Last night I went to my first Richmond alumni event in NYC (since when am I a college alumnae? So weird.) and ended up staying out later than expected and drinking a little more than my post-college liver is used to. Whereas my Friday nights used to mean parties and bar hopping, now they mean bedtime by 10 p.m. (usually earlier, let's be honest) and hanging out with my parents while my dad debates the pros and cons of cotton versus synthetic underwear as he picks out some new pairs from the Jockey catalogue (hope that doesn't embarrass you too much dad). So after knocking back a few oysters and a glass or two of wine with Dad at the Oyster Bar and then a few drinks at the alumni event, I was feeling less than stellar when my alarm clock woke me up at 5:20 this morning. After stopping into Walgreens for some Extra Strength Excedrin, I headed to school. Upon entering the kitchen, my head pounding and my stomach feeling a little queasy, I found myself face to face with a 10 pound calf's liver, jiggling and pink on Chef Roger's station as Chef Jeff, our new assistant chef who replaced Chef Nick, peeled off its outer membrane. I muttered to myself, "I could not have picked a worse day to feel sick."
During the lecture, as Chef Rogers showed us sweetbreads (the thymus gland of a calf), calf kidneys, calf liver and possibly the worst of all...lamb's tongue, my head was spinning and each time I looked at the pile of lamb's tongues, my stomach churned a little. I thought to myself, this is not going to be good. For your viewing pleasure, I took a few pictures of the before and after of the two most disgusting-looking things I have ever seen in a kitchen, sweetbreads and the lamb tongue:
The Lamb Tongue, after 2 1/2 hours of boiling to tenderize the tough muscle.
The finished tongue dish, Lamb Tongue with warm potato salad and ravigote vinaigrette.
The sweetbreads before
After being transformed into crispy pan-fried sweetbreads with brown butter caper sauce and creamy goat cheese polenta
I tried everything, although I can't say I really enjoyed any of them. The sweetbreads were very soft and moist, almost like a sponge and the lamb's tongue would have been ok if I had not seen them whole with their outer skin. The tongue tasted similar to a braised beef, but just a little bit tougher. The calf's liver was very fatty-tasting and sort of chalky, with an aftertaste that I did not enjoy. After we cooked everything, Chef Rogers made a dish of sauteed kidneys for us to try and that was actually my least favorite, even though they were served in a delicious mustard sauce. I almost had to spit it out because it was so difficult for me to swallow. But I didn't want the chefs to see me do that after Chef Jeff yelled at everyone for not tasting what we were cooking, so I just swallowed it and tried to ignore the pungent taste and the hard, chewy texture. Needless to say, I'm happy to be done with that day!
This week we've been doing a ton of meat, braised lamb shank and rabbit ragout yesterday, veal blanquette with rice pilaf and simmered beef with horseradish sauce on Tuesday and roast chicken and sauteed venison loin on Monday. After being basically vegetarian all summer (with the exception of fish and pepperoni...weird, I know, but I love it too much), it's been a little bit of a shock to be eating all this meat, and the variety of different meats, and I'm honestly getting really sick of it, I'm ready to be a vegetarian again! But tasting everything is part of being a chef, so I just have to suck it up and eat the meat!
Yesterday, we had a new chef to the FCI, Chef Dave, who was rotating through his training. It was a new experience for us all....he is the exact opposite of Chef Roger's calm, controlled personality. To Chef Rogers, he was probably the epitome of every obnoxious American man, and he even made the mistake of pronouncing Chef Rogers' name (which is pronounced Roh-jay) as Roger...hard R. "Did everyone just hear what Chef Roger said!?" "Yes, Chef" everyone responded with a suppressed giggle. Every 5 minutes he would yell a command to us all, and periodically rotated around the classroom asking everyone the same question, "IS YOUR RABBIT RAGOUT IN THE OVEN?!" "Yes, Chef." 10 minutes later he would do another rotation to our station, "IS YOUR RABBIT RAGOUT IN THE OVEN?!" "Yes, Chef we put it in 20 minutes ago." Several times, he would come around to our station, poke me in the back, nearly knocking the wind out of me with his force, as a way of telling me to get out of the way because he was going to show us something. Later on, after we plated our braised short ribs and showed them to Chef Rogers, my partner and I were taking a few bites of our meat to see how it tasted. I had just finished taking a bite, with my fork held in the air when he comes over, grabs the fork out of my hand, takes the largest hunk of meat I've ever seen a person fit in their mouth and says, "Shit that's good." "I guess I need a new fork," I said to my partner. I grabbed another fork and all of a sudden he reappears, bearing his own fork and knife and takes another huge hunk of meat off the plate. It was an interesting day with Chef Dave in the kitchen.
We experienced another new chef this week, Chef Jeff, who took over for Chef Nick as assistant to Chef Rogers. After weeks of hearing nightmares about Chef Jeff in the locker room (someone would come in talking about how he made them cry several times a week), we were all scared to share a kitchen with him. So far, he hasn't been too bad. He's very strict, sarcastic and matter of fact about things, but he is definitely knowledgeable. At this point, I'd rather have a mean but knowledgeable chef instructor than a nice chef who doesn't really know much. The fact that he's a little bit stricter adds to the pressure of the kitchen and has made me want to do better.
In other news, I went to Eataly on Monday night with my friend Bridgette (Check out her blog on baking, here: http://bridgetteweeks.wordpress.com/). Eataly is a new Italian food emporium that just opened in the Flatiron district of Manhattan. Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich, two of the most well-known Italian chefs in the country opened Eataly to be both a store and a restaurant space. The building is filled with different food stations, like Pizza and Pasta, Fish, Vegetables, Gelato, an Espresso Bar and a full Charcuterie and Cheese area. Around those areas are rows and rows of Italian goods like fresh and dry pasta, canned tomatoes, Italian jams and chocolates. I could have spent hours in there! But my train home was calling my name and unfortunately they wouldn't let me set up a mattress on the floor to sleep.
Here are some articles on Eataly if you're interested: http://ny.eater.com/places/eataly
I'm a little bummed because I won't get to cook this weekend because I'm headed to Richmond for family weekend to visit my little bro!
The Amused Bouche
Eww....lamb tongue and calf kidneys? Gross! You do make it look good though, once it's presented on the plate. Still don't think I'd be able to eat it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you made it through the day! Hangovers in the real world are not so fun :)
xo, Pauline
PS I hope your Dad went with cotton over synthetic! ;)