Catering/Garde Manger Week 3, Day 5. Finals and Market basket. Last day of catering. We took the final exam and then drew the assignment for the final buffet. I picked the dreaded vegetable and started rooting around the kitchen for something to make. We also had to do knife cuts, so I started on those while I pondered over the available ingredients in the kitchen. I came up with Oyster Mushrooms with Pearl Onions and Butternut squash. Last night I read a little of The Soul of a Chef - the part where Michael Ruhlman discusses the playful ideas behind Thomas Keller's cooking. I think the section about Oysters and Pearls stuck in my head and came out in a subliminal manner. I was worried about the dish the entire time I was making it. I've never made oyster mushrooms before and I didn't know if the flavors went together. I caramelized the pearl onions and put it in the hot box. Then I parboiled small dice butternut squash in chicken stock and added that to the onions. Finally I sauteed two boxes of oyster mushrooms with some garlic. I added a little white wine to deglazed it a bit. I combined it with the onions and squash with ten minutes to spare. I reduced the chicken stock I used to parboil the squash and added it to the vegetables just before bringing it out to the buffet line. It came out pretty well. Even though I despise mushrooms, oyster mushrooms have a very nice texture. All in all, it gave me back a little bit of confidence in my cooking abilities. (Most of which I lost while trying out for the ACF Junior team last Saturday.)

Catering/Garde Manger Week 3, Day 4. Grand Buffet - Hawaiian. The day to put up or shut up. The day we are tested as a team. We pass with flying colors. Lara, Bjorn, and I were responsible for aspic. We had to produce two plates each. It went very well. Bjorn did two different beach scenes. Lara did a pineapple and a beach scene. I used a fish mold to make a fish with a hula girl figurine suspended inside. And for my second plate I did a surfer riding a wave. For the wave I transposed Hokusai's The Breat Wave off Kanagawa. Eve and Jen were the dining room managers. The buffet line was well designed and the flower decorations were very picturesque. Not to mention the beverages were very good: some sort of tropical punch, along with still or sparkling water. A far cry from the usual fruit punch and lemonade. Kalei made a roast suckling pig. He was a little disappointed by how it turned out, but he's from Hawaii and has had the real stuff a lot. He only had four hours to cook the pig. I think longer slower cooking would have provided the results he was looking for. Jim, Jaime, and Rodney made canapes. Manny made an extremely flavorful Painolo Steak. JB made Crispy Summer Rolls. Chas made a tofu stir fry. Joe made a Sweet potato salad. Nelson made Mahimahi. Will made the fruit mirror and the watermelon carving.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 3, Day 3. Plated Dinner day. In lecture, Chef Groeger did an ice carving of a marlin for the Grand Buffet. He made it look so easy. First, he make a template on a piece of butcher paper. Adhered it to the surface of a 40x20x10 standard ice block. Next, he used a Rotozip to transfer the design to the ice. Then he used a chainsaw to cut away big blocks of empty space. Finally he gradually added more detail with various other tools.

For the buffet, we did a plated service which means we set out a set number of salad plates (45). We plated hot entrees and put them in two hot boxes. At the table, we had bread, canapes, and salads. The menu was simple. A mesclun mix salad in a toasted lavosh ring surrounded by a necklace of thinly sliced tomatoes. The main entree was an airline chicken breast roasted wrapped in pancetta on roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a vegetable confetti with a potato window garnish. A potato window is a leafy herb sandwiched between two sliced of potatoes and then fried. I think you can also sandwich these between two sheet pans and bake them. I was on dining room manager duty with Richie. We managed to trip the circuit breakers in the dining area by plugging in the hot boxes. Apparently we were not supposed to plug them in - six sternos provided ample heat.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 3, Day 2. Holiday. Pretty appropriate since we just came back from a three-day weekend. Chef Groeger lectured about the basic components of a meal and optional courses that we could provide. He also talked about the basics of ice carving and how to prepare the block of ice. Rodney, Molly, and I were on aspic. Apparently, we were the last three to do aspic. It pretty simple: make the gelatin. Make a base layer by mixing the gelatin with mayonnaise. This is classically known as chaud froid. Then use a sauce gun to pour the chaid froid onto an oval platter. Wait for this layer to set. Then etch out a design of choice using cookie cutters or a paring knife. Then fill in the empty spaces with colored gelatin. There are endless possibilities: spices, vegetables, and liquers. Wait for that layer to set and then top with a layer of clear gelatin. This is a very classical technique that is not used much anymore. The platter is used for serving canapes. Rodney made a snowman. Molly made a gingerbread man with a heart. I made a "green-shot" eyeball using fennel fronds for the blood shot effect. Maybe it's more of a post-holiday effect but on topic nonetheless.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 2, Day 5. Heart Healthy. Kind of on topic with Valentine's day. The menu items geared towards low sodium and butterless recipes. We had a whole poached thirty pound tuna. It was supposed to be an eight pound red snapper, but we got the tuna instead. Eve and I made Braised Belgian endive with cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. I didn't think much of it. I need to consider what would make it tastier. We tried to spruce it up with garlic, shallots, and grated lemongrass, but to no avail. Jim and Jen made grilled chicken on a bed of carrot ribbons. The carrot ribbons made the dish. Lightly salted deep-fried carrot peelings. Simple, flavorful, and goes well with chicken.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 2, Day 4. Cocktail day. In lecture, Chef told us what he expected from our buffet project. On the first day, we were assigned a project to create a proposal for buffet for 100 people. We chose the theme to be Hawaiian cuisine. The buffet consists of 11 items of our choosing: 2 hot appetizers, 2 cold appetizers, 2 vegetables, 1 salad, 1 entree, 1 starch, 1 dessert, and 1 beverage. We have to cost out each dish, write out the procedure to prepare each dish, fill in a boilerplate contract, create a labor schedule, and price out the part with a 15% profit.

