First edible dishes at school

During the first weeks in the L'Ecole school we already produced stocks and cooked dishes. Even though stocks are full of the rich smell mix and they look like melted gold, they are not really edible because no salt is added. Making stocks is more about Miss en Place (I'll talk about it in next post)  than about exactly cooking some dish. However, we cooked finished dishes as well. My first experience with cooking the own dish in the L'Ecole lab (in fact, the kitchen for students is the laboratory) wasn't delicious at all. Our Chef told us to cook chicken, but I misunderstood that it was our own project and didn't matter in which way we would cook it. I started cooking in unusual for myself way, on the grill; then, when I figured out the actual task, I thought it was to late for changing, and I became nervous. As a result, I had a tough dry peace of chicken breast. I tried to fix it with melted verb batter and nice presentation, but it didn't add moister to my chicken. My findings include: to listen to people more carefully, to ask twice if I need to, to be faster in making decisions, to be calm and concentrate in the kitchen because my future depends on it. Below, it is not my chicken, and mine was much  worse but I was too upset to make picture of it. 

The next time, when we cooked from the products on the table, I was much more successful. My rice  was fully cooked and tender but not mushy or dry; fried mushrooms with consomme gave my dish a sweet and distinctive flavor. I would like more sauce in this dish and the salt wasn't enough, probably. 

For me, really unexpected dish was ratatouille. I had no idea what is behind this name and was surprised a lot to find that famous French name is hiding casual Ukrainian dish from eggplants and zucchini called "eckra". The smell of summer and taste of homeland expected for me in L'Ecole Culinary School's laboratory. It was amazing.

I found important information about the team work and the presentation in those class. It is really cool to cook in the team, and trust and respect make team work efficient and successful. Also, our Chef showed us the best way to garnish ratatouille with fresh basil to accent its flavor (second picture).