Let’s just get this out of the way: I have made another life-altering decision. I have decided to leave the Culinary Institute of America. I have already applied to and am waiting on a decision from IUPUI’s School of Education to pursue a degree in Elementary Education. I bet that right now a lot of you are saying, “Didn’t Brendan leave school once already and dedicate all of his time the past three years to go to the CIA?” Well, yes I did. Believe me, this is by far the hardest thing I have ever decided to do and I did not approach it lightly. Let me try to explain my reasoning behind my choice to leave the Culinary Institute of America.
In every career that I have ever dreamed about/pursued/actually had, the end goal was to one day teach it. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be an English teacher. In early high school, I wanted to work in museum education. In late high school I wanted to be a Government teacher. Even as I entered the culinary world, I always knew that after working in restaurants for a while, I would hopefully work for a culinary school. Every job that I have had in the past has been in the form of teaching and giving tours (The Children’s Museum, coaching high school rowing, and being a college tour guide). While the subject matter has often been different, being an educator is the one constant theme in my career path.
The most difficult part of making this decision is that I have been incredibly successful in culinary school. I had a 4.0 and was my class leader at Ivy Tech. Here at the CIA, I have gained incredible amounts of knowledge and have maintained a 3.6. At The Hawthorns, I was a full-fledged line cook and was running my own station by the time that my apprenticeship came to a close. I really am incredibly proud of the things that I have done in the past three years. I don’t regret the time that I have put in or the places that I have gone. The problem is just that cooking and being part of the food industry does not make me as happy as I thought it would. While food is indeed a passion, I have come to the realization that it is just a passion and not a calling. As much as I want to love working in a kitchen, I do not. I think that having my experience at the children’s museum and as a rowing coach as taught me a few valuable things about having a job/career. Even though every minute of it is not fun, I never ever dreaded going in to work coaching or interpreting. At the end of the day in Dinosphere, I was always quite happy with what I had done. Oftentimes when walking into class at the CIA or driving in to work at the restaurant, I would be filled with an overwhelming sense of dread at what was about to happen. I wanted more than anything to not be there and just get the day done with. I hope that it is not idealistic of me to say that I want a job that I enjoy going to and makes me feel accomplished.
It’s more than just being happy that I am looking for, though. I want a job that matters. While there are people in the food industry who can contribute to the world, very few do. At the end of a night of dinner service, all I have really done is cook some chicken and make some sauce. I want to have a bigger impact on people. I feel like I have abandoned some of the ideals that once motivated everything that I did. Being a cook has caused me ignore my passion for vegetarianism, my awareness of world events, and my dedication to various human rights issues. While I know that educators do not save the world in the way that others do, I still know that I have the potential to do more good than just cutting carrots and making demi glace all day. The final major reason that I want to go into education is that I want to lead a more normal life than I have had the last few years. As much as I love going to the grocery store at midnight and nobody is around, I miss being able to see my friends and family in the daylight. I know that one day I will have kids. I really want to have a family. As a chef, the long, late hours and the demand to work holidays and weekends make maintaining relationships difficult, yet alone trying to raise children.
So…what is the end game in all of this? I am not sure. I think I would be happy in a classroom as a traditional elementary school teacher. However, I would first like to explore what it would take to be successful as a museum educator. I have spoken to my former boss at the Children’s Museum and we are exploring the possibility of my return this May. I know that there are few things in the world that make me as happy as being on the floor of that museum after a successful program. I love talking to kids and making them smile as we talk and play games about dinosaurs. In the past, I have returned to work there time and time again because it’s fun and I enjoy the company of my coworkers. This time, I am really excited to explore Interpretation as a possible career.
This is never, not even in a million years, where I thought I would end up. I was convinced that I had found my career in cooking. However, I do not regret any of the things that I have done in the past four years since high school. I have learned volumes about what motivates me, where my interests are, and what I can do in the future. I have made a lot of changes and taken a lot of non-traditional paths. I am incredibly grateful to have had such understanding and supportive parents. I would not have been able to pursue (so many) dreams without them. I also want to thank all of my other family and friends for understanding that I have never been one to make decisions and do things the traditional way. I cannot ask for any more or thank you enough for supporting me as I start yet another chapter in my life.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Football Shaped Hell
In the final week of Skills II, the emphasis was put on creating perfect plates of food. As if this wasn’t the standard already, even more pressure was put on us to create dishes that were completely free of errors. We had to sequence all of our food so that it would be done at the same time, not be held too long, be cooked to the desired doneness and color, be plated beautifully, and have excellent flavor. It’s what the restaurant industry is all about… pressure.
Monday: sautéed chicken fines herbs, homemade pasta, snap peas, and battonnet cut root vegetables. Battonnets are sticks that are ¼” x ¼” x 2”. It’s not a difficult knife cut, but making sure that the ends are prefect squares can be a little challenging. Homemade pasta was easier this time than a few weeks ago because we got to make it in a food processor, then roll it out by hand/pasta roller. I honestly can’t remember the critiques that chef made this day, but I can imagine that the herbs in my sauce could have been a bit greener and my knife cuts could have been more precise. Those are things that I get from him quite often. At the end of class, we got our midterm tests back (100%), and had face-to-face meetings with Chef to find out how we were doing in the class. I found out that I was doing quite well, and that if I was able to nail all of my dishes the rest of the week and on the practical, I could get an A in the class. I was determined to make this happen. He told a lot of people the same thing and it made us hopefull for the future. Sadly, though, one girl found out that she was failing the class and had to drop out. She had never been that great and did some dangerous things in the kitchen, so it was a good thing for her and for us. I feel bad for her, but I am glad that I don’t have to worry about getting stabbed with a paring knife or having hot oil thrown in my face anymore.
Tuesday: The technique of the day was fish sauté. We were scheduled to produce trout a la meuniere, wild rice, tourné cut glazed root vegetables, and brussel sprouts with bacon and pearl onions. We got to cut, skin, and fabricate our own trout fillets. I’ve said it before and I will say it again; I hate eating fish but fabricating it is one of my favorite things to do in a kitchen. The first thing that we had to do was cut all of the vegetables that we needed. I cut parsnips, rutabaga, turnips, and carrots into tournés, which is a two-inch long football shape with seven sides and flat ends. It is ridiculously difficult and unimaginably wasteful and time-consuming. Because of these facts, no restaurants use the cut anymore. However, the CIA thinks it’s necessary for us to learn them. We’ve been practicing on potatoes the past few weeks, but Monday we actually had to cook them. Mine looked ok, but they were defiantly not the best tournés in the world. Cutting the trout made the whole day worth it, though. We sautéed the fillets and then used whole butter to brown and add parsley and lemon juice to right before service. It creates quite a delicious sauce. The fish, brussle sprouts, and glazed veggies went with some boiled wild rice, not my favorite of accompaniments, as discussed before. The only problem that Chef saw with my dish was that my brown butter sauce was a little too dark, so I didn’t quite nail the dish as I was hoping. We each had some leftover trout fillets, so chef threw a second dish at us. We left the skin on this fillet, sautéed it, and then made beurre blanc sauce to go with it. Beurre blanc is an interesting sauce. As with most any sauce, it starts with sweating shallots in clarified butter. Then white wine and a small amount of heavy cream go into the pan with aromatics like peppercorns and bay leaf, etc. Once the wine and cream have reduced, HUGE amounts of cold, whole butter are whisked in. The milk solids in the heavy cream help to hold the sauce together and keep the sauce from breaking and separating. The flavor of the sauce, once finished and strained, is shallot and butter. While normally this would taste great, I think the large and reduced flavors of the sauce are just a bit too much for me. Chef Velie was eating his with a spoon…this man is great and such a chef.
Wednesday: Technique of the day: pan fry. The day started with making mayonnaise b hand. Just like a lot of things that I describe, it’s not hard, but it takes a good amount of whisking. By the end of every cup of mayo that I make, I am usually a little sweaty and more than a little sore. The mayo went into the cole slaw that we had to make and keep tasting throughout the day to see when it was ready. Caitlin would have loved it! Once our cole slaw was sitting, we started braising kale. In general, kale is not my favorite cooking green, but when it is slow cooked in stock and has plenty of flavor additives (like bacon), it make for a tasty and easy side dish. The next event was to make sauce charcutiere. It is a derivative sauce of sauce Robert which is a derivative of demi glace. Luckily, we already had demi made, so all we had to do was go though the normal reduction and flavoring process(wine, shallots, peppercorn, Dijon, etc.) for the Robert and then added julienne of cornichons. Before we could start the meat, we had one last thing to make: spaetzle. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with this delicious item or not. I had only had it once before coming to the CIA, but it is one of my favorite things in the world. Luckily, it seems as if the CIA agrees, because we eat a lot of it. It starts with making a batter of flour, egg, water, milk, and seasonings. It has the consistency of pancake batter. Then you get a ricer, colander, fryer basket, or really anything with holes and place it over a pot of simmering water. When you pour the batter through the item with holes, it creates little stream of batter. When these hit the boiloing water, it creates little pea-sized dumpling of dough. After they cook in the water, they are transferred to a sauté pan and cooked until golden brown with butter and herbs. OH GOD! I just love spaetzle. We got pork cutlets up from the meat room, so we used the standard breading procedure of flour, egg, then bread crumbs. We did the pan fry in clarified butter, of course. My critiques for the day were that one of my cutlets could have been more evenly breaded. Again, I didn’t nail it, so my dreams of an A went flying out the window. It tough to see a perfect dish with great flavor and everything cooked perfectly and plated beautifully, but get points off because one side of one cutlet had a small hole in the breading. I understand why they say that CIA graduates the best chefs, because we learn to create perfect food. I don’t mean to toot my own horn; I’ve never created anything in this place that is prefect. What I mean to get across is that I am learning to pay attention to absolutely everything so that I will one day be able to create perfect dishes from start to finish.