Lara, Jim, and I made Coconut Shrimp with mango chutney. Jim and Lara handled the shrimp: peeling, breading, and frying while I setup the breading station and made the mango chutney. It felt good to use my knife again. I need to practice my knife cuts more. We had a huge cheese tray for the buffet. Chef said that the hotel would probably charge a grand for what we put out.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 2, Day 3. Kosher day. In lecture, we had a test review for Friday. It's basically going to be a math test. Blair and I made Latkes. One concept we've learned in catering is a firing sheet. To prepare a buffet everything is served at once, so we use a firing sheet to organized when items should be heated before holding for service. For example, all fried items are actually fried as soon as possible, put in the hot box, and reheated twenty minutes before service.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 2, Day 2. New England day. Mock clam bake, boiled dinner, baked beans, we had it all. Chas and I made Maple Glazed Chicken with Cranberry Pecan Pilaf. I made the pilaf and Chas prepared the chicken. It was a very easy dish, but the wheat berries and the rye berries that we used for the pilaf took forever to cook.

In lecture, we talked about contracts and what we should consider when drawing them up with our lawyer.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 2, Day 1. Deli Day. No hot foods just salads and a big deli tray. In lecture, we were reacquainted with cost cards. We also got into some word problems dealing with figuring out the costs of a catering situation. For production, I was dining room manager with Deborah as my assistant. We kind of overused certain tablecloths, but it came out well in the end. We were busy the enture time. It's amazing how time flies by even when you're not cooking. We set up the buffet line, put out tables and chairs, and made signs. Setting up the buffet line took the longest time. We have to map out all the dishes and come up with a design for the tables. To vary the height of dishes, we used wooden blocks wrapped in tablecloths. Deborah did a great job wrapping the blocks with the tablecloths. It's very awkward. I tried it myself, but no good came of that.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 1, Day 5. Southwest day. We had our first test. No big deal. Chef did a great job getting us ready for this one. I worked alone again and made a Romaine salad with Chipotile Dressing and Croutons. Green salad, my greatest fear. Leafy green vegetables are unwieldly and delicate. There's no fire or heat involved. Cut, wash, and go. Should be simple and it is, but I make a big deal out of it. Maybe it has something to do with raw food in general...

Catering/Garde Manger Week 1, Day 4. Heartland day. We went over in-house and off property catering. Chef gave us a lot of useful information about catering. He recommends the lifestyle of catering because unlike a restaurant owner you don't have to worry about getting customers when you have already bought the food, you don't have to own any large equipment, and you set your own hours and can take a vacation whenever you can feel like it. He makes a very convincing argument for the life of a caterer.

I worked alone today. I was responible for the five bean salad. The five beans were kidney, white, green, wax, and garbanzo. It felt like a lot of work because I'm still fairly slow in the kitchen. Basically, I had to prepare each bean, then the emulsified vinaigrette, and combine them. I've always been a bit antsy about salads. I've always skipped that section in cookbooks. I guess I should take this opportunity to deal with my weakness.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 1, Day 3. Cajun day. In lecture, we talked about cold hors d'oeuvres. Onto the buffet. Shelby and I worked on a pot roast with root vegetables. We took turns during service to man the carving station. I have trouble carving with the roast. I didn't realize until much later that I usually carve with my left hand when I'm eating a steak or something, so that might have something to do with it.

Catering/Garde Manger Week 1, Day 2. BBQ day. Eve and I made corn on the cob. We boiled it milk, water, salt, pepper, and sugar. We also made honey butter. Looks like I'll either be working with Eve or Rodney everyday. The recipes don't seem to be very special. We have to okay all tweaks and changes with the chef.

In lecture, we talked about sanitation and aspic. I'll spare the details about sanitation, but it's all on tape if anyone wants to hear it. Aspic is a more interesting topic. It's a classical technique that's not really used that much anymore. It's a gelatin substance that sets up firm at room temperature. We use it to decorate the serving platters for canapes.

Our theme for Grand Buffet is Hawaiian. Kalei was born there so maybe he'll have some good ideas. I voted for Pacific Northwest, but we only had 9 votes out of 26. During dinner, we chose our assignments for Grand Buffet. I picked Fruit Mirror, but I traded that to Nelson for Canape. Then I traded Jim for Aspic.


Catering/Garde Manger Week 1, Day 1. The way things go in this class is that we start off with lecture. Then we go over the menu with Chef. He calls out the assignments and we go over the firing sheet. The firing sheet is a list of times when all hot items are given the last amount of heat and when they go into the hot box. For example, tonight we planned to have dinner ready by 845pm. Chef wanted the garlic bread in the hot box, a device used to keep hot foods at a certain temp, at 815pm. The firing time was 8pm. This is went we put the pans of corn in water and milk on the stove to boil and simmer.into the oven. So we have 15 minutes from the time the bread is oven to get it prepared and into the hot box ready for dinner. Other items vary. All cold items are prepared as soon as possible and put in the coolers. 15 minutes before dinner, we put the food out and chef goes over the menu and other points with us. Then we eat and open the doors for other students on campus. After dinner, half the class gets to go home and the other half cleans the kitchen. We alternate each night.


