Goodbye Level 4

All in all, I must say, the 8 of us in level 4 have pulled off something that, as Chef Rob explained it, could only have been done by dedicated students. And I think we are just that. The 8 of us there have one agenda when we’re in class, and that is to produce a quality product. Chef Rob has explained to our next chef that we are a great class of 8 that works like a class of 16. Chef Janet said many times how sad she was to see us go, and we have to visit frequently. Chef Janet was definitely awesome. She showed us some amazing things that we never imagined doing (making our own bacon and pastrami and ham!!!) Chef Rob also showed us some incredible things and opened our eyes to new techniques and possibilities.

By the way, I believe I mentioned the slow cooked wrapped chicken that Chef Dave Arnold showed us. Well I took some home and fried it up for some friends who were in the house, and they were amazed. I explained I didn’t make it, but it was still fantastic. I didn’t deep fry it, but I did sauté it. And I made a rookie mistake. I got the oil nice and hot, but I failed to dry the skin properly before putting it in. It made for a little more of a mess (splattering), but it also allowed the skin to stick a little to the pan. It wasn’t a terrible thing, the food still came out great, but I should have known better. I realized it as soon as I put it in the pan. I must say, it’s been a while since I did some real cooking, so I need to really think a bit more before I jump right into it. So as a reminder, when deep frying or sautéing, the purpose of the oil is for flavor, color and to prevent sticking. If you do not remove the excess moisture, then you counteract this initiative and there will be more splattering and sticking to the pan.

Anyhow, to be perfectly honest, after we finished buffet, it felt like level 4 was over. And unfortunately that was after the first two weeks of level 4. Family meal was… just rushing to make some food and then not really giving a shit about the rest of class. Most of the time we busted our asses for no reason because people either didn’t need food, or we had our buffets and no one ate the family meal. And then when we got to production, we were never really rushing (except for getting the fish and chicken to the restaurant), but we were doing fun projects like curing meats and the like. Chef Janet was great because she let us focus on the aspects that were important, like the filleting of the fish and the butchering of the chicken, while she maintained the stocks and worked on other projects. And then when we were ready, she let us run the show.

So on our last day of level 4, the buffet guys did an entirely dessert themed buffet. They must have made about 10 or 12 different desserts, ranging from individual cheesecakes, to crème brule, chocolate tarts, bread pudding, ice cream sandwiches, and the list goes on. It was pretty amazing. That meant they weren’t making real food, so the family meal and production group had to step in. We put out our deli meats, a smoked sturgeon and a cheese fondue station for the pastrami. The family meal guys put together a “breakfast for dinner” station. They used some of our molasses bacon that we made. We didn’t let them touch the maple brown sugar bacon. I must say, the molasses bacon was absolutely delicious. I will try the maple bacon this weekend, but I am trying to eat a little better so maybe just a touch.

By the way, the pastrami was phenomenal! The ham and turkey breast were also amazing! Its indescribable, to be honest. Have you been to Katz's delicatessen? Well our meats could have been showcased there. It was quite an accomplishment. I went to party later that evening with the deli meats, and between about 5 people, we finished over 2.5 lbs of pastrami and turkey breast. They were impressed and I was pleased that we were able to make such an impressive product.

But the family meal team was making bacon egg and cheeses on bagels, they prepared lox and set out cream cheese for bagels, they were making omelettes, eggs benedict with a fresh hollandaise, etc. etc. It was pretty great. Oh they also put together a delicious corned beef hash and some tasty home fries. They did a fantastic job.

Oh, how can I forget? One of our classmates, Grace, is a great cellist. Her roommate is a musician as well. So Grace asked her to come in and play violin, and she did just that. It was AMAZING. It was such a classy affair, though we were in a kitchen and many of us were wearing our kitchen whites. Chef Rob was so proud of this class. We consistently raised the bar and produced some quality work. Chef Rob made a reputation for himself as a kick ass level 4 instructor, but he would never fail to mention that it couldn’t have been done with the 8 of us.

On to the kitchen of l'ecole.

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.

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.

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.”

Well let's see...

... there's Fried potatoes, baked potatoes, potato gumbo, barbequed potatoes, roasted potatoes, potato stew, potato soup, potato salad, mashed potatoes... that's.. that's about it.

Ok, so perhaps that was an unsuccessful twist on the Forrest Gump line by Bubba, but you get my point. You can pretty much do anything with a potato (even shoot them out of guns). We certainly did fry them (our first introduction to the deep fryer in class), and slice and dice them. We also used a mandoline for the first time, which proved quite the foe to some in the class (including my partner).

Before I continue, I am having some mixed feeling about Chef Tom. Yes, he is very skillful, and all of his demos come out pretty much perfect, but I think he secretly wants ours to come out not quite as good as his. We all do things at slightly different paces. But he constantly calls us up to the front of the class (mid-preparation/cooking) and makes us watch as he prepares a dish.. from slicing entire potatoes on a mandoline, to laying the slices out, to S&P (salt and pepper, as I write it in my recipes), etc. I agree its helpful to see the process, but certain things can be skipped. More importantly, he calls us up as we're cooking, and inevitably the food is going to burn. It happens to almost all of us. Meanwhile we watch him prepare something from start to finish, and he'll lay it out on a dish and say, "oh wow, did you taste my salad, or my potato, or my_______ (insert name of food he demonstrated). Isn't that good?" Starting to get a little bothersome.