Thursday: Second to last day of Skills II. The cooking methods that we were learning were grilling and deep frying. I can’t even begin to describe how hot and smoky the kitchen was on Thursday. But before we get there, we first had a tourné practical exam. We had 30 minutes to create 8 perfect tourné potatoes. Let’s just say that it did not go in my favor. I got a 60%… Haha…opps. Again, that A was just slipping away from me. No big deal, My food that day turned out ok. We made grilled herb-marinated strip steaks with maitre d’hotel butter, grilled vegetables, and fresh cut French fries. There is nothing quite like topping a piece of red meat with slices of compound butter. My grilled items had great grill marks, and my veggies were cooked perfectly. My butter had great flavor, my steak was seasoned right, and my fries were good, but my steak was cooked a little past medium rare, which was our goal. I keep saying that I am going to post pictures, but really, I am going to find a way. I have one of my plate from Thursday, and it looks really good. At the end of class, we took our written final. I think I nailed it. There are maybe just two questions that I might have missed
Friday: Cooking Practical day. We were given the recipes and demonstrations the day before. So the night before, all we had to do was write out our mise en place lists and create a timeline for the day. Each student was staggered ten minutes apart. We could not come into the kitchen until our time started. Then we had 2.5 hours to set up our station, get our mise en place, do any cutting that we needed to do, get all prep done, and start cooking. Then we had a half-hour window to serve our food. We could not serve before our window opened, and we failed if we missed our window. The pressure is indeed “on”, but there is more than enough time to get everything done. I was even able to take a 15 minute break and call Caitlin. I started at 2:00. This means that my service window was from 4:30-5:00. The dish for the day: pan-seared beef medallions (basically the same thing as fillet mignon), sauce chasseur, broccoli rabe, potato gratin, and battered and fried onion rings. I feel like I have bored all of you enough with cooking details in this post, so I will not go into it her. I will say these few things: I was really nervous before the day started. The dishes were not hard and I made myself some incredibly detailed prep lists to help myself out, but I was nervous regardless. I got all my mise en place done early. If I would have started the cooking and firing of dishes then, I would have finished before my service window opened. So I decided to take a break and call Caitlin for some encouragement. She was great, but I was still kind of anxious when I was walking back to the room. I was talking myself into believing that it was going to be fine, and then I realized something. I was getting ready to take a test over something that I loved. Even if things went wrong, I was still able to do something that makes me happy. I felt just fine after that. I don’t know if it was because of my positive attitude or not, but I created some really outstanding dishes. My steak had amazing color, my sauce was really flavorful, my steaks were cooked prefect medium rare, my onion rings could have had more color, but they were cooked through and flavorful. The only other critique was that my knife cuts on the tomatoes in the sauce could have been smaller. Then Chef Velie told me that my potato gratin was delicious. I don’t think that I have ever been more proud. Usually, he just says that things are “good”, “have good flavor”, or are “ok”. I have never had a “delicious” before. I was quite pleased and I would also have to agree. I wound up eating both of them.
It is kind of sad to leave Skills I & II. We have been in the same kitchen, with the same chef, and the same group of students for the past six weeks. We have come a very long way. At the beginning, it would take us all five hours to make one or two soups. The kitchen would be filled with dirty dishes and it would take us forever to make and bag all the stocks. Now, we have 2.5 hours to create entire meals and the kitchen is rather clean at the end. Our class has gone from 19 students to 15, and we have really grown to work very well together. In Skills III, we move into new groups, new chefs, and new kitchens. I am leaving some of my friends, but I am going into what I think will be a solid group. Lots of the best from my class and the other current PM class are going into this new class together. I am generally excited. We will be making all of the same dishes that we learned in Skills II, but we will be making them for a production setting. It will be more like working a line in a restaurant. Each group of three students is responsible for about 20 covers. I am ready to get back on a line. I am sure that all of you will hear from me soon, and wish me luck in Skills III!
Monday: sautéed chicken fines herbs, homemade pasta, snap peas, and battonnet cut root vegetables. Battonnets are sticks that are ¼” x ¼” x 2”. It’s not a difficult knife cut, but making sure that the ends are prefect squares can be a little challenging. Homemade pasta was easier this time than a few weeks ago because we got to make it in a food processor, then roll it out by hand/pasta roller. I honestly can’t remember the critiques that chef made this day, but I can imagine that the herbs in my sauce could have been a bit greener and my knife cuts could have been more precise. Those are things that I get from him quite often. At the end of class, we got our midterm tests back (100%), and had face-to-face meetings with Chef to find out how we were doing in the class. I found out that I was doing quite well, and that if I was able to nail all of my dishes the rest of the week and on the practical, I could get an A in the class. I was determined to make this happen. He told a lot of people the same thing and it made us hopefull for the future. Sadly, though, one girl found out that she was failing the class and had to drop out. She had never been that great and did some dangerous things in the kitchen, so it was a good thing for her and for us. I feel bad for her, but I am glad that I don’t have to worry about getting stabbed with a paring knife or having hot oil thrown in my face anymore.
Tuesday: The technique of the day was fish sauté. We were scheduled to produce trout a la meuniere, wild rice, tourné cut glazed root vegetables, and brussel sprouts with bacon and pearl onions. We got to cut, skin, and fabricate our own trout fillets. I’ve said it before and I will say it again; I hate eating fish but fabricating it is one of my favorite things to do in a kitchen. The first thing that we had to do was cut all of the vegetables that we needed. I cut parsnips, rutabaga, turnips, and carrots into tournés, which is a two-inch long football shape with seven sides and flat ends. It is ridiculously difficult and unimaginably wasteful and time-consuming. Because of these facts, no restaurants use the cut anymore. However, the CIA thinks it’s necessary for us to learn them. We’ve been practicing on potatoes the past few weeks, but Monday we actually had to cook them. Mine looked ok, but they were defiantly not the best tournés in the world. Cutting the trout made the whole day worth it, though. We sautéed the fillets and then used whole butter to brown and add parsley and lemon juice to right before service. It creates quite a delicious sauce. The fish, brussle sprouts, and glazed veggies went with some boiled wild rice, not my favorite of accompaniments, as discussed before. The only problem that Chef saw with my dish was that my brown butter sauce was a little too dark, so I didn’t quite nail the dish as I was hoping. We each had some leftover trout fillets, so chef threw a second dish at us. We left the skin on this fillet, sautéed it, and then made beurre blanc sauce to go with it. Beurre blanc is an interesting sauce. As with most any sauce, it starts with sweating shallots in clarified butter. Then white wine and a small amount of heavy cream go into the pan with aromatics like peppercorns and bay leaf, etc. Once the wine and cream have reduced, HUGE amounts of cold, whole butter are whisked in. The milk solids in the heavy cream help to hold the sauce together and keep the sauce from breaking and separating. The flavor of the sauce, once finished and strained, is shallot and butter. While normally this would taste great, I think the large and reduced flavors of the sauce are just a bit too much for me. Chef Velie was eating his with a spoon…this man is great and such a chef.
Wednesday: Technique of the day: pan fry. The day started with making mayonnaise b hand. Just like a lot of things that I describe, it’s not hard, but it takes a good amount of whisking. By the end of every cup of mayo that I make, I am usually a little sweaty and more than a little sore. The mayo went into the cole slaw that we had to make and keep tasting throughout the day to see when it was ready. Caitlin would have loved it! Once our cole slaw was sitting, we started braising kale. In general, kale is not my favorite cooking green, but when it is slow cooked in stock and has plenty of flavor additives (like bacon), it make for a tasty and easy side dish. The next event was to make sauce charcutiere. It is a derivative sauce of sauce Robert which is a derivative of demi glace. Luckily, we already had demi made, so all we had to do was go though the normal reduction and flavoring process(wine, shallots, peppercorn, Dijon, etc.) for the Robert and then added julienne of cornichons. Before we could start the meat, we had one last thing to make: spaetzle. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with this delicious item or not. I had only had it once before coming to the CIA, but it is one of my favorite things in the world. Luckily, it seems as if the CIA agrees, because we eat a lot of it. It starts with making a batter of flour, egg, water, milk, and seasonings. It has the consistency of pancake batter. Then you get a ricer, colander, fryer basket, or really anything with holes and place it over a pot of simmering water. When you pour the batter through the item with holes, it creates little stream of batter. When these hit the boiloing water, it creates little pea-sized dumpling of dough. After they cook in the water, they are transferred to a sauté pan and cooked until golden brown with butter and herbs. OH GOD! I just love spaetzle. We got pork cutlets up from the meat room, so we used the standard breading procedure of flour, egg, then bread crumbs. We did the pan fry in clarified butter, of course. My critiques for the day were that one of my cutlets could have been more evenly breaded. Again, I didn’t nail it, so my dreams of an A went flying out the window. It tough to see a perfect dish with great flavor and everything cooked perfectly and plated beautifully, but get points off because one side of one cutlet had a small hole in the breading. I understand why they say that CIA graduates the best chefs, because we learn to create perfect food. I don’t mean to toot my own horn; I’ve never created anything in this place that is prefect. What I mean to get across is that I am learning to pay attention to absolutely everything so that I will one day be able to create perfect dishes from start to finish.
Thursday: Second to last day of Skills II. The cooking methods that we were learning were grilling and deep frying. I can’t even begin to describe how hot and smoky the kitchen was on Thursday. But before we get there, we first had a tourné practical exam. We had 30 minutes to create 8 perfect tourné potatoes. Let’s just say that it did not go in my favor. I got a 60%… Haha…opps. Again, that A was just slipping away from me. No big deal, My food that day turned out ok. We made grilled herb-marinated strip steaks with maitre d’hotel butter, grilled vegetables, and fresh cut French fries. There is nothing quite like topping a piece of red meat with slices of compound butter. My grilled items had great grill marks, and my veggies were cooked perfectly. My butter had great flavor, my steak was seasoned right, and my fries were good, but my steak was cooked a little past medium rare, which was our goal. I keep saying that I am going to post pictures, but really, I am going to find a way. I have one of my plate from Thursday, and it looks really good. At the end of class, we took our written final. I think I nailed it. There are maybe just two questions that I might have missed
Friday: Cooking Practical day. We were given the recipes and demonstrations the day before. So the night before, all we had to do was write out our mise en place lists and create a timeline for the day. Each student was staggered ten minutes apart. We could not come into the kitchen until our time started. Then we had 2.5 hours to set up our station, get our mise en place, do any cutting that we needed to do, get all prep done, and start cooking. Then we had a half-hour window to serve our food. We could not serve before our window opened, and we failed if we missed our window. The pressure is indeed “on”, but there is more than enough time to get everything done. I was even able to take a 15 minute break and call Caitlin. I started at 2:00. This means that my service window was from 4:30-5:00. The dish for the day: pan-seared beef medallions (basically the same thing as fillet mignon), sauce chasseur, broccoli rabe, potato gratin, and battered and fried onion rings. I feel like I have bored all of you enough with cooking details in this post, so I will not go into it her. I will say these few things: I was really nervous before the day started. The dishes were not hard and I made myself some incredibly detailed prep lists to help myself out, but I was nervous regardless. I got all my mise en place done early. If I would have started the cooking and firing of dishes then, I would have finished before my service window opened. So I decided to take a break and call Caitlin for some encouragement. She was great, but I was still kind of anxious when I was walking back to the room. I was talking myself into believing that it was going to be fine, and then I realized something. I was getting ready to take a test over something that I loved. Even if things went wrong, I was still able to do something that makes me happy. I felt just fine after that. I don’t know if it was because of my positive attitude or not, but I created some really outstanding dishes. My steak had amazing color, my sauce was really flavorful, my steaks were cooked prefect medium rare, my onion rings could have had more color, but they were cooked through and flavorful. The only other critique was that my knife cuts on the tomatoes in the sauce could have been smaller. Then Chef Velie told me that my potato gratin was delicious. I don’t think that I have ever been more proud. Usually, he just says that things are “good”, “have good flavor”, or are “ok”. I have never had a “delicious” before. I was quite pleased and I would also have to agree. I wound up eating both of them.
