Just take a look at this menu.
The starter is called White Mountain Filet and includes braised bistro filet, exotic mushrooms and shallots, atop a gorgonzola and basil potato pancake with a Merlot sauce.
The entree is Salmon Shoals Style, with a three cheese couscous and quinoa, butternut squash, cranberry sauteed Swiss chard, a New Hampshire maple mustard sauce and fried leeks.
And for dessert, it’s a white chocolate, strawberry and poppy seed mousse in dark chocolate tear drops with strawberry coulis, poppy seed brittle and sugar spirals, called Tears of Joy.
Now you might expect to see this as a special around town, but we’re afraid not. This is a menu put together by a group of high school students.
But that didn’t stop our mouth from watering when we stopped by the final practice for Concord Regional Technical Center culinary team last weekend, as they made the three-course meal one last time before they’ll do it for real at the National Prostart Invitational Culinary Competition on Saturday in Dallas.
And to be honest, a menu like that may take us all evening to prepare, the CRTC culinary team, made up of Anthony Costello (Pembroke), Chase Haines (Concord), Megan Fraser (Hillsboro-Deering), Katherine Killam (Hopkinton) and alternate Brandon Diaz (John Stark), only has one-hour to do it – and using only two table top burners. As far as the breakdown goes, Costello prepares the entree, Haines tackles the starter and Killam and Fraser work the dessert.
But they’ve also been practicing twice a week since January (three times a week over the last month) and been in two competitions with the same setup. And while they stayed calm and cool under the pressure of a ticking down clock, it can’t be easy.
They get a 15-minute station setup, followed by 20 minutes for knife skills. That’s where two members of the team do four cuts chosen by the team, and the other two essentially break down a chicken. The tricky part is that the judges get to select which two do the cuts and which two work on the chicken, so all of them need to know what to do.
The they get 20 minutes for a Mise En Place, which is French for putting in place. It’s where they set up their stations, burners and get equipment out. But they still can’t measure or cut anything – that has to be done during the one-hour time frame, along with all the cooking and plating.
And since we got to see it live and in action, we figured why not give you a little look into the sights and sounds because there’s a lot that goes into this meal.
The 60 minutes is hectic to say the least. You have to time everything so it comes out at the right time at the right temperature. It’s all broken down in 10 minute increments and Diaz, who is the only one allowed to communicate with the team, is there to make sure they’re on track to finish. Because every minute over is a deduction from the team’s point total.
Fraser and Killam get the two burners first. Killam chops and melts the chocolate for the cups, while Fraser chops rhubarb and strawberries and makes the coulis. While the burners are being used, Costello chops his leeks, squeezes lemons, prepares the Swiss chard and chops garlic. Haines chops basil, peels and shreds potatoes and prepares his demi glaze.
Once the dessert sauce is done and chocolate properly melted, the burners are ready for the starter and entree prep. For Costello that means making the maple mustard sauce and putting together the couscous, while Haines makes his potato pancakes and gets his beef braising.
The sugar strings, poppy seed praline and chocolate cups are made and set aside, so the white chocolate for the mouse can be prepared.
With about a half hour left, Costello fries his leeks and Haines gets his mushrooms and sauce working, while Fraser works on the dessert details and Killam begins to whip up the mousse.
In the final 20 minutes things get even more crazy. The beef needs to finish up in time to rest, the chocolate ganache is made and the couscous gets a refresher. There’s also a ton of little details we just couldn’t possibly jot down.
The last 10 minutes means cooking the salmon, reheating the potato pancakes, setting up the chocolate cups and finishing off the mouse – and whatever else makes the meal look and smell so tasty. And plating of course, which as you can see is some restaurant quality stuff.
It ended up taking the team an extra 45 seconds to get everything on the plate, but isn’t the dress rehearsal always a little off before the big show? We shall see Saturday at noon when the clock officially starts.