Anyhow, another aside before I get into potatoes. About an hour into class, after we watched him fry a bunch of different cuts of potatoes, I was having some terrible pains in my stomach. I felt like I was welling up with gas, but I wasn't sure why, nor could I do anything about it. With that said, my mind wasn't quite focused on the task at hand. I was more concerned with the clock hitting 10:45 than my potatoes being perfect. Further when my partner sliced her finger on the mandoline, I had no choice but to try and fully focus. It was difficult, and I would love to do it all over.

On to frying potatoes. Its not that difficult, we've all done it, probably without really thinking about it, and most likely without a thermometer (though, if Alton Brown always uses one, maybe I should too). For recipes that call for a one time fry (opposed to frying twice or thrice) the oil should be at approximmately 350F-375F. This provides a crispy outside and helps prevent the potato from adbsorbing too much oil. We made waffle fries (more like chips) using the mandoline (a number of people, including my partner, had a hard time with this cut because they did not realize that you must rotate the potato a little before each pass on the mandoline. Not rocket science). We cooked these in the oil until no more bubbles formed, that is, the moisture has been cooked out of the potato leaving a crisp waffle chip. You can't do this for thicker cuts or else you'll be left with a rock hard piece of fried potato.

We then made a bowl. How cute! ehm... I mean... it was really pretty easy, and its nice to know that we can easily make a bowl out of potatoes. Easily if you have the right tools for shaping the bowl and being able to submerge in oil (we used these two metal "baskets" one for inside the other, so the potatoes were pushed in between. We cut two round parchment paper circles to put between the bowls and the potatoes to prevent sticking. But yeah, it was cute.. and easy). A little tip, when you want to fry potatoes and ou want them to stick together (a hash, these baskets), it may be best that you don't rinse them before you fry them. That is, you can store them in water as you are cutting them, to prevent discoloration, but do not rinse before fying. We don't want to lose the starchy goodness. Also, for frying we use starchy potatoes, such as good ole Idaho's, and Russet potatoes. HOWEVER, it is in yours and your skins, eyes, hands... best interest if you dry the potato before you place in the oil. Again, you probably don't need to be told this, but we were, and I'm passing it along to you. For a regular french fry, it may be best if you rinse off the extra starch, though its not necessary.

Next we made a gratin dauphine. Layers of sliced potatoes, with cheese and cream. It was pretty darn good!! Chef Tom said we used a little too much cheese, but I disagree. It wasn't overcheesy at all. It was, if anything, a little undercheesy. We baked this one in the oven for about 30 minutes, and it got nice and browned on top, a little crispy, as well. Oh yeah, Chef Tom also said the potatoes may have been a little on the undercooked side, which I totally disgree with as well. They were not undercooked, nor al dente. They were fully cooked and delicious. But I suppose he knows best.

What was pretty humorous was for dinner break, they had the audacity to serve us mashed potatoes!! The last thing we needed was more potatoes. But they didn't know, so I forgive them, I suppose.

That new guy, (Lee, whose name is Dongchen, who is a very nice guy) was working alone. He made all the recipes by himself. These recipes weren't difficult, but it took time to gather the ingredients, slice potatoes, fry them, keep an eye on them, prepare supplementary ingredients (like boiling milk), or boiling the potatoes (PLUS having Chef Tom call us up every 5 minutes). He did a good job, considering, however, he lagged behind a bit. But I don't blame him. I helped him clean up his station, but I'd like to work whit him again one day. He was pretty cool, and my partner has been lagging behind a little (though she was super helpful on this dreadful stomach aching potato day).

We made a couple more potato dishes, which I will mention briefly. We made another layered and baked dish (pommes Anna), a hashed potato looking thing (pommes something), pommes puree (mashed), and pommes duchesse (a puree mixed with an egg yolk and usually squeezed through a pastry bag into shapes).

I'd love to give you details but they're a little fuzzy to me, and quite honestly, its easy to mess these up, but if you pay some attention to what you're doing, its easier to get right.

We have a quiz at the beginning of next class. We received the low down at the end of this past class. So we should all do well. I intend on getting it perfect (again). It's idiotic not to memorize the 10 things he takes the time to explain to us for the quiz. I'll let you know how it goes, and if I can stomach it, I'll prepare some potatoes for my friends. Also, by the way, you may have noticed that the blog is no longer white text on a black background. I received a few complaints that it was harsh on the eyes. I am still trying to find the right color scheme that captures the aura of this blog. I am open to suggestions. Feel free to leave a comment with ideas, and with anything else you'd like to say or hear more about.

A whole class on salads?

Yes, an entire class on salads. And quite frankly it may be one of the more important ones we've had thus far (though emulsification was fun and proved quite interesting). If you think about it, depending on what type of cuisine you're having, the salad could be the very first, or very last thing you shove down your pie hole. It could make or ruin a meal. If the first thing you put in your mouth is a soggy piece of lettuce or a big chunk of raw carrot, it could leave a bad taste in your mouth.

