Been a while...

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. I never really realized how much time it would take for studying and preparing for class. It's been really busy but should start slowing down a bit for the amount of studying as we are going to run out of info to read and study.
So, this week is our practical exam. I did my practical today and take my written exam tomorrow. I did pretty well on the practical...I think I scored well. We all have to make a salad with a vinaigrette, a carrot soup, a airline chicken breast with pureed potatoes and zucchini, and a pate brisee. It all went pretty well for me with a few hitches. I think the best thing about it is I learned what I can do better next time. The timing is really difficult to plan out properly. With 3 hours to cook, it seemed to take quite a while. But the killer is the last 15 minutes. That zips by and left me wanting more time. I am really looking forward to the next practical.
But first I have to do well on the written tomorrow so it's off to bed (already studied a ton today).

New week, new fun...

Started a new week with veal...yummy! And before any of you start bad mouthing the way veal is treated, do your own research...the industry is very regulated and the little cows (up to 9 months old) are not put into little pens where they cannot move...that is just good marketing by PETA (people eating tasty animals...). The pics they throw at you are from places over seas, not in the USA!
We made a veal scallopini and it was very nice, tender meat. It was accompanied by snap peas and a nicely done mushroom risotto. For an appetizer, we (I) made a potato crepe with gravlax and caviar...gravlax is a salt/sugar cured salmon...I included the picture for today of this. It was very tasty.
The rest of the week will be a bit scattered as we are going to a dairy farm and a cheese making farm on Thursday. We are moving the menu for Thursday to Wednesday (duck breast) and it's a SOC day (system of creation) for Friday...not sure what's on the menu for that.
Sam (my daughter) is the kitchen manager this week. She did very well for her first day...made a lot of veal stocks...the same for her tomorrow...
I am having a great time with this career change...YEA!

New Week

Wow, it has been a bit since I last blogged. IT takes time to get this done and I get pretty loaded with homework so time to do this will ultimately suffer. Oh well...I will do my best to keep up...now that I know Chef Adam is reading this...lol.
BTW, he corrected me; the tip of his finger was not reattached. He lopped the tip off and the doctors couldn't reattach it. So I stand corrected.
We're off pastry and back to the cooking again. I am pretty happy to be cooking again. I had the week before pastry week as the Kitchen Manager and then right into pastry. I really enjoyed pastry week, very tasty and fun...a great learning experience. However, I really love/want to cook meals and gain the experience and techniques from Chef Adam and Chef Rebecca. They really are very good instructors & great chefs. He is a bit more laid back and she is a bit tougher, good cop/bad cop. But that actually works really well. The last instructors were very good as well, but I think these 2 work better together...very motivational.
So we made salmon roulade with a flat fish mousseline. Today it was beef tenderloin, tomorrow and Thursday is lamb and Friday its tenderloin again. One team will get a pork tender and the other will get to do the beef. We've started adding an amuse bouche to the meals now...a dessert as well. This takes it to a new level time wise and technique as well. We've done pretty well thus far but I hope we can improve a lot more.
I made the amuse today (the attached pic). It was a potato base cooked in oil and a salmon mousseline "patty" (poached it in plastic wrap to keep the shape like a patty) with a thin slice of radish, then some sour cream (the chef track class used all my creme fraische I made a couple weeks ago!) and a little sliver of lemon zest and small florette of dill. The salmon was made with salmon (duh) , 1/2 an egg white, 1/2 cup of cream, seasoning, a little dill and some lemon juice. I likes it as did many in the class (yea!). I also make a sauted veg for the main plate that was okay...swiss chard, not a favorite of most...a bit bitter. I tried to cut that with the seasoning and a little red wine vinegar but can't cover bitter too well.
Tomorrow I asked the team chef to be able to do the lamb...French rack! I love doing that...should be fun...

What a strange day...

What a day this was...We've been doing pastries all week...French pastries...yum.
We made some quick breads and some yeast breads...they turned out very nice. There were Challah loaves, Parker House rolls, Irish Soda bread (I made...picture attached) and so much more. That was today...earlier this week we made Pate au Choux, Pate Brisee, Pate Sucre, puff pastry, and a few other items. These things were soooo tasty! It's been a lot of fun making all these pastries. But I digress...the reason it was a strange day was Chef Adam cut the tip of his finger off! Apparently, someone bumped into him while he was cutting up some food for the classes lunch and lopped off the first half inch or so of his left index finger. They got it reattached but it may not make it...no one ever said working in a kitchen was safe. I felt so bad for him. He had a great attitude when he came back but it still bothered me he cut himself. I think part of the issue is some members in the class are a bit unruly and a bit difficult/disrespectful to the instructors and other members in the class. It bothers me partly due to paying a LOT of money to go to this school. But it also bothers me because a lack of professionalism...and I don't like to see disrespect or be disrespected. When someone jacks around in class, it disrespects me and all my other classmates not to mention the Chef Instructors. Maybe I'm just ranting a bit but it really bothers me. I plan to start to speak out more to my classmates that act up and try to help things out a bit. Peer pressure can usaully help.
Well, one last day this week for pastries and then back to the regular cooking schedule...looking forward to that.

Culinary School

Okay, so last week is (obviously) done...I was the kitchen manager for the week and it actually went pretty well. I learned how to make stocks...really well...made I think around 10-12 batches for the week; a couple veal stocks and remi's and a LOT of chicken stock.
We got the chance to do a practice practical exam on Friday. It was very cool to have that opportunity. We're the first CA class to do that. All other classes had to wait until the real practical. We worked in teams of 2 (the real PE will be a solo job) and made carrot puree, a basic salad, and an entree plate with an (airline) chicken breast, sauted zucchini and pureed potatoes. It went alright but I think it certainly could have gone better. If I was running solo I think I would have been a bit happier and could have handled it better. The problem when working with someone else is if something goes wrong, it can be difficult to blame them, get upset, and such...in other words, there were a few things that I feel went wrong and I want to do the blame thing. But I also know in this career field, one needs to take responsibility for the whole project even if only involved in one part of it. So, I take the blame and should have/could have done better.
This week will be a pastry week (one of 4 ) so I won't get the chance to work them meals again for a week, but I am looking forward to working pastries and puff pastry. It should be a lot of fun and a great experience. I have tried puff pastry before and pretty much failed miserably. This will be a chance to learn a better method and I plan to make great puff this week.