“Wine Experience”

I am going to consolidate a couple of classes into one. Someone’s been slacking on these posts. Tsk tsk.

Anyhow the next two classes were going to end with about an hour and a half to two hours of a wine experience. But, of course, before this wine experience, we were put to the test. We knew beforehand that we were going to have to make a recipe without our recipe cards. We weren’t exactly sure which it was going to be, but we had a feeling it was going to be a chicken dish, particularly the Poule Roti Gran-mere (Grandmother style roasted Chicken)

He dropped a few clues in the last class such as a comment to the assistant chef: “you know what, order me a few extra chickens for the next class.” And the fact that its one of these easier dishes to make from memory, as it is not precisely measured ingredient extensive.

Suuuuure enough, it was the gran-mere chicken. Its actually a delicious dish, with the exception that the sauce is supposed to be a ‘jus-roti” or the juice of the roast, but we actually add so much veal stock that it overpowers the flavor of the chicken. And personally, I’m getting a little sick of the flavor of veal stock. It’s a bold veal flavor. It is delicious, but at the same time, enough is enough. When I eat chicken, I want to taste chicken.

Anyhow, the basic steps include preparing the chicken to be roasted (removing wishbone, washing, trimming fat, seasoning, trussing), sautéing then roasting the chicken with some carrots and onions, peeling pearl onions, cooking them “a brun” (simmer in water sugar butter and salt, as the water evaporates, the onions cook and the butter and sugar brown, leaving the color on the onions, not necessarily browning the onions themselves), cooking some bacon and mushrooms, and cocotteing potatoes and browning them and finishing them in the oven.

When the chicken comes out you’ve got to pour off the oil, reduce the juice, first with some wine then with some veal stock, strain, season, and serve over the cut chicken.

It took us about an hour and change. When you don’t have to focus on a second dish (or a first dish before this one) it’s really easy to focus fully on the one dish and get it done. But when you need to prep your second dish while you’re rushing to get your first one done, there are timing issues. It’s really difficult to get around this, but that’s what separates the good chefs from the great ones. Organization and order, focus and attention to details. I’m working on it.

The next day we had to make an apple tart and a pate a choux dough AND a genoise cake. We weren’t necessarily timed, but we had to rush. It was fun. Again, focusing on one dish at a time was easier than focusing on the two.

So wine tasting. The first night was pretty boring, until we got to taste some of the basic wines. The woman explaining it to us was enthusiastic and obviously extremely bright, but she first taught us the extreme basics, like how wine is made, and that it comes from grapes, and stuff like that. So maybe for someone who just graduated HS and hasn’t really looked into all of these things in their spare time at work, then its interesting. But if you understand that wine comes from grapes, and they prune trees to make sure the proper amount of grapes receive the proper resources from the tree, then all that mattered was the tasting.

I will do my best to recall what we tasted. But we tasted 6 basic grape varieties. We went down the line from whites to reds, lightest to strongest. For whites we tasted a Riesling, a sauvignon blanc, and a chardonnay. For the reds we did pinot noir, merlot then cabernet sauvignon.

They basically ranged from lighter to heavier, less alcoholic to more alcoholic, no oak, to very oaky. The point of our first night of wine was to be able to identify the flavors and descriptions that those wine-o’s always talk about with their noses submerged nostril deep in a glass. “Oh wow, that’s really fruity… the black cherry aromas are quite intense… that’s a really earthy wine…” etc. So we were able to distinguish some of the basic classifications, which were the less subjective ones, including dryness, acidity, oakyness, earthiness, and a couple of others.

It was a nice introduction.

The next day was more fun, and more interesting to say the least. We paired wines with different types of foods. We basically had sweet jam, salty/fatty cheese, salty and fatty sausage, hot sauce, butter, and one or two other flavors.

It was interesting to see and taste how the wine interacted with the different flavors in your mouth. How something sour cancelled out the sourness of the wine. Something sweet cancelled out the sweetness of a sweet white wine we tasted (which was perhaps my least favorite)

In brief, wine is one of the few alcohols, more so than any brew or spirit/cocktail, that is made for drinking with food. It not only enhances the flavor of the food, but the food enhances the flavor of the wine.

You lift me up just to knock me down...

As you may have noticed, I was riding atop a very high horse, especially after the “perfect” genoise cake I made. I still am proud of it, don’t get me wrong. But I am now walking beside the horse, not really thinking about getting back on. At least not yet.

So, what is all this metaphorical talk referring to? I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been recovering from the blow that knocked me off. We had to make pate a choux and a bass papillote. The pate a choux are the cream puffs, which will be dipped in chocolate and filled with whipped cream. The papillote is a fillet of bass, sitting on a bed of tomate fondue and mushroom duxelles (chopped up and cooked down to near mush), with 3 sections of blanched julienne of celery, carrots and leeks, ALL wrapped up in a parchment paper sack.

This dish is a little tricky because you cannot see just how done the fish is. Also, the fact that we cooked it in the convection oven, which is constantly being opened and closed, makes for an unreliable, uncontrollable source of heat.

The enclosing of the fish in the papillote also takes more time than you would expect. I tried to leave myself 20 minutes to prepare, enclose and 8-9 minutes to cook the fish. I was late. The fish was raw, and I earned these words from the Chef: “Failure.”

I didn’t know the fish was going to be raw. I left it in the oven for the specified time. But it just didn’t fly. It pretty much ruined my day, my night, the next day, and a touch of the next night.

Everything is, however, a learning experience. That’s why it’s called school. I like that Chef Rob didn’t candy coat anything. He told it to me like it was: Bad.
I will (and I have) bounce back.

Creme Renversee...

For the past two classes, and until the last class, we were simulating the routine in which the midterm will be administered. We choose a folded up piece of paper which has a letter and number on it. The letter represents the kitchen role we will be cooking as (garde manger/saucier, or poissoner/patissier), and the number represents the order in which we present our dish.

Because we knew which positions we were going to be cooking as, the important part was the number in which we presented. I drew the last presenter spot both times so far. Which is a real help. It not only gives you more time for your first dish, but it also pushes back your last dish. If you present first, your next dish is still due up 30 or so minutes after your first. If you present last, your last dish is still due up 30 or so minutes after your first, which is up to 30 minutes after the first presenter. Basically, you get an additional 30 minutes for everything.

With that said, even though you think you have time... you really don't. I laid everything out and waited until 25 minutes to go to get my fish cooking. My flan was already out of the oven at this point. So I got my fish cooking, removed it when it was barely done, and started reducing my sauce. Chef Rob didn't notice because he was assisting someone with something else, but I was 3 minutes late. I guess I learned that I will need 30 minutes before I start the fish.

Its incredible how much time it takes to reduce sauces. Its also difficult to time everything as far as getting your plates in and out of the oven and reheating your fish and other components of your dish. The timing is SO crucial that if your plates are PIPING hot, and you put on a cream sauce it may actually evaporate the liquid and turn into a brown crust on the plate. Am I just saying this to dramatize the importance of timing? No. I'm not that much of a queen. It happened to the person I was working next to.

But timing is important. Do you want cold food, or even warm food? You want hot food! A hot plate helps, but too hot can be detrimental. You want hot food on pretty hot plates, as if it came straight out of the pan and neatly organized (or strategically tossed) onto your plate. If 4 people order a the shallow poached flounder, 4 people get the exact same looking plate. We have the option of rolling or folding the flounder. However, you cannot serve two rolled and two folded. Its a detail oriented service, like any service should be.

Anyhow, my plates could have been hotter, and the shrimp was slightly overcooked. Shrimp takes NO time to cook. I know you know that, but I'm just reiterating. And, reinforcing it for myself.

Moving right along, the flan, or creme renversee, was the desert. In fact, the flan was done before the fish was done, chilling in the fridge (literally). All I had to do was make the rolled up cookies (tuilles?), for which I already prepared the batter, and had it chilling in the fridge as well.
Let me tell you how to make a flan. Its too simple to ever really justify buying a mix. ESPECIALY since the mix is probably the same procedure minus the eggs.

Caramel:
200g sugar
touch of water
few drops of lemon juice helps

Custard:
500ml milk
1/4 vanilla bean (or extract)
75g sugar
3 whole eggs

Make the caramel first. Heat the sugar until it melts, and then to a golden color, the color in which you want your caramel to be. The darker the more bitter (which actually contrasts the sweetness of the flan nicely). The lighter, the sweeter, which can be overpowering and make it too sweet, so choose a happy medium.

Pour these into ramekins and let set.

Yyou don't want your flan to have air bubbles inside. With that said, combine the eggs and sugar. Whisk together, trying not to incorporate too much air (if any) . Have the milk boiling with the vanilla. When it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat. skim off some of the bubbles, and temper the egg yolk mixture with some hot milk. Then combine it all. Combine without incorporating too much air. When fully incorporated, strain through a chinois, and then skim the bubbles off the top again.

Let cool a little bit, then add it to the ramekins.
Put the ramekins in a pan with sides at least 2" tall, pour boiling water into the pan coming between 1/2 and 3/4 up on the ramekins, and pop it all into a 325F oven.

35-45 minutes later, take them out (when they stop jiggling when touched), and immediately place them in the fridge for a while. Let cool. Invert onto a plate.. and there's delicious homemade flan!

So, my sugar was on the darker side. At first I was worried, thinking it was going to be too bitter. It was on the bitter side. BUT, Chef Rob actually reassured me that a) the French love the sugar this way, and b) the custard was perfect and in all, it was a great job. Americans like their caramel sweeter, who am I to disagree? But I was thrilled that he claimed mine was really good. I would have preferred a lighter caramel (I failed to mention that Chef Rob assisted me in making the caramel, and said it was fine. I'm glad he didn't reneg his earlier opinon.)

Also, I tasted it, and to be perfectly honest, the custard was delicious, and the sugar wasn't super bitter, and in fact, it was quite complimentary!