Lecture was long. Chef Groeger told us all about professionalism and what the industry is all about from his viewpoint. He is another chef who suggested working while in culinary school. He also told us about our project, the Grand Buffet. One Week 3 Day 4, the class will be preparing a grand buffet that the class as a whole decided on. I'm a little worried about having the 26 kids in our class trying to agree on one theme.

Basic Baking Week 3, Day 5. I went with Rodney to volunteer at a catering event at Boeing. It was my first experience inside an institional kitchen. Aramark runs Boeing cafeteria and the Chef was contracted to do the catering event. I'll admit that we didn't serrve haute cuisine, but people liked it. It showed me a lot. There's a side of the industry that I choose not to enter. I am not going to culinary so that I can learn the shortcuts when I enter the industry. I guess I'm only against those "timesavers" that compromises the integrity of the food. I will work at a place that respects food enough to serve it with care. All this took place between 630am and 1pm.

And all that before our practical for Basic Baking. For the roll-in station, we had to make blitz puff pastry dough and then make dessert Vol-au-vents. According to Larousse Gastronomique, the classical vol-au-vents are savory and round with a lid. The dessert ones we made look like diamonds with twists on two opposite corners. I think we made the classical dessert ones which use cherry filling. Here's how you make it: Cut up 13 ounces of cold butter into cubes and mix it(with your hands) with 18 ounces of bread flour. The consistency is still very powdery. Then slowly incorporate 9 ounces of cold water with .5 ounces of salt. The consistency of the dough should be soft with chunks of butter. If it's still a bit floury, add a ittle bit more water. Shape the dough into a rectangle and then roll it out into a larger rectangle. Ensure that the underside is well-floured. Fold opposite sides to the middle and then fold in half. This is a four-fold. Roll the dough out again into a large rectangle. Do another four-fold. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 5-10 minutes. Roll and four-fold two more times and refrigerate again. After another 5-10 minutes, the dough is ready to be rolled into vol-au-vents. Fold into a large reactangle about a 1/4-inch thick. Roll it out so that you can cut out as many 4"x4" squares you can. To make the vol-au-vent from a square, first fold corner to corner so you have a triangle. Now make two cuts each about 1/4 inch from the legs of the triangle(not the hypotenuse) but don't connect the two lines(this would separate a smaller triangle). Now unfold the triangle and brush it with egg wash(1-2 eggs beaten). Now there should be two opposing v-cuts facing each other. Fold the vertex of one v to the opposite inner v. Fold that piece of dough back over this first one. what you should have now is a smaller square with twists of dough at two opposing corners. Brush the top well with egg wash. Fill the inner square with the filling of your choice: sweet or savory. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 mintues or until golden brown. We had to make six of these for our practical. Piece of cake ... er, puff.

Basic Baking Week 3, Day 4. The test wasn't too bad. A lot of memorization gone awry. Deborah and I made puff patry dough. It didn't start out pretty, but by the time we got to the fourth rolling, it was a thing of beauty. Too bad we won't get to make anything out of it. We also made savarins which look like doughnuts.

Basic Baking Week 3, Day 3. I attended a Student Leadership Council meeting today. They brought up all the competitions and events that are coming up: Cherry Recipe contest, Scottsdale Culinary Festival, ACF Junior team, a wine tasting event, and elections. In lecture, we reviewed for tomorrow's written final exam. It's going to be a lot of memorization. In the kitchen, Deborah and I made biscuits with blue cheese, rosemary, and sun-dried tomatos. We also made Mexican wedding cookies and peanut butter and strawberry jelly muffins.

Basic Baking Week 3, Day 2. We had our last lecture on Baker's percentages. Baker's use percentages for their recipes so that it's easier to scale. Everything is based on the main ingredient which is usually flour, so that makes flour 100%. If the recipe/formula calls for 50% water that mean 50% water comapared to flour(in ounces). Pretty simple concept.
Deborah and I made buttermilk poundcake. We didn't have the same experience as Joe and JB did. We also made Blitz puff pastry dough for Vol-au-vents. We finished the day with chocolate chip muffins filled with chocolate ganache. Nelson and Will made very good star-shaped garlic, spinach, and rosemary biscuits.

Basic Baking Week 3, Day 1. Lecture was about creme anglaise, custard, pastry cream, and ice cream. They all have similar ingredients and have fairly similar procedures. My partner for this week is Deborah. We were the oven people today, so we just proofed, baked, cooled, and wrapped everyone else's stuff. There was a slight mishap with Joe and JB's buttermilk poundcake. It bubbled over and made a mess in the over. We were lucky that it was one of the smaller ovens so that we didn't get backed up. We also were responsible for putting out the break trays. Today there was sundried tomato and parmesan bisuits, mango-rasberry muffins, blondies, baklava, and heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies.

Basic Baking Week 2, Saturday - Bonus. I spent the day helping out at our Titanium Pastry Chef competition. It was the finals. Four teams headed by Chef instructors faced off for two and a half hours trying to make as many plates as they could from a market basket of items and four mandatory mystery items: blood oranges, blue cheese crumbles, fresh rosemary, and another less exotic ingredient that escapes me at the moment. The market basket had pastry cream, buttercream, creme anglaise, phyllo dough, vanilla beans, plain shortbread dough, chocolate shortbread dough, plain petite four dough, chocolate petite four dough, rasberries, blackberries, a mango, a pear, a green apple, two limes, puff pastry dough, and bittersweet chocolate. The teams were also allowed to use whatever was in the kitchen.

