Menu Project: Aroma Odyssey

Cheesy title, I know. It's a work in progress.

Phew! Crazy past few weeks. I'm now working in the school's restaurant, L'ecole, and have been on the saucier station this week. I haven't sweated and hustled like this in...ever. Maybe ever. Maybe when I was on my high school tennis team, but I don't think I cared enough to hustle this much.

Anyway, here I am at my derelict blog. Our class menu projects are due next week, and on top of that, work, life, sleep, and trying to squeeze some fun and relaxation in to keep me sane, sadly blog has fallen on my list of priorities (even further down than it had been).

My menu's theme is Volatile Aromatic Compounds, and composing dishes with 2 base ingredients containing a major compound in common. Not a new concept by any means, but one that excites me and allowed me to learn through research and creative experimentation whilst working on my project. Which, after much thought and when it's too late to change it, I've realized amounts to 'flavor combinations.' So, essentially my theme is flavor. Great. Genius.

Anyway, I'll post the full menu later, along with pictures. For now, here's the first course (after the amuse bouche):

Pickled Plum and Blue Cheese Mousse on Endives, w/Plum-Thyme Vinaigrette and Toasted Walnuts

I've come quite a ways since a few months ago, I think.
Also, you'd never guess that the photo was taken by a sweaty, frantic and half-drunk, blue-cheese-and-mascara-smeared me, while the plate teetered precariously on the edge of a plastic folding chair within the approx. 1.5 sq ft of open floor space in our bizarrely overlit bedroom, nearly spilling onto the bedspread, would you?

It's due a week from Friday, so I'll be back [around] then.
Wish me luck!!