A bit late but better than never. Here's the last installment of my Maya Kitchen story.

The last day of class was handled by Madam Rory, the big boss of all the people at Maya's. She's also the editor of various Maya cookbooks which I've been collecting ever since. It's their usual call to let Madam take over on the last day coz our final assignment was to come up with our own menu and cook our own dishes. She did the judging based on how we conceptualized, wrote, and executed the menu. By the way, the food we prepared for presentations during the past 3 days went to her stomach pala. Fini-filter muna siyempre ni Teacher Imee... yun mga good enough to look and eat lang. *LOL*

As usual, the first part of the class was lecture. Madam just gave a round-up of what was covered during the first 3 days and a little bit of know-hows.


Before we started with actual cooking, the team leader from each group was asked to draw from a pile of folded paper. The thing written on the paper's the subject for the main course. We got chicken while the other group got pork. Various ingredients were displayed on the table and the menu should be based only on what's available. It was a bit of a challenge to work in group as there were many voices and preferences. One of the obvious differences was Girls VS Boys. While the girls were focusing more on planning the menu according to what was on the book, the boys were already doing their own thing. *rolling of the eyes* Planning was another thing, actual cooking skill was another thing. Anyways, here's the menu our group came up with:

Appetizer: Salad with Sherry Wine Vinaigrette dressing (Light)
Soup: Cream of Carrot Soup (Heavy)
Main Course (with Carbo): Roasted Tarragon Chicken Stuffed with Tucsan Rice (Heavy)
Dessert: Mango Pandan Gelatin (Light)

While the guys were busy with these...




The girls were doing this... *LOL*




The other group finished early, while had to wait for a long time for the chicken to cook. We were told na pag sa contest, roasting a chicken/duck/whatever is a big no no daw kasi matagal maluto.


Madam didn't wait for the chicken anymore so our presentation included an empty plate when she did the tasting :(



Finished product....




By the time we ate, the lettuce was already soggy and the soup was already cold. But in fairness, everything was yummy. Love your own ba? *LOL* I heard Madam was all praises with other group's pork teriyaki din. Sayang hindi namin natikman. *LOL* Anyways, masarap man o hindi, the essence of this activity was the put the wisdom of menu planning in practice. Taste can be improved later on with practice and experience.

Overall, I'm so grateful for deciding to go on with this course. Aside from the free cookbook (with Madam's precious signature), Maya apron, and chef's hat, I gained a lot of knowledge and a lot of friends. I'm still far from being a good cook, but at least I'm a wee bit better than before. My short term goal is for hubby to give me a perfect 10 in future taste tests. *LOL* But seriously, I have a whole new attitude towards cooking - it ain't just a chore! Could you imagine I spent more than 8 hours in Powerbooks last week digging through pile of recipe books? THAT serious! Pero siyempre barat ako at hindi pa rin ako bumili. Ang mamahal kaya ng mga cookbooks! *LOL*

Labels: cooking, food tripping, wifey diaries