Final Practical and Graduation at NWCAV

Last Sunday, our class began the final practical by spending the day organizing our menu for the week and preparing most of our mise en place. On Monday we served lunch with 3 courses, on Tuesday we bumped it up to 4 courses, and finally for the dinner service on Wednesday, we provided 6 courses. There was a lot of excitement in the kitchen and a lot of pressure as well. We all wanted to do our best and show the Chef instructors, our families, loved ones, and guest Chefs what we have learned during the last 15 weeks.

Every day we were in high gear preparing for that first call from one of the Chefs. Timing, organization, communication, and team playing were the keys to a successful service. As the number of courses grew each day, so did the curve balls that the Chefs would throw at us. On our last night and in the midst of organizing our mise en place for service, the Chefs requested that our team prepare a chocolate sponge cake – bake it, ice it, and write on it to serve to the guest Chefs. That night each team had 6 courses to serve and all teams were switched just before service. How much pressure could we handle? Other teams had to pump out dishes that none of us had ever heard of or practiced in school. Teams had to scramble through culinary and pastry books to find recipes and get it done. Our team had to prepare a Lobster Thermador dish that was not on the menu. Another team had to make Oysters Rockefeller. The list goes on!

The last night we had some important guest chefs in the school. Chef Pierre Dubrulle who opened the Dubrulle International Culinary & Hotel Institute Of Canada (now the Art Institute of Vancouver) was judging our team's food. So with the weight on our shoulders to make him dinner (and do it well), we had to make these unexpected dishes! We were really excited to get his feedback at the end of the evening and he was very pleased with our menu. The guest Chefs marked us based on fine dining standards. All of the groups wound up in the 75-percentile grade, which was excellent considering that we have only been in school for 15 weeks.

During wrap up at the very end of the evening, we were all quite emotional. It had been an unbelievable journey for both the students and the Chef instructors. At the beginning of the term, we all came to the program with baggage and issues that we soon had to confront and deal with when working so intimately with each other. We have all changed and have grown in so many ways in this short period of time. The evening was bittersweet—we were elated and proud that we accomplished so much and also sad because we knew that we wouldn’t be working with each other anymore. We are a profound group of people who gelled like our own little family. One guest shared with Chef Tony that she could feel the love in the room that night—the love for the food and the fact that we all were having so much fun together. We all have formed close friendships that will last and the Chef instructors at NWCAV are like no other. They said that the students make the school but we are of the opinion that without the unique and beautiful relationship that the Chef instructors have, the school would not contain the magic that it does.

The valedictorians (Anna from Pastry and Brendan from Culinary) gave lovely speeches to our family and friends on graduation day. All of our loved ones supported us during this program, understood all of the homework that we had, made sacrifices, and celebrated the good days, while encouraging us during the bad ones. I believe we came out of this course not only more educated on the topic of food, but also more educated about ourselves. We became more compassionate towards other people and learned from situations on how to adapt and make things work. With permission from both valedictorians, I am posting their speeches here:


To all of my fellow graduates, I am thankful for having the opportunity to work with such a special and unique group of people. I have enjoyed meeting every single one of you and wish each of you the utmost of success in whatever path you choose.


 

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