To be honest, I sent an email to a few friends who asked me what I've been up to in class. Quite frankly I feel like I wrote what should have been the entry for this blog post, and I may have lost the words after writing it the first time. Hence I am pasting in the bulk of that email so you can get the same passion that went into writing it the first time, rather than a watered down repetition as I feel it may be if I were to write it a second time. Here goes:

The salad dressing is what brings it all together. The key is a temporary emulsification... That is, the oil and vinegar, not having a binding agent, like egg yolks, can only stay in suspension for a short period. the general ratio of dressing is 3:1 Oil to vinegar, plus salt, pepper, and any other herbs or seasoning and flavors (lemon juice, wines, etc..) you want to add. Beat them together with a whisk and they emulsify, though only temporarily, and will need a quick beating before using.

With that said, a salad is anything you want to put in it... the one that may have taken the most time was the salade nicoise. Originally, it was intended to be a rustic salad, everything tossed together and devoured, but in order to charge 15 bucks for it you need to use the finest ingredients and make them look pretty. I really should be writing this in my blog and sending you there... but you're special.. anyhow, this salad consists of boiled new potatoes, hard boiled eggs, anchovies, tuna, and some greens and tomatoes.

FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION!! When boiling almost anything, you should try to have like sized ingredients (match the sizes of your potatoes when boiling, a tiny one will turn to mush before a larger one gets soft, and usually boiled separately - turnips cook faster than carrots - as they will take different times despite their sizes), and you start in cold water. This allows the items being boiled to heat up at a constant temperature throughout the entire item - potato, egg, etc. Rather than throwing it in boiling water, flash cooking the outside, then overcooking it just to cook the inside. You catch me? And it doesn't take any longer than the time to boil the water. Also, reduce to a simmer after the boiling process has begun.. the water temperature pretty much remains the same.

The nicoise salad consisted of boiled eggs and potatoes, peeled, seeded tomatoes, peeled, julienned green pepper (yes peeled with a peeler, it was weird), green beans cooked a l'anglaise (boiled in really salty water then shocked in an ice bath, but contrary to my previous statement, the water should already be boiling...) In French cooking boiling/cooking veggies is usually to the point that it is tender. Al dente is too raw. But when cooking these veggies, you usually cook them separately.

(We made a different salad of cooked veggies - carrots, turnips, peas, string beans, all cut to the size of the peas, and we had to cook them individually a l'anglaise. It was a bitch, but that one was really good, we bound them together with mayo that we made and seasoned with salt and pepper.. really good)

So we cooked the peas and string beans, and broke up some romaine lettuce. Plated everything nicely [the potatoes were sliced and laid out in a ring, each slice overlapping the previous slice, with the lettuce piled on top], then topped with some anchovies and chunks of white canned tuna (in water). Dressing was drizzled on everything, though the lettuce was dressed separately by drizzling the sides of the bowl with dressing and gently tossing the salad against the sides. They should not be overdressed!!! or else they get soggy as you all know.

------ The email ended here. I'll continue with some more insight.

The first salad we made was the cooked vegetables bound together with a home made mayo. The veggies consisted of carrots, turnips, peas and string beans, all cut to macedoine size (.5 cm cubed, the string beans were not cubed, just cut to size, and the peas were... well, the size of peas) Each vegetable was cooked a l'anglaise individually because each vegetable takes a different amount of time to cook. But by cutting them to the same size, we could pretty much guarantee that within its own species, the vegetables will all be done when one cube is done.

What differentiated our cubed-vegetables-in-mayo salad from a normal something-in-mayo salad was that the veggies weren't drowning in mayo. The mayo was simply there to bind the veggies together, and for some flavoring. It did not overpower the sweetness and individuality of the vegetables, and having them in uniform sizes was pleasant to the tongue, and no vegetable stood out over the other. It was quite a nice blend.

The nicoise salad, as I mentioned in much detail, was pretty good too, though we avoided eating the anchovies. Close minded? Maybe, but we didn't need 'em. I can't recall anything too memorable besides the salads that we made, but there can't always be drama and me passing judgment on others... boring? Sure, whatever.

eMulsification

Most people have heard the term emulsify, and know exactly what it means. Other's will just smile and nod, having heard the term, kind of understanding it, and just move right along. That used to be me. An emulsification is the binding of two liquids that don't normally combine. The greatest example: oil and water. In this class, we emulsified. We made a few sauces using the standard emulsification process... whipping that bad boy up until your arm fell off.

The usual ingredient that is used to bind is egg yolk. Egg yolk, by some miracle power of chickens, has the ability to hold up to 200mL of oil in an emulsification. We made a few sauces, particularly Mayonnaise and an orange dessert with an orange saboyan (I believe the term saboyan refers to the step before emulsifying a sauce, that is, before slowly whipping in the oil).

The mayo was SO much better than Hellman's and miracle whip. (I wonder why they call it miracle whip? Should we be eating something that must have taken a miracle to create?) It was also extremely simple. It was 1 egg yolk, some salt, some white pepper, a touch of vinegar, and then veg. oil beat into it very slowly.

