Hospitality students set high standards

As the final assignment in their two-year course, hospitality students at EIT recently served a French-themed degustation menu at their fully-licensed training restaurant, Scholars.

For diners, it truly was a marathon eating effort 10 courses, not all of them tiny, with matching wines.

The first course, oeufs meurette, was the tiniest. The attractive little tower featured a soft-boiled quail egg on a baguette crouton with mushrooms and a rich red wine sauce. Could it all be this good, one wondered? And it was.

The second course suggested that the students are taught not to be restricted by traditions. The pissaladiere went beyond the traditional Provencal formula and added the refreshing note of soused salmon.

The ancient Provencal fish soup, bourride, came next. Unlike the more well-known bouillabaisse, the recipe for bourride is not particular about the exact varieties of fish used. This makes it a far more sensible choice to serve down under as, to obtain all the specified fish for bouillabaisse, you would need to travel to Marseille. It was beautifully garlicky from the added aioli and it smacked of the sea.

Next came a plate of charcuterie, the highlight of which for me was the cured sausage, devised by one of the students and made on-site.

Salmon and champagne sauce (reminiscent of the Loire Valley) came with the Provencal vegetable dish, ratatouille. This again illustrated the lack of concern about traditions and may well have upset purists from Provence or the Loire but, to my knowledge, there were none there.

Meltingly tender, long-braised duck with Camargue red rice followed and was delightfully matched with a glass of Cotes du Rhone.

Then it was to Bordeaux to match boeuf Bourguignon, again a cheeky, modern take on the original. The beef sirloin came medium-rare and was tasty and tender. The cheese dish was the only course where I felt matters went a little over the top but there was no denying it was beautifully presented with all elements exemplary in their own right. On a long rectangular plate came three desserts and, despite being part of a 10-course degustation, provided what I would call a full-sized restaurant dessert. But all three were too tasty to resist: lemon tart, white chocolate mousse, peach melba. It was also impossible to resist the petits fours: macarons, profiteroles and friands.

The EIT is to be thoroughly commended for the high standards it sets and for the real training experience their restaurant offers, not only to the culinary students but also to those studying front-of-house.
Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, public speaker, musician and Hawke's Bay Today columnist.