At the end of class we had a little pow wow to kill some extra time. I'll end this post with something he mentioned. He opened a book called "Becoming a Chef," and mentioned that it had some really great quotes. He went on to explain how one of the best chefs (was it Escoffier?) would go home every night, and write in a journal, explaining his kitchen mishaps. What he did, why something went wrong, what was done to compensate, and just reflections on the days work. This blog is my journal. If for no other reason, I will have this to enjoy and reflect on my learning experience, and hopefully become a better chef.

Catching up...

Well hello. I know I’ve been pretty bad with this posting (but hey, not too many people read it anyways). Either way, you’ll all be happy to know that although work still blows, it’s picking up a bit. Unfortunately I have been a poor blogger, not updating you with my super exciting life in the kitchen class.

I’m still in Level 3. We’ve been working alone now. Although I worked by myself for our first beef bourguignon dish (and struggled!!), I have been doing poissoner and patissier, which is a lot easier. Like… A LOT easier. For the most part, fish only takes a hot minute to cook. And for the most part, the desserts we make are baked for a while, and we have plenty of time to sit around and twiddle our thumbs. We really have no excuse for our desserts to be late. But the garde manger/saucier side has it rough.

There is practically no time to eat in level 3. We don’t get family meal, and we barely have time to eat the food we make. Not to mention, we’re each making 4 complete servings of 2 dishes!

Oh, you’ll all be super excited to know (sarcasm?) that my dad is getting me a pretty dope digital camera for the merry ole Christmas. I will then be able to show you exactly what a cocotte is, and the process of making it, and I can show you my kitchen whites... etc, etc.

We also got new hats. We used to wear a cylindrical, open-ended piece of paper. The school estimated that they will save thousands of dollars a year if they get us our own hats, and we wash them. I think we are the guinea pigs, and the incoming classes will have to pay for them when they enroll. These caps are flatter, closed, cotton caps, with a little bit of elastic in the back. They’re interesting. But at least we don’t throw away the paper all the time. I like them for that reason. They also make us look a little sleeker. But who really cares.

Ok. I see I left off at the poached eggs and poached chicken dish. After that I worked by myself on a Farmer’s soup and beef burgundy. This was the same set of dishes we did in the last class (which is, in fact, 4 classes later), however, I did the dessert and fish portion of it this time around (a flan and shallow poached flounder).

The soup is a real pain vegetable broth based soup! First and foremost, you need to take some of your trimmings and make a vegetable stock. That’s the first step. You also need to cut a bunch of vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, leeks, celery) into batons (jardiniere) and then into 1 cm squared by 1 mm thick tiles (the leeks and celery are left in their original shape, but cut into tiles). That’s a LOT of taillage (cutting) for a pretty plain soup. While you’re doing this, you need to sear your beef, and vegetables for the beef burgundy and get them in the oven. It’s a really difficult set of dishes to get your timing right. When I did it, I over salted the soup, and didn’t think about watering it down with some extra vegetable stock I had leftover. I was aware of it, but didn’t remedy it. I added a little water, but not enough. Salt is a powerful spice, and although I thought I was getting a grasp on its power, it was a humbling experience to present such a salty dish. I need to work on that, amongst other things.

I also want to take this moment to redact some things I said recently about being “2nd” in the class. That is bullocks. My classmates are pretty damn intense. We are a gung-ho, get to business class. We are not, however, a cut throat, “I hope your food burns” type of intense, we are all very helpful and supportive of one another, but I feel I am level with or slightly above or below a number of the other people in the class. So I take back my pride in being “2nd” in the class, because it’s really worth nothing now.

Moving right along, the beef burgundy I made, because I was pressed for time, was not fully developed. The flavor was there, but the sinews didn’t break down enough. It was delicious, but it wasn’t right. All this will change.

In between then and now, I worked with a teammate, making seared pork chops with pommes darphin (shredded potatoes packed into a pan and fried), with a salad nicoise as the garde manger dish. Both of which were pretty good according to the chef. And then we started working alone in the poissoner/patissier section. I feel, probably because of all the excess time we have in these positions, my food has been coming out pretty good.

The first day we made the apple tart and a salmon served with rice and spinach. We made the pate brisee first (the dough, not sweet, with an egg) because it takes a while to rest in the fridge, followed by the apple compote filling. I browned the compote a little, which isn’t good, but I simply did not use the part that touched the bottom and browned, so it was fine. This was our first class working alone, and both sides were late in presenting. It’s just a matter of getting used to it. Let me say, we needed to sift through a huge bowl of spinach pulling off stems. That was a bitch. A few minutes of my life I wish I had back. But it adds to the final presentation.

My rice was the best among our group (that day). At the chef’s request I threw in some fresh chopped thyme, and added a nice amount of salt and pepper. I was impressed because it was indeed delicious. And the thyme added a little color contrast against the pasty white rice. Keep in mind, you just need less than a sprigs worth of chopped thyme leaves. It’s a very potent herb. The salmon was about ¾” thick, then partially cut down the middle, and butterflied open. Its a beautiful looking pattern that is made when the grain of the fish is butterflied, and then grilled with nice marks. Its really a delicious and beautiful preparation. Place the fish partially over the rice, some spinach on the side, and nap it with some sauce vin blanc (reduced wine with fish stock, reduced some more, then cream added and reduced again). It’s a delicious, delicate sauce that compliments most fish dishes.

The apple tart was served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a tiny piece of mint. My apple slices could have been a bit thinner, but they were still pretty good. The crust was perfect, and it all looked great.

The next class was my shining moment. We made a sautéed skate with pommes risolee (potatoes, turned to 5 cm football shapes, poached, browned in oil, finished with butter in the oven) and a genoise cake (basic sponge cake, with apricot filling and crème anglaise on the side).

The skate… Take a moment to look up what a skate looks like alive. NASTY. It’s a member of the sting ray family. Go figure. Not super disgusting, but still ugly. We only use the wings, and they’re pretty easy to fillet. ALTHOUGH, they have spikes on the top skin side and they’re disgustingly slimy, which is actually a sign of freshness.

This came out ok. Let me tell you, always a) heat up your pan with oil or clarified butter so that its super hot, and nothing will stick; and b) cook the fish on a HIGH heat, for a brief amount of time. The browned color is crucial.

Anyways, I really want to discuss the genoise. It’s a “simple” sponge cake recipe, but one of the most frequently used and most versatile in French pastries. You need to gently stir the eggs with sugar over a water bath, not exceeding 110F. I never quite made it to 110F. I was wondering how that was going to affect my cake. But I didn’t feel like stirring it over a water bath for much longer, so I just moved on (it was a good call). You fold in some cake flour, and pop that puppy in a pan and in the oven.

KEEP AN EYE ON IT. This goes without saying for everything you put in the oven, but a dry Genoise is just about worthless (not priceless). It’s ready when it just starts to separate from the pan, and the top center springs back to the touch. A golden color is desired, but if it’s ready, then it’s ready. I pulled mine out when it barely separated from the pan, but it was definitely cooked. Immediately invert it onto a cooling rack, drape some moist paper towels over it, and carry on with your life.

I returned to it after we presented our fish. We had plenty of time to finish the cake. When cool, you cut it in half and moisten the cut halves with a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water brought just to a boil, finished with a splash of apricot brandy, specifically for this preparation). Here is where detail comes to play. You add a THIN layer of apricot jam to the middle. The two halves of the cake should fit back on each other nearly seamlessly. If you put too much jam, it looks pretty bad. The halves look like and are separated, and the cake is too tall. So get that jam in there, a nice thin layer. You WILL taste it, but it won't overpower the flavor of the cake you just made from scratch. Place the other half back on it and moisten the top with some simple syrup. Don’t drench the top. It will turn to mush. Then proceed to brush on a thin layer of apricot glaze (all over the top and sides). Press some toasted almonds on the sides to [attempt to] hide the seams, sprinkle powdered sugar on the top of each slice, and serve with some crème anglaise and fresh fruits.

I was really impressed with the way it turned out. I did not have a piece before presenting it to the chef. For all I knew it could have tasted like shit. But it looked like a million bucks (or a fine piece of genoise).

Right off the bat, chef was pleased with the presentation. It really looked great. I overheard him tell some other presenters that the crème anglaise should be spooned along side it, rather than directly under it. So I did that.

Most importantly, the taste… It was, and these are not my words, “perfect.” It was moist, had the perfect amount of filling, and the crème anglaise was also perfect. Everything was cold and refreshing, and the flavors were crisp and fresh. He said it was “perfect” and by far the best one of the night. Another chef walked into the class for some reason and Chef Rob said, “Hey, you gotta try this.” I didn’t want to indulge in this perfection I allegedly achieved so I did not listen to or look at his reaction, but I took the whole experience as a good thing. In fact, I didn’t even have a piece of the cake until the next day! I usually give this type of thing away to anyone who will take it, but I had to take it home and try it.

It’s friggin’ good. I have half of the cake left. If I weren’t house/pet sitting at my mom’s house all of my friends would have devoured it by now (I’d like to hope so at least).

I’ll put up a separate post with yesterday’s class. 3 pages of rambling should keep you busy for a while (and by you, I mean me!).

Work work work… and relax

First and foremost, I’ve gotten this far without really expressing how much I hate my job. But I think it deserves a little blurb. I hate my job. I didn’t mind paralegaling at the law firm, late hours and a low salary, but this one (legal department at a massive mutual fund/asset management firm), with shorter hours (especially when I go to school) and twice the pay, sucks lamb tongue. It’s just a couple of the people, but that’s enough to do it. You may have gathered that I am a reasonably bright young adult, graduated from a reputable college, with a lot of ambition to succeed and do my best (particularly in the kitchen). But this job… Let’s just say, I can’t wait to be in a real kitchen.

So I am still doing the garde manger/saucier role. I was supposed to work by myself, but it seems like another member of our class dropped out!? That’s currently unofficial, but missing the first two classes of a new level seems a little suspect. (By the way, we ran into the guy who got "left back." He's in a class with his buddies so I think he's happier there.) So I didn’t work by myself, but instead this one guy in Level 4 who was doing a make-up class, ended up working by himself. He should have already done the class recipes multiple times, mostly by himself, and be good at it. He was pretty late on the dishes, particularly the main dish, and the quality was sub par at best.

