Out of the Kitchen Again

Once again we are out of a kitchen and sitting in a service class. This time we are learning about the front of the house, which is restaurant speak for "where the guests can go." Our instructor has a great background ans has worked at some fantastic properties so her knowledge base will be fantastic to learn from.

Fish & Chips

First a confession... I don't like fish. With the exception of a little lobster in Maine, New England Clam Chowder, a bite of shrimp every so often, and a tuna sandwich once in a blue moon I don't eat fish.

The deep frying practical exam involves making french fries and fried fish. This might sound easy but the knife cuts on the potatoes have to be perfect, all the fries should be exactly the same. And the fish... well we're not exactly getting breaded fillets from the nearest market. We have to break down a whole fish into fillets and then into portion sized cuts. I managed to break the fish down pretty easily. The technique is similar to the ones we learned in meatcutting class on larger animals.

With my fries and fillets in hand I headed to the deep fryer to coax all sorts of crispy goodness out of the raw product. The good news is that I succeeded! My fries were both crispy and fluffy and the fillets were cooked properly.

Grill Baby

The grilling practical was all about a simple perfect grilled steak. Diamond grill marks, medium-rare steak, and that is about it. We also had to make grilled asparagus, roasted potatoes, and a sauce.

All in all it went pretty darn well for me today. I got my grill marks right, my sides looked good, and the "sauce" I made went over really well. For my sauce I made a simple compound butter with garlic paste and rosemary.

Tomorrow is the final written exam and the frying practical. In the practical I'll have to make fish and chips.

The Only One Making Risotto

Today was the first day of practical exams for this class...

I was in the roasting group today and we each had to roast a chicken, make a pan gravy, saute a medley of green beans & julienne cut carrots, and serve it with a side of either mushroom risotto or red rice pilaf. Out of the 6 of us, I was the only one who decided to make the risotto.

I opted for the risotto because I know how to make it, I've made it in class, I had the time to make it, and I needed the thirty minutes at the stove spent stirring to clear my thoughts and mentally design my plate presentation. My decision was a good one because I ended up with a very pretty plate and something different, which is always good! Chef had good things to say about my whole plate, which was nice to hear and I got a great score.

Tomorrow we have the second leg of practical exams and I will be grilling. I've been practicing my 'grill marks' with the grill pan that I got for Christmas. I can now make beautiful diamonds on my grilled products, and hopefully that will pay off tomorrow.

Debate Day

French Settlers vs. Native Americans in Louisiana...
A simple topic for debate if you have the side of the French and thankfully my group did! We were able to show that the French brought all sorts of techniques and foods with them that the Native Americans didn't have and that these foods and techniques are still in use today.

Peeling Ginger

Today we highlighted Jamaican flavors and I worked on a jerk marinade for the chicken we would be grilling. This marinade is something that I will be putting into my rotation of things I like to cook. The flavors in it are familiar yet have a different twist. I can see this being a fantastic summer chicken dish.

In making the marinade I learned that you don't peel ginger with a peeler, a knife or anything else you use the edge of a spoon and scrape the skin off!

French Fry Tasting!

Today was the day we had sadly put off for more than enough days. We started the day with a lecture about the three main types of potatoes we took the next step and saw how those differences manifested themselves in the cooking process. The best way to see how the potatoes stand up is to fry them and see what kind of fry they make.

The Waxy (yukon gold), Russett and Chef potatoes were cut into beautiful uniform fries, blanched, frozen, and brought out to swim in the fresh fry oil! In looking at them there were slight variations in form and color once they came out of the oil. The real differences were seen when we started tasting them...

The Russett potatoes made a fry with a super crisp outside and the fluffy soft interior that is similar to a baked potato.

The Chef potatoes made a middle of the road fry, nothing super to write home about, but I'd still eat and enjoy them.

The Waxy potatoes made an interesting fry. This potato had the biggest taste difference of the three, I can't quite point out what it was that tasted different, but there was something that did.

All said... it was a pretty tasty day!

Substitute Chef

A different take on things, a new view point, another method to use... these are all things that you get when your regular chef is unable to come to class and the chef who teaches the evening section takes over for the day. It was actually really nice to have a different chef, not because I dislike the current one, but because the more chefs and their methods I can be exposed to the happier I am and more I can get out of my education.

Steak Tasting!

One of the ways that life is totally different at Johnson & Wales from life in the real world is that how often in the real world do you line up beautifully grilled flank, skirt, and rib-eye steaks for a side by side by side tasting? At Johnson & Wales this type of thing is almost normal. It is such fun to see great food products lined up and waiting to be tasted! And having them lined up you can really taste the difference between them and think of different applications for each steak.

The other very cool thing today was that the dean of the culinary school did a presentation on healthy cooking for us. He was very interesting to watch and I really enjoyed the program. His base of knowledge is amazing and the passion he has for his craft shines!

Cooking For Others.

For the past 9 days I've been making soups, stocks, and sauces. While these are vitally important components of cooking, there is something comforting about being in a full kitchen again and cooking for people!

Yes, in baking and pastry we baked all sorts of yummy good things for other classes to use and in SSS we created the stocks that other classes need... but there is something so fulfilling about spending all morning cooking and knowing that there will be other classes, deans, and other chefs coming to eat the food that you have prepared.

In New World Cuisine Chef Brener will lead us through the fundamentals of roasting, grilling and deep frying using the flavor profiles that are found in "New World" countries. So lots of South American, Central American and Island influences. Everything we made today was fantastic and I can't wait for tomorrow!

Who Won the Bechamel Grudge Match?

