Ahh Monday...back to school.
Today we each went through approximately 3 pounds of butter to learn how to properly make Hollandaise, Bernaise, Beurre Blanc, Mayonnaise and Classic Sabayon. All five sauces involved a whole lot of whisking and a lot of butter. First we made Hollandaise sauce, which I have made many times before on special occasions...Mother's Day and my mom's birthday usually because my mom has an affinity for eggs benedict. But this time we made it with clarified butter and we had to cook it much slower and more carefully than I was used to doing. All the work was worth it when the hollandaise turned out perfectly smooth and rich, with a slight tang from the lemon juice. Unfortunately all that hard work had to go into the compost can when we were finished because we didn't have time to cook anything to eat it with and because we still had 4 more butter-filled sauces to make and taste.
Next we made mayonnaise while waiting for our reduction of shallots, white wine vinegar, peppercorns, tarragon and water to reduce for the Bernaise sauce. Mayonnaise is fairly simple and is actually made with vegetable oil, not butter. First we whisked an egg yolk with a dash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and a tablespoon of dijon mustard. Then we slowly incorporated vegetable oil until it resembled the consistency of mayonnaise. We finished it with another dash of red wine vinegar and within minutes we had a delicious mayonnaise, tasting nothing like the concoction they sell in the supermarket. After tasting that, I'm not sure I can ever go back to eating the jarred stuff. Next we made Bernaise which is pretty much exactly like Hollandaise, but with the addition of the shallot reduction that I mentioned earlier. It's a tangier sauce with punch from the peppercorns that goes well with steak. I think I may have to practice making these sauces again for my family this weekend...a little Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise for breakfast, a little Bernaise with steak for dinner and maybe a more artery blockage with a Sabayon for dessert? Tempting.
The last two sauces were a classic sabayon, a sweet sauce made with 3 egg yolks, sugar and marsala wine, cooked very slowly over a bain marie, or double boiler and a beurre blanc. We poured this over sliced strawberries and put it through a salamander, which is essentially like a broiler. This browned the top of the sauce and made a brown crust out of the sauce. It was delicious, although I added a bit too much wine to my sauce, making it slightly darker than it should have been. Looking at the ingredients for the beurre blanc (shallots, white wine and cold butter), I thought the sauce would end up resembling melted butter sprinkled with purple shallots. While Chef Rogers demoed the sauce before we made it, I watched as he added more and more butter, once spilling a bit over the side and exclaiming a quick, "Ooh la la," in his French accent. He suggested adding heavy cream for an even better sauce (or even harder arteries) Once we cooked it, carefully whisking in the cold butter off the heat of the stove, the sauce thickened and developed into a rich butter sauce with the reduced shallots giving it a tangy vinegar punch. By the end of the day, even though I had just tasted each of the sauces, my stomach was not agreeing with all that butter.
Today we worked also with new partners and I was lucky enough to get another partner that I work very well with...Danika. She's very on top of things while we're cooking or prepping and on top of that is just a really nice girl. I really enjoyed working with her today and look forward to working with her for the rest of the week.
Tomorrow we get some real recipes going...4 different kinds of soup! I'll be sure to blog about it tomorrow!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Pickles
Here are some pictures of the pickles I made this weekend:
Red hot peppers
Dill pickles
All 12 jars of pickles. Aren't they pretty?!
Here's the recipe:
Go to the farmer's market or to your garden and get 3 pounds of pickling cucumbers (the little guys with pretty thick skin)
Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of distilled white vinegar with 2 tablespoons of salt.
Put the Ball Jars in simmering water to keep warm until ready. Pull out the jars and put a bunch of dill, one crushed garlic glove, one tablespoon of mustard seeds, one tablespoon of coriander seeds and one tablespoon of white peppercorns on the bottom of the jar. I also added a small hot pepper to a few of the jars of pickles if you want a little more spice.
Fill the jars with cucumbers, quartered into four big slices of sliced into smaller circles and then till the jar with the vinegar and water solution, leaving about half an inch at the top. Put on the lid and put the jar into boiling water for 15 minutes to process the jar (this will allow you to store the pickles for up to 1 year). Once the jars have sat in the water for 15 minutes, allow them to cool upright on a towel. They will be ready to eat in 24 hours of pickling.
Enjoy!
Red hot peppers
Dill pickles
All 12 jars of pickles. Aren't they pretty?!Here's the recipe:
Go to the farmer's market or to your garden and get 3 pounds of pickling cucumbers (the little guys with pretty thick skin)
Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of distilled white vinegar with 2 tablespoons of salt.
Put the Ball Jars in simmering water to keep warm until ready. Pull out the jars and put a bunch of dill, one crushed garlic glove, one tablespoon of mustard seeds, one tablespoon of coriander seeds and one tablespoon of white peppercorns on the bottom of the jar. I also added a small hot pepper to a few of the jars of pickles if you want a little more spice.
Fill the jars with cucumbers, quartered into four big slices of sliced into smaller circles and then till the jar with the vinegar and water solution, leaving about half an inch at the top. Put on the lid and put the jar into boiling water for 15 minutes to process the jar (this will allow you to store the pickles for up to 1 year). Once the jars have sat in the water for 15 minutes, allow them to cool upright on a towel. They will be ready to eat in 24 hours of pickling.
Enjoy!
The Mother Sauce
After a full 10 hours of sleep last night, I'm feeling like a brand new person! Yes, my feet and legs are still partially aching from a week of standing in the kitchen, but wow did I need the day off. On Friday, we turned some of the stocks we made on Thursday into 5 delicious sauces, some of them called the Mother Sauces because of their importance in French saucemaking. The five sauces: Espagnole, Chicken Velouté, Bechamel, Tomato Sauce and Hollandaisecan be transformed into hundreds and thousands of different other sauces just by changing a few ingredients. For the lesson we made Espagnole, Chicken Veloute, Bechamel, Chateaubriand and a White Wine Sauce. For this lesson, we also learned about thickening agents like rouxs, reduction and beurre manié that transform stocks into sauces.