I was working with my new partner, who mentioned that she took not one, but TWO leaves of absence, and currently works in an Italian restaurant. She showed up for our level 2 final, and according to everyone, she was hot shit. But you know what. I think she’s just tepid shit. I’m not being mean, she’s pretty good (and perhaps better than me), and fairly quick, but she’s not the scalding hot, fresh steaming shit on the sidewalk on a cold winter day.

Anyhow, we had to make 2 dishes. The first was pretty amazing (they both were, but a sauce hollandaise is a pretty special sauce). It was a poached egg on a bed of macedoined vegetables, topped with hollandaise. The hollandaise isn’t really difficult, but it is technical. I’ll give a brief review that I think you could replicate without seeing it.

2 egg yolks
Tablespoon of warm water (and some more on the side)
200 mL clarified butter
Lemon juice
Small pinch of Cayenne Pepper
Salt

1) Bring about an inch of water to boil in a russe (saucepan, anything you can place a metal bowl over without the bottom touching the water, or the bowl falling into it).
2) In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, tablespoon of water, and a few drops of lemon juice (can add the lemon at the end, and probably will have to adjust the acidity with the lemon). Whisk it a bit. Then turn the boiling water down so that it’s still steaming, but not boiling. Place the bowl over the pot and whisk away. If it gets too hot, and it will, remove it from the pot. You’re not trying to aerate it so much, but you’re cooking the egg without scrambling it.
3) You’re ready for the butter when a whisk leaves a visible streak of bowl underneath and closes in on itself.
4) If you can get some help, the butter step would be a lot easier, but if not, take the pan off the stove top. Place a damp (wet, but not sopping) towel over the top and cradle the bowl in it. You can add more water to make it a sturdier set up. Take a ladle or so of the butter and hold it over the bowl (DO NOT DUMP IT IN). start whisking, and odds are drops of butter will fall into the bowl. That’s the speed and amount you want to add the butter in, especially at first. Keep whisking. Keep ladling.
5) When you start to see a glisten on the hollandaise, a nice sheen come over it, its time to stop. You may need to add more water before you get her so it’s not as thick as a mayonnaise.
6) Add salt, acid (lemon juice) to taste, and a pinch of cayenne. That’s it. Use immediately, or hold in a warm place. Too cool and the butter will solidify and fall out of emulsification. Too hot and the eggs will curdle. It’s a fragile sauce. Best when used immediately.

That’s a long in depth description, but you should be able to make a hollandaise with it.

The vegetables (carrots, turnips, peas, green beans) were cut down to macedoine, about the size of the peas, boiled a l’anglaise, individually, combined, then molded into a ring in the center of the plate. The eggs were poached (water with a little vinegar, or else you’ll have egg water) cleaned up and rinsed in a warm salty water bath. We placed it over the veggies, some hollandaise, and an “X” of two julienned tomato slivers on top.

It was beautiful, and tasty. Really delicious actually.

The next was a roasted chicken. One we made before, but this one was really good. We trussed it nice and tight.

Here’s an aside, when we’re told to get the temperature of the chicken by sticking the thermometer in between the thigh and the body, you would think it’s too thin to get an accurate reading. But when you truss it properly, it’s so compact that it is actually the best place to get the temp since it takes the longest to cook, and it’s actually pretty dense. We’re talking getting a good truss.

What was pretty difficult for me, and I took my time doing it in an effort to comprehend what I was doing, was butchering the already cooked chicken. I am super confident in hacking away at a raw carcass, but a cooked chicken is more delicate and you can ruin a beautifully cooked chicken if you do this incorrectly.

Anyways, class went well, and we had some time at the end. Chef Rob says, “Who feels good about butchering a chicken?” And the words, “I DO!!” popped out of my mouth and my hand went straight up.

He said, ok… everyone, come here, Edwin’s gonna butcher the chicken and explain what he’s doing. What’d I just get myself into? I was a little nervous, but I knew what I was doing. Everyone huddled around and so I went… “First, you remove the wishbone…”

By the way, the title of this post reflects the fact that we bust our asses to get our meals done within the schedule he sets forth, but when we’re done with our 2 dishes (which get present first and third, we have about an hour to relax, clean up, watch other people… etc. Also, I have a feeling this level is gonna breeze by. Hopefully we all do well, but it’s so intense and quick, you don’t have time to look back.

Aaaaaaaaand… GO!

It’s been a long 7 days since our last class. It was also our last class of Level 2. Everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and cooked their birds perfectly, supposedly. I could write a post on my thanksgiving and all the wonderful food we prepared, but I’ll spare you the glory.

There was a different air in the place. Every time we advance a level, and for that matter, all of the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday classes, a new class comes in. The last class that came in was only a level below us. The new class is a whopping TWO levels below us. There were people asking ME how to tie their neckerchiefs, and about their side towels. But to be honest, this was not much of a concern. I was thinking about Level 3.

The new class is now on the second floor. The Kitchen is a lot older than the one we were using, but it feels like it has more of what we need. First off, there are about 5 or 6 scales for measuring ingredients. Our last class had, at best, 2. The pots and pans looked a little more beat up and weathered… but that just means they’ve been around and have tasted more food.

Oh, an interesting point to consider. Level 3 is all about consistency and TIME MANAGEMENT. We have 4 sets of recipes that we do every 4 classes. The recipes consist of a soup/appetizer, fish, entrée and dessert. The first 4 classes we work in teams of 2, then we go solo. As a team, we only need to do 2 of the recipes, and when we go solo, we still do 2.

Most importantly, there is a time frame. Chef Rob wants them done at a certain time, and that is a pretty set time. He did state, I’d rather your dishes be 10 minutes late and perfect, than on time and incomplete.

Chef Rob
The first time we met him was in one of our last classes in Level 2. He came up to our class and was pretty strict. Asking why some people had their aprons off while we were still in class. He was very succinct. “I don’t want to see the book in class, you better bring notes, and be prepared.” That was our initial impression. Downstairs in Level 3, Chef Rob seemed really different. He was very nice, and was helping us out, not trying to break our balls or anything. He helped us with our food, and brought us necessary pots. The assistant chef showed us a technique of cooling down our marmite that we were using for our consommé. He didn’t just tell us, he brought us the bain marie with ice. I did not expect such assistance, but it was very much appreciated.

Chef Rob walked around the class assisting everyone, seeing what he had to work with. But as a team’s time approached, he focused more of his attention on them, giving pointers on serving, and finishing the dish. Speaking of which, service is more heavily graded in level 3. Presentation, temperature of the food (as I have learned the hard way with my mashed potatoes), cleanliness of the plate, temperature of the plate, etc., is all scrutinized more carefully. Finger prints on a plate is unacceptable. A bowl of soup is served with a plate and a doily beneath it.

We’re working on the details now. But Chef Rob seems really great so far. He’s enthusiastic and loves to teach, so he said. He is definitely on par with Chef Tom. Most importantly, he was very nice in the critique of our food. We did a pretty good job to begin with, but where we were slightly off, he was very nice in explaining what went wrong and how to fix it the next time.

Moving right along, I was paired up with the new girl. I won’t mention her name yet because I don’t know her well enough to trust that it’s ok. But she was the one who did really well on the test, and I was ready to learn a thing or two. What I do know is that she is quick with the knife. She is confident in her cuts, and makes them quickly. She worked on the julienne and cuts for actually making the consommé, including mixing in the meat and egg whites, etc. I worked on the macedoine garnish for the consommé. The consommé was the first thing to be prepared, with a service time of 8:00. As a refresher, the consommé is a disgusting mush of lean meat, julienned veggies, chopped tomatoes and egg whites, gently simmered in beef marmite. After a little while the mush starts to congeal and form a raft at the top. You have to let the raft collect all the fat and particles and then ladle out the consommé into a chinois, degrease, and serve over the macedoine of vegetables.

Ours was looking great from the beginning, so chef said. Everything was going really well until my partner accidentally cracked some pepper into the consommé. It’s supposed to be peppered before it’s ladled, and only salted afterwards. He said the first thing he tasted was pepper. We also had a little fat on top, which may have been a result of using a fat laden ladle. I also put too many vegetables in the bowl.

It was a little stressful getting the dish served but we did it. Imagine those Iron chefs plating 5 or 6 master dishes in about an hour (including prep work)?! That’s damn impressive.

The next dish we got cracking on was a poached chicken. I don’t feel a chicken, or any meat really lends itself to being poached. But it was actually not bad. I’ll make this description very brief. First we wash, remove the wishbone and wingtips and poach the chicken in cold water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 2 minutes. Take it out, and put it in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Next we’re supposed to cover with stock and bring to BELOW a simmer for about 20-30 minutes. I mentioned this previously, but I believe most, if not all of the cooking times we are told is more than enough. The chicken cooked in less than 20 minutes, and it was almost 160 degrees, which is ok, but can be considered over cooked. That’s barely enough time to make enough cocotte and prepare the rest of the vegetables that go in the dish.

Either way, the dish came out about 5 minutes late, but everything was cooked perfectly minus that fact that we cooked the potatoes in the broth we served it in, which lent itself to being a little on the cloudy side. Not the end of the world. The food and our plates were hot, and the taste was good, especially considering it was a poached chicken.

After this dish, we were done. Some other people needed to present their apple tart, but we completed our dishes. I feel, for our first class, we did a great job. Chef was pleased with everyone in the class, and we all (including the chef), set a good impression.

I’m not exactly sure what’s on the menu for the next class, but I am working alone. I will be doing the garde manger and saucier positions alone, and I will be on top of my game. This is my first chance to shine, and I’m sure I will. I’m not user when I became so competitive, maybe it was day 1, but I guess I am only out for me. When you work as a team, you obviously succeed and fail as a team, but when you go solo everything that’s great was created from your own to hands, and everything that sucks came from your own ass.

Some words to live by in Level 3: discipline and consistency.

Level 2 – Complete

I suppose this is the equivalent of a final in a college level class (considering the school is an “accredited institution”). And I was nervous as if I was taking a final in college.