My team consisted of myself and a new guy from Korea. He started in the day classes and has changed over to the evening program. I can't remember his first name(s), but I do know his last name is Lee, and I am more than happy calling him Lee for the sake of this blog. He spoke in broken English, but I could tell he was a kind person, pretty stylish, and pretty interested in food. He was also very confident in his English, and considering he has not been in the US for too long, it was pretty damn good. He was a good partner, and fun to talk to. Lee had some significant culinary experience, particularly with Japanese and Korean cuisine, which is awesome because I'd like to extract some tips from him on those. Unfortunately Grace went partnerless and had a hell of a lot of whipping to do by herself. She did a good job though.

Anyhow, the mayo was delicious. So delicious I made it again the next night to make a MEAN chicken salad. It was quite flavorful. A delicious fresh mayo can make or break the sandwich, I have come to realize. (I'll keep that in mind for my restaurant). These are the things I came to learn.

The orange dish was memorable. We had to parer a vif the oranges (method of peeling citrus fruits), and then supreme it (cut out the slices from the membranes). What a world of difference it makes when the fruit is completely free of seeds, peel, pith and membranes. The flavor is basically the same, minus some bitterness, but the effort and carelessness that goes into eating it is great. The sauce, however, was key. It was a saboyan of 3 egg yolks, some sugar, some orange liqueur and a splash of grenadine all whipped together to form a foamy froth. Then we folded in (CAREFULLY) some almond flour and mint leaves in chiffonade. (A chiffonade is simply strips of leafy herbs, or lettuce, usually rolled up like a cigar and then sliced).

After laying out the orange supremes in a beautiful pinwheel design, you nap the slices with the saboyan, and then place it under a broiler until it lightly browns. WOW. It was delicious. The oranges did not quite get hot, so they were still refreshing, and the saboyan had great flavor. The almond flour was clutch, and browning it was so good. The mint also threw in a subtle taste, but added so much. Some people topped their dish with the mint chiffonade, though the recipe called for it to be incorporated in the saboyan. I think a combination of both would have been ideal, and a little whole mint leave as a garnish.

There wasn't any drama in the class, though the one guy who missed 3 classes missed a fourth, although he had an emergency and notified the Chef. Not my call to judge, I suppose, but I don't think missing 4 of the first 7 classes is a good thing.

Next class, we do some salads. I think we only do about 3 salads and 2 or 3 dressings... in the entire 5 hours!! So I hope they're good. I assume the prep, which would normally be done way before hand, takes the most time.

As always, I'll let you know how it goes.

OH, by the way, we had a quiz, not a pop quiz. We were WELL prepared in the previous class. And I got a 100. Sweet. I hope he prepares us the same way for the next one. Though I don't really know what a number grade says for a Chef applying to a restaurant. But I'm shooting 100% right now!

Potages

So what exactly is the difference between soup and potages? Well as Chef Tom would put it, about 10 dollars, but nothing more. Its just the French way of saying soup and the way we'll probably put it on our menus since we want to make those extra $10.

In this class we made split-pea soup, potato and leek soup (not creamy), French onion soup (go figure, but the chef primarily made it), and a consomme (a very clear broth, which you wouldn't expect to be clear with all the ground beef, veggies and egg whites you put in there).

Where to start? I guess I'll start with the one I messed up on. Apparently the consomme is a very complicated soup to get right. Its not that its that much more difficult than other soups, but it involves a delicate balance between the amount of stock or broth, amount of meat and amount of egg whites used. I messed up on the egg whites part. As I was running around looking for the egg whites (which came out of a milk carton - did not feel gourmet), I asked a fellow student how much to use. I thought they said 90 grams. I had a recipe card that said 4 egg whites (120g), but at times the Chef will adjust certain things for certain reasons. I also thought I heard the chef say we were only using 90 grams of egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites). The general rule is 3 egg whites per liter. We were using 1.5 liters of beef marmite. I only used 3. My consomme did not form the legendary raft that consommes form. I was embarrassed.

The consomme is NOT supposed to come to a boil, and after stirring and bringing the temperature up to 160-165 degrees, you're NOT supposed to stir anymore. At this point, you should be able to sit back and watch as the eggs start to foam at the top and form a raft. All the julienned veggies and cooked ground beef fuse with the raft. Its quite impressive, and quite disgusting. You wouldn't think that the clearest consomme come from such a murky chopped beef infused soup. For the ones that worked, it look quite amazing. It did not taste like anything special. Just broth. but it looked really nice. Mine never quite left the murky stage. There weren't enough egg whites to form the life saving raft. A little bit like Noah's ark. But none of the boards were nailed in place...

Chef Tom came over to me. I think he respects me, as I respect him. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it was our discussion about me going to Vassar college. I'm not just a knucklehead who wants to learn how to cook good. But he didn't lay in on me or ask me "don't you know how to follow a recipe?!" But he explained it the way I rationalized - when you muck up, you learn. I didn't by chance get it right, I got it very wrong. We figured out why, and I'll be damned if I forget that 1 egg white = 30g, and 1L of stock gets 90g or 3 egg whites, when making consomme. I might, perhaps forget about the potato leek soup because I did not do as much work as my partner on it, but I won't forget the consomme.

So I guess the next logical soup to discuss is the potato and leek soup. It was a clear soup, made from chicken stock, with leeks and potatoes. It was surprisingly simple, and as I mentioned, I can't recall exactly what it entailed, as my partner did most of the work. But for some reason I took some home. As I put it in my fridge I was asking, why did I take this soup home? I probably won't like it as much as the pea soup. It just looks like broth with leeks and potatoes. Well I decided to take it for lunch today.. and you know.. it was quite delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will definitely make it again one day.