The first sauce, Espagnole, is made from veal stock, which although it smelled good when we cooked it on Thursday, smelled absolutely foul and had transformed into a massive vat of veal bone-scented jello by the time we were working with it on Friday. To get the amount of veal stock we needed, I had to stick my entire arm and part of my face into a huge plastic container of the gelatinous stock, trying not to gag visibly in front of Chef Rogers. The sauce is made from rendering bacon fat, then adding carrots, onions, tomato paste and tomatoes and making a roux with flour and butter once the vegetables have browned. Then the veal stock is added and reduced until the sauce is ready to be strained. Even after making the Espagnole sauce, I couldn't get the scent and look of the stock out of my head and didn't enjoy the taste of the sauce at all.
The next two sauces that we made, Bechamel and Chicken Velouté are made the same way, except Bechamel is made with milk and Chicken Velouté is made with chicken stock. I made the Chicken Velouté while my partner, Christian, made the Bechamel sauce. For some reason, the recipe that we had been given in our textbooks had not enough flour and butter to make a substantial roux for the Chicken Velouté, so while Christian's Bechamel developed into a rich and thick white sauce, my Chicken Velouté remained a foggier version of Chicken stock until Chef Nick told me to make a beurre manié (a mixture of softened butter and flour) and add it to the sauce to thicken it properly.
After Bechamel and Chicken Velouté, we moved on to the Vin Blanc sauce and the Chauteaubriand. Vin blanc was relatively simple, it consisted of shallots, white wine, fish fumet (stock), and cream. First we reduced the wine with the shallots, then added the stock to reduce, then added cream at the end to thicken the sauce even more. This sauce was my favorite, it was rich yet light at the same time and had the most beautiful creamy yellow color.
The Chateaubriand sauce was made with 3 different types of mushrooms (white, oyster and porcini), shallots, white wine, brandy and the espagnole sauce that we made earlier in the day (which by this point had begun turning into a gelatinous mixture with basically the same smell as the veal stock except with a little bacon added in). For this recipe, we had to flambé the mushrooms with the brandy, which I let my partner do because I'd like to keep my eyebrows and they do not like shooting flames of fire. Unfortunately ours didn't light up in flames as flamboyantly as we wanted it to...maybe next time. The sauce turned out a reddish, brown color, similar to the Espagnole, but with mushrooms and the flavor of brandy. Chef Rogers said we reduced it too far, making the sauce thicker than it should have been, but it was still passable.
At 10 minutes to 3 p.m, Chef Rogers released us from the kitchen to enjoy the weekend, his arms full of the gifts students from other levels drop by everyday in our kitchen (warm croissants, mini cupcakes, perfectly decorated plum tarts). The part of the weekend I'm most looking forward to? A lot of sitting.
The first sauce, Espagnole, is made from veal stock, which although it smelled good when we cooked it on Thursday, smelled absolutely foul and had transformed into a massive vat of veal bone-scented jello by the time we were working with it on Friday. To get the amount of veal stock we needed, I had to stick my entire arm and part of my face into a huge plastic container of the gelatinous stock, trying not to gag visibly in front of Chef Rogers. The sauce is made from rendering bacon fat, then adding carrots, onions, tomato paste and tomatoes and making a roux with flour and butter once the vegetables have browned. Then the veal stock is added and reduced until the sauce is ready to be strained. Even after making the Espagnole sauce, I couldn't get the scent and look of the stock out of my head and didn't enjoy the taste of the sauce at all.
The next two sauces that we made, Bechamel and Chicken Velouté are made the same way, except Bechamel is made with milk and Chicken Velouté is made with chicken stock. I made the Chicken Velouté while my partner, Christian, made the Bechamel sauce. For some reason, the recipe that we had been given in our textbooks had not enough flour and butter to make a substantial roux for the Chicken Velouté, so while Christian's Bechamel developed into a rich and thick white sauce, my Chicken Velouté remained a foggier version of Chicken stock until Chef Nick told me to make a beurre manié (a mixture of softened butter and flour) and add it to the sauce to thicken it properly.
After Bechamel and Chicken Velouté, we moved on to the Vin Blanc sauce and the Chauteaubriand. Vin blanc was relatively simple, it consisted of shallots, white wine, fish fumet (stock), and cream. First we reduced the wine with the shallots, then added the stock to reduce, then added cream at the end to thicken the sauce even more. This sauce was my favorite, it was rich yet light at the same time and had the most beautiful creamy yellow color.
The Chateaubriand sauce was made with 3 different types of mushrooms (white, oyster and porcini), shallots, white wine, brandy and the espagnole sauce that we made earlier in the day (which by this point had begun turning into a gelatinous mixture with basically the same smell as the veal stock except with a little bacon added in). For this recipe, we had to flambé the mushrooms with the brandy, which I let my partner do because I'd like to keep my eyebrows and they do not like shooting flames of fire. Unfortunately ours didn't light up in flames as flamboyantly as we wanted it to...maybe next time. The sauce turned out a reddish, brown color, similar to the Espagnole, but with mushrooms and the flavor of brandy. Chef Rogers said we reduced it too far, making the sauce thicker than it should have been, but it was still passable.