The teams all did very well. The top two teams were actually missing people. The teams were well organized. The winning team made a creme brulee using blue cheese and rosemary. It felt kind of weird cleaning up as Rodnay and I trashed the plates.

Basic Baking Week 2, Day 4. Another Friday, another test and practical. For the bread station, we had to make knots, roll dinner rolls, and shape a baguette. The written test wasn't too bad; a lot of methods muffin#1, muffin#2 aka creaming, biscuit, high-ratio, warm foaming, and separation foaming. I stayed after class with Rodney to help Chef prep for the Titanium Pastry Chef competition tomorrow. The Chocolate-Sour Cherry Bread came out well except for the size of the loaf. I don't think I let it ferment enough yesterday. The bitter chunks of chocolate matched well with the tang of the sour cherries. These components were interspersed in a soft moist dark loaf. It doesn't have the texture of cake since it's made with bread flour, and the sourness of using a sourdough starter was not really present. I think I'll try again next week.

Basic Baking Week 2, Day 3. I came in a little early to try making Nancy Silverton's Chocolate-Sour Cherry Bread. The dough came out pretty good. Since it's a two-day bread, we'll see what happens tomorrow. JB and I made Ciabata. It uses a biga which is kind of like a starter. It's a two day process some we'll make rolls out of them tomorrow. It was Chinese day in the International kitchen. The kids made a good effort. The duck had good flavor.

Basic Baking Week 2, Day 2. In lecture, Chef demoed three types of meringues: French or Common, Swedish, and Italian. His attempt to make the Italian meringue was foiled by the slowness of boiling water. Chef used the Swedish meringue to make a mini Baked Alaska. We each got to make our own as well. It was fun using a blowtorch to brown the meringue, but Chef used Will's New Castle ice cream which didn't match well with the cake base and meringue. JB and I made Blue Cheese Buttermilk rolls and sourdough.

Basic Baking Week 2, Day 1. First day of bread making. My partner for this week is JB. Our first project was Focaccia. We added some sun dried tomatoes to the dough for flavor. We almost got to the French Bread, but we ran out of time. Bread station is a little different. Our reference point for the night is 530pm. That is when all doughs to be baked for that day is punched down and bench rested. Our group for the bread station is 8 people; so we all make doughs for about an hour and then let it ferment for about half an hour(exceptions are ciabatta and sourdough, those are fermented overnight in the walk-in). After the bench rest, we scale and divide the dough into production units and then we shape. Dinner rolls are either rounded or tied into knots. We use a dough cutter for these to cut a three pound piece of dough into 36 equal pieces. We made focaccia rolls by gently shaping into a ball and pressing down, brushing with olive oil and dusting with parmesan cheese. We also made sheet pans of focaccia. After we shape and placed the products on sheet pans we give in the the oven person to proof and bake. Everyday two people from the roll-in team are in charge of the ovens.

Today the International students served up German and English food. I'm not sure why the quality of this food is so poor. I guess I'll find out when I take the class.

Basic Baking Week 1, Day 4. We reviewed for tomorrow's test by playing a game. It was kind of like Family Feud in that we had two teams and people went head to head to answer one question. For production, Joe and I made chocolate Petit Four dough for the AM class, Creme Anglais, pate a choux - dough used for eclairs and pastries of that nature, and ice cream. We messed up our first Creme Anglais by overcooking the eggs. Our second batch came out great and served as the base for our ice cream. Joe flavored our Creme Anglais with lemon extract, so I came up with a lemon poppyseed ice cream with lemon curd swirl. It was fun squeezing in the lemon curd with a mixing bag as the lemon poppyseed ice cream was extruded from the ice cream machine to create the swirling effect. Needless to say that it was very lemony and sweet. Everyone who tried it really liked it, but I found it a bit too sweet for my taste. People might have been comparing it to Nelson's Guiness Ice Cream which had a creamy stout flavor. William made his ice cream with New Castle Nut Brown Ale and roasted macadamia nuts. JB came up with an orange Grand Marinier flavor, Deborah made a rasberry mint chocolate chip ice cream. We have some strong creavity flowing in this class.

The cuisine of the day was Italian. Much better than yesterday's stuff: osso buco, veal scallopini, chicken picata, bruschetta, polenta, mushroom rissoto, and some halibut. In our break trays, we served up some chocolate-white chocolate cookies, angel food cake, cornbread, biscuits, croissants, stuffed croissants, and muffins.

Basic Baking Week 1, Day 3. Joe and I made angel food cake, devil's food cake, and a Sachertorte. The Sachertorte is a proprietary dessert. I not exactly clear where the name comes from; a town or hotel in Germany, I think. We only made the cake portion which uses cocoa powder and almond flour. Traditionally it is then split in half, moistened with kirsch, spread with apricot jam, sandwiched back together, covered with ganache, and iced with Chocolate Glacage.

The International kids whipped up some Greek and Morrocan fare. People didn't think too highly of it, but I thought it was okay. There was hummus, tabouli, baba ganoush, veal, squid, and loads of other stuff that I ate but forget about.

Basic Baking Week 1, Day 2. First day of production. My partner for this class is Joe. We made pastry cream and spongebutter cake.

In lecture, we went over the twelve stages of breadmaking: mice en place and scaling, mixing, primary fermentation, punching, scaling and dividing, rounding, bench resting, shaping, proofing, baking, cooling, and storing.

