Ramekin's Dinner

Yesterday was nice because I had a chance to work outside of the restaurant. My chef was performing a cooking demo at Ramekins, a culinary school not too far from the restaurant. It was a 5 course meal all paired with wine. There were 28 excited people waiting to taste each dish as he demoed how to make each one. After one demo, my sous chef and I were in the back preparing the 28 dishes. My sous chef is a tiny girl with a fierce passion. She is really fun and tough!

Before heading over to Ramekins, most of the food was prepared. 

I came in early to help prep. They gave me the task to make the shortbread cookies before hand. 

"EASY". 

However, my sous chef made a tiny mistake of looking at the wrong recipe. So I made cumin shortbread.

My chef looked in the bowl and said, "what the hell is in that dough?". 

"Cumin, chef". 

"No, no, not cumin. HAZELNUT," he replied.

AND SO I quickly proceeded to make an entirely new batch. 

Great start to the day! Haha. We headed over with all of the food and began settling in to our new kitchen for the next 5 hours. 

The menu:

Sugar Pie Pumpkin Soup with Pumpkin Seed Pesto and Estate Olive Oil

Dungeness Crab Flan with Zucchini Omelet and Piperade Sauce

Columbia River Sturgeon with Cauliflower, Walnut and Baby Spinach Ragout with Golden Raisin-Caper Vinaigrette

Sautéed Duck Breast with Honey Roasted Fall Vegetables and Red Wine Gastrique

Baked Apples with Peppercorns and Armagnac, Served with Hazelnut Shortbread

I peaked into the demo kitchen to see my chef!

Things that happened during the night:

1. I was sent next door to Estate to pick chives from the garden in the dark as a garnish(which never got used)

2. My sous chef cut her thumb really bad while slicing the duck

3. We almost forgot to put a very special sauce onto one of the plates. (i remembered)

All in all, it went smoothly. My chef was happy when he was demoing for 3 hours straight and all of the guest were happy!