I think I have an infatuation with leeks. From the moment I set eyes on them, I knew that I would love them. First off, cleaning them is a b*tch! You need to wash and rewash and rewash until all the sandy dirt that it grows in, comes out. I thought I washed my leek until it was free of sand, but Chef Tom said he felt a little grit. I was unpleasantly surprised. I Really inspected it well for sand and grit. Well, I guess I have to clean it better.

We made a split-pea soup, which was phenomenal. Peas, bacon, herbs... mmmm. I wonder if anyone ground up their cheesecloth of garnish. I was considering it, because the recipe never told us to remove it, but common sense prevailed. I feel like the split-pea soup, which we have come to believe should be a thick soup, is frequently too thick. Chef Tom believes it should be a thinner soup, and I think I agree. It just makes for a more velvety feel. I look forward to eating the leftovers.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, I felt a sense of ease in the kitchen. I felt like I was in more control, despite my consomme follies, and I felt more comfortable. I was confident in my julienned veggies, in my ability to sweat and brown the veggies and bacon, taste and season the soups, confident in how thick I wanted the soups. I was happy with my measuring of ingredients, preparing my station, the soft simmer, the heavy simmer, the boiling of the stocks. Pretty much everything felt better. Am I a pro yet? No way. But am I on my way? Inevitably.

The Building Blocks...

The basis of every sauce, every soup, basically every dish, is stock. And that's what we learned today. Now I'm not exactly sure if you care so much about what went into these stocks, or if you care more about what went on in class... So I'll try to give you the scoop on both.

When we got into class there were 50 lbs of veal bones, 40 lbs of beef bones, a bunch of meatless chicken carcasses, and a stack of fleshy fish skeletons waiting for us.

In a 5 hour class it would have been impossible to boil down the veal and beef stocks (the beef stock we were making was called "marmite" (mar-meet), which is also the name of the big stock pot). So we prepared the marmite and veal stock as far as we could without boiling them down. We browned vegetables, blackened some onions (literally burnt the cut half of onions on the flat top), and combined the ingredients as if we were going to boil/simmer them, but did not.

The veal bones needed to be roasted and browned in a little oil for a few minutes in the convection oven. There was a little meat still left on the bones, and the smell coming out of that oven was unbearably delicious.

Moving right along to the juicy stuff... there were only 8 of us in class that day. So by class three, 1 person has missed two classes, another has missed only one. After two missed classes, you need to make up a bunch of stuff. I am under the impression that the one guy who has missed two of the first three classes has given up on it. I have no commentary on the girl who missed one... though its not a good start.

Also, by this time, everyone is opening up a bit, communicating with one another, taking cigarette breaks after dinner type of stuff. The other day I accompanied one of the guys on a cigarette break. I didn't have a cigarette but I figured I'd join for the conversation, considering he did invite me. It was pretty much "guy" talk, but by no means intellectual or school/cooking related. On some levels it was interesting because it was a peek at some behind the scenes info on these guys' lives, but on the other hand it was just bullshit. I smiled and chimed in where necessary, but lets face it, I didn't have anything to contribute.

In my humble opinion, a cigarette break is a personal, intimate session between you, your cigarette and the surrounding atmosphere that you normally don't take a minute to observe. As a non-smoker, I can appreciate the value of having something to do while you're waiting for someone. Rather than standing there awkwardly, looking sketchy, you're instead standing there having a cigarette and just relaxing. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be taking many more cigarette breaks with my classmates.

Further, by now one can also start to develop their prejudices/likings against/for some of their fellow classmates. For instance, the girl (woman?) who was on the receiving end of splattered fish guts probably won't openly dislike the girl who sprayed her, but more than likely will have something against her from now on. I, too, have my own thoughts developing. This one guy, who I think is a couple of years younger than I am, just runs his mouth about things that really don't matter to anyone but him. One of these topics being how some ex-girlfriend of his called him 30+ times and left 15+ messages, until finally he gave the phone to a girl who was visiting his roommates, and she started making sex noises and said "he's busy f*cking me right now." Not classroom appropriate, and, well, quite immature and uninteresting. I know a thing or two about immature... but I usually like to infuse humor into my immature behavior.

Oh, so as we were getting started on one of our first stocks, we were in a group of 4 and immediately people were cutting and peeling and browning. No one took a moment to step back and measure anything. It was incredible! I was in awe over how 4 people went off independently without a plan. I took a moment to gather our thoughts and let everyone know that we need to measure things. After we put together a plan, everything went fairly smoothly.

We only made fish stock, chicken stock and vegetable stock entirely. These stocks take less time to cook due to the size of the bones. You can only extract so much flavor from these smaller bones. However, in the heat of making everything, I only managed to taste the vegetable stock, and I barely caught it before we threw it out. Apparently vegetable stock, as delicious as it smelled, is the least used stock. Veal/beef and chicken being the most used. And considering we don't add too much spice, including zero salt, the vegetable stock wasn't very good. But I can see how it could be good if reduced and spiced better.