We sent out our first break trays. We had biscuits, muffins, International served up Russian and Hungarian food. There was borscht, goulash, salmon in some pastry dough, breaded cauliflower, fried potato things, and some other stuff. Supposedly the class doesn't label their stuff because it's not like catering where the food is made for other students. Here, the class is "inviting" the other classes to eat their food. We could always just ask, but there are invisible social barriers between classes.

Basic Baking Week 1, Day 1. Back to school. After an uneventful three week break, the journey contiues. It was good seeing everyone again. There were a couple of MIAs: apparently we have lost Casey to the morning session. She'll be missed. I would like to give a shout-out to fellow culinarian Gabe if he's reading this. He found my entries doing a search for Anozira - the temp agency that I signed up with but have yet to do anything for. I haven't reread any of my previous entries, but I think my opinions on certain chefs may have changed for one reason or another. But I digress...

The start of Basic Baking promises a flurry of activity. Chef Cipriano and his associate Chef Collee have a daily schedule planned from 3-10pm. There are three stations in the kitchen: breads, roll-in, and desserts. I'm not quite sure what roll-in yet. We make all the baked goods for the restaurant on this campus L'Academie and the International Cuisine class. Chef Cipriano is very passionate about his job and I hope his energy will enfuse us all. He took us through the twelve stages of bread with French bread dough. After a little tour through the new campus, we met in the kitchen for a some demos there. Chef demonstrated puffed pastry. I stared in awe at the amount of butter in the dough. Chef also demoed a biga - a firm preferment that we use to make Ciabatta and a poolish - a wet preferment used in other breads. For the desserts - the station I start at, Chef demonstrated pastry cream.

Our dinner at the new campus comes courtesy of the International Cuisine class. I was a little worried that we were only to snack on bread alone. Besides our production, we also put out break trays for the rest of the classes at 6:15pm, including our own.

Meat Fab, Week 2 Day 5. Last night Jen organized a little get together at a Japanese restaurant. Fun was had by all which resulted in a little tiredness in the kitchen. I couldn't get to sleep until 6am this morning. Today was my second day of butchery. Yesterday the chef demoed salmon, chicken, beef sirloin, and lamb racks. The practical for this portion of the class is to french a rack of lamb in under ten minutes. I finally hit that mark today after my seventh or eighth rack. I have the time down I just need to clean more meat off the bones.

Casey and Manny made stew for family meal. They elevated this humble dish to an artform. In lecture, we over the answers to the quiz we took yesterday. During the review session on Wednesday, Chef Pearson gave us a lot hints and outright answers to the quiz. But something led me to miss a few questions.

Meat Fab, Week 2 Day 2. Jim and I were the kitchen managers today. Our main responsibility is to make the family meal at 630pm. Jim was pretty open to any ideas, so I suggested fried rice. Our protein was pork loin. We roasted three of those off. One was marinated with a Chinese BBQ sauce I found in a cookbook. The recipe called for red food coloring which led many to wonder where the pink color came from. Another we stuffed with some sausage meat, roasted, covered it with mustard, rolled it in bacon, and finished in the oven. I like to call it pork three ways. The last one was an apple cinnimon recipe that Jim found on the web. We also made a fruit salad. Those four hours went by really fast. We wasted some time by peeling grapes for the fruit salad. I think we could have spent the time cutting up other fruit we had. I ended up taking more food home than I brought.

It felt good to cook for my fellow classmates. People liked the fried rice but I thought something was missing. I think it might have been the white pepper. We usually use that in class, but on this day we ran out. I used black pepper instead. It just wasn't the same.

Lecture was review for the quiz about poultry, fish, and shellfish. Last day of charcuterie tomorrow.

Meat Fab, Week 1 Day 4. More charcuterie fun. Chef Defleze is from Wisconsin so he has decided to teach us cheese-making. A little milk, a little cream, bring it up to 100 degrees add lemon juice to curdle and let it sit for a couple of hours. Then we poured it into grease trap bags which are roughly equivalent to twenty layers of cheesecloth. Tied it up and hung it in the refrigerator. More tomorrow.

Rodney made some Hot links. I brought it home and cooked one up. My parents thought it was extremely spicy, but it almost tasted sweet to me. I wonder what is happening to my palate. I got to make a torchon which means "dishtowel" in France. The method of making this comes from Thomas Keller's insane masterpiece The French Laundry Cookbook. Chef Defleze had all the fun of deveining the foie gras. I soaked it in milk for an hour to remove excess blood. Then I marinated it for an hour in brandy, white wine, and shallots. Then it is wrapped in a cheesecloth, poached for three minutes, shocked in an ice bath for ten minutes, wrapped in plastic film, and hung in the refrigerator. Tomorrow is the tasting. Can't hardly wait.

Rodney and I also made a pork mousseline terrine. Mousselines are protein, eggs and cream processed into a mixture which is then used in some way: mostly quenelles and stuffings. Another method is to shape it into a terrine which is what we did. I think I lucked out with the fun stuff first because the other half in butchery break down meat all day for the rest of the school. We get to make and take home as many charcuterie products as we can do.

Another video in the lecture session. I almost feel asleep. It was a continuation of the Pork salughter video. They described where each of the parts of the pig went.

Meat Fab, Week 1 Day 3. I got to class early and asked Chef Pearson to share his technique for knife sharpening. His technique is different from Chef Deflieze's in that there is no wasted motion; he sharpens on the forward motion and the backward motion.