The first thing we did was take the written test, or the “theory” portion. This was basically the same as any other written test we took so far. Chef Tom provided the materials we needed to know, in detail, the class before. We were wondering if the other chefs were going to provide the information the way Chef Tom did. You had to either, leave your notes at school and not study them, or just be an idiot, to score less than a 95 on these tests/quizzes.

I did perfectly on the written portion. I may have been the only one to not have a couple of points taken away. At least that’s the impression I got after talking to everyone that night, most of whom seemed to be upset about losing a few points here or there.

After this portion of the test, we had a looong boring lecture on different pieces of restaurant equipment, and how to perform simple maintenance on them. Apparently, one girl passed out and was full on snoring. Everyone got a kick out of that.

After this lecture and a nerve wracking family meal, we had our practical.

We had 20 minutes to perform each of a few different tasks. The first was butchering the chicken. I was most comfortable with this. I practiced this a lot, and decided that I would rock it. I sure did. Let me list a few (hopefully all of the steps)

1) take out the wish bone;
2) manchonner the wings (cut off the tip and the two boned part, and clean the edge of the remaining bone);
3) make a cross (pull back the remaining wing pieces and score a cross into the back of the bird where the wing pieces meet);
4) cut along the inner thighs to start to separate the legs. The cut should connect with the horizontal line of the cross on the back of the bird (Leave as much skin on the breast as possible);
5) pop the thighs (physically pop the thigh bones out of their sockets);
6) being careful to keep the oysters in tact, remove the legs;
7) twist, tear and cut out the remaining back bone;
8) on the inside of the chest, score the cartilage down the center;
9) pop the chest in half (like the thighs) and remove the breast bone;
10) cut the breast in half down the middle;
11) return to the legs and manchonner the tips (expose the end of the drumstick);
12) cut the joint between the legs and thigh; and
13) scrape the meat away from the thigh bone, exposing the bone.

This may not mean a whole lot to you, nor will you be able to butcher the chicken properly if you were simply reading this list, but I promise you it makes perfect sense to anyone who has an idea of what needs to be done, and have been shown before.

The next thing we did was fillet a trout. First we had to remove the scales. I HATE THIS! Scaling fish is such a pain and it’s so messy. Scales flying all over the place, and getting stuck on the knife. Speaking of which, I sharpened my fillet knife the night before, as I found it to be quite dull.

My first fillet was perfect. It was flush against the bone and very clean. The second half was less than perfect. I was starting to get a little nervous about this. I managed to relax and just carefully finish taking off the fillet. It wasn’t bad! It just wasn’t perfect. I removed the bones, clean up the edges, and it was ok.

The next part of the test was to take 2 potatoes and turn as many cocottes as possible. Chef suggested we get 8 out of each potato, though I personally felt my potatoes were on the smaller side and this would be difficult. I pointed it out to him, and he said do the best you could. In 20 minutes I was able to get 8 or 9 piece. They were not as nice as I would have liked. I really go frustrated since my pieces were so thin. Apparently, it was ok, but if I could have only attempted 6 per potato, I would have been happier. And I still would have only turned 8 or 9, but of better quality. One guy got about 15, though his were a little on the small side, and this new girl who will be in our class, got all 16, and apparently they were perfect. Her fillets and chicken were perfect as well, so I was told by the guy working next to her.

Lastly, we needed to make an herbed mayo. This calls for 1 egg yolk, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, salt, white pepper, a teaspoon of vinegar, and 150mL-175mL of oil. I whipped my butt off and made that mayo. The herbs we added were chives, which we chopped and added at the end. I thought it was pretty good, well, I know it was pretty good, but chef felt it could have used a touch more vinegar and a touch more salt. But I know it was good.

I know this because besides the new girl, who apparently did everything pretty perfectly, I got the second highest score in the class (which should make me second in the class, but I guess its 3rd with the new girl). I got an 88 on the practical. The other guy, I’m led to believe got an 89 or 90. Not much higher. But I think an 89. With the combination of the theory and the rest of the quizzes, I got a 95 and change in the class, which I am extremely proud of. It could, theoretically (or empirically) put me at the top of the class, but I personally believe I am second.

Ultimately, I’ve neglected to quote chef mainly due to the fact that I forgot to, but he said something that is very important. When all is said and done, and we graduate, no restaurant or chef will ever ask your grade. They will see what you can do with a knife and how well you cook. So this 95, second in the class business is worth its weight in the useless nonsense it is. (But it’s still a 95!)

The Quintessential

So this was our first class sans that one guy. It was a little different. The air felt a little more mature, if that’s possible. I know the guy’s partner was happy to not work with him, so maybe that helped the atmosphere. Ultimately, Chef Tom seemed really pleased about it. Not for “failing” or leaving a kid behind, but because he did the right thing and the class was filled with able and intelligent chefs-to-be.

Anyhow, we took our HACCP test. I am writing this post 3 days after it happened, and therefore my mind isn’t preoccupied with the HACCP. In fact it’s preoccupied with the Level 2 final that we’re taking in 2 hours. But you’ll hear more about that later. I'm pretty confident that I passed the HACCP test, but who knows for sure. I did some last minute studying, and I think I secured a few of the answers that could have otherwise had me retake the test. But I'm not worried about it.

I’ve titled this post as I did because these are two of the most popular, and exemplary vegetable preparations in French cuisine. Chef Tom was glad that we had almost an entire class to just these two fairly simple dishes. And after tasting them, I understood it.

The ratatouille calls for a tomate fondue as its base, and, according to the recipe, we add the other ingredients to this base. However, Chef Tom said it’s important that we cook the vegetables separately, and combined them afterwards. I’m not exactly sure why this makes a difference, but I think its concentrates the individual flavors which are then incorporated in the tomate fondue to meld with the other flavors. The eggplant is a little bit of a disappointment. It turns to a mush, but that’s what eggplant does.

I must say, Chef demoed some of the cuts, particularly the pepper tiles, which were about a half inch to ¾ inch squared, and my partner made them about a cm squared. They looked fine, but I was cutting vegetables at ½ inch squared and hers were smaller, and therefore incongruous. Did this make a difference? Not at all. But to me, I was a little disturbed by it. I’m getting a little picky on some things. It can be bad, but when we’re showed something, as Chef repeatedly tells us, it’s to reproduce, practice and learn. Not to do it a bit differently, unless we’re given permission to do so (en votre facon).

Anyhow, we combined it all, let the flavors mesh, and we served it in a round mold shape, with some chiffonade of basil on top. It was gorgeous, and very flavorful, particularly for a mostly brown vegetable mush. The next dish, however, was better, in my opinion.

The Confit Bayaldi was a beautiful pinwheel of colored vegetables baked in the oven on a bed of sautéed onions and peppers. We filled a round ring mold with the onions and peppers and carefully laid out the sliced eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and tomatoes around like a pinwheel, within the ring. It took a little finesse and time (something you probably don’t have in excess in a restaurant), but it really looked beautiful. The flavors were delicate but together they made a delicious dish.

Considering we only had to make these two dishes, we had plenty of time, and as tradition has been playing itself out, Chef talked to us about his life experiences for the remaining hour that we had.

This was our last class until the final, and our last class with Chef Tom, not including the final and the lecture we were going to have on kitchen equipment. Chef Tom has been our first impression of the French Culinary Institute and to the professional kitchen. And what a good first impression it was. He is indeed a great chef, and despite his military background, is pretty easy going and very lenient. He talked a big talk, but hey, he walked the walk.

We learned a lot from him, and now its time to see what the other master chefs of the FCI can bestow on us. (after the Level 2 test that is)

A taste of Italia at the FCI

Last class we made ricotta and mozzarella for a reason. We were going to use it in our raviolis for this class! That’s to say we made ravioli – the pasta and filing from scratch – gnocchi, risotto and rice pudding! The rice pudding was made from risotto rice, and it was pretty interesting.

Anyhow, the first thing we had to do was make the pasta. It’s pretty darn simple. One egg, some flour and salt, a touch of oil and that’s about it. Mix it together and then knead it like a mofo, for about 10 minutes. Chef told us a pretty nifty trick. Instead of kneading like a mofo, all you really have to do is incorporate it all, give it a minute or so of kneading, and then just start rolling it through the pasta roller, folding it, and re rolling it. This, in effect, replaces the kneading, and it does something else. It gets the dough flat and ready to be rolled after you refrigerate it. This is a pretty nifty shortcut, if nor nothing else, it replaces the grueling kneading step. However, as everyone waited to “knead” their dough on just 2 pasta rollers, I spent the time kneading it. Chef said it was perfect and to just pop it in the fridge. Sweet. Nothing like keeping it old-school.

Anyhow, while the dough rested we did a few things. We started simmering the rice pudding risotto in milk and vanilla. Twice the milk boiled over right under our noses. Not the end of the world, but still, it sucks that we weren’t attentive enough to catch it before it happened.

So as the rice pudding boiled and the dough rested, we boiled, peeled and air dried some potatoes for our gnocchi, made a tomato sauce (similar to our tomate fondue), and started to prepare the ricotta stuffing. It was multi-tasking at its best.

The cheese filling was ricotta, parmesan, salt, pepper, an egg yolk and cream (and a few chopped herbs). Oddly enough, the ricotta which was sitting in the fridge for a couple of days was a little on the dry side. I guess it was sitting in breathable cheese cloth and not in a closed container.

I added a significant amount of cream but the mixture still seemed a little dry. But I didn’t want to over do it because I knew, ultimately, it would melt, which it did, and it was delicious.

We rolled out the pasta dough and made our ravioli. In the interest of time, and for the heck of it, I cut out my ravioli, but I didn’t shape them. Most of the people in class used round molds. I just left them “rustic.” I’m definitely a fan of this approach. It doesn’t affect the flavor, you get a little more pasta, but you also get an old world feel, rather than a cookie cutter, over worked product.

It was really good, and if you like rustic, it looked great too.

The gnocchi was surprisingly delicious as well! I thought it was going to be really bland, but it was quite tasty and had a nice texture. We riced the potatoes, then sifted some flour over it. After making a well, we put an egg or two in the middle and combined it all. Some salt and pepper and working it as little as possible, we combined it all, and rolled out a long log. Chopped the log and straight into the boiling water. A few minutes later, gnocchi was floating at the top, and bam, done.