It is kind of sad to leave Skills I & II. We have been in the same kitchen, with the same chef, and the same group of students for the past six weeks. We have come a very long way. At the beginning, it would take us all five hours to make one or two soups. The kitchen would be filled with dirty dishes and it would take us forever to make and bag all the stocks. Now, we have 2.5 hours to create entire meals and the kitchen is rather clean at the end. Our class has gone from 19 students to 15, and we have really grown to work very well together. In Skills III, we move into new groups, new chefs, and new kitchens. I am leaving some of my friends, but I am going into what I think will be a solid group. Lots of the best from my class and the other current PM class are going into this new class together. I am generally excited. We will be making all of the same dishes that we learned in Skills II, but we will be making them for a production setting. It will be more like working a line in a restaurant. Each group of three students is responsible for about 20 covers. I am ready to get back on a line. I am sure that all of you will hear from me soon, and wish me luck in Skills III!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Of Cabbages and Kings...
To wrap up Skills Development I: The whole class ended quite nice for me. I got a B for my final grade. Of course, I was very much hoping to do better, but didn’t really expect it. I am content with the grade, but it pushed me to do better in Skills Development II.
Tuesday 2/16: Well, I didn’t exactly get off to the best start. On the first day, I would say that I failed miserably. We made braised red cabbage, glazed beets, duchesse potatoes, cocotte potatoes, and demi glace. The only thing that turned out right was my demi glace. My braised cabbage was over-cooked and walking the line of burnt. My glazed beets were undercooked. My duchesse potatoes were too wet and not brown enough, and my potato cocottes were unevenly brown and different sizes. Boo. Not a good day at all.
Wednesday 2/17: I started my tour guide training this day. There was not much to it; I just followed around another tour guide to learn the talking points and stops on the tour. In class: Rice day. Generally, I don’t like rice. It is not at all on my top list of choices for a starchy side. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not feel the same way. Chef Velie is one of those people who just loves rice cookery. Again, this was not a good day for me. We made rice pilaf, boiled rice, risotto, and vegetables jardinere (blanched vegetable batonnets that are then finished with melted butter, of course). My risotto was good. My boiled rice was ok, but needed more salt. My vegetables were fine, I think. However, my rice pilaf was overcooked. Because we had enough time, Chef told me that I could make it again to get some points back. So I did, but this time I undercooked it. I doubt that I got any points back…
Thursday 2/18: I was not in a good place this day. I was really not looking forward to class at all. I didn’t want to be there and I was seriously becoming jealous of Chrissy for leaving the CIA. I couldn’t handle another bad day in the kitchen. Well, I was in luck because it was Pasta Day. We made cheese filling, duxelle filling, and homemade pasta dough. Half of the dough we rolled out into fettuccine and the half we made into ravioli. It was perhaps the best day that I have ever had in class. Chef had nothing but good things to say about my dishes. I felt awesome. On top of that, we also put together a GIANT pasta buffet where we got to sample everybody’s pastas and sauces. My team made Bolognese, but there was also tomato, putanesca, pesto, etc. I felt a lot better at the end of the day.
Friday 2/19: I think I followed another tour on Friday, but at this point I don’t remember. In Skills, it was egg day. I was kind of excited. I love egg cookery. We started the day making mayonnaise (again), hollandaise (for like the 34567th time), and poached eggs with Canadian bacon and English muffins which we turned into eggs benedict. I think all of you know by now that eggs benedict is my favorite dish of all time. Love it. Then we worked on hard boiled eggs and two different custards. Then we had to practice our à la minute egg cookery. We had 20 minutes and one Teflon pan to make two scrambled eggs, two sunny-side-up eggs, two eggs over-easy, two eggs over-medium, and two eggs over-hard. It was at this time that I became thankful for two things: one, that I worked the omelet bar at the country club on Sunday mornings. Two, that I made myself one egg over-medium every morning for breakfast for the past two years. I didn’t get the over-hard done by the time that time was up, but I still executed all the others perfectly and didn’t break a single yolk. J By the end of the day, all 17 students and Chef Velie went through a flat (30 ea) of eggs. For those of you keeping track, that’s 540 eggs. Wow.
Weekend: I had big plans for getting all kinds of things done and catching up on work and my Externship search. Very little of that happened. On Friday night, Steph, Jen, and I just hung out in my room. We were too exhausted to even change out of our chef whites. On Saturday, I spent most of the day reading Twilight (don’t judge me!) and catching up on Grey’s Anatomy and Brothers & Sisters. That night, Jen and I went out to Steph’s apartment again to make dinner. This time it was antipasti and pizza. We had all kinds of toppings like mozzarella, olives, several sausages, parmesan, peppers, etc. So delicious. Stephanie also made some Guinness ice cream. I had the foresight to bring some Kaluah to drip on top. It was also a tasty combination. After dinner, we had a great conversation about how religion develops and affects society. As much as I love food, I don’t get to think about much else, and it was such a relief to talk about something stimulating like religion again. Sunday, I really have no recollection of what I did, but I am sure that it was not productive. I would assume lots of Facebook and napping.
Monday 2/22: Poached Salmon. Ahem…I hate salmon. I hate poached meat. Not looking forward to this day. We made a court bouillon (a short broth made with water, acid, and mirepoix) to poach the salmon in. we then made a béarnaise to serve with the salmon. It went with julienne vegetables and haricots verts. This was the first day that we had to give the chef a composed plate. Usually, we just turn in dishes as we finish them, but starting Monday, everything was a whole meal that has to be served beautifully, cooked perfectly, and be warm all at the same time. While it is indeed more difficult than before, it feels good to make a whole meal and have more “real world” practice. I really love the rush of dinner service. I love how fast everything moves, how I have to ignore the world and live in my zone while I finish the food, and turn out perfect plates. I can only imagine it’s like the rush that keeps sky divers going back for more. I love it and it’s nice to be back in that world, even if it’s only on a small scale…just one plate. Chef liked my plate this day. Everything was cooked fine and had good flavor. Needless to say, I did not eat the leftovers. After class, I hung around to talk to Chef Velie about how I had done in Skills I, a few assignments that I had questions about, and to ask his advice on a few externship opportunities. It was incredibly productive. I got a lot of good information and feedback from him, and it seems like he got to see that I really am a dedicated student who wants to do well in this school and industry.
Tuesday 2/23: Shallow Poached Flounder with a sauce reduction served with saffron rice pilaf, sautéed spinach, and glazed carrots. Again, it was a good day. I was worried that my spinach and flounder were both overcooked. Chef disagreed. I was pleased to find this out. I have trouble judging when fish is done because I don’t really know what it needs to look since I avoid eating it like the plague. We were supposed to get whole winter flounder in and then we were going to fabricate them ourselves. I was oddly looking forward to this. While I hate eating fish, I really enjoy fabricating it. Flounder is the easiest type of fish to fillet. It’s what we got to do for our cutting practical in Seafood class. Sadly, though, the seafood class sent us already fabricated flounder. I have never seen such a disappointed room of culinary students. I really love the student body at this school… Where else do seventeen 18-24 year olds get sad about not breaking down a whole flounder?
Wednesday 2/24: Herb-Roasted Chicken with pan gravy, oven-roasted potatoes and classic ratatouille. This was one of the easiest days that we have ever had. Once the chicken was in the oven cooking, all we had to do was finish all the small dicing for the ratatouille. Generally, I had a good day. My chicken was cooked and broken down properly. My gravy had good flavor and consistency. The ratatouille had good flavor and was cooked well, but of course, my knife cuts were off. They so often are. My potatoes also could have been a little more moist. All in all, not a bad day.
Thursday 2/25: Best. Day. Ever. We made Braised short ribs, haricots verts, soft polenta, and roasted root vegetables. I have a very fervent, fiery, love of all things braised. Also, polenta is just the best starch ever. Since after the ribs are seared, all they do is sit in stock in an oven for two hours, it was another easy day. There is always about 10 minutes when it’s service time that get busy, but other than that it was another calm day. When Chef Velie was giving us a demo on how to plate the dish, he pulled out these giant tweezers to place the haricots verts around the plate one at a time. Picture tweezers that one would use to pluck eyebrows, but make them 10 times larger. I could not contain my laughter at not only how ridiculous the process was, but also at the size of the tweezers. Without missing a beat, my friend Stephanie says, “Oh, damn! I forgot to bring my giant tweezers today.” On the surface, it’s not that funny. However, I lost it. I had to walk away for a minute and collect myself. My food turned out quite well. Chef’s only critique: my knife cuts on the root vegetables… of course. He also told me that he nominated me and another kid in my class for a faculty-nominated leadership scholarship. I was completely touched and honored. I never thought that he would choose me for something like that, especially since the other person he nominated is Jim, our class’s outstanding group leader. Even if I don’t get it, just knowing that Chef Velie sees potential in me was a great gift. It really boosted my confidence and was just what I needed to hear.
Friday 2/26: We made simmered broccoli with (say it with me now: ) melted butter, whipped potatoes, and veal fricassee with all kinds of classic, French, cooked garnishes. Fricassee is basically a thickened white stew. I have never had it before, and I really quite enjoyed it. The plating was kinda cool: we piped the whipped potatoes into a boarder around the plate and used them as “walls” to hold in the fricassee in the middle of the plate. It was garnished with bacon lardoons, mushrooms cooked in bacon fat, and glazed pearl onions. I was really worried that my potatoes were overcooked, dry, and under-seasoned. Once again, I proved that I am a terrible judge of food because Chef saw no big problems with the dish other than a little overcooked broccoli. As the days pass, I am learning to really hate cooking broccoli. It’s quite a temperamental vegetable…
Now it’s the weekend again and I am determined to get things done. Today I am dedicating to my externship search, and tomorrow I am dedicating to homework. Perhaps there will be an Indian food break in there somewhere. We’ll see, though. I have my Writing final on Tuesday morning. It’s just an in-class essay. I am not worried. That will also be the last day of that class. I can say goodbye to waking up at 6am every Thursday and Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I have my first tour. I have followed like four so far. I will give the tour on my own, but there will be another guide there in case I need help or get stuck. Then on Friday, I have my written final and cooking practical for Skills II. Big week…wish me luck!