We learned how to do galantines which is a whole chicken deboned, garnished, rolled, and cooked. The classical preparation is to tie the roll in a cheesecloth, poach in chicken stock, cool, and serve cold. Chef Deflieze likes to wrap it in bacon and roast it. I opted for the classical method because I was curious and because everybody else did it the Chef's way. Rodney and I also made Fennel Salami. Two more items on the list.

We also stopped to watch Chef Pearson demo breaking down a whole pork loin. In lecture, we watched a collection of four videos on the slaughter of cattle, pigs, chickens, and sheep. I was more fascinated than disgusted. I don't know how some of those workers do their tasks day in and day out.

Meat Fab, Week 1 Day 2. I get to school ten minutes before class starts and manage to get in a little fingernail maintenance. Chef Deflieze checks it everyday for the charcuterie students. I panicked because I forgot my small recipe notebook at home. I wound up using my Palm Pilot. It was extremely useful, but I think it doesn't stand up well to possible stains and cuts. We learned how to make sausages today. It's pretty simple for fresh sausages anyway. Grind the meat, fat, and seasonings. Cook a test piece for seasoning. Reseason, and run it through the sausage press. Remove air pockets in the sausage and roll into links. Rodney and I made New York Spicy Italian sausage and Chicken and herb sausage. We smoked the NY Spicy Italian in the smoker, but Chef Deflieze left in too long. I didn't know you can actually overcook a sausage. The texture gets mealy because the fat separates from the sausage. The Chicken and Herb sausage came out okay. I feel that I'm going to have a pretty large collection of sausages in the freezer come winter break. Rodney has appropriately chosen this time to start on the Atkins Diet.

Over the Thanksgiving break, I suffered from withdrawl of the daily family meals. I had definitely taken that part of school for granted. We had a short lecture after class. We did a sample yield test where we figure out the actual cost per pound of a cut of meat, fish, or poultry after waste is considered.

Meat Fab, Week 1 Day 1. Another first day of a new block. We have two chefs: Chef Pearson, the Butchery instructor and Chef Defelzye, the Charcuterie instructor. Chef Pearson has made the rounds in hotels and resorts. He graduated from California Culinary Institute in 1995. Chef Defelyze is a young 27, graduated from the CIA and has had his share of restaurant experience. These guys have only been a duo for four months. Who knows how much longer they will stay on. I wonder where Chef Instructor lies in the path of my career. Since we didn't have the usual let's-go-around-the-room-and-share-our-culinary-dreams, I'll do a little musing here. I want to work a year or two in top restaurants around the nation for a decade and then take an executive chef position in my late thirties. Not sure what happens from there: a TV show, a chain of places, or possibly back to culinary school to teach. The future is just a chalkboard.

Chef Pearson went through all the details of the class with goals, grading procedures, homeworks, and other stuff. Then Chef Defelyze demoed filleting a salmon and cutting tranches of salmon (45 degree cuts). He demoed on a piece of salmon that was infected with kadoa, a bacterical diseases in which the bacteria eats away at dead fish flesh. It is commonly found in farm-raised salmon. The chef wasn't sure what health impacts there are for eating it but it degrades the quality of the fish. Chef never uses infected salmon and marked it down to notify the Purchasing. Then Chef Pearson demoed the various chicken cuts we are doing. 8 way chicken, airline breast, chicken supreme, drummettes, and boneless leg and thighs. It sounds like we're going to be butchering a lot of chicken.

An interesting aspect of this class is that the kitchen manager is in charge of the family meal. The Chefs tell us what protein is available and the rest is up to us. I'm thinking about fried rice maybe some chow mein. Maybe a small side of pork belly...

Saucier Week 3, Day 3. Final Exam. Rodney and I made Sweet corn fritters in class. They turned out very well. We plated at 5pm instead of the usual 715pm so that we could clean up for the exam. We were paid a visit by the Meat Fab chefs to get ready for Monday. There will be no production, but there will be videos and lecture. I'd feel a lot better if I didn't know about all the questions I got wrong. I messed up the cost card on the test. I knew something was fishy in the numbers, but I just couldn't put my finger on it until I got home. There were two soup questions that had me dumbfounded. I'm hoping for the best, but the perfectionist in me is disappointed. Another class in the books.

Saucier Week 3, Day 2. Practicals. The sautes for the practical were Chicken Marsala and Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Beurre Nantais. Yesterday, Chef Holtermann introduced a new Associate Chef to the class. Mark graduated from SCI five years ago and has cooked in Alaska and Colorado. Today Mark was grading our sautes. They threw him right into the fire. Our knife cuts were julienne of parsnips and brunoise of bell pepper. The Blue team went last so I felt pretty good after getting advice from fellow classmates. I got a point deducted for my inconsistent bell pepper brunoise and another deduction for the slight overdoneness of my salmon. I got a perfect score on the Chicken Marsala though I felt that Chef Mark wanted to take a point off somewhere. It felt anticlimatic, maybe it was the wait to present to the Chef. There was a long line after the time limit to get graded. I spent the extra time cleaning my plate. It's good to have that out of the way. It makes up for the practical in Basics.