Day 9 of Stocks, Sauces & Soups... that brings us to another round of practical tests.

Knife cuts were a breeze... I rather enjoy the discipline of them, while my knife and I still don't have a fantastic relationship it is getting better and I'm learning to get a straight cut more of the time.

Sauces...
The Hollandaise and Bernaise sauces were great, chef liked them and I was pleased with them.
The Bechamel sauce was not as easy as I would have liked, but it got done with out a major catastrophe! The sauces I made from the bechamel tasted decent as well.

I had a great 9 days in this class and it really is the major building block of what happens in a kitchen, especially a classical French kitchen.

Me vs. The Bechamel Sauce

Bechamel Sauce... that classic base of milk and roux that is the base of all sorts of nice creamy sauces. You have got to have a perfect bechamel for the other sauces to taste right.

What is perfect...
1. Starchy (floury) taste cooked out... this can take any where from a few minutes to hours.
2. Nappe consistency... a texture thing, it has to coat the back of a spoon and hold a trail when you run your finger through it.
3. Seasoning... salt and white pepper and just a touch of nutmeg, not enough to make it "taste like Christmas" but enough to just give it a little sparkle of extra flavor.

Now I've made a good bechamel sauce in class more than once this term, but today in the 3 batches I made today I had trouble. The starchy taste just wouldn't cook out, which led to the bottom of the pot scorching and the sauce getting to the right consistency but tasting burnt, which means that it ended up in the trash can.

Hopefully I have better luck with the bechamel sauce tomorrow, as it is one of the mother sauces that we have to make and two of our compound sauces use it as a base!

I Can Totally Clog Your Arteries!

Today was all about the many sauces that belong to the "artery clogging" family. The key member of this family is a staple of Sunday brunches around the country, a wonderful topping for asparagus and, a lovely mother sauce... none other than the one and only Hollandaise! Hollandaise is rather deceptive, looking at the ingredients it seems simple, but there is the whole delicate dance of an emulsion. And the truth about emulsions is that they are flat out hard to work with and you have a pretty darn good chance of them not playing nice and having to start over. The good news is that my Hollandiase came out correct the first time, a little cold, but that was an easy fix.

Being a mother sauce you can toss something into Hollandaise and create a new sauce! The sauce we created today was Bearnaise. I adore Bearnaise Sauce... I'm not sure how my arteries feel about this, but it is not like I'm drinking cups of this stuff every day... just having it with some beautifully cooked beef. To get Bearnaise from Hollandaise all you do is add in a reduction of tarragon, shallots, and white wine. I know, totally simple!

Also bubbling away in the class room today were pot of shrimp bisque, more Bechamel, Mornay and Soublise sauces. I'm still having issues with my patience when making the Bechamel... I hate waiting for the starch to cook out! But then again I have very little patience to begin with!

Miss Independent!

While yesterday was mother sauces today was all about the independent ones. The sauces that are out there all alone; butter, broken butter, compound butter, salsa (yep it's a sauce!), relish... I could go on, but my fingers would fall off it I kept listing them!

Each group had to make a compound butter today, ours went with butter, garlic, lemon zest, thyme, and basil. Sounds odd, but really it tastes good! I'd been lobbying for rosemary, but there wasn't any in the fridge. We also made a cream of mushroom soup that turned out decently, each group had a slightly different flavor in their soup, but that is to be expected, and truly part of the fun!

Knife cuts, the bane of my existence, rounded out the day. The cuts are exacting and everything has to line up for them to turn out right. I hold my wrist at a terribly odd angle (it isn't odd for holding the reins when riding a horse, but really doesn't work too well for holding a knife) so I really must pay attention to my hand position, where the knife is going, heck even how I'm standing! Yes where your feet are make a huge difference when you cut, I totally didn't believe it but the proof is there and I do have better results when I'm standing one way as opposed to another. My patience paid off today and Chef said that not only were my knife cuts improving, but my orange supremes were fantastic!

Mother of All...

Today we got to the true heart of the stocks, sauces and soups class... mother sauces. This is where all the goodness comes from! Without these leading ladies there would be no joy. Food would be sad and bland.

Okay... not really sad and bland, but not nearly as fun! We've been working with the veloute for a day or two already so it was a quick refresher and the bechamel is incredibly similar, you are just using a different roux (white not blonde) and a different liquid (milk not white stock.) The espanole sauce is a different ball game! There are vegetables to cut up, tomato paste to play with and some bacon. If anything the espanole sauce is more like a stock than just a sauce.

We also began to work with the mother sauces and see how they turn into other things. The veloute we made yesterday got mixed with heavy cream, shallots, tarragon and white wine to become white tarragon sauce!

Back In The Kitchen

After a well deserved vacation where I did very little cooking (I love that my family has people who love to cook in it) today was back to the reality of Johnson & Wales and life in the kitchen.

We did a madcap review of all sorts of things in class today before getting into the production of stocks (white chicken, brown chicken, white fish and, brown veg), soups (minestrone all around) and sauces (pesto & veloute.)

Veloute is a totally basic white sauce... yet good lord it can be contrary to make! One starts with a roux and then adds chicken stock. Simple sounding, now there is also the matter of the constant stirring, the cooking out of the starch, the need for it to be the correct viscosity. Such fun! Oh and if the stuff gets too hot and you taste it... say good bye to your taste buds for a few days! Thankfully I didn't make that mistake today, I learned my lesson before the break!

Tomorrow we launch into "Mother Sauces" which is the heart of the class, I'm really looking forward to this. I know how to make some of them, but I'm sure that I'll learn new ways and techniques...