Tuesday 2/16: Well, I didn’t exactly get off to the best start. On the first day, I would say that I failed miserably. We made braised red cabbage, glazed beets, duchesse potatoes, cocotte potatoes, and demi glace. The only thing that turned out right was my demi glace. My braised cabbage was over-cooked and walking the line of burnt. My glazed beets were undercooked. My duchesse potatoes were too wet and not brown enough, and my potato cocottes were unevenly brown and different sizes. Boo. Not a good day at all.
Wednesday 2/17: I started my tour guide training this day. There was not much to it; I just followed around another tour guide to learn the talking points and stops on the tour. In class: Rice day. Generally, I don’t like rice. It is not at all on my top list of choices for a starchy side. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not feel the same way. Chef Velie is one of those people who just loves rice cookery. Again, this was not a good day for me. We made rice pilaf, boiled rice, risotto, and vegetables jardinere (blanched vegetable batonnets that are then finished with melted butter, of course). My risotto was good. My boiled rice was ok, but needed more salt. My vegetables were fine, I think. However, my rice pilaf was overcooked. Because we had enough time, Chef told me that I could make it again to get some points back. So I did, but this time I undercooked it. I doubt that I got any points back…
Thursday 2/18: I was not in a good place this day. I was really not looking forward to class at all. I didn’t want to be there and I was seriously becoming jealous of Chrissy for leaving the CIA. I couldn’t handle another bad day in the kitchen. Well, I was in luck because it was Pasta Day. We made cheese filling, duxelle filling, and homemade pasta dough. Half of the dough we rolled out into fettuccine and the half we made into ravioli. It was perhaps the best day that I have ever had in class. Chef had nothing but good things to say about my dishes. I felt awesome. On top of that, we also put together a GIANT pasta buffet where we got to sample everybody’s pastas and sauces. My team made Bolognese, but there was also tomato, putanesca, pesto, etc. I felt a lot better at the end of the day.
Friday 2/19: I think I followed another tour on Friday, but at this point I don’t remember. In Skills, it was egg day. I was kind of excited. I love egg cookery. We started the day making mayonnaise (again), hollandaise (for like the 34567th time), and poached eggs with Canadian bacon and English muffins which we turned into eggs benedict. I think all of you know by now that eggs benedict is my favorite dish of all time. Love it. Then we worked on hard boiled eggs and two different custards. Then we had to practice our à la minute egg cookery. We had 20 minutes and one Teflon pan to make two scrambled eggs, two sunny-side-up eggs, two eggs over-easy, two eggs over-medium, and two eggs over-hard. It was at this time that I became thankful for two things: one, that I worked the omelet bar at the country club on Sunday mornings. Two, that I made myself one egg over-medium every morning for breakfast for the past two years. I didn’t get the over-hard done by the time that time was up, but I still executed all the others perfectly and didn’t break a single yolk. J By the end of the day, all 17 students and Chef Velie went through a flat (30 ea) of eggs. For those of you keeping track, that’s 540 eggs. Wow.
Weekend: I had big plans for getting all kinds of things done and catching up on work and my Externship search. Very little of that happened. On Friday night, Steph, Jen, and I just hung out in my room. We were too exhausted to even change out of our chef whites. On Saturday, I spent most of the day reading Twilight (don’t judge me!) and catching up on Grey’s Anatomy and Brothers & Sisters. That night, Jen and I went out to Steph’s apartment again to make dinner. This time it was antipasti and pizza. We had all kinds of toppings like mozzarella, olives, several sausages, parmesan, peppers, etc. So delicious. Stephanie also made some Guinness ice cream. I had the foresight to bring some Kaluah to drip on top. It was also a tasty combination. After dinner, we had a great conversation about how religion develops and affects society. As much as I love food, I don’t get to think about much else, and it was such a relief to talk about something stimulating like religion again. Sunday, I really have no recollection of what I did, but I am sure that it was not productive. I would assume lots of Facebook and napping.
Monday 2/22: Poached Salmon. Ahem…I hate salmon. I hate poached meat. Not looking forward to this day. We made a court bouillon (a short broth made with water, acid, and mirepoix) to poach the salmon in. we then made a béarnaise to serve with the salmon. It went with julienne vegetables and haricots verts. This was the first day that we had to give the chef a composed plate. Usually, we just turn in dishes as we finish them, but starting Monday, everything was a whole meal that has to be served beautifully, cooked perfectly, and be warm all at the same time. While it is indeed more difficult than before, it feels good to make a whole meal and have more “real world” practice. I really love the rush of dinner service. I love how fast everything moves, how I have to ignore the world and live in my zone while I finish the food, and turn out perfect plates. I can only imagine it’s like the rush that keeps sky divers going back for more. I love it and it’s nice to be back in that world, even if it’s only on a small scale…just one plate. Chef liked my plate this day. Everything was cooked fine and had good flavor. Needless to say, I did not eat the leftovers. After class, I hung around to talk to Chef Velie about how I had done in Skills I, a few assignments that I had questions about, and to ask his advice on a few externship opportunities. It was incredibly productive. I got a lot of good information and feedback from him, and it seems like he got to see that I really am a dedicated student who wants to do well in this school and industry.
Tuesday 2/23: Shallow Poached Flounder with a sauce reduction served with saffron rice pilaf, sautéed spinach, and glazed carrots. Again, it was a good day. I was worried that my spinach and flounder were both overcooked. Chef disagreed. I was pleased to find this out. I have trouble judging when fish is done because I don’t really know what it needs to look since I avoid eating it like the plague. We were supposed to get whole winter flounder in and then we were going to fabricate them ourselves. I was oddly looking forward to this. While I hate eating fish, I really enjoy fabricating it. Flounder is the easiest type of fish to fillet. It’s what we got to do for our cutting practical in Seafood class. Sadly, though, the seafood class sent us already fabricated flounder. I have never seen such a disappointed room of culinary students. I really love the student body at this school… Where else do seventeen 18-24 year olds get sad about not breaking down a whole flounder?
Wednesday 2/24: Herb-Roasted Chicken with pan gravy, oven-roasted potatoes and classic ratatouille. This was one of the easiest days that we have ever had. Once the chicken was in the oven cooking, all we had to do was finish all the small dicing for the ratatouille. Generally, I had a good day. My chicken was cooked and broken down properly. My gravy had good flavor and consistency. The ratatouille had good flavor and was cooked well, but of course, my knife cuts were off. They so often are. My potatoes also could have been a little more moist. All in all, not a bad day.
Thursday 2/25: Best. Day. Ever. We made Braised short ribs, haricots verts, soft polenta, and roasted root vegetables. I have a very fervent, fiery, love of all things braised. Also, polenta is just the best starch ever. Since after the ribs are seared, all they do is sit in stock in an oven for two hours, it was another easy day. There is always about 10 minutes when it’s service time that get busy, but other than that it was another calm day. When Chef Velie was giving us a demo on how to plate the dish, he pulled out these giant tweezers to place the haricots verts around the plate one at a time. Picture tweezers that one would use to pluck eyebrows, but make them 10 times larger. I could not contain my laughter at not only how ridiculous the process was, but also at the size of the tweezers. Without missing a beat, my friend Stephanie says, “Oh, damn! I forgot to bring my giant tweezers today.” On the surface, it’s not that funny. However, I lost it. I had to walk away for a minute and collect myself. My food turned out quite well. Chef’s only critique: my knife cuts on the root vegetables… of course. He also told me that he nominated me and another kid in my class for a faculty-nominated leadership scholarship. I was completely touched and honored. I never thought that he would choose me for something like that, especially since the other person he nominated is Jim, our class’s outstanding group leader. Even if I don’t get it, just knowing that Chef Velie sees potential in me was a great gift. It really boosted my confidence and was just what I needed to hear.
Friday 2/26: We made simmered broccoli with (say it with me now: ) melted butter, whipped potatoes, and veal fricassee with all kinds of classic, French, cooked garnishes. Fricassee is basically a thickened white stew. I have never had it before, and I really quite enjoyed it. The plating was kinda cool: we piped the whipped potatoes into a boarder around the plate and used them as “walls” to hold in the fricassee in the middle of the plate. It was garnished with bacon lardoons, mushrooms cooked in bacon fat, and glazed pearl onions. I was really worried that my potatoes were overcooked, dry, and under-seasoned. Once again, I proved that I am a terrible judge of food because Chef saw no big problems with the dish other than a little overcooked broccoli. As the days pass, I am learning to really hate cooking broccoli. It’s quite a temperamental vegetable…
Now it’s the weekend again and I am determined to get things done. Today I am dedicating to my externship search, and tomorrow I am dedicating to homework. Perhaps there will be an Indian food break in there somewhere. We’ll see, though. I have my Writing final on Tuesday morning. It’s just an in-class essay. I am not worried. That will also be the last day of that class. I can say goodbye to waking up at 6am every Thursday and Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I have my first tour. I have followed like four so far. I will give the tour on my own, but there will be another guide there in case I need help or get stuck. Then on Friday, I have my written final and cooking practical for Skills II. Big week…wish me luck!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Demi-Post
Hey everybody!
I don't have too much to report this week. Every day has continued pretty much the same as last week. We continued to to Knife Cut Trays every day. Then we would watch a demo from Chef and start our student production for the day. Some of the things we made this week: Cauliflower gratin, bechamel sauce, mornay sauce, creamed spinach, chicken consomme, hollandaise, mayonnaise, espagnole, jus de veau lie, demi-glace, tomato sauce, pasta, and vinaigrettes.
On Wednesday, we were supposed to get a ton of snow, so the school canceled all afternoon classes. Woo Hoo! Snow Day! I should have spent the day getting ahead on homework, but instead I sat in my room and watched Heathers and some True Blood. I didn't actually snow as much as they thought it would and we could have had class just fine. One of the sad events of Wednesday was that my good friend and classmate Chrissy told us she was going to leave the CIA. It's really pretty sad for us. She is wicked funny and great to be around. The kitchen will not be the same without her.