Before the practicals, it was class as usual. Shelby and I made Shrimp Puffs and small suaces from Chicken Veloute: Allemande and Supreme. Shelby spent about an hour spooning the shrimp puff mixture into quenelles for deep-frying until someone told us we had to wrap them in gyoza wrappers. It was a mad dash to the finish but we got it done in time for family meal. The meal today was quite large for some reason. There were steaks to taste the small Espagnole sauces, gratin potatoes, enchiladas, General Tso's chicken, and our shrimp puffs, as well as all the soups. I was worried that I'd be too stuffed to cook for the practical, but going last helped. Tomorrow is more production and then a final exam.

Saucier Week 3, Day 1. On Saturday, I volunteered to help Chef Holtermann with Foods from Provence Class. The menu was:
Pate de Fromage de Chevre aux Herbs Fraiches (Goat Cheese and Herb Dip)
Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence - Chicken sauted in butter with herbs
Saucisson en Croute - sausages wrapped in puff pastry
Bouillabaisse Marseillais
Daube de Boeuf - beef stew
Gratins Daupinois - yummy potato dish made with cream and Gruyere
Ratatouille
Tarte aux Pommes et Fenouil Caramelise - Apple tart with caramelized fennel
Tarte au Citron - lemon tart

When I first arrived in the kitchen at 8am, Chef Holtermann had me go outside and pick some fresh rosemary for the marinade in the Daube de Boeuf. While picking it I was questioning why I paid 2-3 dollars for this stuff in supermarkets. The stuff was growing like weeds in the patch I picked from. Later on I helped Jen, the baker extraordinaire, by squeezing two cups of lemon juice, peeling a lot of apples, and caramelizing the fennel. Chef Holtermann also had me brown the chicken. The students in the class basically learn about the region and do knife cuts. The Chef and the volunteers do most of the cooking. At the end of the class after all the students took their fill, I grabbed the rest of the sausage, the goat cheese, and the remaining bouillabaisse. Volunteering does have its benefits. By the way, long story short, I ran out of gas for the gingerbread house competition. I'm not as young as I used to be. Maybe Fallingwater was a bit ambitious, but I am a dreamer.

We're pretty much coming into the home stretch. The Blue team has rotated into Sauces. I made three small sauces derived from Bechamel: Cheddar Cheese, Mornay, and Soubise. Shelby made a Smoked Mariara sauce that Chef Holtermann praised highly. The soup team made soups and the stock team made stocks. I guess I now know why this class is only three weeks long. But I sometimes think that we're not being prepared for reality; that is, the repetition of cooking the same foods day after day in a restaurant. Maybe when we work in the a la carte kitchen, L'Academie, or the fine dining restaurant, L'Ecole, reality will set in.

We had our practice practical today. We have to do a double saute and some knife cuts in twenty minutes. The practice sautes today were Pork Medallion Marsala and Sole Amandine. The knife cuts were brunoise and julienne of celery. Hopefully things will be different tomorrow. Celery takes a little more time to square off than carrots. The pork was a piece of cake, but the sole was another story. I burned some almonds, I burned the sauce a bit, and I didn't cut enough brunoise of celery. It was a good learning experience. I think the most important thing is to cook the food until it is done. I learned my lesson from Basics. The time limit is only a portion of the total score, so I can definitely sacrifice that for doneness.

Saucier Week 2, Day 2. My first carpool with Rodney went well. I rushed a bit because I've been staying up way too late. But that will change. Maybe not. We went to Chef Karen to get more info about the trip to Tuscany and Paris. It's a ten day, nine night tour tweaked by the dean at Western Culinary Institute so that it's more geared towards culinary students. He also worked it out so that we stay in three and four star hotels. We have breakfast and dinner everyday, and we are on our own for lunch. Three cities are involved: Bologna, another Italian city, and Paris. We end at the mother school Le Cordon Blue. Chef Karen said that six people have already signed up. I hope to add to that, but I need to secure asource of income first. I plan to tackle that tomorrow with an interview with Bill Davis the owner of Anozira, a staffing company for hotels, resort, and catering events. They were at the job fair during orientation.

In class, we did the cost card for French Onion soup. It costs 0.99 to make a bowl of French Onion soup with our recipe that yields three gallons. The soups team did all the same soups that we did on Week 1, Day 3. Casey was assigned the one I did, Veloute Andalouse (Tomato Soup). I think she did a better job garnishing because she had more rice and had whole parsley leaves in between the roasted pepper strips. The sauce team made tomato sauces and veloutes. Shelby and I tackled the chicken stock today. Not too bad, we only had to cut 16 pounds of mirepoix today and there was no roasting of bones. We did blanch the chicken bones, but I found out later from Kenny that it was unnecessary. There is a debate whether to blanch or not to blanch. Blanching rids the bones of impurities, but it also takes a lot of flavor with it. I'm in favor of not blanching.

Kenny made a paella for family meal. We also had the potato tournees from yesterday's knife cuts. I opted not to eat until the sautes. Today we made Sole Amandine. Anything Amandine means its made with almonds, usually slivered and toasted. I mistakely thawed too many pieces of sole, so I ended up making five pieces. The key to this dish is to get the carmelization of the fish, the color of the toasted almonds, and the sauce all the same color. All the fish haters gave me their sautes. It was just Rodney, Eve, and Manny, but with my three extra pieces of fish, it seemed like a mountain of sole. I ended up taking it home along with some paella because we had to clean up.

Saucier Week 2, Day 1. The Saturday class was pretty interesting. Chef Holtermann taught 15 students about creating a Thanksgiving feast. He made two turkeys, Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings, Cranberry Orange Relish, Sweet Potatoes, Glazed Shallots and Garlic Cloves, Cornbread Andouille Sausage Stuffing, Wild Rice Stuffing, Pumpkin Custard Pie, and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I drove with Rodney to class at 730am. It took me a little while to wake up, but the day went by pretty quickly. I think I'm going to voluteer this weekend as well. Chef Holtermann is teaching a class about the foods of the Provence region in France.