At 10 minutes to 3 p.m, Chef Rogers released us from the kitchen to enjoy the weekend, his arms full of the gifts students from other levels drop by everyday in our kitchen (warm croissants, mini cupcakes, perfectly decorated plum tarts). The part of the weekend I'm most looking forward to? A lot of sitting.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Death to the Tournage
I am writing this on the brink of utter exhaustion, so if what I'm writing makes no sense at all...that is why. This first week of culinary school has been beyond exhausting...the 5 am wake up calls, the train rides back and forth and then standing in a hot kitchen for 6 hours everyday has caused my body to be more exhausted physically and mentally than it may have ever been before. But the exhaustion is not really a negative thing in my eyes...I'm doing what I love to do and I'm loving every minute of it. Well...I had been loving every minute of it until we were introduced to the intricate French cut tournage. If you're not familiar with what tournage looks like, here is a picture:
Maybe you're thinking...hey, that doesn't look so hard, I could totally do that. WRONG. Tournage is quite possibly the worst thing the French have ever invented and it is the one thing that I despise doing in the kitchen. Eventually once I've worked on my technique enough I'll learn to enjoy it more, but until then...death to the tournage. Yesterday, we spent the entire morning tourneeing potatoes, turnips and carrots until my hand was so cramped up I felt like I couldn't go on. To create the perfect tournage, one must perfect the curved motion with a paring knife in the perfect hand position to create the perfect 7 sided cut of vegetable. (Imagine the motion of turning your paring knife over an egg with your thumb on the bottom of the egg and the rest of your hand holding the knife...that's the motion you need to make the tournage) It just so happens that my midget-like hands are not quite large enough to hold the paring knife in the proper position to create the perfect tournage motion, so the carving was quite a struggle for me. But at least I was not alone...we were all suffering together. My suffering was slightly alleviated at the end of the day when Chef Rogers, after a close examination of my carrots, turnips and potatos, said, "Zees ees really not so bad a tournage." Not so bad? I'll take it!
Today was stock day, the all important day for learning the basis of most dishes in French cuisine. We were separated into three groups of 8 students, each group making either veal stock, chicken stock or beef stock, also called marmite. My group was in charge of making veal stock, the only stock where every ingredient had to be browned carefully to create a rich and dark colored stock. I had been eyeing several members of my group for the past few days and noticing their how do you say....lack of attention. So when we all got together to decide what to do and to start measuring ingredients, half the group became very confused as to how much of the ingredients we needed and what we had to get done. So I decided to take a little charge of my group.. I measured out the ingredients, to the approximate measurements needed for the recipe and laid out what we needed to do, while half of my group stared with permanent confusion on their faces and the other half helped out. Little did I know this would lead some people in my group to continually return to my station and ask what they needed to do now. But, in the end, everything was done and our veal stock bubbled away, emitting a rich and deep aroma of beef.
After making the veal stock in teams, each partner team had to make a pot of vegetable stock and fish stock, which were pretty easy to do, just a matter of chopping and adding the proper amount of water...and making sure that the stock never comes to a rolling boil so that the impurities on the bottom don't get incorporated. As we were doing this in teams of 2, the other members of my team from earlier in the day kept coming up to me and asking, "How do I chop the garlic? Is it emincer or crushed?" "How do I cut the tomatoes? Do we need to skin them?" Each time I gave a shrug and said this is what I'm doing...I don't know if it's right...why don't you ask the Chef? I'm getting scared for next Monday when we change partners!
After a day of making stock, we were instructed to grab 4 potatoes and make some more...guess what? TOURNAGE! Peeling my potatoes with a little menace, I wished I could tournage one of Chef Rogers fingers for the torture he was ensuing upon us by requesting endless amounts of tournage. I tried to do my tournage as quickly as I could, just to get them out of the way and received a, "Eet is looking much better" from Chef Rogers. Ok..so maybe I don't really want to tournage one of his fingers, but I would appreciate never having to do it again as unlikely as that is.
Tomorrow's lesson...turning our stocks into sauce!
Maybe you're thinking...hey, that doesn't look so hard, I could totally do that. WRONG. Tournage is quite possibly the worst thing the French have ever invented and it is the one thing that I despise doing in the kitchen. Eventually once I've worked on my technique enough I'll learn to enjoy it more, but until then...death to the tournage. Yesterday, we spent the entire morning tourneeing potatoes, turnips and carrots until my hand was so cramped up I felt like I couldn't go on. To create the perfect tournage, one must perfect the curved motion with a paring knife in the perfect hand position to create the perfect 7 sided cut of vegetable. (Imagine the motion of turning your paring knife over an egg with your thumb on the bottom of the egg and the rest of your hand holding the knife...that's the motion you need to make the tournage) It just so happens that my midget-like hands are not quite large enough to hold the paring knife in the proper position to create the perfect tournage motion, so the carving was quite a struggle for me. But at least I was not alone...we were all suffering together. My suffering was slightly alleviated at the end of the day when Chef Rogers, after a close examination of my carrots, turnips and potatos, said, "Zees ees really not so bad a tournage." Not so bad? I'll take it!Today was stock day, the all important day for learning the basis of most dishes in French cuisine. We were separated into three groups of 8 students, each group making either veal stock, chicken stock or beef stock, also called marmite. My group was in charge of making veal stock, the only stock where every ingredient had to be browned carefully to create a rich and dark colored stock. I had been eyeing several members of my group for the past few days and noticing their how do you say....lack of attention. So when we all got together to decide what to do and to start measuring ingredients, half the group became very confused as to how much of the ingredients we needed and what we had to get done. So I decided to take a little charge of my group.. I measured out the ingredients, to the approximate measurements needed for the recipe and laid out what we needed to do, while half of my group stared with permanent confusion on their faces and the other half helped out. Little did I know this would lead some people in my group to continually return to my station and ask what they needed to do now. But, in the end, everything was done and our veal stock bubbled away, emitting a rich and deep aroma of beef.
After making the veal stock in teams, each partner team had to make a pot of vegetable stock and fish stock, which were pretty easy to do, just a matter of chopping and adding the proper amount of water...and making sure that the stock never comes to a rolling boil so that the impurities on the bottom don't get incorporated. As we were doing this in teams of 2, the other members of my team from earlier in the day kept coming up to me and asking, "How do I chop the garlic? Is it emincer or crushed?" "How do I cut the tomatoes? Do we need to skin them?" Each time I gave a shrug and said this is what I'm doing...I don't know if it's right...why don't you ask the Chef? I'm getting scared for next Monday when we change partners!
