Keep it in your pants. The only French on French action was our French chef explaining certain cutting techniques with their French names, in a French accent. It was pretty intimidating to say the least. Comical to say the most.
Before we jump ahead to the lesson, I arrived a bit earlier than suggested to ensure that my financial aid issues were taken care of. They were. I officially went into debt $30,000+. Whatever, right? I just have to convince my friends to buy me drinks from now on. No more crazy nights where I can't explain how I ran up $250 on my credit card. We're talking Pabst Blue Ribbon specials all night. I think its time to make an investment in a flask. I've seen an awesome cell phone looking flask which may be pretty practical. I think my roommate, Ian, owns it.
Anyways, I received my kit (clothing only, so far) with a "loaner" chef's jacket. I need to be sure to clean it, and return it like new. I definitely got some tomato gut on one sleeve. I'm not quite sure how well that comes out. But I will get it out. (hopefully my precious girlfriend knows a thing or two about this). I go into the locker room, and I explore my kit... The locker room is quite small, with some large men, not necessarily fat, but just grown men, on every bench getting dressed. In my kit, there are a few sets of pants, checkered.. stylish, a few triangle shaped handkerchiefs (neckerchiefs), some aprons, and these white rigid cheese cloth looking rags, which I'm still not exactly sure what they're for, though I did wear it at my side like a rag, but I don't think it was one.
The pants and jacket were easy. but the neckerchief... well, that was awkward. You basically roll this triangular kerchief into a thin tie, and then, apparently, you tie it like a tie. Its a little tacky, but so be it. Roll the apron up a little, tie it around your waist, and you're pretty much ready to go... and quite professional looking too. Oh, you also have to wear thick black leather shoes/boots, which I was fortunate enough to have just received (thanks dad, I bet you didn't think I'd end up needing those all-weather boots for the kitchen).
We're greeted by an admin person, wait on everyone to arrive in full chef attire, and make our way to our kitchen class room. This is it. Here we go.
I'm not exactly sure how to write with a French accent, but Chef Rogers (Ro-zhay) was definitely French. He said he was born in the Bronx, and raised in Paris... ("believe it or not"). I don't know if I've chosen to believe him yet. I did meet him on my tour the other day, and he does/did play rugby, which we discussed for a minute, and maybe that will give me some braising points (I'd say brownie if I was in the pastry program).
We chose a station with bags already resting on the countertops. In these bags were the tools of the trade. I will give a rundown of what I remember, but it would be more beneficial to show a picture.
There were the knives: chef's, paring, bread, meat knife (not a butcher knife), a loooong rounded end with grooves knife (slicing?), and filleting knife. Two whisks, a few spatulas, a dope pair of scissors, thermometer, pastry bag and tips, a looong needle with a hole at the end, um... a scooping ball maker, a chef's fork, and I'm sure many other things. $400 worth of equipment in a nice little bag. Its official now.
Man, I wish I took notes because there was a lot to digest. Besides the main lesson, there were little snippits of facts that he threw out in his French accent that I would have liked to have written down, but I didn't want to go and get my cards for notes. I hope to remember them as the need arises, but knowing me, I doubt it. Some of those snippits included the way you set up your station (3 metal bowls, one for cleaned unpeeled, pre-cut veggies, one for peels and scraps, and the last for the peeled, cut veggies. Note - They collect large CLEAN scraps for stocks and such, but they better be clean. And they have a compost bin for the rest)
Another note worthy snippit was when you boil something like a tomato to peel it, you must SHOCK it in ice water. First you boil it for NO MORE than 15 seconds, and second, you don't let it sit in the water for more than it takes to shock it (less than a minute). And I'm sure there were plenty of other things I should have written down.
Anyhow, the bulk of the lesson was on how you should look, a little bit of safety (when walking behind someone with a pot of scalding water you say something like "hot pot behind [, fooh]"), and most importantly, about 12 or 13 different types of cuts.
These cuts all had french names, which were barely comprehendible with Chef Rogers' French accent. Good thing our other Chef, Chef Wanda, born and raised in NY (wha-what?!), was writing some of these terms down and pronouncing them a little clearer. Thank you Chef Wanda.
The cuts ranged from slicing onion and shallots, cubing turnips, Julienne-ing carrots, Chiffinade-ing cabbage, and so forth. Some of them were easier to remember than others. As soon as I have time, I will take pics of everything, label the cuts with their proper names, and explain them.
The most important thing, however, is that these cuts should be consistent. When something should be .5 of a cm... it should be .5 of a cm. 1-2mm should be 1-2mm. Besides presentation, it ensures that when cooking for 5 minutes or so, they are all evenly cooked. None is more or less raw/firm than the other. Consistency, guys. Consistency. I know you don't need me to tell you this, but hey, its what I was told.
I must say, carrots are a BITCH! I never had as much trouble cutting a carrot as I did last night. We had to Julienne them, then cut some of the julienned pieces into little tiny 1mm by 1mm pieces. Out of a decent sized carrot, I got 1 good rectangular slice, about 4 or 5 good julienned pieces and from scraps I was able to get about 10-15 perfect little cubes. The chef didn't need to know that I got this little amount from a huge carrot, but its clearly something I'd like to fix.
I was working with a partner, somewhat. We were at the same station, and had our own cutting boards and Vegetables. Basically it was a partner to talk to. We helped eachother remember a few things, but mostly we chit chatted. Grace was from Bayside Queens and I believe she was a bit older than me, but had the asian youth look going on. She was pretty cool, and she made for a good partner, at the very least for the conversation. It was also nice to get to know my classmates a bit better. We do have 9 months ahead of us.
Well, Thursday is our next lesson. I'm doing a good job on these blogs (I think). I hope someone reads them?! But at the very least, I guess its a journal for my adventure.
By the way, we have a test in one week from Saturday. That blows. But bring it. This is better than any class I ever took in college (except maybe the fundamentals of conditioning) , so I will be prepared.
No comments:
Post a Comment