Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only to be aware to stop and savor it.

I thought I'd share some of our ProStart creations. This won't be much of an oratory post as I need sleep soon, however I'd like for you all to see what it is that I've been working so hard on.

ProStart competition is, in a nutshell, for a team of four people (Natalie, Carrielee, Maria, and myself) to create a full meal consisting of an appetizer, entree, and desert in one hour with no electricity and only two gas burners. As you can imagine, this is quite difficult when producing meals of high culinary quality. Along with the meal, we are tested on our knife skills, during which the judges are notorious for measuring exact cuts with rulers.

Our meal is [appetizer] a tomato basil bisque, [entree] a coconut breaded tilapia, and [desert] a coconut ice cream. I shall go into more detail with the pictures.

Appetizer

We are currently working out the kinks in this bit... We have a tomato basil bisque, the recipe of which is still being altered, as well as the garnish. Here is the picture for the sake of having one, though it will be fixed very soon. Natalie is in charge of this bit.

Entree

I am in charge of the entire entree by some miracle, aha. Our main item is the coconut breaded tilapia, with a spicy apricot sauce; we recently altered this slightly by adding a gel powder in order to give it more shape for plating purposes. Our sides are red potatoes (boiled, then sauteed in the same oil as the tilapia; this gives it a nice taste and color) and steamed asparagus. The asparagus tastes amazing with the sauce, if I may say so. 

This one was made just today. We're still experimenting with plating, so I shall post a couple more. 

Or just the one, I didn't much like the others. Anywho, there you are. 

Desert

I do believe this is my favorite bit! It's absolutely delicious. Maria and Carrielee are in charge of this, and are doing a wonderful job of it. (Perhaps I just like chocolate too much, though.) Anywho, the plate is garnished with a fudge sauce and strawberry coulis, atop which is placed a dark chocolate bowl inside which is our coconut ice cream with a strawberry fan. Absolutely amazing!

This is the basic idea upon which we based our other platings. 

I like this one much better than the above. 

Maria suggested we put the coulis on the ice cream itself because... Oh, honestly, it's flipping delicious. 

Imagine this with steadier lines, aha. 

I beg, please ignore the giant blob of fudge in the bottom left corner. Ahem. Anywho, I like this idea, but it needs more coulis for color. 

This is my personal favorite, however nobody else liked it. Moue. 

Goodnight, my loves. I do hope you've enjoyed the view. 

Ashley