After a day of making stock, we were instructed to grab 4 potatoes and make some more...guess what? TOURNAGE! Peeling my potatoes with a little menace, I wished I could tournage one of Chef Rogers fingers for the torture he was ensuing upon us by requesting endless amounts of tournage. I tried to do my tournage as quickly as I could, just to get them out of the way and received a, "Eet is looking much better" from Chef Rogers. Ok..so maybe I don't really want to tournage one of his fingers, but I would appreciate never having to do it again as unlikely as that is.
Tomorrow's lesson...turning our stocks into sauce!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Ratatouille
No I am not referring to the movie. Although it would've been fun to watch that all day instead of standing. My legs are so exhausted I think they may fall off any moment now...I may need to invest in some Dr. Scholl's for those oh so attractive shoes I showed you earlier.
So I'm now 3 days deep into culinary school...which means I'm almost a chef, right? Not so much. Since I haven't blogged about my first few days because of exhaustion and a little bit of laziness aaand a little too much Mad Men, here's a brief recap of Day 1 and Day 2:
Day 1 started off with an extremely early wake up call (5:15...eek!) and a car ride into NYC with Dad. He even dropped me off right in front of school...such great service. After getting into the building, I picked up a duffel bag filled with my uniform: 3 chef shirts, 3 pairs of black and white checkered chef pants, 3 aprons, 3 hats and 3 dish towels. We were given our locker numbers and sent to change into our overstarched and bright white uniforms. The women's locker room was a mad house with women of all levels changing into their uniforms as quickly as possibly while chatting about weekend plans and who their new chefs would be (while we were entering into the first day of Level 1, every other level was also switching which means new chefs, new responsibilities, etc). I felt slightly overwhelmed listening to all the other women, but also excited to be surrounded by people who loved food and cooking just as much as I do. After finding my locker and getting changed into my very stiff uniform that I felt like I was swimming in, I headed back out to our classroom, the kitchen. In the kitchen, surrounded by stainless steel, everyone took a place at a station across from another student. We were met by our chefs, Chef Nic and Chef Nick. Chef Nic, our head chef, was only with us for the day while our real chef for Level 1, Chef Rogers (pronounced Roghay with a soft g) was on vacation. The other Chef Nick, the assistant chef, will be with us for the rest of Level 1.
Chef Nic introduced us to the kitchen, showing us where all the pots and other equipment could be found and listed all the French names for the pots, pans and other equipment before going through Auguste Escoffier's kitchen brigade organization system, which is sort of like a management system in the kitchen for who does what. For example, the head of the kitchen is usually the chef de cuisine, followed by sous chef, followed by the chef de partie, who consist of poissoiner, sauciere, garde manger, etc. Slightly confusing, especially in French, but important nonetheless in remembering how a professional (French) kitchen stays organized. We then moved onto knives and our fancy new kitchen equipment provided for us. We were each given a black knife set along with various other kitchen utensils. Everything was so shiny and new and waiting to be used on those gleaming stainless steel pots surrounding us. Being in the kitchen was so tempting, everything just asking to be used. But as newcomers, we were only trusted with some basic chopping techniques on our first day. For good reason too...about half the class managed to slice their fingers or hands at least once while attempting to emincer onions and julienne carrots.
Day 2 began with a brief introduction to Chef Rogers, our chef instructor for Level 1 and then we were allowed to bring chairs into the kitchen for a lecture on sanitation from Chef Tim, a boisterous chef who peppered his slightly boring lecture on how to handle food properly with stories from when he was private chef to celebrities like Starr Jones and Goldie Hawn and his proclamation that regardless of the danger and how many times he has to go to the hospital, he will always eat oysters. Although parts of the lecture on sanitation and food handling were boring, it also brought up some interesting topics of conversation like the industrialization of our chicken and meat industries in America and why bacteria like E. Coli and Salmonella are so important for chefs to know about and avoid. From reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and watching Food Inc., I was already pretty familiar with most of the things he described to us about the meat and poultry industries like the filthy conditions that our chickens live in, the required USDA certification on meat that essentially means nothing except that it came from a cow with four legs. He emphasized the important of knowing where your food comes from because as a chef when someone gets sick from something you serve them, it is your responsibility to figure out where it came from and how the customer got sick. Knowing where your food comes from as a chef is also important in terms of getting the best product, which is somewhat related.
After our lecture from Chef Tim, Chef Rogers returned to get a chance to meet us all and tell us more about himself. Through his thick French accent (even though he said he was born in the Bronx he was raised in Paris) and quiet voice, I heard a little bit about his prior career as a chef...working in France, Greenwich and New York. Then Chef Nick, the assistant chef in our kitchen, told us about his prior experience in the culinary world...after graduating from college he pursued a career in journalism and went to culinary school at the FCI to start a career in food writing only to realize that he never wanted to sit at a desk ever again. Chef Nick seems like somewhat of a hard ass at times, but I think he really just appreciates people who pay attention and follow direction in the kitchen (you'd be surprised at the people who don't)...I think he might have a little soft side in there somewhere. Chef Rogers is not 100% serious while cooking and seems to have a somewhat lighthearted approach to his cooking. So far he has been a good teacher, allowing us to have a little independence while showing us the proper ways to do things.
Today was the first day we were entrusted to cook something! Ratatouille and a Beet and Goat Cheese Timbale with Frisee. After standing for two hours while Chef Rogers went through a powerpoint of how to identify certain foods (pretty basic things like tomatoes, artichokes, eggplants, herbs, etc), Chef Rogers showed us a demonstration of how to cook the Nicoise-style Ratatouille, or vegetable stew. After a quick lunch, we were let out on our own to cook one with our partners. My partner for the week is Christian, a guy from New Jersey who just graduated from high school. We made a pretty good pair and are on similar skill levels with chopping and generally understanding what we were supposed to do. We were happily humming along with our recipe while the two students next to us started arguing..."I paid attention and I know what I'm doing if you would just listen." "No I know I am right and this is wrong!" Hopefully my next partner and I will not be like that...