Because of the snow day, everything that we were supposed to do on Wednesday, we had to do on Thursday in addition to everything that was scheduled for that day. It was kind of nuts. We got it all done and Chef even liked some of my dishes. Friday was our last day of Skills Development I, so we had all of our finals. I got a 12.75/15 on my knife cuts practial. For our cooking practical, I had to make mayonasie by hand, beef consomme brunoise, espangole sauce, demi-glace, boiled broccoli and cauliflower, and hollandaise. We had 2.5 hours. It was great to feel the pressure of lots of production and getting things done well and on time. It was like being back in the restaurant again. I was pretty pleased with how I did. Chef Velie's only critiques were that my consomme was a little oily on top and that my brunoise cuts were off (of course). He also thought my mayo was a little high in acid, not too high, but almost.
At the end of the night, he had an absolute mountain of dishes to clean. I'll try to post some pictures later. after about an hour and a half of cleaning, we had to take our written final. I think I did pretty well. There might be only a few questions that I missed. I got a 100% on the written midterm, so I might have gone into the final a bit too confident.
Friday night, we just hung out with Chrissy for the last time and ate pizza. We said goodbye to her early on Saturday morning. sad. Later that day, I was able to move into the big side of the dorm room because Anthony left for externship. Now I don't have to climb up the side of a bunk bed to go to sleep and I have tons of room to keep all my things. It's glorious.
When I get my final grades, I'll be sure to update you all. Skills II starts Tuesday. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got a job as a Tour Guide through the school's Hospitality Office and I start training on Tuesday morning. If you know me, you know how stupid excited I am about being a tour guide...
I don't have too much to report this week. Every day has continued pretty much the same as last week. We continued to to Knife Cut Trays every day. Then we would watch a demo from Chef and start our student production for the day. Some of the things we made this week: Cauliflower gratin, bechamel sauce, mornay sauce, creamed spinach, chicken consomme, hollandaise, mayonnaise, espagnole, jus de veau lie, demi-glace, tomato sauce, pasta, and vinaigrettes.
On Wednesday, we were supposed to get a ton of snow, so the school canceled all afternoon classes. Woo Hoo! Snow Day! I should have spent the day getting ahead on homework, but instead I sat in my room and watched Heathers and some True Blood. I didn't actually snow as much as they thought it would and we could have had class just fine. One of the sad events of Wednesday was that my good friend and classmate Chrissy told us she was going to leave the CIA. It's really pretty sad for us. She is wicked funny and great to be around. The kitchen will not be the same without her.
Because of the snow day, everything that we were supposed to do on Wednesday, we had to do on Thursday in addition to everything that was scheduled for that day. It was kind of nuts. We got it all done and Chef even liked some of my dishes. Friday was our last day of Skills Development I, so we had all of our finals. I got a 12.75/15 on my knife cuts practial. For our cooking practical, I had to make mayonasie by hand, beef consomme brunoise, espangole sauce, demi-glace, boiled broccoli and cauliflower, and hollandaise. We had 2.5 hours. It was great to feel the pressure of lots of production and getting things done well and on time. It was like being back in the restaurant again. I was pretty pleased with how I did. Chef Velie's only critiques were that my consomme was a little oily on top and that my brunoise cuts were off (of course). He also thought my mayo was a little high in acid, not too high, but almost.
At the end of the night, he had an absolute mountain of dishes to clean. I'll try to post some pictures later. after about an hour and a half of cleaning, we had to take our written final. I think I did pretty well. There might be only a few questions that I missed. I got a 100% on the written midterm, so I might have gone into the final a bit too confident.
Friday night, we just hung out with Chrissy for the last time and ate pizza. We said goodbye to her early on Saturday morning. sad. Later that day, I was able to move into the big side of the dorm room because Anthony left for externship. Now I don't have to climb up the side of a bunk bed to go to sleep and I have tons of room to keep all my things. It's glorious.
When I get my final grades, I'll be sure to update you all. Skills II starts Tuesday. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got a job as a Tour Guide through the school's Hospitality Office and I start training on Tuesday morning. If you know me, you know how stupid excited I am about being a tour guide...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Oh, I'll Just Have Some Foie Gras and Soup, Please
This week has been interesting. It’s had some big highs and some big lows, but I guess I’ll get to it all in due time. Skills Development I is all about getting the fundamentals down now, so that when we move on to the production kitchens, we will be able to execute everything perfectly and quickly. We make lots of sauces and soups and every day we do a knife tray. I think I explained them last week, but these knife cuts rule my mood for the day. It’s like how Jeopardy was my life in Seafood class. All I want is to do well and impress Chef Velie with my knife cuts, but we always fall short. We are never quite good enough or fast enough. I understand that we are expected to be the best and that is why they push us so hard, but sometimes I wish we were graded on where we should be now instead of where they expect us to eventually be. Did that make sense? I don’t know…the past two weeks have done a lot to teach me and my class that we have a lot of room for improvement. It’s also emotionally hard to go up to an incredibly talented chef and have him tell me what I already know. When I look at my knife cuts, I can tell what is off and what didn’t turn out right. It’s hard being told over and over again how much we suck.
Monday: We only had 50 minutes for our knife trays this week. It was rushed at first, but I got it done. I was really looking forward to this day because we got to make consommé. It’s a really fun preparation. You take stock or broth and them make it perfectly clear. It’s amazing how it works out. For a quart of veal consommé, you take 12oz of ground veal, 4oz of mirepoix, 3 egg whites, and 2.5oz of tomatoes concassee, and salt and mix them together for quite a while in a bowl. The acid from the tomatoes, the salt, and the agitation from the stirring start to denature the proteins in the ground meat and egg whites. Then this mixture is stirred into cold stock. As the liquid and meat slurry come up to a simmer, the proteins start to cook, or coagulate. As they do, they form a raft on the top of the stock. As the liquid convection simmers around the raft, the proteins trap any impurities inside their web. Classically, when the consommé is finished, you should be able to read the date on a dime when placed at the bottom of a gallon of consommé. It’s amazing and a lot of fun. I had to make it a few times at Hawthorns and for a final at Ivy Tech. My consommé in class turned out well. It was perfectly clear and free of grease. I served it with blanched julienne veggies as garnish. Chef Velie liked my soup.
Tuesday: Potato day. We made Potato and Leek Soup and Pommes Purées (mashed potatoes). Both were relatively simple. I love potato and leek soup, so that was fun to taste while I was cooking. For the mashed potatoes, I got to use a food mill, which is my favorite piece of kitchen equipment. This was the first day that we had two different dishes to present to chef, so that made things a little rushed during our service window. The dishes took forever to clean at the end of the night. Chef Velie liked my soup. It had good flavor and consistency and was served warm, which is all you can really ask for in a soup. My mashed potatoes were a little cold, but good flavor. A big problem was that there are only two food mills for the entire class of 19 to use, so waiting for a food mill to become free to start the puree added to our collective temperature issues.
Wednesday: Ok, things started to get a little crazy today. I was on Stock Team today. This is kind of like Ice Team from Seafood, but instead of stuffing fish full of ice, we make stock all day in addition to all of our other work. We made 200# of bones worth of chicken stock and 100# worth of Brown Veal Stock. The hardest part about the chicken stock is that it needs to be degreased every 30 minutes or so. This involves going over to the stock kettles and using a giant ladle to scoop the fat off the top, but not getting the liquid underneath. For the brown veal stock, we have to roast the bones in a very hot oven and the turn them every 30 minutes for about 1.5 hours. Well, life does not stop just because I have to turn some bones or degrease. So while time is going on our knife trays, we have to go do other things too. I was a little rushed and my knife cuts were awful. It feels great having your minced parsley compared to grass clippings.
Well, the day didn’t get any better when I had to make soup. It was a puree of lentils that day. The cooking process was fine. My soup was well seasoned and flavorful, but Chef Velie told me that my soup was very thick. Not too thick, but bordering on too thick. Ah well, so it goes.
Thursday: 13/15 on my knife tray. It was the best grade in the class that day. I don’t know what happened, but my small-diced potatoes, my battonetts, my concassee tomatoes, parsley, and most of the others were prefect. It felt really really good. I couldn’t have been more pleased.
Then it was time for production. We made fish fumet and then from that we made fish chowder. Fumet is like fish stock, but you start by sweating the aromatics and fish bones first. We used cod. Ew. Cod fish are bottom dwelling fish and are infested with cod worms and have nasty faces. With my luck, all of my bones were heads. The fumet process was not fun and tasting was just unbearable. Then we had to make chowder from the fumet and the addition of pale roux. I like making roux. It’s fun for me… usually. When I was all done adding the potatoes and cream and cod meat such and went to turn in my bowl of soup, my chef just looked at it and looked at me. Then he put his spoon in it and stirred a bit, doing the same thickness test that he did with my lentil soup. Then he said, “Brendan, what’s wrong here?” Well, I knew he wanted me to say that it was too thick so I did. Then he told me to go fix it and bring it back. I took it back to my station, added more fumet, brought it to a simmer, plated it, and took the soup back to Chef. “Ok, Brendan, it’s a little dark. Fix it and bring it back.” Are you kidding me? I really suck this much Whatever. I went back, added some simmering cream, some more fumet, re-seasoned, and brought to a simmer. This time when I turned it in (for the third time, for those of you keeping track) it was acceptable. I just want to do well. I just want to cook good food and I can’t even do that right.
Friday: Knife tray, I was back to failing miserably. My fine brunoise (1/16th of an inch cube) were perfect. However, my medium dice (1/2 of an inch cube) was just terrible. I think a big part of my knife cuts being off was that I was back on Stock Team for the day in addition to having to stir my brown roux every three or four minutes. I was rushed and it showed. On top of all of that, I decided to miss my carrot while peeling it, but instead I peeled the skin off the end of my finger. It didn’t hurt that bad, but it’s my left pointer finger, so it makes guiding my knife cuts kind of hard. The soup on Friday was cream of broccoli. It starts with making a velouté sauce, simmering broccoli and other aromatics in it, blending it, adding cream, and then garnishing with blanched broccoli. I turned my bowl into Chef and he stirs it and looks at me. I just pick it up without a word and take it back to my station to thin it out. I can’t even believe that my soup was too thick three days in a row. When I turned it back in, it was the prefect color and flavor, so at least I have that going for me.
On Friday nigh, Jen and I drove 45 minutes south to this town called Beacon. It’s really quaint and a lot like Rhinebeck. The main street reminds me of Mass Ave. in Indy. It’s filled with bars, restaurants, boutiques, etc. We heard about this great wine bar called Chill. I absolutely loved it. It was like being back at the Chatham Tap. They had a pretty decent wine list, tons of beers, and really great platters of cheese, hummus, meats, etc. The clientele was older than most bars in Poughkeepsie. I’d say most were in their early 30’s, so it was not filled with annoying Marist and Vassar kids. It was great. I plan on going back often.