It was a really productive first half of class. The next half we made a saffron risotto, which is a really simple preparation.

Our Risotto was less colorful than some other people’s. The recipe called for a pinch of saffron. And that’s all we put. However, we were told that in small batches for customers, we should use more saffron so it’s more colorful, and the customer could appreciate it more. It was like the difference in color between an orange and a blood orange. It’s clear the blood orange is a better looking product. I asked to try my classmate’s to see the difference. Very little difference, if any. My partner did however stir in a heck of a lot of butter at the end. It was a ridiculous amount, and I decided she could take it home.

At home we don’t have chicken stock at our disposal, so we just use chicken bouillon. In fact any recipe that calls for chicken stock that I’ve made in the house, I have used chicken bouillon to make a broth. It’s perfect, and adds a nice amount of salt, but not too much (or is it MSG?). But the risotto comes out great.

So we lost that guy in this class. He seemed pretty pissed, but I’m sure he was more pissed after we left and he could think it over and talk with his friends about it. But I think he knows it’s for the best. I think he’s going to redo level 2 when the next class gets to it. Turns out his buddies from Staten Island are in level 1 now, and he will probably be in their class. So maybe it’s better for him. I do know that he is going to act like a know-it-all in their class, but he’s probably gonna be just as bad as he has been, which will piss a bunch of people off.

Who knows, maybe it’s a humbling experience, or a realization. I’m sure he’s going to be a marked man if Chef Tom has his way, but then again, if you got left back, you should be watched carefully to make sure you don’t waste more time and money.

Next class he wave our HACCP/SafeServ test, and then we have the rest of the class to make ratatouille and another classic vegetable dish, confit bayaldi. I’m sure there will be plenty of time to discuss life with Chef Tom.

OH, one more thing. There were two visitors in our class who were making up a missed class and both of them were quite on the annoying side. Particularly this asian guy who was, supposedly, in the middle of studying at med school. He was such a douche bag, and I hope he never makes up a calss with us again. he was so annoying. Which makes me appreciate some of the good people, and friendly, not annoying, characters in our class.

And then there were 8…

At this point in our education, that is, approximately 3 months or almost 40 classes in, there is a certain skill level that you should possess. At this skill level, knowledge of certain culinary techniques should come naturally to you. For instance, cutting vegetables, particularly the sizes and shapes, should be easy, maybe approximated to a degree, but still common knowledge. Everyone in class should have the ability to cut the perfect julienne. Time wise this may be an issue, but you should still get a relatively uniform, nice cut.

One guy just received word that he will not be moving along with us to level 3. Quite frankly, I’m not surprised, and to be even more frank (who is this frank character?) this is not only best for the class, but for him as well, if he truly believes he wants to be a chef.

I’m sure it’s his overall performance, but I personally believe he doesn’t learn as quickly and absorb this stuff as well as someone should (Every time we need a 1L measurement he verifies with someone in the class that there are 2 - 500mL measuring cup loads in 1L). Not to mention, I’m sure he doesn’t apply himself the way some others do. Interestingly enough, he just went out and bought a relatively expensive Global chef’s knife, and a bunch of other gear, including an apple corer which I noticed him packing up even though we didn’t core any apples. I found that pretty humorous. The fact of the matter is, the most expensive knife on the market will not make him a better chef. Our somewhat mundane, barely at-par school provided knives allows some of us to cut as well as any Wusthof or Henckel. I do know he bought the knife in a response to his being labeled as “dull” by Chef Tom. All he had to do was sharpen the sucker.

Anyhow, after a discussion over a few beers with some other classmates (for the most part we all feel a little bad – some less than others – but we all agree it’s for the best for everyone and its not undeserved), we concluded it’s also his attitude. In the locker room after class he usually starts with something like “Man, Chef ripped me a new one today! I don’t know what he was talking about, my dish was as good as the rest of yours, and yadda yadda…” and usually ends with “well fuck him, we’re not gonna have him after this level, and he’s just a dick, yadda yadda…”

That’s the attitude of a know it all who clearly doesn’t know a thing, and can’t accept constructive criticism, which is a synonym for “the truth.” Or maybe a Staten Islander? Sorry, don't want to offend anyone.

Until this point, everyone who has left class has done so on their own accord, primarily related to excessive absences (perhaps due to a prolonged illness, or not, but it wasn’t the result of being asked to leave or redo a level). This is a nice wake up call, hopefully for him, but also for us. This is serious. Although we paid good money to be here, it’s an accredited educational institution. That’s to say, you can fail an economics class in university, and you can fail a level in culinary school. Class isn’t necessarily a competition amongst each other, but you have to at least set the bar to be as good, or better, than the best guy in class. And that will raise all of us up if we at least strive for that.

There are predictions that one other girl will be asked to repeat a level, maybe level 3. I don’t necessarily agree, but time will tell.

We went out and had a few beers and a bunch of laughs at this guy’s expense. But we also concluded that this is best for everyone, especially him. One guy who was out with us has been his partner for a while, actually two of the guys have had him as a partner. Both strong students who have been brought down by this guy, and chef understood that this guy was the common denominator in both cases, so it didn’t affect their evaluations.This is serious stuff, and if we want to be good at it, its starts here in school.

Con queso? Con queso?

So, we were guinea pigs for this class. That is, the first, THE FIRST, class to have a cheese tasting class. Traditionally, they made ricotta cheese, and maybe some others. We not only made ricotta and mozzarella, but we had a pretty well thought out cheese tasting.

Oh, we also had a HACCP review. Did you know that we have our HACCP test on SATURDAY!!! I’m not really worried about it, but still. Everyone should do alright. We had a nice refresher today.

After our refresher, we went right into our cheese course. It was pretty well thought out. We were going to try a linear tasting of 3 main dairy/cheese sources: Cow, Goat and Sheep. So we progressed from the basic ingredient, milk, then to a yogurt, then to a fresh cheese, and then to slightly more aged and complex cheeses.

There are a hell of a lot of characteristics that are pretty bogus. Not righteous or gnarly, but just bogus. Maybe if you have the most disciplined sense of taste and smell you could label some of the cheeses with some of these names. But for the most part, there were about 10 different classifications that repeatedly came up. The one that was the most distinct was “gamy.” That taste of lamb that you can only describe as the taste of “game” was so distinct in the lamb and sheep dairy. The milk, for starters was straight up game flavored. It wasn’t really pleasant. It made cow’s milk seem extremely delicious. This was a constant theme in all of the sheep cheeses. They weren’t my favorites. The cow’s line had some good cheddar and creamy brie like cheese (was it camembert?). The goat has some nice flavors as well, though there was one stank cheese. The flavor was a lot better than the smell. And we had a couple of moldy cheeses which were a lot better than one would think.

Chef asked “so do you think you guys can taste a cheese and know what you’re talking about?” It was one of those rhetorical questions, I knew that. But I said “NO!” I mean, we just took a ½ hour course on tasting a few random cheeses from 3 different animals. Yes I know a little more than I knew, but am I really prepared to contribute meaningful input about a cheese by just tasting it? I really don’t think so. I could probably point out the gamy flavor found in sheep or goat cheese and know its one of those two, but not much more than that.

Either way, it was extremely interesting, and I learned a lot. I’m telling you, there were probably 50-60 flavor classifications. That’ll take some intensive tasting.

Next we made cheese! I’m not sure how much of “making” the cheese we did for the mozzarella, but the ricotta was pretty amazing. We took 2L of milk, added ¾ of a teaspoon of citric acid and some cheese salt, and just heated to 180F, then let it sit. The milk solids coagulated and separated from the liquid, primarily water. After a little while, we scooped out the solids, tied it in some cheese cloth and it’s currently sitting in the fridge.

The mozzarella was a bit different. We started with cheese curds. It was a semi-solid block of curds that were stacked on top of each other and compressed. We took a bowl full of these, chopped them into cubes and added 170F water and some salt. After some stirring they softened and we clumped them together and started stretching them to smooth them out.

So the reason I am skeptical about it is because all we did was stretch the curds in warm water. We didn’t make or prepare the curds or anything. It was a little sad. However, the resulting cheese was very delicious. It was definitely mozzarella cheese. It was stringy with a little chew to it. We left them in balls, but we will be using them for our pasta class on Thursday. We could have made knots, added herbs, rolled them with sliced hams and basil; it’s a pretty versatile cheese.

Well, we have our HACCP test on Saturday, our final on Tuesday and then we come back in a week two level 3! We met our new chef. He seemed a little on the hard side, but Chef Tom said he’s a nice guy. I feel like that one guy who is struggling, may have a hard time in level 3. But we’ll see. We’re also a lot more focused on timing. That is one of my weaknesses. I like to absorb what I’m doing. But I think by this point I have absorbed the basics and the techniques and its time to just “do.”

En Votre Facon (In your Own Way)

Things just got interesting… This class was the first one where we got to show a little creativity (aside from decorating a plate or a cake). Before I go on, since I have some time at work (lots of time), I write these post on a template of my job’s letter head so it looks like I’m working. Just thought I’d share that with you. I find it pretty funny. Anyways, we were given a list of ingredients, and from this fairly strict list, we had to make a dish.

I’ll try to recount the ingredients as best I could:
-1 flounder (to be shared by 2 people - 2 fillets each)
-1 potato or rice
-250ml chicken Stock
-125mL wine
-125mL cream
-2 carrots
-1 medium sized onion or 2 large shallots
-a serving or so of haricot vert
-4 plum tomatoes
-1 bay leaf
-1 sprig thyme
-parsley
-butter
-salt and pepper

And there were lemons for us to use which wasn’t listed, but thank goodness they gave it to us, because it’s tough to make fish without lemons.

