.m.

That wouldn't be acceptable in a restaurant. But then, as Chef pointed out when I fretted and shook my head: "You're still learning. Mistakes are a part of it. This was a difficult day."

Among other successes, my sauces were done well. My bearnaise even held up until I got home, and we enjoyed it for dinner with good portions left from the New York steak.

Sheer exhaustion overwhelmed me at day's end, yet there was a glimmer of accomplishment behind the veil of grill smoke.

'You're only as good as your last plate'

Short attention spans and impatience seem to be driving forces in a good bit of society, and they are the driver in restaurants, where one mediocre or bad meal or a bad experience with service will send someone away permanently. Thus, they also drive the assessment agenda in culinary school.

"You're only as good as your last plate," Chef Dan Fluharty said Wednesday, just after applauding my classmates and me for what we prepped, cooked and plated. Then he moved on to discuss what's next.

That will be two plates, actually, on Friday. Preliminary menu calls for plate No. 1 to be a beef fillet with Madeira sauce and an artichoke and plate No. 2 to be a grilled skirt steak with green beans, a bearnaise sauce and - yum! -- French fries.

My "last plate" was turkey scaloppine, accompanied by a shiitake mushroom pan sauce, potato croquettes and a mixed greens salad with hand-made mustard vinaigrette. It was good, Chef Dan Fluharty said, giving it a high grade. He specifically mentioned the sauce and its seasoning. The assessment was confirmed later at home where I rewarmed and served the leftovers.

(I got away with one on that "last plate." My shiitake mushroom sauce lacked shiitakes; it had what was available, white button mushrooms, which I used after my shiitakes burned in the pan when I left them too long while talking to Chef about my previous "last plate." If he noticed the sauce had other than shiitakes, he didn't comment. That's a shiitake above, a less flavorful white button mushrooms below.)