Saturday: All month long our school has been preparing for this big event called The American Bocuse d’Or. The Bocuse d’Or is a huge culinary competition that takes place every two years in Lyon, France. It takes one team from something like 30 countries around the world and they have to make two elaborate meals/presentations that focus on two different main ingredients. You should look up some of the platters that these teams create; they are astonishing. Well anyway, our school was hosting the American finals to see which team would go on to represent us at the international event next year. This is no laughing matter. This is, by all means, the top culinary competition in the world. The panel of judges at our school this week included the best chefs in the country. To name a few big’uns: Thomas Keller, Tim Ryan, Alan Wong, Jerome Bocuse, Grant Achatz, David Chang, and so many others. Oh god. There was just a ridiculous amount of talent all in one room. I went to watch some of the competition and judging on Saturday morning. It was unbelievable watching these people work and create their food. When the judging was about to begin, we had to clear out from around the kitchens and move back. I started walking to the stairs to go up to the balcony. I turned around to make sure that I hadn’t lost my friends in the crowd. When I turned back forwards, I looked in front of me and there was Thomas Keller. I was about six inches from knocking him over. All I could manage to say was, “Sorry, Chef” and then turn and run away in horror. Guess that’s just another example of the crazy life we lead at this school. Oh, I also went to a foie gras tasting and lecture. I learned a great deal about the process and then got to sample three different preparations. I do love me some fattened goose liver… even if it’s at 10:00am…
Monday: We only had 50 minutes for our knife trays this week. It was rushed at first, but I got it done. I was really looking forward to this day because we got to make consommé. It’s a really fun preparation. You take stock or broth and them make it perfectly clear. It’s amazing how it works out. For a quart of veal consommé, you take 12oz of ground veal, 4oz of mirepoix, 3 egg whites, and 2.5oz of tomatoes concassee, and salt and mix them together for quite a while in a bowl. The acid from the tomatoes, the salt, and the agitation from the stirring start to denature the proteins in the ground meat and egg whites. Then this mixture is stirred into cold stock. As the liquid and meat slurry come up to a simmer, the proteins start to cook, or coagulate. As they do, they form a raft on the top of the stock. As the liquid convection simmers around the raft, the proteins trap any impurities inside their web. Classically, when the consommé is finished, you should be able to read the date on a dime when placed at the bottom of a gallon of consommé. It’s amazing and a lot of fun. I had to make it a few times at Hawthorns and for a final at Ivy Tech. My consommé in class turned out well. It was perfectly clear and free of grease. I served it with blanched julienne veggies as garnish. Chef Velie liked my soup.
Tuesday: Potato day. We made Potato and Leek Soup and Pommes Purées (mashed potatoes). Both were relatively simple. I love potato and leek soup, so that was fun to taste while I was cooking. For the mashed potatoes, I got to use a food mill, which is my favorite piece of kitchen equipment. This was the first day that we had two different dishes to present to chef, so that made things a little rushed during our service window. The dishes took forever to clean at the end of the night. Chef Velie liked my soup. It had good flavor and consistency and was served warm, which is all you can really ask for in a soup. My mashed potatoes were a little cold, but good flavor. A big problem was that there are only two food mills for the entire class of 19 to use, so waiting for a food mill to become free to start the puree added to our collective temperature issues.
Wednesday: Ok, things started to get a little crazy today. I was on Stock Team today. This is kind of like Ice Team from Seafood, but instead of stuffing fish full of ice, we make stock all day in addition to all of our other work. We made 200# of bones worth of chicken stock and 100# worth of Brown Veal Stock. The hardest part about the chicken stock is that it needs to be degreased every 30 minutes or so. This involves going over to the stock kettles and using a giant ladle to scoop the fat off the top, but not getting the liquid underneath. For the brown veal stock, we have to roast the bones in a very hot oven and the turn them every 30 minutes for about 1.5 hours. Well, life does not stop just because I have to turn some bones or degrease. So while time is going on our knife trays, we have to go do other things too. I was a little rushed and my knife cuts were awful. It feels great having your minced parsley compared to grass clippings.
Well, the day didn’t get any better when I had to make soup. It was a puree of lentils that day. The cooking process was fine. My soup was well seasoned and flavorful, but Chef Velie told me that my soup was very thick. Not too thick, but bordering on too thick. Ah well, so it goes.
Thursday: 13/15 on my knife tray. It was the best grade in the class that day. I don’t know what happened, but my small-diced potatoes, my battonetts, my concassee tomatoes, parsley, and most of the others were prefect. It felt really really good. I couldn’t have been more pleased.
Then it was time for production. We made fish fumet and then from that we made fish chowder. Fumet is like fish stock, but you start by sweating the aromatics and fish bones first. We used cod. Ew. Cod fish are bottom dwelling fish and are infested with cod worms and have nasty faces. With my luck, all of my bones were heads. The fumet process was not fun and tasting was just unbearable. Then we had to make chowder from the fumet and the addition of pale roux. I like making roux. It’s fun for me… usually. When I was all done adding the potatoes and cream and cod meat such and went to turn in my bowl of soup, my chef just looked at it and looked at me. Then he put his spoon in it and stirred a bit, doing the same thickness test that he did with my lentil soup. Then he said, “Brendan, what’s wrong here?” Well, I knew he wanted me to say that it was too thick so I did. Then he told me to go fix it and bring it back. I took it back to my station, added more fumet, brought it to a simmer, plated it, and took the soup back to Chef. “Ok, Brendan, it’s a little dark. Fix it and bring it back.” Are you kidding me? I really suck this much Whatever. I went back, added some simmering cream, some more fumet, re-seasoned, and brought to a simmer. This time when I turned it in (for the third time, for those of you keeping track) it was acceptable. I just want to do well. I just want to cook good food and I can’t even do that right.
Friday: Knife tray, I was back to failing miserably. My fine brunoise (1/16th of an inch cube) were perfect. However, my medium dice (1/2 of an inch cube) was just terrible. I think a big part of my knife cuts being off was that I was back on Stock Team for the day in addition to having to stir my brown roux every three or four minutes. I was rushed and it showed. On top of all of that, I decided to miss my carrot while peeling it, but instead I peeled the skin off the end of my finger. It didn’t hurt that bad, but it’s my left pointer finger, so it makes guiding my knife cuts kind of hard. The soup on Friday was cream of broccoli. It starts with making a velouté sauce, simmering broccoli and other aromatics in it, blending it, adding cream, and then garnishing with blanched broccoli. I turned my bowl into Chef and he stirs it and looks at me. I just pick it up without a word and take it back to my station to thin it out. I can’t even believe that my soup was too thick three days in a row. When I turned it back in, it was the prefect color and flavor, so at least I have that going for me.
On Friday nigh, Jen and I drove 45 minutes south to this town called Beacon. It’s really quaint and a lot like Rhinebeck. The main street reminds me of Mass Ave. in Indy. It’s filled with bars, restaurants, boutiques, etc. We heard about this great wine bar called Chill. I absolutely loved it. It was like being back at the Chatham Tap. They had a pretty decent wine list, tons of beers, and really great platters of cheese, hummus, meats, etc. The clientele was older than most bars in Poughkeepsie. I’d say most were in their early 30’s, so it was not filled with annoying Marist and Vassar kids. It was great. I plan on going back often.
Saturday: All month long our school has been preparing for this big event called The American Bocuse d’Or. The Bocuse d’Or is a huge culinary competition that takes place every two years in Lyon, France. It takes one team from something like 30 countries around the world and they have to make two elaborate meals/presentations that focus on two different main ingredients. You should look up some of the platters that these teams create; they are astonishing. Well anyway, our school was hosting the American finals to see which team would go on to represent us at the international event next year. This is no laughing matter. This is, by all means, the top culinary competition in the world. The panel of judges at our school this week included the best chefs in the country. To name a few big’uns: Thomas Keller, Tim Ryan, Alan Wong, Jerome Bocuse, Grant Achatz, David Chang, and so many others. Oh god. There was just a ridiculous amount of talent all in one room. I went to watch some of the competition and judging on Saturday morning. It was unbelievable watching these people work and create their food. When the judging was about to begin, we had to clear out from around the kitchens and move back. I started walking to the stairs to go up to the balcony. I turned around to make sure that I hadn’t lost my friends in the crowd. When I turned back forwards, I looked in front of me and there was Thomas Keller. I was about six inches from knocking him over. All I could manage to say was, “Sorry, Chef” and then turn and run away in horror. Guess that’s just another example of the crazy life we lead at this school. Oh, I also went to a foie gras tasting and lecture. I learned a great deal about the process and then got to sample three different preparations. I do love me some fattened goose liver… even if it’s at 10:00am…
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Glace Class
This is going to be kind of short. I have a lot of work to do today. First of all, let’s wrap up Meat and Seafood. I got an A- in both classes. I expected lower grades in both, but certain assignments never get handed back to us, we never get told our daily grades, and things are weighted so heavily that it makes final grade prediction really hard.
We had a three-day weekend because of the new block, so I was able to accomplish quite a bit. Most of Monday was spent getting work done and organized for the first day of Skills Development I. On Tuesday ay 1:15, we had to do to a kitchen safety lecture to learn about fire extinguishers and the importance of non-slip shoes. Thrilling. Then we headed on down to Kitchen #4. It’s in the basement of the school, not too far from the Seafood ID room. The kitchen has lots of stations for students to prep and cook. There are three lines (rows of burners, ovens, low-boy refrigerators, salamanders, and counter space) just like a restaurant would have. The difference here is that the front of the kitchen has three HUGE steam-jacketed kettles. They are the big, free-standing kettles that you see on TV that places use to produce big quantities of soup. The Skills I&II classes are responsible for providing the school with stocks. Everyday, these kettles get turned over twice with stock. Basically, about 200 gallons of stock are made every day.
My instructor is Chef Velie. He is truly outstanding. This is the level of instruction that I was hoping to receive here. He is incredibly nice and helpful. If we have questions or need to know what to do, we can ask him without being afraid of him. Also, if he sees us doing something wrong, he doesn’t yell about how dumb we are; he comes over and shows us how to do it right. He is a Certified Executive Chef, one level under CMC, and he has worked everywhere. He really knows his stuff and I can’t wait to spend the next six weeks in his class.