So I wrote these ingredients down and I thought a lot about them for the past day. I concluded that I wanted to keep everything light and true to the fish. I didn’t want to fry anything because I knew most of the other people would do that, and I wanted to keep things delicate. I personally hate the rice that we use. It’s very plain, and just reminds me of cafeteria rice from high school, rather than delicious Spanish style rice, or Italian risotto, or a delicious pilaf. So I decided on a potato dish for the starch. Most people fried their potato. Either as a pommes darphin, or sliced and fried or something. This was just too heavy for my liking. One other guy had the same idea as me. I peeled the potato, boiled them ‘til tender and then riced it to make a delicious pommes puree. That included like 4 tablespoons of butter and a bit of cream. (we’re supposed to use milk, according to the recipe, but milk wasn’t in our list of ingredients.) Before service I mixed in some chopped up parsley. However, my downfall was that I made the potatoes first and I tried to keep them warm on the flat top, but to no avail.

After I scaled and my partner filleted one flounder, I was planning on making a fish fumet with the bones. However, my partner did a shoddy job on the fillet, and chef wanted me to do my own. So I needed to scale an entire other fish and fillet it. It was quite a waste of time, and my fillets were perfect and beautiful. But it still set me back almost 30 minutes! Scaling the fish is a pain in the ass! And scales get all over the place. So between scaling, cleaning, filleting the fish, and then cleaning my station TWICE, I had wasted a lot of time. I would have presented with the rest of the early birds, but they only had to scale one fish.

I also wanted to make 2 pieces of carrot cocotte to add some color to the dish, and I boiled some haricot vert (I did that first, so that really didn’t take much time). BUT, since I needed to prepare two fish, it meant my fumet would take longer too, since I was making a fumet with someone else. I think he and I were the only ones to use the fumet, which was great because I wanted to keep the fish tasting like fish, and it was a classy move by us to use the bones and some of the other ingredients for our sauce. So after the fumet was done (30 minutes of simmering), I needed to make the sauce, which was minced shallots, a bay leaf and wine reduced down to a syrup, then I added the fumet, reduced that by half, and then the cream, and reduced that by about half. I turned the carrots to cocotte (3 nice sized pieces) and cooked them a l’etuvee (half way covered with water, some butter and salt, boiled under a parchment lid).

So let’s see, I have the pommes puree, I made the carrots, green beans, and sauce. I just needed to cook my fish. I wanted to do this last to keep it moist and warm. (Too bad I wasn’t able to do that with my potatoes). Again, I wanted to keep it tender, moist and true to the flounder. So I decided I was going to steam it, or as chef called it, part-braised (I think). But I really think it was just steamed. I cut a few sliced of lemon and sliced some mushrooms. I laid those in a sauté pan and covered them ¾ of the way with wine. Then I laid 2 halves of a fillet over them (seasoned with salt and white pepper), and covered with a parchment paper lid. I kept a close eye on it and let it cook until it was still a little rare. Not only is this acceptable, but the carry over cooking would finish it so that it was juuuuust cooked. I was really pleased with this preparation. However, the remaining sauce in the pan was gross. It was too lemony and just way too acidic. I thought it would have been better, but I didn’t intend on using it anyways.

So now I had to plate. I put some of the lukewarm potatoes on the side of the plate. Well the plate was pretty small, and round. Then I crossed the fish over it, but hanging off the side, toward the middle of the plate. I topped it with a nice serving of sauce, and placed a pile of string beans and the 3 carrots cocotte in front of them. If I had a bigger plate, I would have done it a little differently. I wanted the carrots and string beans across from each other but separated by the fish and potatoes. But there just wasn’t enough space.

Judgment: Everything was GREAT! EXCEPT, as I suspected, the potatoes were not hot. I didn’t let it get me down, because the flavor was perfect. I knew that was the flaw. The sauce was great, the green beans and carrots looked great and were cooked perfectly. Everything was on point, except the potatoes were cold. I knew it. BUT, that’s cool! I did a good job and I knew my error. Had I thought of the bain-marie for the potatoes, I would have done superb. But I just didn’t get it done. But I will never forget… a bain-marie is a great way to keep things warm!

This class was great. Aside from the temperature of the potatoes, I think mine was up there with the better guys in the class. I will work on this.

Otherwise, everyone else did alright, a few people got special mention, and one guy had to redo his rice about 6 times. Maybe just 3, but the chef was on him. You would think he’d realize that he wasn’t cut out for this… but he’s still ticking, which is good.

This was a great class, and we got to show our own unique voice. Do I like fried fish, of course, but I put a lot of thought into my dish and I feel I took a classy approach.

Nutritious Butter...

Well it seems like I took a little break. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. The fact of the matter is YES, I took a little break from writing, BUT we’ve had Nutrition classes for the first half of the last 3 classes and for the second half we made only 1 recipe. So you haven't missed much. It has been a full meal of a recipe, but still just one recipe. They did, however, go along with the theme of a more nutritious style of cooking and eating. I do not believe we used an ounce of butter in the last 3 recipes, and we barely used a little bacon.

What we’re learning is that the use of butter is not necessarily a bad thing at all. Nor is the use of any other red meat, or fatty substances. But instead the entire picture, for instance, the amount of this food we eat, what else we eat during the day, the number of calories, etc.

Our bodies store pretty much everything we eat as fat. So any amount of calories that we don’t burn during the day goes straight to the thighs (or tummy or butt). (For the record, I’m not a teacher. I’m just regurgitating what we were told; at least what I got out of it.) Our bodies prefer to use carbohydrates as immediate energy, particularly glucose, the only type of sugar our bodies can use, and proteins for pretty much everything else. Proteins are made of amino acids and we need 20 different ones, and 9 of them we cannot produce ourselves, so we need to eat proteins to get this.

I’m not sure if you really care about all this. So I will make it super brief.

Saturated fats are bad, unsaturated fats are better for you. As a chef, which we will be at some point, it will be important to be able to include some of the better fats along with the not so good fats. Corn is the bane of our existence. High Fructose corn syrup is the reason why we are obese. The US consumes more corn and potatoes (and products made from these vegetables) than pretty much any other country in the world. The French eat butter and drink and smoke, and are thin as rails. Why? Their food is fresher, with less chemicals, and they eat less of it.

Alcohol is even a good thing they say. A drink or two a night is not only acceptable but SUGGESTED by our government. Go figure.

So rule(s) of thumb: Eat more green leafy vegetables, preferably raw. Eat less food in general, particularly portions-wise. Eat fresher food. Vary it up.

That’s all I really need to say on nutrition.

So we tasted a few alternative oils, that are healthier and better for you than corn oil, and a little better than olive oil. Oils higher in omega 3 fatty acids, which are better than the omega-6 fatty acids found in corn. We tried Pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil and one other which is slipping my mind. My favorite was by far the walnut seed oil. I went out and bought some, and it’s absolutely delicious.

Oh, we should also eat more fish to get some of these omega-3’s. The Japanese eat lots of fish and are doing great. Pretty much all of the diets that consisted of better ratios of omega-3’s to omega-6’s have proven to be better for you.

What does this half-ass post means? Moderation. Think about what you put in your pie-hole, and basically, if your great grandmother would recognize it as food, then its worthy to put in your mouth (that is, leave out the Oreo Cakesters, and foods that come in bar form, or tubes and certain bright packages – not that they’re all bad, but it's just a general notion).

The recipes we made included striped bass, which was delish, and which I took a bunch of filets home. We also made a bunch of different grains for side dishes, including quinoa, which was surprisingly delicious. Last night’s recipe was semi-fresh sardines, which were pretty nasty. The taste was alright, but all in all it was not a wonderful experience. They weren’t even fresh looking, and chef admitted this. So why did we even cook and eat it?

Some other interesting tidbits... Chef Tim taught the nutrition classes. Man that guy looks coked up. The salmon we eat is naturally white fleshed but they add necessary nutrients and coloring through the pellets they feed them on the farms. Good and bad cholesterol is strictly relative, but some of it is essential. One of the Steve’s seemed to have left our class, and left his job, he works in reception at the FCI. And we’re going out Thursday, I believe.

Til next time.

“You’re Gonna Get Hurt”

I bet you’re wondering what’s that supposed to mean?
I’ll tell you in a few. It was pretty funny though, and I had a hard time disguising my laughter. In fact I don’t think I was even trying to disguise anything.

This class was not too shabby. We made ICE CREAM! I must say, I was not a fan of it. I didn’t like the taste of the cream. I’m not sure what it is but it didn’t cut it for me. We also made a tart with pastry cream and the layered dough we made the other day (the one for napoleons). That was pretty cool because we got to design them with fruits, and it was gorgeous.

I worked with Scott, the new guy, though he’s not very new anymore, is he? It was pretty cool working with him, but I think I liked working with Sofonie the best so far. She is super friendly and we just got along well and communicated well. But you gotta be versatile right?

One ice cream we made was a mixture of whipped cream and whipped egg whites (meringue) with strawberry puree. It was pretty tasty, but again, not my fave. Oh, we also made meringue cookies which look liked they could be awesome, but we didn’t see the finished product since Chef took them to be dried overnight somewhere.

Ok, so let’s get to it. At one point during the class, one of the guys (the one from Staten Island) burned his finger. Just the week before Grace burned her hand with sugar. It was pretty bad. She has blisters all over her hand. His seemed not so bad, but he kept it in ice water for a while just to be on the safe side. While he was doing so he asked the young guy (just turned 21) in our class to please carry his table mixer back to where it belongs. The kid said flat out, “No.” I thought he was joking, so did the guy who asked him. But when he said “you’re joking, right” the kid said “no, maybe if you didn’t come around poking your nose into everybody’s station, saying stupid shit, then I’d help out.” And I was in disbelief, as was everyone else. (This was during our dinner break so Chef stepped out for a minute). And then the guy from Staten Island was like, “you’re a real fucking dick, you know that? I asked you for a favor, nicely, and you’re just being a dick.” And there were a few exchanges, and then he says “you fucked with the wrong guy, you better be careful or you’re gonna get hurt.” It got all ghetto. The kid was like, whatever, but it was funny.