It is noteworthy to mention that none of the stocks we prepared included salt. Stocks should be relatively clear, fat and grease free liquids. These stocks are the foundations of sauces that we will be making, which are usually reduced, and adding salt in the stock phase would concentrate that salty flavor for the sauce, which could be bad.

Another no-no, which I realized Friday night is salting meats that are braising or reducing in a liquid (in my case, wine). I was making some improvised beef bergundy and salted the beef and wine pretty well. Besides the slightly over salty taste in the end, I successfully sucked out all of the liquid from the beef. Rooky mistake. I learned my lesson. Salt is perhaps the most important seasonings in the culinary world, but it is also quite dangerous, and should be utilized carefully.

Ooh, that's naaasty...

As I was studying for the upcoming lesson, I took note that there was no Lesson 2. Our books (bound photocopied sheets of paper in a 3 ring binder) did not skip pages, but it skipped lessons. How could this be? I figured I should just study the upcoming lesson. I read all about the foundation of French cooking. Stocks. Brown stocks, white stocks, fish stocks, vegetable stocks, and so forth. I took detailed notes and wrote down the recipes. I also reviewed some of Lesson 1, and I called it a night.

The reason we were missing lesson 2 from our books was because we were about to receive an entirely new book. It was the SafeServ food handling bible. And we were about to have an entire lesson on it.

Luckily enough, our chef, certified to teach this course, was full of charisma and made what could have been a boring hands-off lecture into a fun few hours.

I am having a hard time remembering his name, but I think it was Chef Tim (I won't try to remember his last name). He had his salt and pepper hair cut short, and a penetrating smile that looked like it could have been found on the cover of the American Dental Association annual publication (does this exist?). He had wide eyes and a booming voice that rose over the hum of the ventilation hoods. Apparently he was a personal chef for a few Hollywood celebrities, one of which he mentioned, though I will not disclose this information on the internet (he was probably violating his fiduciary duties in mentioning it to us... which was what made him more interesting, and according to that logic, not telling you makes this blog less juicy, oh well).

In brief, Bacteria is nasty, and so is the biproducts and viruses and all those other nasty things that can grow on food and make our poop turn into soup. I'm under the impression that they really want us to understand that proper food handling is a very real part of running a successful kitchen. I got it.

Oh, and its okay to eat spinach again. Especially if you cook it. At least I'm prepared for the next lesson.

Lesson 1 - French on French Action

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.

Lets Get Oriented..

Let me start by saying I am confused by this blog stuff. Sometimes I get a nice window to type my entry, other times I get a simple text box that has no formatting options. I guess I just gotta get over it.

So I got in a few minutes late. The stupid train (I love you, train) took forever to come. When the lady got to the part on lateness she was talking to me the whole time. But that's ok. I missed the most important part. A couple of chefs were talking to the class of 10. I was number 9. At least I even showed up.

First impressions... well, obviously, I'm late. I feel like a jerk, so I walk to the back of the room to take a seat quietly. But everyone from admin wants to talk to me. They want to take my picture, take care of financial aid stuff, ask for this and that. MEANWHILE people are addressing the class. I tried to insist that I should sit down and we can discuss it after. But they insisted that I address them immediately. Just makes me more of an asshole for being late.

We did a quick round the room introduction. I don't know why my heart started to beat quicker as they approached me. Why should I be nervous? These are my peers. I was also last to talk. So I had 8 other people to listen to, analyze, try to comprehend, and think about my response. The memorable ones are the ones you can a) hear in the first place, and b) tell you something interesting. There are only ten people, so the names will be easy (though I can only recall a couple right now). It looked like 2 of the 3 girls were right out of high school. I know one was for sure, she said so. I will refrain from describing denomination and shapes and sizes because, quite frankly, that's not important. But I will say, this isn't orientation to Vassar College. These aren't bright high schoolers with the only thing running through their heads being thoughts of how to get one of their classmates in bed, or "wow, that girl in my freshman group is really cute, I'd like to get to know her." Some of these people are more educated than others, older and wiser than others, with more or less people skills. Some people have traveled from Las Vegas and Pennsylvania, others from Staten Island and Queens.

We needed to say our names, where we're from and our favorite dish to cook and why we're here. I believe I said "Hi, I'm Edwin. I grew up about 20 minutes down Grand Street (pointing down the wrong block, I think). In college I worked in a deli and I made this grilled roast beef sandwich which was really delicious. All my friends loved it. Then I experimented with better cuts of meat and the sandwich just got much better, so I hope to make it the best sandwich ever.."

Corny, perhaps.. got a few chuckles when I mentioned how the better cuts of meat made it a better sandwich. But my heart immediately stopped racing, and I was able to focus.

I'll leave out the dry bits, which was basically the rest of the orientation, however, everyone had a black FCI duffle bag in front of their seat. I figured because I was late and walked straight to the back, mine was somewhere else. Not quite. Because I signed up last minute, and my loan had not been approved yet, they pretend that I'm not really signed up. Didn't get a bag, but did get to talk to a bunch of people about how I was going to pay, and why my loan doesn't show up on their administration sites... etc. I spent an extra hour with various admin, concluding that I needed to make some phone calls and figure some things out myself.

Luckily I have figured these things out, and everything is being processed. I think they will let me in the class tonight.