On Tuesday, we had a tour of the kitchen, had a lecture/demo on stock making, and had a demo on basic knife cuts. Then we practiced mincing shallots and garlic. We also had to chiffonade parsley. We wrapped up with another lecture on broth making. On Wednesday, we had a bunch of group work to do at the beginning like peeling/cleaning all the produce that the class will use the rest of the day and getting the stocks started. Then we had another demo on other knife cuts. We had to make our first knife cuts tray for a grade. This is something that we are going to do every day. We have to mice two shallots, mince two garlic cloves, produce a tablespoon of parsley chiffonade, make battonnets of one potato, small dice another potato, julienne another potato, make four tomato petals, one tomato concassee, make one boquet garni, one sachet d’epice, small two onions, and make 1/8th inch slices of another onion. We had an hour to do this on the first week. I got a 10.5 out of 15 on Wednesday. My cuts need some work. We will get less and less time every day as the class continues. Also on Wednesday, we had to produce one gallon of beef broth per person.
On Thursday, after group work and knife trays (12 out of 15), we made vegetable beef soup with the broth that we made the day before. My soup had good flavor, the veg was cooked perfectly, was seasoned well, and was not at all greasy on top. However, he said that my knife cuts were a little off and was a bit heavy on the pepper. We also each reduced 2 cups of chicken stock into glace de volialle. It’s cooks down slowly into about 2oz. of really flavorful liquid that can be used to fortify the flavor of other sauces and soups. Glace is really tasty and sets up like jello when it’s allowed to cool. It’s handy stuff to have around. Finally, each group made 1 gallon of chicken broth.
On Friday, I was really proud of my knife tray. I even finished a few minutes before the deadline. I turned it in and got an 11 out of 15. He said my parsley chiffonade looked like grass clippings. Boo. However, we got to do our first real cooking on Friday. We made Onion Soup. WE had to cut a bunch of extra sliced onions and then caramelized them in clarified butter. Once they were brown and the pan had developed a dark fond, we deglazed the bottom of the pan with calvados and then flambéd it. This was fun, but it was scary to have 19 other kids do it around me. I was afraid for the life of my eyebrows. When I turned in my soup and chesse-covered croutons, he generally liked it. My soup had good base flavor, the onions were cooked well, it was seasoned properly, and the crouton was the right texture. Once again, though, I put too much pepper in. Turns out, I like things kind of hot from pepper. I guess I will have to be better next time.
This weekend has been really great. Saturday night, I went to my friend Stephanie’s apartment and made dinner with her, Jen, and a guy named Andrew from our Skills class. We made some fresh pasta, a salad, steamed artichokes, and white chocolate mousse cups. It was nice cooking and cutting without being graded. I was free to add as much pepper as I see fit…
We had a three-day weekend because of the new block, so I was able to accomplish quite a bit. Most of Monday was spent getting work done and organized for the first day of Skills Development I. On Tuesday ay 1:15, we had to do to a kitchen safety lecture to learn about fire extinguishers and the importance of non-slip shoes. Thrilling. Then we headed on down to Kitchen #4. It’s in the basement of the school, not too far from the Seafood ID room. The kitchen has lots of stations for students to prep and cook. There are three lines (rows of burners, ovens, low-boy refrigerators, salamanders, and counter space) just like a restaurant would have. The difference here is that the front of the kitchen has three HUGE steam-jacketed kettles. They are the big, free-standing kettles that you see on TV that places use to produce big quantities of soup. The Skills I&II classes are responsible for providing the school with stocks. Everyday, these kettles get turned over twice with stock. Basically, about 200 gallons of stock are made every day.
My instructor is Chef Velie. He is truly outstanding. This is the level of instruction that I was hoping to receive here. He is incredibly nice and helpful. If we have questions or need to know what to do, we can ask him without being afraid of him. Also, if he sees us doing something wrong, he doesn’t yell about how dumb we are; he comes over and shows us how to do it right. He is a Certified Executive Chef, one level under CMC, and he has worked everywhere. He really knows his stuff and I can’t wait to spend the next six weeks in his class.
On Tuesday, we had a tour of the kitchen, had a lecture/demo on stock making, and had a demo on basic knife cuts. Then we practiced mincing shallots and garlic. We also had to chiffonade parsley. We wrapped up with another lecture on broth making. On Wednesday, we had a bunch of group work to do at the beginning like peeling/cleaning all the produce that the class will use the rest of the day and getting the stocks started. Then we had another demo on other knife cuts. We had to make our first knife cuts tray for a grade. This is something that we are going to do every day. We have to mice two shallots, mince two garlic cloves, produce a tablespoon of parsley chiffonade, make battonnets of one potato, small dice another potato, julienne another potato, make four tomato petals, one tomato concassee, make one boquet garni, one sachet d’epice, small two onions, and make 1/8th inch slices of another onion. We had an hour to do this on the first week. I got a 10.5 out of 15 on Wednesday. My cuts need some work. We will get less and less time every day as the class continues. Also on Wednesday, we had to produce one gallon of beef broth per person.
On Thursday, after group work and knife trays (12 out of 15), we made vegetable beef soup with the broth that we made the day before. My soup had good flavor, the veg was cooked perfectly, was seasoned well, and was not at all greasy on top. However, he said that my knife cuts were a little off and was a bit heavy on the pepper. We also each reduced 2 cups of chicken stock into glace de volialle. It’s cooks down slowly into about 2oz. of really flavorful liquid that can be used to fortify the flavor of other sauces and soups. Glace is really tasty and sets up like jello when it’s allowed to cool. It’s handy stuff to have around. Finally, each group made 1 gallon of chicken broth.
On Friday, I was really proud of my knife tray. I even finished a few minutes before the deadline. I turned it in and got an 11 out of 15. He said my parsley chiffonade looked like grass clippings. Boo. However, we got to do our first real cooking on Friday. We made Onion Soup. WE had to cut a bunch of extra sliced onions and then caramelized them in clarified butter. Once they were brown and the pan had developed a dark fond, we deglazed the bottom of the pan with calvados and then flambéd it. This was fun, but it was scary to have 19 other kids do it around me. I was afraid for the life of my eyebrows. When I turned in my soup and chesse-covered croutons, he generally liked it. My soup had good base flavor, the onions were cooked well, it was seasoned properly, and the crouton was the right texture. Once again, though, I put too much pepper in. Turns out, I like things kind of hot from pepper. I guess I will have to be better next time.
This weekend has been really great. Saturday night, I went to my friend Stephanie’s apartment and made dinner with her, Jen, and a guy named Andrew from our Skills class. We made some fresh pasta, a salad, steamed artichokes, and white chocolate mousse cups. It was nice cooking and cutting without being graded. I was free to add as much pepper as I see fit…
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Farm-Raised Pacific King Salmon
This week became a little bit more routine than last week. I had Seafood ID every day. It felt nice to settle in. Let me walk you though my basic schedule each day.
9:00am- wake up and shower
9:30am- study the previous day’s material to be ready for Jeopardy
11:30am- get dressed and pack my knife bag
12:00pm- lunch
12:45- line up outside the Seafood Room for class
1:00pm- class starts; de-head, de-gut, and scale the fish for the day
2:00pm- clean the scaling sinks and do dishes
2:30- ID lecture
3:00pm- fish fabrication
4:30pm- organize the cut fish, re-pack the fish in the Ice Room, and clean the Fab. Room
5:30pm- Jeopardy
6:00pm- seafood tasting and palate development
6:45pm- Lecture
8:00pm- return to room to shower and start laundry
9:00pm- dinner
10:00pm- start on homework
12:00am- finish homework and watch one episode of Will and Grace to get fish off my mind before falling asleep around 1am
A few variations/details on this basic schedule:
Monday: I was on Ice Team this day, so I showed up to class early to pull out all of the fish that needed to be fabricated this day. It’s called ice team because you spend most of the time digging around in large bins of ice to pull out and count/weigh fish. At the end of the day, we have to pack the fish’s cavity with ice and burry them again. We work closely with Savannah, our TA, to make sure the inventory is all correct. She is really wonderful. She knows her fish backwards and forwards, she is the best multi-tasker I have ever seen; she can simultaneously fill orders, answer questions, and ask us review questions. Chef Boyardee had the day off on Monday so we had another one of the Seafood instructors, Chef Viverito fill in. He got us in and out of ID and fabrication in about half the time that Chef Boyardee takes. He was harsh and demanding, but it worked. During lecture, he was correcting mistakes in Chef Boyardee’s powerpoint. I developed instructor envy…
Tuesday: We had Writing at 7:00am. Woo hoo! Not much different in Seafood. Chef Boyardee continued to be ridiculously repetitive. I spent most of the evening memorizing fish identifications and information.
Wednesday: Ice Team again for Seafood. We had a practice ID test during class. We had to stand up in front of the class, Chef handed us a fish, and then we had to identify it and talk as much as we could about. I got in front of the class and Chef Boyardee says, “Brendan, you look like a smart guy. You don’t get a fish. Talk to me about halibut.” The thing is, there are 16 people in my class. We only had 12 species of fish in that day. I had to go without one in front of me. Fine. I know about halibut. So, I talked all about the family it’s in, how to identify it, how to cut it, its market form, the best cooking methods, etc. The only thing I forgot to mention was that halibut cheeks are sold separately as a delicacy. No biggie. Our tasting that night was mollusks (clams, oysters, mussels, etc.) I may or may not have regurgitated an oyster during the tasting. It was not a good night for my palate.
Thursday: Writing at 7:00am. I can’t tell you how irritating that class is. We had to peer edit papers again. My favorite…. In Seafood class, we had our cutting practical. We were each going to do quarter filets of a winter flounder. I was relieved. Flounder are flat fish and require the easiest of the three cutting and skinning methods. The problem is scaling. Flounder have thousands of tiny scales on both sides of their bodies. We loose one point for each scale that Chef finds. Well, as it turns out, I got all of my scales off, but he found four salmon scales down by my flounder’s tale that must have gotten on him in the scaling sinks. Lame. My bad. I lost four points and laughed out loud at my own stupidity. I got a 54 out of 60 for the cutting. When that was done, Chef Boyardee decided to surprise us with our Identification Final. This wasn’t supposed to be until tomorrow. Well, Chef Boyardee realized that there wouldn’t be many different fish in stock on Friday because of the up-coming three-day weekend. Um, for those of you out there who don’t know, we here at the CIA have a three-day weekend at the beginning of every block. That happens every three weeks. Now, Chef Boyardee was a student here and has been an instructor for the last two or three years. I really don’t know how he could have forgotten. At the end of the ID test, I was really confident. I had probably only missed three of the 40 questions. Our tasting that night was crustaceans. Turns out, I really like whole-roasted langoustines and smoked shrimp. I was up rather late that night, along with my whole class, writing my research paper on wild vs. farm-raised fish.