The ratatouille was made with onions, green and red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic and a bouquet garni (herbs tied with string) of basil, parsley stems, a bay leaf and thyme. The thing that has been most difficult for me to adjust to in the kitchen classroom is the constant buzzing and the rush of all the students. Everyone grabbing the ingredients and pots and whatever else we needed was just absolute chaos. Hopefully as we get more attuned to the classroom things will be a little calmer. It's also difficult to adjust to the way that the chefs like us to set up our stations...for example we have to keep our station clean of everything but what we are chopping, and we have to make sure we keep our onion peelings separate from our tomato skins because they save each of those for different recipes. It can end up being a lot to remember, especially when one of the chefs suddenly appears behind you, watching you nearly slice your finger off from nervousness simply cutting up an onion that you've cut a million times before. But it's pressure and pressure is something that is naturally a part of any kitchen.
As our ratatouille simmered away on the stove, Chef Rogers demonstrated our next recipe, the beet and goat cheese timbale, or salad. It required mostly prepwork, no real cooking and it all had to be done wearing plastic gloves since it was an item that wouldn't be cooked. Because of the bacteria on our hands, we always have to wear gloves with items that will be served raw. We started by peeling and macedoining (cutting into dice shapes) beets and granny smith apples. Then we had to meticulously wash the frisee leaves, parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon, make a vinaigrette with shallots and white wine vinegar and soften the goat cheese. The most challenging part was the plating. We used a 3 inch ring to mold the beets and goat cheese into a small cylinder shape, the beets, marinated in the vinaigrette on the bottom and the softened goat cheese perfectly flattened to the top of the ring. Then we had to remove the ring...I happened to forget the important step of getting the ring wet first so my goat cheese which I had so carefully flattened did not stay where it should have, but I was able to get it back into its proper shape and cover any deformities with the frisee. Around this structure, we put the dice shaped apple, and more vinaigrette. It was so beautiful! The deep purple of the beets contrasting with the stark white of the cheese and the bright green of the frisee on top. Then the carefully sprinkled vinaigrette around the edge of the plate. It looked like something from a restaurant! Christian, my partner, and I took our plates up to the chefs to taste and were given a thumbs up (well not really, they would never give you that much credit, but they didn't hate it or criticize it too heavily which is basically the equivalent).
So that is all so far! Tomorrow we are learning a new type of cutting vegetables: tourner, which is turning a carrot or potato or turnip into a 7 sided oval-shaped object. Who knows why the French feel its necessary to make such shapes out of vegetables...but after tomorrow I will know how!
So I'm now 3 days deep into culinary school...which means I'm almost a chef, right? Not so much. Since I haven't blogged about my first few days because of exhaustion and a little bit of laziness aaand a little too much Mad Men, here's a brief recap of Day 1 and Day 2:
Day 1 started off with an extremely early wake up call (5:15...eek!) and a car ride into NYC with Dad. He even dropped me off right in front of school...such great service. After getting into the building, I picked up a duffel bag filled with my uniform: 3 chef shirts, 3 pairs of black and white checkered chef pants, 3 aprons, 3 hats and 3 dish towels. We were given our locker numbers and sent to change into our overstarched and bright white uniforms. The women's locker room was a mad house with women of all levels changing into their uniforms as quickly as possibly while chatting about weekend plans and who their new chefs would be (while we were entering into the first day of Level 1, every other level was also switching which means new chefs, new responsibilities, etc). I felt slightly overwhelmed listening to all the other women, but also excited to be surrounded by people who loved food and cooking just as much as I do. After finding my locker and getting changed into my very stiff uniform that I felt like I was swimming in, I headed back out to our classroom, the kitchen. In the kitchen, surrounded by stainless steel, everyone took a place at a station across from another student. We were met by our chefs, Chef Nic and Chef Nick. Chef Nic, our head chef, was only with us for the day while our real chef for Level 1, Chef Rogers (pronounced Roghay with a soft g) was on vacation. The other Chef Nick, the assistant chef, will be with us for the rest of Level 1.
Chef Nic introduced us to the kitchen, showing us where all the pots and other equipment could be found and listed all the French names for the pots, pans and other equipment before going through Auguste Escoffier's kitchen brigade organization system, which is sort of like a management system in the kitchen for who does what. For example, the head of the kitchen is usually the chef de cuisine, followed by sous chef, followed by the chef de partie, who consist of poissoiner, sauciere, garde manger, etc. Slightly confusing, especially in French, but important nonetheless in remembering how a professional (French) kitchen stays organized. We then moved onto knives and our fancy new kitchen equipment provided for us. We were each given a black knife set along with various other kitchen utensils. Everything was so shiny and new and waiting to be used on those gleaming stainless steel pots surrounding us. Being in the kitchen was so tempting, everything just asking to be used. But as newcomers, we were only trusted with some basic chopping techniques on our first day. For good reason too...about half the class managed to slice their fingers or hands at least once while attempting to emincer onions and julienne carrots.
Day 2 began with a brief introduction to Chef Rogers, our chef instructor for Level 1 and then we were allowed to bring chairs into the kitchen for a lecture on sanitation from Chef Tim, a boisterous chef who peppered his slightly boring lecture on how to handle food properly with stories from when he was private chef to celebrities like Starr Jones and Goldie Hawn and his proclamation that regardless of the danger and how many times he has to go to the hospital, he will always eat oysters. Although parts of the lecture on sanitation and food handling were boring, it also brought up some interesting topics of conversation like the industrialization of our chicken and meat industries in America and why bacteria like E. Coli and Salmonella are so important for chefs to know about and avoid. From reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and watching Food Inc., I was already pretty familiar with most of the things he described to us about the meat and poultry industries like the filthy conditions that our chickens live in, the required USDA certification on meat that essentially means nothing except that it came from a cow with four legs. He emphasized the important of knowing where your food comes from because as a chef when someone gets sick from something you serve them, it is your responsibility to figure out where it came from and how the customer got sick. Knowing where your food comes from as a chef is also important in terms of getting the best product, which is somewhat related.
