For the last few weeks my mind has been pondering over our list of ingredients for the Final Superior Exam and Le Cordon Bleu. I finally came up with two composed garnishes, one simple, and two methods of preparing the meat with sauce that I thought were excellent. Mediterranean in inspiration, but nonetheless technically complicated and very tasty.

However, today at school I overheard students talking about their dishes: “Well, how many sauces does yours have? Mine has three…”

Three sauces? Are you friggin’ kidding me? We have four hours to create a masterpiece and you’re doing three sauces? Is there even room on the plate for that?

At first I was like, “Yeah, great, three sauces, whatever show-off.” but now I’m like “Merde, he’s doing three sauces? Is mine too simple? Are the judges going to scoff at my obviously Italian based menu? Did I just totally miss French cooking 101?”

Another friend of mine is making – making – puff pastry for his plate. I enjoy making puff pastry but the margin for error and the amount of uncertainty are high, especially if it’s a really hot day, like it’s supposed to be.

So now I’m looking at my menu and wondering if it sucks. Uggh-a-roo. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow when I do my practice test on my husband and his buddy. Hope they like pigeon!

My six hour practice session is on Thursday at Le Cordon Bleu where we get to play around in the kitchens, so I’ll get the male perspective two days in a row (from my hubby and the chef’s). Wish my Mom was here to tell me just what’s right and what’s wrong. Mom’s are great that way, aren’t they? They just know…

P.S. I’ll share my recipes after all students have had their practive runs at LCB. Just in case they really are good (totally paranoid, huh? I know, I know – pitiful). To try your hand at our final and check out the full list of ingredients go to Final Exam at Le Cordon Bleu