I am now in the hole for $33,500 bones, at a stifling, $600-$700 a month for the first 9 months, then $300-$400 for the next 10 to 20 years.

I did not sign up for that, I didn't think. I guess I did. I'll let you know how class goes tonight.

Testing, one, two...

Like I said, I want to post about more than just food.

Before I've even showed up for orientation I find myself on the 11th floor of 50 Court Street, in Downtown Brooklyn. There is a clinic for pre-job/school disease and drug testing. I (they) needed to make sure that I did not have Tuberculosis or Hepatitis A.

I find myself sitting, and waiting, again. But this time its a little different. There are mostly ethnic woman, and most of them have little cups in their hands. I'm sure you can put two and two together without my spelling it out four you. (haha?) They were there for drug testing for their new jobs, and I was there for some blood work. After passing out for about 20 minutes with my head cocked back and mouth wide open (I wasn't going to see any of these people ever again, I hope), my name was called. "EDWARD CITRON!" The glory of being named Edwin Cintron is getting your name butchered in any way possible. The most common is Edward and Edmund, with an occsional Evan and e-win. Cintron is most commonly mistaken for Citron and Clinton. I've come to accept them all.

I pay my $45, cash only, and enter a room with a young hispanic lady. probably my same age(ish). She skillfully finds a juicy vein in my arm, and with a few opening and closings of the fist we fill up two vials with my luscious burgundy life juice.

Then I need a TB test. This, as I'm sure you know, consists of a slight injection under the skin of TB testing juice. Not sure of what it is, but it starts as a little bubble of liquid that soon dissipates under the skin. In 48 hours you need to return to have a doctor tell you that you don't have TB. I don't have TB.

I was supposed to have orientation on that same day (Friday August 17th), but I received a call telling me it was moved to Monday, the 20th. I had taken a day off from work for nothing. Though I did make the best of, I would have liked to have saved it.

We also need a pair of "chef shoes." These are black, thick leather shoes/boots, with rubber soles. My dad just gave me an extra pair that he had about 2 weeks ago. Maybe that was was a sign that I'm doing the right thing. I haven't worn them yet, but I don't feel like spending another 50+ dollars. I hope they're comfortable for the almost 6 hours I will be standing every night of class. I'm sure I'll let you know if they are.

Orientation is at 3:00PM today. I think I receive my culinary tools, locker assignment and I'll get to meet my peers and some other important people that will accompany me on my journey. I'm sure no one will miss me at work, but I will try to keep it under 2 hours. I'm skipping my lunch break to try and make up for it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Tour de la Cocina

I have already signed up and put in my deposit. Upon receipt of my $500 dollars I received a call from the guys at FCI. Much like college I have jumped into something without even taking a tour of the facilities, without meeting anyone and confirming this was the path to take. Impulsive behavior perhaps. So why not join me on my post-enrollment, pre-attendance tour.

So it turns out the school is located in downtown Manhattan. A block away from Little Italy, right on the fringe of Chinatown. I am familiar with the neighborhood, Chinatown really, and after scoping out the place, and realizing I had some time, I decided to get a snack. Perhaps my favorite Chinese dim sum-esque treat is the roast pork bun (char siu bao - I pronounce it tash ooh bao). One of those puppy's and I'm ready.

I get Up to the 4th floor and I find myself waiting. Across from me is a middle aged couple. The wife is the one who is interested in attending. I didn't catch which program they were interested in. By the pastel colored sweaters draped over their shoulders, it was apparent that they were retired, or the woman was a stay at home wife/mother whose kids had long finished college, and she was looking for something to do with her time and her husband's money. Her husband seemed uninterested in the whole thing.

There was a guy to my left, he looked Hispanic, in his late 30's and a few tattoos peeking from under his rolled up sleeves. I didn't get a good look at him so I'm unable to make up a story that sounds fitting. My tour guide was in the process of showing a younger kid with his mother (I'm 24, so I'm allowed to call anyone taking a tour with their mother a "kid".. unless its a tour of a nursing home, which could be a different blog when I'm a bit older. Just kidding mom, I'll have a cell in the basement waiting.. um, still kidding, mom.) He did take a second to greet me in the middle of his tour with this kid (and his mother), and congratulated me on making the decision to attend FCI. Before we go any further, I just want to state, he was extremely friendly, and made a career move himself into the culinary world, and working at the FCI office. I look forward to hanging out with him sometime and just kicking back, he was that kind of guy.

So after the youngin took off and said goodbye to me and wished me luck, a very friendly kid, whose mother seemed very supportive, though the financial situation seemed to be a major issue (as it is with me), Cris met with me. We signed a few papers, tried on a few chef's jackets for size, and we were off on the tour. I must say a white, double breasted chef's jacket looked quite charming on me.

The tour started with a walk-by of the Italian culinary course kitchen. There were a few suckling pigs resting on the counters. I can't imagine what they were about to do to those pigs. But I sure wanted to taste it. The Italian program, so I was told, consists of half the time learning the culinary techniques of the Italians, including some time learning the language, and half the time in Italy, immersed in non-English cooking lessons and internships. Wow. Intense. Maybe when I have another $35,000 to spend.