Friday: Last day of Seafood Hell! It was going to be an easy day. There was only a little bit of fabrication to do. We knocked that out and cleaned the kitchen faster than we ever had in the past. Our tasting that afternoon involved a plate that was worth about $80. We each sampled 10 types of caviar, 6 or 7 smoked/cured salmons, and assorted other smoked fish. Um, I like some caviar. Some of it was too strong for me, but some of it was really quite delicious. The salmon and trout roe was gross, but the true sturgeon caviar had awesome flavor and texture. When it was time to take the final, Chef Boyardee handed back our ID tests first. I was a little surprised to find out that I got the Farm-Raised Pacific King Salmon ID wrong and then lost all the points below it for getting the ID wrong. The same thing happened to another guy in my class, Jim. When we went to ask Chef about it, he told us that “it’s a farm raised salmon from New Zealand, so you can’t call it a Pacific salmon because it wasn’t raised in the Pacific Ocean.” Um, well, that’s not quite true. New Zealand is actually surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. When I pointed this out to him, he told me, “well, that doesn’t matter because even Pacific Salmon don’t come from the Pacific.” I was lost and confused. He maintained that you can only call it a Pacific King Salmon if it comes from the wild. Otherwise, it’s just King Salmon. Well, I went back to my seat, pulled out my lecture notes and saw nothing to that effect. Then I pulled out his powerpoint print-outs and went to a slide titled Pacific King Salmon. The slide showed a map of the world and used two different colors to denote where they are cultivated (farmed) and where they are caught (wild). There was no differentiation between names. They are all Pacific King Salmon. I showed him this slide, and he told me that it does not matter, I still got the question wrong. Actually, I was right. I was more right than the rest of the class because I put the entire name of the salmon where as everybody else just put King Salmon. He tried to count Jim wrong on another question because he said that, “yellowtail flounder is the fish on which all other flounder are based”. Chef said that that did not make any sense in English. Chef Boyardee said that he needed to write, “yellowtail founder are the flounder that all flounder are based on”. Um, really Chef? Not only is that sentence hopelessly redundant, it’s also grammatically incorrect. I stood up for Jim from the back of the class and got him his point back. I guess I was visibly angry because when I went to turn in my written final, he tried to talk about the salmon again with me. We went back and forth for about 5 minutes before I just abruptly ended the conversation by asking to see how I did on the yield test. I wouldn’t have fought so hard for 10 test points back, but this ID test is worth 20% of our grade in the class. I realized that it’s pointless to use logic on him. Yes, he can cut fish very well. Yes, he can identify all the fish that the school uses. He may be able to cook well. But he really has no place teaching students.
The kicker to this whole event is that yesterday Jen, my friend from Florida who had Chef Viverito for Seafood, told me that they were required to write Farm-Raised Pacific King Salmon on their ID test. If they didn’t have that whole name, they would get it wrong. Ridiculous.
My notes and binder from that class are now sealed in a plastic bag in the bottom drawer of my desk. They smell to strongly of fish to keep with the others. My uniform, after two washes with Oxyclean, Tide, and Fabreeze is now odor, gut, and scale free. My grades should be up sometime this week. Skills Development I starts on Tuesday, and I could not be more excited. After two and a half months, it’s time to cook something!
9:00am- wake up and shower
9:30am- study the previous day’s material to be ready for Jeopardy
11:30am- get dressed and pack my knife bag
12:00pm- lunch
12:45- line up outside the Seafood Room for class
1:00pm- class starts; de-head, de-gut, and scale the fish for the day
2:00pm- clean the scaling sinks and do dishes
2:30- ID lecture
3:00pm- fish fabrication
4:30pm- organize the cut fish, re-pack the fish in the Ice Room, and clean the Fab. Room
5:30pm- Jeopardy
6:00pm- seafood tasting and palate development
6:45pm- Lecture
8:00pm- return to room to shower and start laundry
9:00pm- dinner
10:00pm- start on homework
12:00am- finish homework and watch one episode of Will and Grace to get fish off my mind before falling asleep around 1am
A few variations/details on this basic schedule:
Monday: I was on Ice Team this day, so I showed up to class early to pull out all of the fish that needed to be fabricated this day. It’s called ice team because you spend most of the time digging around in large bins of ice to pull out and count/weigh fish. At the end of the day, we have to pack the fish’s cavity with ice and burry them again. We work closely with Savannah, our TA, to make sure the inventory is all correct. She is really wonderful. She knows her fish backwards and forwards, she is the best multi-tasker I have ever seen; she can simultaneously fill orders, answer questions, and ask us review questions. Chef Boyardee had the day off on Monday so we had another one of the Seafood instructors, Chef Viverito fill in. He got us in and out of ID and fabrication in about half the time that Chef Boyardee takes. He was harsh and demanding, but it worked. During lecture, he was correcting mistakes in Chef Boyardee’s powerpoint. I developed instructor envy…
Tuesday: We had Writing at 7:00am. Woo hoo! Not much different in Seafood. Chef Boyardee continued to be ridiculously repetitive. I spent most of the evening memorizing fish identifications and information.
Wednesday: Ice Team again for Seafood. We had a practice ID test during class. We had to stand up in front of the class, Chef handed us a fish, and then we had to identify it and talk as much as we could about. I got in front of the class and Chef Boyardee says, “Brendan, you look like a smart guy. You don’t get a fish. Talk to me about halibut.” The thing is, there are 16 people in my class. We only had 12 species of fish in that day. I had to go without one in front of me. Fine. I know about halibut. So, I talked all about the family it’s in, how to identify it, how to cut it, its market form, the best cooking methods, etc. The only thing I forgot to mention was that halibut cheeks are sold separately as a delicacy. No biggie. Our tasting that night was mollusks (clams, oysters, mussels, etc.) I may or may not have regurgitated an oyster during the tasting. It was not a good night for my palate.
Thursday: Writing at 7:00am. I can’t tell you how irritating that class is. We had to peer edit papers again. My favorite…. In Seafood class, we had our cutting practical. We were each going to do quarter filets of a winter flounder. I was relieved. Flounder are flat fish and require the easiest of the three cutting and skinning methods. The problem is scaling. Flounder have thousands of tiny scales on both sides of their bodies. We loose one point for each scale that Chef finds. Well, as it turns out, I got all of my scales off, but he found four salmon scales down by my flounder’s tale that must have gotten on him in the scaling sinks. Lame. My bad. I lost four points and laughed out loud at my own stupidity. I got a 54 out of 60 for the cutting. When that was done, Chef Boyardee decided to surprise us with our Identification Final. This wasn’t supposed to be until tomorrow. Well, Chef Boyardee realized that there wouldn’t be many different fish in stock on Friday because of the up-coming three-day weekend. Um, for those of you out there who don’t know, we here at the CIA have a three-day weekend at the beginning of every block. That happens every three weeks. Now, Chef Boyardee was a student here and has been an instructor for the last two or three years. I really don’t know how he could have forgotten. At the end of the ID test, I was really confident. I had probably only missed three of the 40 questions. Our tasting that night was crustaceans. Turns out, I really like whole-roasted langoustines and smoked shrimp. I was up rather late that night, along with my whole class, writing my research paper on wild vs. farm-raised fish.
Friday: Last day of Seafood Hell! It was going to be an easy day. There was only a little bit of fabrication to do. We knocked that out and cleaned the kitchen faster than we ever had in the past. Our tasting that afternoon involved a plate that was worth about $80. We each sampled 10 types of caviar, 6 or 7 smoked/cured salmons, and assorted other smoked fish. Um, I like some caviar. Some of it was too strong for me, but some of it was really quite delicious. The salmon and trout roe was gross, but the true sturgeon caviar had awesome flavor and texture. When it was time to take the final, Chef Boyardee handed back our ID tests first. I was a little surprised to find out that I got the Farm-Raised Pacific King Salmon ID wrong and then lost all the points below it for getting the ID wrong. The same thing happened to another guy in my class, Jim. When we went to ask Chef about it, he told us that “it’s a farm raised salmon from New Zealand, so you can’t call it a Pacific salmon because it wasn’t raised in the Pacific Ocean.” Um, well, that’s not quite true. New Zealand is actually surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. When I pointed this out to him, he told me, “well, that doesn’t matter because even Pacific Salmon don’t come from the Pacific.” I was lost and confused. He maintained that you can only call it a Pacific King Salmon if it comes from the wild. Otherwise, it’s just King Salmon. Well, I went back to my seat, pulled out my lecture notes and saw nothing to that effect. Then I pulled out his powerpoint print-outs and went to a slide titled Pacific King Salmon. The slide showed a map of the world and used two different colors to denote where they are cultivated (farmed) and where they are caught (wild). There was no differentiation between names. They are all Pacific King Salmon. I showed him this slide, and he told me that it does not matter, I still got the question wrong. Actually, I was right. I was more right than the rest of the class because I put the entire name of the salmon where as everybody else just put King Salmon. He tried to count Jim wrong on another question because he said that, “yellowtail flounder is the fish on which all other flounder are based”. Chef said that that did not make any sense in English. Chef Boyardee said that he needed to write, “yellowtail founder are the flounder that all flounder are based on”. Um, really Chef? Not only is that sentence hopelessly redundant, it’s also grammatically incorrect. I stood up for Jim from the back of the class and got him his point back. I guess I was visibly angry because when I went to turn in my written final, he tried to talk about the salmon again with me. We went back and forth for about 5 minutes before I just abruptly ended the conversation by asking to see how I did on the yield test. I wouldn’t have fought so hard for 10 test points back, but this ID test is worth 20% of our grade in the class. I realized that it’s pointless to use logic on him. Yes, he can cut fish very well. Yes, he can identify all the fish that the school uses. He may be able to cook well. But he really has no place teaching students.
The kicker to this whole event is that yesterday Jen, my friend from Florida who had Chef Viverito for Seafood, told me that they were required to write Farm-Raised Pacific King Salmon on their ID test. If they didn’t have that whole name, they would get it wrong. Ridiculous.
My notes and binder from that class are now sealed in a plastic bag in the bottom drawer of my desk. They smell to strongly of fish to keep with the others. My uniform, after two washes with Oxyclean, Tide, and Fabreeze is now odor, gut, and scale free. My grades should be up sometime this week. Skills Development I starts on Tuesday, and I could not be more excited. After two and a half months, it’s time to cook something!
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