Le Cordon Bleu - Superior Written Exam

Victoria pineapples.
Sanguine blood oranges.
Montmorency cherries.
Charlotte potatoes.
Sucrier bananas.

This was the first matching part of the exam. The second required pairing cuts of meat to the animal. Suprême of chicken and foie gras of goose, for example.

The balance of the exam – multiple choice and true-false – came from every where. Basic Cuisine vocabulary. What does déglacer mean? Intermediate regional information. Do the best walnuts come from Auvergne? And Superior’s recipe compositions. Grenadin de veau is veal tenderloin that can be cut into fillets?

Overall the exam was fair, not too tricky, and manageable. Studying this weekend was time well spent. A decent grade is expected.

The second half of the exam was fill-in-the-blank. We are required to memorize six recipes. Quantities and ingredients. This mindless exercise is completely useless. This does not test any knowledge or skill other than the ability to memorize.

I think we should be required to memorize useful information that every French trained student should know. Like mother sauces and their derivatives. Cuts of meat. Or geographical ingredient production zones.

Sunday afternoon was nothing but rote. Handed a recipe I knew best, this was a piece of cake. Once I filled in all the blanks, the stored, useless, information vanished from memory.

Whether I did well or poorly. It’s over. No more written LCB-style exams. Ever.