After our lecture from Chef Tim, Chef Rogers returned to get a chance to meet us all and tell us more about himself. Through his thick French accent (even though he said he was born in the Bronx he was raised in Paris) and quiet voice, I heard a little bit about his prior career as a chef...working in France, Greenwich and New York. Then Chef Nick, the assistant chef in our kitchen, told us about his prior experience in the culinary world...after graduating from college he pursued a career in journalism and went to culinary school at the FCI to start a career in food writing only to realize that he never wanted to sit at a desk ever again. Chef Nick seems like somewhat of a hard ass at times, but I think he really just appreciates people who pay attention and follow direction in the kitchen (you'd be surprised at the people who don't)...I think he might have a little soft side in there somewhere. Chef Rogers is not 100% serious while cooking and seems to have a somewhat lighthearted approach to his cooking. So far he has been a good teacher, allowing us to have a little independence while showing us the proper ways to do things.
Today was the first day we were entrusted to cook something! Ratatouille and a Beet and Goat Cheese Timbale with Frisee. After standing for two hours while Chef Rogers went through a powerpoint of how to identify certain foods (pretty basic things like tomatoes, artichokes, eggplants, herbs, etc), Chef Rogers showed us a demonstration of how to cook the Nicoise-style Ratatouille, or vegetable stew. After a quick lunch, we were let out on our own to cook one with our partners. My partner for the week is Christian, a guy from New Jersey who just graduated from high school. We made a pretty good pair and are on similar skill levels with chopping and generally understanding what we were supposed to do. We were happily humming along with our recipe while the two students next to us started arguing..."I paid attention and I know what I'm doing if you would just listen." "No I know I am right and this is wrong!" Hopefully my next partner and I will not be like that...
The ratatouille was made with onions, green and red peppers, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, garlic and a bouquet garni (herbs tied with string) of basil, parsley stems, a bay leaf and thyme. The thing that has been most difficult for me to adjust to in the kitchen classroom is the constant buzzing and the rush of all the students. Everyone grabbing the ingredients and pots and whatever else we needed was just absolute chaos. Hopefully as we get more attuned to the classroom things will be a little calmer. It's also difficult to adjust to the way that the chefs like us to set up our stations...for example we have to keep our station clean of everything but what we are chopping, and we have to make sure we keep our onion peelings separate from our tomato skins because they save each of those for different recipes. It can end up being a lot to remember, especially when one of the chefs suddenly appears behind you, watching you nearly slice your finger off from nervousness simply cutting up an onion that you've cut a million times before. But it's pressure and pressure is something that is naturally a part of any kitchen.
As our ratatouille simmered away on the stove, Chef Rogers demonstrated our next recipe, the beet and goat cheese timbale, or salad. It required mostly prepwork, no real cooking and it all had to be done wearing plastic gloves since it was an item that wouldn't be cooked. Because of the bacteria on our hands, we always have to wear gloves with items that will be served raw. We started by peeling and macedoining (cutting into dice shapes) beets and granny smith apples. Then we had to meticulously wash the frisee leaves, parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon, make a vinaigrette with shallots and white wine vinegar and soften the goat cheese. The most challenging part was the plating. We used a 3 inch ring to mold the beets and goat cheese into a small cylinder shape, the beets, marinated in the vinaigrette on the bottom and the softened goat cheese perfectly flattened to the top of the ring. Then we had to remove the ring...I happened to forget the important step of getting the ring wet first so my goat cheese which I had so carefully flattened did not stay where it should have, but I was able to get it back into its proper shape and cover any deformities with the frisee. Around this structure, we put the dice shaped apple, and more vinaigrette. It was so beautiful! The deep purple of the beets contrasting with the stark white of the cheese and the bright green of the frisee on top. Then the carefully sprinkled vinaigrette around the edge of the plate. It looked like something from a restaurant! Christian, my partner, and I took our plates up to the chefs to taste and were given a thumbs up (well not really, they would never give you that much credit, but they didn't hate it or criticize it too heavily which is basically the equivalent).
So that is all so far! Tomorrow we are learning a new type of cutting vegetables: tourner, which is turning a carrot or potato or turnip into a 7 sided oval-shaped object. Who knows why the French feel its necessary to make such shapes out of vegetables...but after tomorrow I will know how!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Orientation
"Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon, or not at all." -Harriett Van Horn
Yesterday I spent a long day in New York City for my orientation at the French Culinary Institute and a short meeting about an internship with a restaurant marketing company. I headed into New York around 9 in the morning for an 11 o'clock meeting with the owner of a restaurant marketing company where I might be interning...if I'm not too exhausted from commuting and cooking all day everyday! After our meeting, I walked around SoHo for a while...grabbed some lunch and went into a few stores in the area, trying to kill time until 2:30 when orientation started.
Around 2 I sat down in a Starbucks across the street from the FCI because after walking around in a new pair of shoes, my feet were about ready to fall off, not to mention the massive blisters developing on my heels and pinky toes. Ouch. I sat down to read until it was time to head over, but my mind was all over the place and there were some serious butterflies in my stomach so absorbing my book proved to be difficult. I was sure what I was so nervous about...it wasn't like we were cooking or anything, but I guess it was just realizing that this is it, I'm really doing this and there's no turning back now!
