Mystery Basket Finals Fiasco

My nerves are shot and I'm ready to resume

Anger Management

classes!!

We did our finals yesterday and today. Our class was divided in teams of two Team A and Team B. The final was the "Mystery Basket" cooking test and today was our teams chance to show off our skills and creativity. A mystery basket is an array of foods; fruits, veggies and staples and then a mix of proteins. None of which we are aware of until that morning. From the basket, we make an appetizer, salad, soup, entree and dessert. Just like on Iron Chef America! (the comparison ends there) Read on for Foods of Americas Fiascos!

Our recipes are put together on the spot, no previous idea of what we're going to do and no recipes to follow. We are graded for our cooking techniques, safety and sanitation, cleanliness, execution of the recipes into a tasty yet beautifully plated finished dish using the ingredients to the best of our abilities. The team that cooks has use of the opposite team to assist, clean, and support all.

It was an experience to be sure. In the end its not the pressure of the timing and the recipes that got me but the clash of the egos. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Something like that. Personally I felt let down by the person who chose to do the dessert and the vegetables for the entree. Normally desserts are the fortay of this particular individual but today was a serious misstep. I can understand if you want to do things your way when you cook, but when you insist on taking charge of it - do the best you can do and not just toss something together as a last minute non effort.


The other problem was that today was the last day before summer break so the only things left over were stuff no one ever wants to cook with. Butternut squash soup was the choice for the soup makers. To be honest, there didn't seem to be much other choice. Our appetizer person was all gung ho to make the appetizer and insisted on it a day in advance but when it came to production apparently there wasn't much thought put into it. It was a bust as well. If I gave out the grade the first Team did a better job over all.


I doubt anyone really studied various recipes prior to the competition but I didn't feel like I could remember stuff off the top of my head so I checked things out online to make sure I knew amounts of ingredients to blend to make something right. I also put together a list the night before of all kinds of vegetable possibilities, potato ideas, and garnishes that I knew we could easily handle. I passed it around to a few people but they apparently had their own ideas which is great, if it happened. Which it didn't. A couple of days before this another person and I discussed some possibilities to do with a fish entree in case we got fish to work with. I thought that one was settled as a collaborative plan until the fish showed up and got totally reworked with NO sauce. It was good but it looked too dry. A salsa or sauce would have set it off better.


The bottom line is that when you are posed to work as a team things can either go very well or very wrong. Today was not a good day. I was not proud of our work and our plates. It was mediocre and put me in a very dark mood to say the least. I'd like to have bitch-slap a few people today but they don't allow that at school. I hope to all that is culinary that I don't have that team again. My last nerve may blow should I be forced to revisit another day like today. That would be ugly and serious. I had trouble keeping my yap shut today as it was.

Someone may find themselves in a basket and it'll be no mystery how they got there. Grrrrrr.