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.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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.”
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.”
Monday, November 12, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, October 29, 2007
“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.
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.
Friday, October 26, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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?)
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?)
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