After checking my watch every 30 seconds it was finally 2:27, so I put my book away and headed across the street where I took a deep breath in front of the building and walked inside to see three other people with nervous grins on their face waiting in the reception area. We all walked up to the second floor where we were met by several tables with papers for us to sign, nametags, student IDs, etc. and then we got our textbooks for Level 1:
The main textbook for Level 1 is about 2.5 inches thick! For class everyday, we have to read the next day's lesson in the book and copy down notes and any recipes onto 3x5 index cards that we are supposed to put in our pockets and bring to class. Most of the orientation was pretty basic...safety, locker rooms, grading, rules, uniforms, and what shoes to wear. We also learned about all the different volunteer opportunities we will have, the supper, forager and wine club events that are held every month and the chef demonstrations that take place in the theater a few times a month. The volunteer opportunities range from helping renowned chefs who come in from out of town to prepare a meal at the James Beard House to helping prep meals for God's Love We Deliver, which delivers meals for those who can't provide meals for themselves and their families. There are so many other opportunities outside of what we learn in class to further our culinary knowledge, and I'm very excited to try some of them!
We won't get our uniforms, knife kits and other kitchen tools until Friday on our first day of class, but I have an extra uniform set from the class I took at the FCI several years ago. Here's a picture of my chef's jacket (with my name on it!):
And the super sexy shoes I get to wear everyday (don't be jealous):
I'll post a picture in a few days of me with the full outfit on...chef's pants and all, don't worry. After sitting through several talks from student affairs and career services people, we were finally able to get up and have some awkward conversations with our future classmates during a little wine and hors d'oeurves reception. During a little introduction earlier at orientation, I learned that there were quite a few students in the class of 25 who were from other countries like the Phillipines, Turkey and Canada, but then there were plenty of others from Chicago, Maryland, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey, Manhattan and only one other from Connecticut.
I didn't get to meet everyone that will be in my class during the reception, but I talked to a few other girls who had just graduated from college and a few other classmates who were looking to change careers. I also talked to a student who is in the 4th level of the career course and he told us a little bit about what to expect. He told us about what he was doing at his level...making lunch for the 200 people who work and eat lunch at the institute everyday and doing most of the prepwork for the Level 5 and 6 students who cook in the restaurant, L'Ecole. He told us even though we're strangers to each other now, we'll get to know our classmates better than anyone else since we will be spending so much time together in the kitchen. After the reception, I grabbed dinner at Balthazar with a friend and headed home to nurse my blisters the size of small tumors.
Now I'm even more excited for Friday...when the real fun starts in the kitchen!
Yesterday I spent a long day in New York City for my orientation at the French Culinary Institute and a short meeting about an internship with a restaurant marketing company. I headed into New York around 9 in the morning for an 11 o'clock meeting with the owner of a restaurant marketing company where I might be interning...if I'm not too exhausted from commuting and cooking all day everyday! After our meeting, I walked around SoHo for a while...grabbed some lunch and went into a few stores in the area, trying to kill time until 2:30 when orientation started.
Around 2 I sat down in a Starbucks across the street from the FCI because after walking around in a new pair of shoes, my feet were about ready to fall off, not to mention the massive blisters developing on my heels and pinky toes. Ouch. I sat down to read until it was time to head over, but my mind was all over the place and there were some serious butterflies in my stomach so absorbing my book proved to be difficult. I was sure what I was so nervous about...it wasn't like we were cooking or anything, but I guess it was just realizing that this is it, I'm really doing this and there's no turning back now!
After checking my watch every 30 seconds it was finally 2:27, so I put my book away and headed across the street where I took a deep breath in front of the building and walked inside to see three other people with nervous grins on their face waiting in the reception area. We all walked up to the second floor where we were met by several tables with papers for us to sign, nametags, student IDs, etc. and then we got our textbooks for Level 1:
The main textbook for Level 1 is about 2.5 inches thick! For class everyday, we have to read the next day's lesson in the book and copy down notes and any recipes onto 3x5 index cards that we are supposed to put in our pockets and bring to class. Most of the orientation was pretty basic...safety, locker rooms, grading, rules, uniforms, and what shoes to wear. We also learned about all the different volunteer opportunities we will have, the supper, forager and wine club events that are held every month and the chef demonstrations that take place in the theater a few times a month. The volunteer opportunities range from helping renowned chefs who come in from out of town to prepare a meal at the James Beard House to helping prep meals for God's Love We Deliver, which delivers meals for those who can't provide meals for themselves and their families. There are so many other opportunities outside of what we learn in class to further our culinary knowledge, and I'm very excited to try some of them!
We won't get our uniforms, knife kits and other kitchen tools until Friday on our first day of class, but I have an extra uniform set from the class I took at the FCI several years ago. Here's a picture of my chef's jacket (with my name on it!):
And the super sexy shoes I get to wear everyday (don't be jealous):
I'll post a picture in a few days of me with the full outfit on...chef's pants and all, don't worry. After sitting through several talks from student affairs and career services people, we were finally able to get up and have some awkward conversations with our future classmates during a little wine and hors d'oeurves reception. During a little introduction earlier at orientation, I learned that there were quite a few students in the class of 25 who were from other countries like the Phillipines, Turkey and Canada, but then there were plenty of others from Chicago, Maryland, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey, Manhattan and only one other from Connecticut.
I didn't get to meet everyone that will be in my class during the reception, but I talked to a few other girls who had just graduated from college and a few other classmates who were looking to change careers. I also talked to a student who is in the 4th level of the career course and he told us a little bit about what to expect. He told us about what he was doing at his level...making lunch for the 200 people who work and eat lunch at the institute everyday and doing most of the prepwork for the Level 5 and 6 students who cook in the restaurant, L'Ecole. He told us even though we're strangers to each other now, we'll get to know our classmates better than anyone else since we will be spending so much time together in the kitchen. After the reception, I grabbed dinner at Balthazar with a friend and headed home to nurse my blisters the size of small tumors.
Now I'm even more excited for Friday...when the real fun starts in the kitchen!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Counting Down
"The secret of good cooking, is first, having a love of it." -James Beard
It feels like only yesterday I was waving goodbye to my college roomies in Richmond and headed back home to begin the job hunt with the rest of the college graduates. The summer really flew by us all and I can't believe that in 8 DAYS I'll be starting culinary school!
