Day of 5 of final exams for course I. The final day of course I.

Today is a relatively quick and easy day. We produce only two dishes: New England Clam Chowder and Gnocchi with Browned Butter Sage Sauce.

Step 1: Put potatoes in the oven to roast for the gnocchi.

Step 2: Steam clams.

Step 3: Make clam chowder, which will be finished just about the same time the potatoes will be.

On the clam chowder, you can prep as you go. Dice salt pork and start it rendering (low and slow). As the salt pork renders dice the onion and celery, which will be sweated. As onion and celery sweat, small dice carrots and potato. These cuts should be fairly precise, as they'll be a major part of the soup's presentation. As the sweat finishes, deglaze, add the liquids (cream and clam juice) and thyme. Bring to a simmer, add potato and carrot. Simmer until tender. Add clams, parsley and serve. The clams are already cooked, you add them at the very end because you don't want to overcook them.

While the soup is simmering, chop the sage for the browned butter sauce and you're done with the cutting and cutting board. Now is a good time to get caught up with some of the dishes and make sure everything is ready to make the gnocchi.

Making gnocchi is a bit of a mess (flour on your station), but you have some time to clean up while the fresh gnocchi spend time in the freezer.

More important is the fact that the recipe produces far more gnocchi than you need to present. Those who've been reading my culinary adventures from the beginning know that my gnocchi haven't always had enough flour (Kitchen Academy - Course I - Day 20). Therefore, I only use half of my gnocchi dough to make the gnocchi. The rest of the dough I reserve for emergency use should my first gnocchi fail. Had I done that the first time, I wouldn't have to borrow gnocchi from my station partner. Since borrowing won't be allowed during finals, I'd better be prepared. In the end, my gnocchi come out just fine the first time.

The final steps are cooking the gnocchi in boiling water and finishing the browned butter sage sauce. I love putting the chopped sage into the hot browned butter. There is a lovely burst of sage aroma and the sizzling sound is quite nice. When the sauce is ready, fry the gnocchi a bit and plate. Today I used one of my potato skins as a sauce repository for the extra browned butter sauce (just in case there isn't enough fat in the dish already).

After that, it's clean-up. In addition to the normal routine, we do a little deep cleaning as well, making sure the kitchen is ready for the next set of students.

Finally, Chefs Perez and Guevara talk to us about the next course and the difficulties it will present and praise us for our efforts. They've been very impressed and also note that we've been quite the test for Kitchen Academy as the first full class of thirty-two students. Surprisingly, we've also had 100% retention, without a single dropout.

At the end, a round of applause for our chefs. They've done a great job. These first six weeks have flown by and the amount we've learned is both amazing and a drop in the bucket compared to what we have yet to learn. It is hard to imagine that the pace is only going to increase.