At that point a few other people in the class were glancing at each other with smirks, and I was just very quiet but with a shit eating grin on my face. I don’t need to hide it, I didn’t do anything wrong. If both of those kids were out of the class we’d be ok. But now there will just be a little tension in the class. But I guess it was funny. I never thought it would come down to those two. In fact, I thought they were friends, but I guess not, or at least not anymore. I thought someone else who worked with the Staten Island guy would have beef first. His current partner, a construction business owner, is a really nice guy but has expressed his dislike for him, and currently works with him as partners, and there is occasional tension between the two, and I thought they’d exchange words first, but I was wrong.
In all, it was a good class as far as our preparation of the food went, but a can of worms was opened up. Maybe a can of whoop ass will be cracked open next.

Cream.. Shaboogy Bop

Anybody, no? Prince? Now? Forget it.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my previous posts but the other day, about 4 classes ago, chef decided to reorganize the class a little. He did this once before. I was working with Grace, then I was working with Sofonie, and now I’m working with numero uno, MYSELF!

At the end of that class, Chef was saying, you know, I think its time for a change again. You guys are getting too comfortable. “You, here… you, stay there... you, there...” And then he stopped and I realized… wait a second, I didn’t have a partner. And I said, “hey Chef, you forgot to give me a partner.” And he looked at me and smiled, and said, well that’s just the way it goes. And I realized it was my time to step it up a bit.

For two of the three following classes that I was to work alone, a few students were absent and I was able to join someone else. For the crepes class, this was very useful because we needed to make a few batters and let them rest for a few hours and then cook them all, and make fillings and so forth. It would have been really tough. We’ve been fortunate to not have to cut too many vegetables in the past few classes, because, quite honestly, that’s what takes the most time, especially if we need perfectly julienned cuts, or a bunch of mirepoix and bouquet garni’s.

ANYWAYS, today we were making a few different kinds of custard creams, including an ice cream and crème anglaise.

Okay, another side… It just hit me. The very first class we had, they taught us a few things about hygiene. Some of these things included the obvious, washing your hands, no nail polish, shower, shave, hair in a hat or net, and so forth. They also included some less obvious ones like don’t travel in your uniform and don’t sneeze and cough into your hands, but instead into your elbow.

So, as we’re standing in front at the chef demo, naturally there are a couple of people who always have a cough or a sneeze, or something. A few people turn away and sneeze into a garbage bin or onto the ground, away from surfaces and so forth. That’s great. However, some people still cough into their hands, wipe their noses into their hands, and so forth. (I even saw a guy use a side towel to wipe his nose and then used the same rag to clean down his station) But anyways, this is the case for one of the guys in our class (coughing into his hands, wiping his nose…). I stand next to him sometimes for the demos and I watch as he coughs and sneezes directly into his hands (which, outside of the kitchen is normal practice). But inside the kitchen we’re told to cough into our sleeves. I also watched as he wiped his runny nose and left a glistening streak along his finger. He then rubbed it in with his thumb to evaporate it. Again, sometimes when you’re outside the kitchen this is common practice and its necessary so you don’t drip all over the place. Its still gross, but it is what it is.

What I DID NOT notice was him immediately washing his hands after the demo and before touching his tools or food. And I just get sick thinking about that nastinest. In fact, I decided to email my chef, asking to remain anonymous, and not mentioning names, but I asked him to just readdress proper hygiene. Oh, this is my blog, I can include the letter!

“Hi Chef Tom,
I hope all is well. I just wanted to drop you a quick request. As we stand up for some of the demos you give us, I take note of some people who have the sniffles, or a cough or sneeze. I notice some people properly cough/sneeze into their elbows, or towards the floor or into a garbage, while others cough/sneeze directly into their hands, and wipe their noses with their hands (without mentioning names, I witnessed some nasty stuff in the last class, you can figure out who by just glancing around, and you probably wouldn't be surprised). What I did not notice was them washing their hands before they resumed cooking. I don't have a partner right now, so it doesn't gross me out as much as if it were my partner, but I find it to be foul, and just bad practice and a terrible habit to get into. If possible, please re-address the proper procedure for coughing and sneezing, and hand washing if someone happens to use their hands to cover their mouth.

Thanks,
Edwin
(I'd like to remain somewhat anonymous in this request if possible. Thanks.)”

Does it make sense to sign my name and then request anonymity? Funny.

Anyways, we made custard creams!! Basically you take eggs or just egg yolks, you beat it with sugar, and then temper in some boiling milk, and cook it all until nappant. NO MORE than that!! I had to redo one because the eggs started to curdle (or scramble). And that was a major waste of time. That was the only set back I had working alone. Otherwise my timing wasn’t too bad. It really helps to have a partner, but it’s not so bad, and I get to take full responsibility for my creations. Oh, I did need a little help from Sofonie to help sift in my flour as I folded together the egg whites and yolks for a biscuit cake ("bisquee", not round flaky biscuits).

So we made a flan, with fresh caramel, which adds a little bitterness to sweetness (though it wasn’t that sweet in the first place). I never really cared for flan, and I still don’t. But this was better than the one that comes out of the box. I know that much. We also made an ice cream and we filled in these molds with a layer of biscuit and then filled the rest with ice cream. The best part was when we garnished them with fruits, mint and some raspberry sauce. I enjoyed that, more so than the cakes. Oh, we also used a torch to loosen the ice cream from the mold which was pretty cool.

However, I miss making real food. And I look forward to it, but we've still got another few classes of sweets.

Puff the Magic Swan

Pate a Choux, or puff pastry as some like to call it (is that the proper term, I suppose so), is the ONLY twice cooked pastry dough, so we were told. Its basically boiled water and butter with flour added, and then mixed with eggs. To be perfectly honest with you, it took more time getting it into a pastry bag than it did to prepare. Well… almost, but you get my point. It’s SUPER easy to prepare, and very rewarding!!

In brief, we made the pate a choux, we made a layered dough, which is worthy of some explanation, and we made a simple Chantilly cream (whipped cream with a touch of vanilla extract and sugar – it was delightful)

The layered dough, commonly used for desserts such as napoleons, is a pretty time consuming dough. The process entails encasing a beurrage within a detrempe (forming a paton) and rolling and folding multiple time. What the heck are those?! A Beurrage is, as its name suggests, BUTTER! We simply shape the butter into a flat square. The detrempe is the flour dough portion. We combine flour, water and butter to make a dough and let it relax for a while. Then when they’re both nice and cold, and well rested, we make a plus sign out of the detrempe, and put the beurrage in it. Fold the arms of the plus sign over, flatten and roll out (only in one direction).

You have to repeat this step, two rollings at a time, and then refrigerate. Take out, two rollings (we called turns, because we do a 90 degree turn between rolls), and back in the fridge. This process layers the butter, which started between two layers of dough, and flattens it out so that ultimately there are about 730 layers. If we folded it once more and rolled, we’d have about 2200 layers!! That’s pretty impressive. It results in layers of dough and butter, that when cooked, puff up. We haven’t gotten to the cooking part yet. They’re all sitting in the freezer as of now. I believe we’re making the filling for it in the next class so we will probably use it then.

Anyhow, the pate a choux was incredible. It batter dough we made puffs up to almost triple the size, and stays pretty hollow. We then take them out of the oven, and put them in a much lower temperature oven to dry out. Then we fill or…

WE MAKE SWANS! Chef showed us how to makes swans. They’re ridiculously easy, and look so amazing. You make a tear drop shape with the dough and you make these “S” shapes with the dough (very thin). There’s more to it, but this is the basic idea. After they’ve puffed and dried (the “S” pieces are the neck so must be thin) you cut the top half of the “tear drop” off. Then split the top half down the middle. It leaves you with two “D” shaped wings. Fill the bottom half with cream, stick a neck on, and stick the wings in. That’s it!! Obviously there’s much more you can do, particularly with the tips you use on the dough and cream, and sticking an almond sliver in the head as a beak, and putting a chocolate dot for the eye, etc. etc.

But even when I made them at home and burned the bottoms a bit, they were FANTASTIC! We also used the pate a choux to make éclairs, profiteroles and other random puffs. I will be sure to show off this newly learned skill next time I have a chance (Thanks giving?)

The Crepe

Ok… So a little something more than the recipe. I live in Park Slope Brooklyn. The neighborhood is pretty magnificent. Its very safe, very beautiful, and oozing young parents, young professionals, teens and recent grads. One of my friends who I went to college with (this is a shout out to Miha) has been extremely entrepreneurial as of late and had this pretty genius idea of opening up a small creperie in the neighborhood. I’ve been thinking that there are truly a number of things that you can do with a crepe (I’m not sure if I listed that Forrest Gump shrimp list already in a previous post, but its pretty much infinite… looking back I spit off that list referencing potatoes… same deal)

Have I totally lost you? Too long of a tangent?

Anyhow, I’ve put a lot of thought into it. A Creperie would work pretty much anywhere in Brooklyn provided you’re on a main avenue (5th or 7th). But I think it would work even better if it was next to a bar. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to sweet or savory, but can you imagine stumbling out of a bar, and for less than the price of a beer you can get a delicious stuffed crepe. For those with a sweet tooth, how about a traditional Crepe Suzette (which is what we made today), or for the salty side, how about a crepe stuffed with ham mushrooms and gruyere, topped with melted gruyere (We also made this recipe)

It would be open for brunch on the weekend, but rather than paying 15 bucks for eggs, you can get a couple of gourmet egg stuffed crepes. The prices would be down to earth and the options would be endless.

Well, Maybe its Miha’s dream that I have formulated to be my own. Either way it is a wonderful idea. The best part is, it wouldn’t just be a flip a crepe and fill, I’d be able to put to use the expertise that I am developing. There would be special crepes for special occasions. I DON’T KNOW?! It’s just a thought. Have to start somewhere, right?

Well, the crepe suzette was a plain crepe prepared normally. However, we prepared a compound butter for it consisting of some orange zest, orange liqueur and some juice from the orange, mixed all together. I actually forgot to put it in the fridge for a while, but it really didn’t make a difference. After we had a bunch of crepes made, we melted some of this butter, poured a little juice in the pan and then threw a crepe in, folded it once, got some of this butter juice on it, and folded it again. After we did this with a few crepes and had them in the pan, we threw a little brandy in there and flambéed it (to be fair, we forgot to flambee it, but it doesn’t really make too much of a difference since the butter is so tasty). The best part, in my opinion was we took an orange and peeled the zest, then julienned the zest. After blanching it for a minute, we put it in a pan with some grenadine and a touch of water and reduced it until the zest took on a red candied coating. It looked awesome, and it tasted pretty nice. We then layered a couple of the folded crepes, drizzled some of the butter sauce it cooked in, and topped with a couple of orange supremes and the candied zest, and it was beautiful, and unbearably delicious. (how could it not be?)

