Feeling like a traiteur

Last week was a full week of traiteur, which is catering. True, I did feel sort of like a pastry traitor, pulled from the familiar pastry lab and dropped into a large kitchen, with a new chef (who actually cleaned up after himself... and us!), and lots of odd French catering foods.




I ought to give the cuisine kids some credit. It can be pretty hot working over a stove all day, and pretty mundane chopping vegetables... whether its julienne, batons, or brunoise, its still time consuming-ly boring. True, they're not great at pastry, but then again I'm sure they have more efficient ways of skinning fish without being squeamish.

We began the week by making tart tatin au chevre. They're pretty much bacon, potato, and chevre cheese pies topped with a layer of puff pastry. I probably enjoyed this dish the most this week. With an exception of some pot-au-feu we made, the menu just went downhill from here on out. But really, you cant go wrong with this recipe. Who doesn't like bacon, cheese, and potatoes?





Since I don't want to torture my readers, and more so myself, here's a quick recap of all the interesting things we made last week. Some of these recipes, though traditional, are really questionable. I don't know who in their right mind would think fish mousse pie and jelly covered mayo bomb poached egg would be a good idea.

This is a cheese souffle. Its only good hot, and quite mushy. Frankly, I prefer souffle of the chocolate variety.



We also made pain surprise aka 'surprise bread' and surprise brioche. I guess the surprise is that you're not sure what sandwich you're going to pull out when you reach in. Salmon... or salami... or pate? If you're a vegetarian you'd definitely be in for a surprise.





The French sure like wrapping their meat in dough; maybe like jelly, it was a way of preserving the meat? Sauccison en brioche is a fine example. It's a braided brioche dough wrapped around pork sausage. I think the crepe in the middle allows the bread to not absorb moisture from the sausage.







We also made a Russian fish pie called a Koulibiac. I didn't try it, since it had salmon and I'm not a huge fan. It has layers of rice pilaf, mushrooms, spinach, boiled egg, and salmon. I started calling it the salmon lasagna of death.



This is a fish and scallop mousse pie with salmon in it. Texture was unappealing to say the least.





This little gem is oeuf Norwegian. Its artichoke topped with vegetables covered in mayo, then topped with a poached egg, some mayo/jelly mixture, smoked salmon and MORE jelly. Aspic is gross. 'Nuff said.



Sole meuniere. The dish that made Julia Child fall in love with France. Probably because she didn't have to tear their heads off and peel off their skins with her bare hands. Yeah.



This is a verrine/glass full of blanched zucchini and carrots, topped with tomato jelly, shrimp, and gazpacho. Again with the jelly.



Beggars purses filled with smoked salmon, dill, and cream.



Mini pot-au-feu.



Small glasses of bouillabaisse.



Lentils topped with bacon, bacon infused foam, and a parmesan crisp.



Whew! What a busy week. Our traiteur chef said that catering is a very difficult job, since caterers need to know how to do everything.. from pastries and bread to charcuterie and fish. He wasn't joking. Traiteur isn't a piece of cake. Literally. I'm looking forward to going back into the pastry lab and working with chocolate this week.

And just because I can, I'll leave you all with what was left of our soles at the end of this treacherous traiteur week.