A little guy with a biiig hat was walking down the hall. His name was Chef Guido (Cris addressed all the Chefs by their proper title "Chef," as did all the students). I'm not sure if that was a joke, but I think it might have been his real last name. He had an Italian accent and took a minute to talk to me. It was a brief friendly hello, and off he went into the Italian kitchen.

As an aside, I was assured that my evening class was going to be quite an experience. Not just because I'm in it, but because my particular class will be about 10 people small, and there will be about 3 chefs per class. Further, evening classes include many professionals, who are also making the transition into the culinary world. There will be a certain maturity, though I'm sure I will be the one to lower the bar, and we will be able to receive a lot of attention, which is quite exciting.

Anyhow, the next station was the first station I will be starting in. These students have been there for less than a month. I saw a roundish piece of parchment paper in front of each student with a piece of fish, looked like bass by the stripes on the flesh, and some julienned vegetables being placed on top. I noticed some students' carrots were thicker or thinner than others. I wonder which was correct, and which would taste better, or which texture would go better with the fish. This is what I want to learn.

After this station, we passed the pastry chefs. BOY DID IT SMELL GOOD! Cris pulled out a tray of some earlier creations by the class. There were a number of chocolates lined up and one row of chocolate dipped brittle. I had one of those. It was quite tasty. Next we walked by an empty class except for two Chefs planning a lesson. Cris asked if he could steal a baguette. With a smile and an "of course" I was bestowed with a fresh warm baguette. (I managed to not eat it on the tour, but the minute I got into the subway I went to town. It was one of the best baguettes I've ever had. I haven't been to France, and I don't eat baguettes all the time, so yes, one of the best I've ever had. Apparently I will learn how to make those.)

We learn how to make a bunch of fresh breads in the Classic French class. It adds value to a chef if you can make your own bread, so they say.

We passed by another station. This was the 2nd third of the course. Students were in small groups at different stations and were being timed. Their plates would be critiqued for temperature, appearance and flavor, of course. We met the French chef in charge of that class. A statuesque man who was pretty young and pretty cool. Turns out he played rugby for 10 years in France, and we had a 1 minute conversation about it. I also played in college, and I play in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Sundays. He will be one of my teachers, which is good news. However, as soon as he walked into the kitchen he shouts "10 minutes, lets go guys."

These guys mean business. They are friendly and approachable, but when they're in the kitchen, teaching you how to master the skills of cuisine, they are professionals.

Let me also take this moment to mention that from the moment I started my tour, there was positive energy oozing out of ever crevice of the building. All the students were smiling. Serious, but smiling. The chefs were encouraging and serious, but smiling. Each chef took a second to talk to me. These were not professors of law, or colleges. They weren't snoody know it alls. They were culinary masters. Professional, knowledgeable chefs. They were getting paid to pass on the skills and techniques that they themselves mastered and loved. I was realizing that I made the right move.

One of the last stops of my tour was L'Ecole. The kitchen which you spend the last third of your experience in. You actually cook for the restaurant. Being in a class of 10, we will have our work cut out for us. Some serious cooking for a serious restaurant. I was trying to stay out of the way. After all this is a serious, professional kitchen. The Chefs were friendly, and willing to talk, but they had things to do. It was 11:45 by that point. No one was there for lunch. but I am aware that it would pick up. But more importantly, people are definitely there for dinner. I will be cooking for them. Dinner at L'Ecole is not a quick bite, but a serious affair. I can't wait.

But the highlight of the trip, or what I foresee as what might be the highlight of my journey, is that the students prepared lunch for everyone who was there. Not only the customers, but the other students, the chefs, the administration. Everyone. Everyday. 300+ meals are prepared. Why is this the highlight? Not only will I be preparing these meals at some point, but I will also be EATING these meals. During dinner time. Everyday! Need I say more?

Enrollment to the French Culinary Institute

Its 5:30P - I just started this blog... I'm itching to leave work. Hopefully this isn't a sign of laziness to come for this blog. (foreshadowing, symbolism... as Jorge would say)

I enrolled in the French Culinary Institute today. I start on Tuesday August 21, 2007. I haven't really discussed this major investment with any of my friends or family. Its quite impulsive. But I think its the right choice.

My intentions for this blog are to not discuss the pleasures and exquisite tastes of food, which I will inevitably do anyways, but instead to take you on this adventure, this $34,000+ adventure, that I'm going on, which will perhaps one day take me somewhere. A little direction in a, so far, fairly boring paralegal lifestyle.

I'm not exactly sure if I will tell my roomates, or just come home late on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday nights. Ugh, did I really sign away my saturday nights for the next 9 months? Is that the right spirit? Well, I AM excited about this.. I wish I knew HTML... I'd put AM in italics. I guess that's something I need to figure out being a new owner of a blog.

Some logistics.. I plan on writing when I have some significant input, preferably after a class, before a class... while I'm practicing something new... who knows. I hope this becomes interesting and more than just my friends read it (after I make them read it). I will try to explain inside jokes (for instance when I referenced Jorge in this post, he is one of my friends who likes to point out anything in a movie, whether or not it has relevance, and claim that it is "symbolism," then we mock him with a heavy latin american/spanish accent, since he is a fuzzy little ecuadorian.)

I guess you'll learn more about me as we go. And I'll try not to drag on like this first extremely interesting and eventful post.
see ya fools.