That was the highlight for me.
I guess as a pointer, which we’re taught in class, we’re supposed to let the batter rest in the fridge for an ENTIRE HOUR before we use it. It rests the gluten, and makes it smoother, so they say.

We also made fried apple fritters, which were really delicious. The batter had some beer and orange zest in it, and it was just delicious as well.

Cakes - a Chef Demo

Hmmm… I’m not sure where to begin. Well for starters, we’re clearly putting “food” cooking aside and turning toward classic French pastries or sweets. Today we’re supposed to make a cake, a buttercream frosting, and lady fingers.

I guess the next thing to say is Chef Tom is a pastry chef as well, and the cake class is his favorite class to teach. With this said, Chef Tom basically spent half of the class (2 and a half hours) demo-ing how he makes cakes, frostings, variations on the cakes and frostings, and a bunch of time on decorating the cakes. We barely had enough time to watch him demo the lady fingers (which we were supposed to make ourselves), and more importantly, odds are we will never have to make these cakes again. I guess it was good and bad that it was basically a demonstration class. I definitely lost interest in it because it was so hands off, and we were going to bring our cakes home wrapped in foil, so they were probably going to get destroyed. And I was more concerned with going out that night with my class mates, which was gonna be a fun time!

Also, Chef has a horrible habit of calling us up to his area to watch him do something when we’re in the middle of cooking. The demo he gives us take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes and we usually have something on the stove. Then we’re rushing around like chimps, frantic, trying to clean up and get out in time. Sometimes its good to be frantic, it’s a little more similar to what we should expect, but other times, especially when we have extra time in class, there is no need to rush us.

For a taste of irony, I made a regular yellow cake, with white buttercream frosting and wrote “chocolate” with melted chocolate. I got a kick out of it, but no one else did. I tried giving it away to a homeless guy, and he didn’t even want it?! He said, thanks man, but I just ate. Well, I hope his next meal presents itself as easy as this cake did.

Anyways, we went out until around 4 in the morning that night. I paid my credit card bill already, but all in all it cost about as much as a 4AM night should cost. But I paid even more severely the next day at work. I was loopy and WAY out of it. But it was a lot of fun.
Our group has extended to 5 people. $ guys and one girl, and it’s a really good time.

Hey Swee-Tart

I really need to keep a little more up to date.. I’m sure you guys don’t really mind. Anyhow, this class was pretty good. We made a couple of types of tarts. One was an egg tart, aka QUICHE!! This was pretty awesome. I never thought I would be making a quiche from scratch. Though I guess I knew I was going to when I saw the class in level 2 making them, when I was in level 1. Anyhow, the dough is the critical part. The dough is called Pâte Brisee. It is primarily flour, ice water (some call for an egg and less water), a pinch of salt, a touch of sugar, and lots of butter! It is important to keep in mind that this is a very fragile dough, and the ingredients, primarily the wet ones, must be kept VERY COLD! The butter is meant to stay cool and unmelted, which helps keep the tart nice and flaky.

The first step is to “sabler” the butter into the flour sugar and salt mixture. You take a pastry scraper and “cut” the butter into the flour so in the end you have pea sized pieces of butter in the flour. Next you make a well and incorporate the water (and egg) into the flour/butter mixture. You must work quickly, keeping everything cool. You try not to use your hands to keep the butter from melting, hence the pastry scraper. After the dough comes together a little, you need to take walnut sized pieces of dough that you just made, and using the scraper, flatten and scrape the piece to flatten the butter. But that piece aside and finish doing this to the rest of the dough. Again, time is of the essence. Gather it all back together, flatten into a disk and stick that puppy in the freezer for a few. The butter must stay COLD!

Anyhow, we made 3 batches of this dough; 1 with just water, 1 with egg and water, and the last with egg, water and sugar. After we flatten and fit the dough into a “flan ring” we have to blind bake it. This is basically pre-baking with weights on it to keep it from rising. Because the quiche is very delicate and cooks at such a low temp, we must make sure the crust fully cooks so its not raw when the filling cooks.

The quiche was absolutely delicious! It consisted of bacon bits, gruyere cheese and a delicious egg and cream custard. We baked it low and slow (around 300, to keep the eggs from scrambling), and it was superb.

With the sugar dough, we made an apple tart which was really tasty! Our apples on top didn’t look nearly as pretty as some other peoples apples, but that’s fine. They tasted just as delicious.
Since we made more dough than we needed, somehow I volunteered to take most of them home. So I have about 6 doughs sitting in my freezer. I already made a quiche which was great, and an apple tart, which, due to the apples I used on top, did not taste as good as the ones we made in class. Further, I do not know what the effect of freezing the dough has on the final product, but if there is none, then the fact that I was using other people’s dough that I did not make, I do not know how well they made it. I have lots of faith in my own, but I can only trust someone else to a certain extent.

OOF!! Or… Oeuf!!

We were forewarned in the beginning of this class. Chef told us a story something along these lines: “This was the first class I ever taught at the FCI, and the co-Instructor/Chef watched as I ate egg after egg, trying the students’ dishes. Let’s just say it was a rough night.”

Well it sure was.

The egg is extremely versatile, and does some amazing things. For instance, and egg yolk is used to make a cake moister and a richer, but a boiled egg yolk is drier than the boiled egg white. (How does that happen? I don’t have an answer)

It also enhances and enables emulsifications. A yolk can literally bind oil to vinegar, defying science!

Well, it’s really versatile, but let me tell you, it can mess up your stomach. None of us ate SO many eggs, but all of the guys got stomach aches. The girls seemed ok.

Anyways, soft, medium and hard boiled eggs. 3 minutes -> 5 minutes -> 12 minutes. You’ll get a perfectly boiled egg in 12 minutes (after boiling/simmering starts). The soft and medium boiled eggs are a little more difficult to achieve. The timing is much more important. We tried making a soft boiled egg, but the white sets a lot quicker than we were told. 3 minutes after boiling is WAY to long. Apparently, it should still be very runny. Ours was almost cooked through, minus the yolk. How embarrassing.

My favorite was the poached egg. Go ahead, try throwing an egg into boiling salt water. NO DON’T! Salt is a no-no for poached eggs. Instead you need approximately 30mL of Vinegar for every liter of water. (Just use regular garbage white vinegar, the one you use to make volcanoes). Keep a simmering pot of salt water nearby to rinse the vinegar taste off of the eggs.

Anyways, the water should be at a super soft simmer, and you carefully drop the eggs into the water. The Vinegar will help coagulate the eggs immediately, keeping them together, not flying all over the place (is it a density thing?). Well after a few minutes, and the egg remains very soft, and the yolk runny, you take it out, dip it in the simmering salt water to wash off the vinegar, and SERVE!!! Usually you put some hollandaise sauce on there, but we didn’t have any. It was cool to see it actually work though. Pretty simple, too.

We made stuffed eggs, stuffed with mushroom duxelles and topped with a Gruyere cheese mornay sauce (a creamy cheese sauce). I think these are what did me in.

Lastly, we made some perfect omelettes. (We also made Spanish omelettes, but those aren’t as impressive.) The regular French omelettes have about a tablespoon of cream per egg, you put it in a medium to hot pan with butter (the butter has to be FRESHLY added so it doesn’t have a chance to brown and color the omelette). Then you drop the eggs in, pull in North, South, East and West, and scramble them!! This is all a very quick process. Little time to think. The point that you STOP scrambling is pretty much the consistency that your eggs will be. Quickly shift the pan to get the omelette hanging off a little bit, and then roll it up and off into a plate. There should be ZERO color, and very little wrinkle. It really doesn’t take very long either. But it’s not easy. The temperature is the killer part that is hard to monitor and maintain. But if you’re making them every day, 50 in an hour, I bet you’ll get pretty good at it.

So right after my last omelette, I felt like I was going to explode. I told the chef I had to run to the bathroom, he said ok. I RAN!!! When I got back, I RAN AGAIN!! It was scary. I was afraid this moment would come. Turns out a couple of other guys experienced the same problem I did. Let that be a lesson to… me?

Sweet Sweet Breads

Ok, this class was straight out of fear factor. It was a little ridiculous to be honest with you. The menu… Sweetbreads, calf kidneys, calf liver and lamb tongue. I don’t know which one was the nastiest. I’ve had breaded sweetbreads at a nice restaurant, and they were really delicious. The sweetbreads we made were braised. Needless to say, they weren’t the most appetizing dishes we ever made, but I suppose they’re somewhat of a delicacy.

The lamb tongues were by far the most fun to make. After they were boiling for like 2 hours, we had to peel the skin off of them, which we did as a class, huddled around one table, and that was pretty fun.

Oh, it was POURING that day, so only about 7 of us made it to class. It happened to be the 7 of us who probably belong in the class. A number of the other students who were not as… I’m at a loss for words, but it was a good time, and Chef had a really good time, so it seemed.

SO after we peeled the lamb tongues, all we had to do was make the sauce, which was a little spicy. Chef said ours was perfect. And, quite frankly, the sauce was delicious. I took a piece of the tip of tongue, and it just felt weird.

I guess I should get a little more detailed, rather than just telling you how weird it was. The organ meats are divided up into 2 categories, white and red. As you can probably imagine, the reds include the liver, kidneys, heart and tongue. Not the most appetizing of food items, but probably better than the whites. The whites are generally the sweetbreads, brains, tripe, feet (chicken feet), and don’t laugh, testicles! The liver (lightly dredged in flour and sautéed) was alright, and kidneys (browned and gently braised) weren’t bad, but all in all, I feel like it was a class on how to serve the garbage parts of the animal, but I know that’s not true.