Burger Off!

This week is my last week of cooking in culinary school. It is very bittersweet. I want those 30 hours back and there are definitely people I never want to talk to again. But, I will miss the chefs and a handful of my classmates. I will miss the creativity and the total lack of structure when it comes to preparing food. Measuring annoys me.

This week we are doing American food and were challenged to pick two states and come up with a burger from each state and to prepare a mystery basket item, which turned out to be a hot dog. We had to do everything from scratch, from the bread to the sauces. Nothing could be store bought. I am so grateful to my classmate for making a huge batch of mayonnaise, because I break that shit every time. 

I know that I have been doing little else but posting pictures of food lately and I apologize. I promise to do something stupid and crazy and tell you about it soon.

 St Louis Burger. St Louis style (tangier and thinner) BBQ sauce with coleslaw, beer battered onion rings, and cayenne aioli. The burger is a combination of beef and pork.

 I hate hot dogs. I think they are gross. So, I figured why not wrap them in bacon and deep fry them. Turns out I like hot dogs cooked like this! They are served with the same cayenne aoili as the onion rings and carmelized onion.

California Burger. Ciabatta bread with avocado cream cheese, seasoned tomato, and micro greens, hand cut french fries and roasted garlic aoili. This burger is straight beefy goodness.

I was really proud of my burgers! I was the only one in the class to get 10's on all three and had people lined up to try the hot dog. The plates looked really good too. Yay for finals!