Ever since I can remember, I've loved being in the kitchen...helping my grandma Nani make her signature "rocks" (not actual rocks I assure you, just rolls that tend to be a bit on the hard side) and assisting my mom with prepwork for a big party or just a fancy recipe that she cut out of Bon Appetit. And then there were all the restaurants my parents took me to in New York City that made me appreciate the work that goes into being a chef. Although as a little girl I dragged my parents to the Jekyll and Hyde Restaurant a fair amount of times, they, in turn, would bring me to places like Balthazar and Becco and in time, I was convinced that eating macaroni and cheese from a plastic skull at Jekyll and Hyde was overrated. My parents and I share a love of trying new restaurants and I've been lucky enough to go to some of the best restaurants in the world like Le Bernardin (where I met Eric Ripert...and then was subsequently extremely embarrassed in front of him, thanks to my loving brother.), Marea and more. These culinary experiences only made me want to learn more.
So it came as no surprise that when I was in high school, I wanted to further my culinary education more than just what I watched on the Food Network and read about in my mom's cookbooks. I decided to take an amateur class at the French Culinary Institute after my junior year of high school where I learned some basic French techniques that I still use, five years later. Even though I was the youngest person in the class to don my chef's jacket, the experience only strengthened my love of cooking and gave me more confidence in the recipes I tried and made on my own.
During college, cooking always took a back burner to work, friends...and beer, and soon I found myself graduated with a degree in Art History and Journalism that I didn't know what to do with. I occupied myself looking for jobs for the early part of this summer, going to several interviews in New York and DC, but none of the jobs I was looking at really made me as excited as I felt I should be. And everytime someone else posted their excitement at finding a job on facebook, I grew more down at the fact that I still didn't have one...so I turned to the kitchen. I found myself cooking every meal for my family and when I wasn't cooking I was planning my next trip to the farmer's market, researching our next meal or the newest restaurants, or reading about cooking. So once again I turned to culinary school and went back to the French Culinary Institute for a tour. As soon as I stepped back through those doors and felt the heat of the kitchens, a student whizzing by me in their chef's uniform and the buzz of the restaurant kitchen where the students eventually cook, I knew I had returned to the right place. Over lunch after the tour, I told my dad that nothing made me as excited as culinary school did, and being the supportive dad that he is, he told me to go for it. So here I am now, mentally preparing for what will come in the next six months of culinary school.
After reading a book called Under the Table by Kathering Darling, which was about Darling's time taking the same course I will be taking at the French Culinary Institute, I realized how much of this experience will be worth remembering and sharing. I'll try to share as much as I can about culinary school...from the French accents of the chef instructors to the hundreds of chickens I will inevitably carve and truss. I know it won't be easy, but I know it's where I belong.
So until next time...Bon Appetit!
It feels like only yesterday I was waving goodbye to my college roomies in Richmond and headed back home to begin the job hunt with the rest of the college graduates. The summer really flew by us all and I can't believe that in 8 DAYS I'll be starting culinary school!
Ever since I can remember, I've loved being in the kitchen...helping my grandma Nani make her signature "rocks" (not actual rocks I assure you, just rolls that tend to be a bit on the hard side) and assisting my mom with prepwork for a big party or just a fancy recipe that she cut out of Bon Appetit. And then there were all the restaurants my parents took me to in New York City that made me appreciate the work that goes into being a chef. Although as a little girl I dragged my parents to the Jekyll and Hyde Restaurant a fair amount of times, they, in turn, would bring me to places like Balthazar and Becco and in time, I was convinced that eating macaroni and cheese from a plastic skull at Jekyll and Hyde was overrated. My parents and I share a love of trying new restaurants and I've been lucky enough to go to some of the best restaurants in the world like Le Bernardin (where I met Eric Ripert...and then was subsequently extremely embarrassed in front of him, thanks to my loving brother.), Marea and more. These culinary experiences only made me want to learn more.
So it came as no surprise that when I was in high school, I wanted to further my culinary education more than just what I watched on the Food Network and read about in my mom's cookbooks. I decided to take an amateur class at the French Culinary Institute after my junior year of high school where I learned some basic French techniques that I still use, five years later. Even though I was the youngest person in the class to don my chef's jacket, the experience only strengthened my love of cooking and gave me more confidence in the recipes I tried and made on my own.
During college, cooking always took a back burner to work, friends...and beer, and soon I found myself graduated with a degree in Art History and Journalism that I didn't know what to do with. I occupied myself looking for jobs for the early part of this summer, going to several interviews in New York and DC, but none of the jobs I was looking at really made me as excited as I felt I should be. And everytime someone else posted their excitement at finding a job on facebook, I grew more down at the fact that I still didn't have one...so I turned to the kitchen. I found myself cooking every meal for my family and when I wasn't cooking I was planning my next trip to the farmer's market, researching our next meal or the newest restaurants, or reading about cooking. So once again I turned to culinary school and went back to the French Culinary Institute for a tour. As soon as I stepped back through those doors and felt the heat of the kitchens, a student whizzing by me in their chef's uniform and the buzz of the restaurant kitchen where the students eventually cook, I knew I had returned to the right place. Over lunch after the tour, I told my dad that nothing made me as excited as culinary school did, and being the supportive dad that he is, he told me to go for it. So here I am now, mentally preparing for what will come in the next six months of culinary school.
After reading a book called Under the Table by Kathering Darling, which was about Darling's time taking the same course I will be taking at the French Culinary Institute, I realized how much of this experience will be worth remembering and sharing. I'll try to share as much as I can about culinary school...from the French accents of the chef instructors to the hundreds of chickens I will inevitably carve and truss. I know it won't be easy, but I know it's where I belong.
So until next time...Bon Appetit!
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