New Evaluation

The purpose of the assignment was to use the information from research and prepare a 2 course meal suitable for a restaurant menu to cater for a disease or lifestyle choice. We had the whole term approximately to do the assignment, which is 7-8 weeks. We had to research different lifestyle diseases and then we had to choose 2 recipes to cook from a certain lifestyle disease. We had 7-8 weeks of research and 1 lesson on the practical work on where we had to prepare and cook our recipes. I think the time given to us to do this assignment was adequate and everything was relaxed and easy-going. Everything just flowed and I wasn’t rushed. Within the investigation area, I learnt about different lifestyle diseases such as; diabetes, gluten intolerance and coeliac disease. I learnt that, people with these diseases are like any other person without a disease, but have to make some changes within their daily diets to insure that it is suitable for their disease. During the practical area, I learnt how to make a free-form pizza, which I have never made and I had to put all the ingredients in between two sheets of pastry, which was different. I learnt how to make 2 recipes under a certain time; and I felt quite pressured. I think the task was quite successful and it really gave everyone an understanding of the diseases in the world that people sufer from, and how they have to maintain their healthy diets. Also, the task of preparing the food was also successful, as it may mean that they work with different ingredients to suit their lifestyle disease (eg; if they chose vegetarianism, they might substitute meat for beans). I think my two finsiehd final looks looked deliscious and very edible. Howevere, I do think that the summer berries with white chocolate looked a bit starnge, (due to the white chocolate being so watery, instead of it being a thick mixture), it still tasted great. In terms of colour, the pizza looked glossy due to the garnish and looked perfectly brown and was in contrast to the greens of the basil and yellow of the cheese and red of the paste. It looked fresh. With the summer berries, the purple colours of the berry in contrast to the white chocolate looked very eye-opening and caught your eye. In terms of taste, I think it tasted amazing. Everything just mixed well with everything else and I think it goes to show to the people who thought that people with a lifestyle disease didn’t get to eat yummy food or had to substitute good foods for bad foods, were wrong. With the presentation, I liked the shape of the plate, as it was a clean square shape. I think it went well with the square-ish pizza and with the square plate. Also, I used like a martini glass for the berries with the white chocolate sauce. Usually these glasses are used for special sort of drinks that people have on occasions, and I think it went to show that my recipe could be good enough or a special occasion. With my planning, it didn’t go to well. I think it would’ve been much better if I practised these recipes at home a couple of times just to check that I understood everything and if I needed to change something, I could. I think that the white chocolate sauce texture was too watery and it didn’t look too tasty with the natural juices of the berries. I would’ve liked it better if it were more of a thick texture. I researched everything adequately and I had a clear understanding of my selective disease, and therefore, it wasn’t a last minute thing. If I could change anything, I would maybe choose a recipe with less amount of preparation time; as I was in the kitchen 5 minutes after the bell washing up. Or I might have to do things just a tad faster, just to make sure I don’t stay in the kitchen still cleaning up. The wole exercise was interesting; as it did let me know of the lifestyle diseases that people have in the world. The practical work was challenging; due to the time restraints and due to us having to cook 2 recipes instead of 1. I chose to do gluten- free as my lifestyle choice, as I thought that they must have such restrictions in food and would have substitute much food in order to be eating healthy, however, most foods these days are gluten-free and it showed me that people who have gluten-free can eat healthy and delicious food and enjoy it at the same time.