Before class today I met Rodney at the AM catering banquet before going to the other campus to attend a meeting about a Gingerbread House Competition. The Pastry Chefs are building twenty "Gingerbread contrustions" themselves for a charity auction. It's nice because the chefs are providing the gingerbread and the royal icing, which is the primary icing used to hold gingerbread together. I will only say that I plan to enter the competition which must be finished by this Sunday. More will be revealed as I reach completion.

Today the Blue team moved to stocks. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but a vital component in the kitchen nonetheless. Shelby and I spent most of the time cutting ten pounds of onions, five pounds of carrots, and five pounds of celery, and roasting eighty pounds of veal bones. I also spent a great deal of time inside the walkin freezer trying to find calves feet. Who knew they were buried in the corner? At least I know where everything is now. So we didn't actually make stock; we made a veal kit which is everything but the water. It will be used eventually for stock.

The Gold team moved on to soups. They made the same soups that we did on our first day with the addition of Pumpkin Cider Soup and She Crab Soup. Chef also had Molly and Chaz plate a bowl with four soups: Potage Crecy, Black Bean Soup, Potage St Germaine, and White Cheddar Soup. The Green team made Bechamel and Espagnole, two mother sauces. Kenny, the extern assisting Chef Holtermann, made roast pork. Someone made two hotel pans of chicken enchiladas and a bowl of salad. Susan made some mashed potatoes and Kenny made a gravy using the pan juices from the pork.

Saute for today was Pan Seared Salmon with Beurre Nantais. Beurre Nantais is a Beurre Blanc with heavy cream. One fear from Basics was conquered when I was assigned the Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom) last week. Today another one was vanquished as I produced a consistent Beurre Nantais. My salmon was a bit overcooked, but I was too stuffed to eat it anyway. Shelby and Eve also offered me their sautes because they are not fish eaters. Maybe I should bring tupperware to school to bring all this stuff home.

Sauicer Week 1, Day 5. I am both happy and sad that we only have thirteen days in saucier. Happy that my stomach won't burst, but sad because there is much more to learn from Chef Holtermann. Another math lecture today. We did a cost card for veal stock. There was a small crisis when Tara lost her diamond earrings. I believe she found all of them though. The one gripe I have about our uniforms is that the pants packets don't hold small things well. Tara spied a sign on the bulletin board in the back about a trip to France during our summer break next year. There are arranged visits to top restaurants and hotels. It sounds really exciting but cost about $3400 and is limited to the first 30 students. I hope to save up for it. I guess I could always sign up and force myself to save up for it.

Today's production:
Eve - Lobster Bisque
Shelby - Corn Chicken Chowder
Me - Tortilla Soup
Rodney - Seafood Gumbo
Susan - Roasted Garlic Cream Soup - Chef Holtermann's Recipe and Provencal Garlic Soup - Julia Child's Recipe
Kalei Brazillian Black Bean Soup
Blair - Creole Tomato Soup
Jen - Cock-a-Leekie, Scotch Broth, Beef Barley

Eve's Lobster Bisque was super rich and yummy. She said that it was due to reducing heavy cream. I spent a lot of time learning how to grill chicken. Once again I had lots of help: Shelby helped me chop the chicken and garnish, Joe concassed my tomatoes, Deborah deep fried tortilla strips for my garnish, Nelson and Manny deep-fried tortilla chips, Richie roasted two poblanos and one anaheim chile, and James help me deep fry some tortilla strips. I love having all this help. I hope to help out my fellow classmates when I'm on stocks and have little to do. Rodney's Gumbo went real quickly. I lucked out because no one touched the presentation bowl.

The stock team, now consomme masters, lobster consommes along with their stocks. The sauce team had fun with Bearnaise and Hollandaise and all the small sauces derived from them. They made shrimp to try each of the sauces. Family meal also included hushpuppies, and some awesome polenta that I used with my saute. The saute for today was Tournedo Marsala. I really like the fact that we're getting experience using different liqueurs. Thank goodness the filet was only 1.5 ounces, I don't think I could've eaten any more. I'm getting more confident with my sautes. I don't burn things, I actually get a deeper flavor with the reduced sauces I make. Chef said that we're going to start doing double sautes on Wednesday.

Saucier Week 1 Day 4. I highly recommend training for a marathon while going through culinary school. Even if you don't run a marathon eventually, you'll still be able to see your toes. I think we are being spoiled rotten. Rotten to the core. We still have to cook and execute, but the food is getting a bit insane. But before the food orgy started, we had the first of six math lessons on filling out food cost sheets. I like the fact that Chef Holtermann sets a standard by carrying out all decimals to four places without rounding. It makes more sense than just two demical places where a lot of pennies could be lost or gained. Chef showed us that it cost .0197 cents per ounce when making 16 gallons of chicken stock.

Here are the Potages du Jour:
JB - Garbure
Eve - Thai Shrimp Soup
Shelby - Vichyssoise
Me - Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom Soup)
Rodney - Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
Susan - Soup aux gros Morceaux de Tomates (Chunky Style Cream of Tomato Soup)
Kalei -Roasted Fennel Soup
Blair - Muligatawny
Jen - Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings

JB's Garbure is made with duck confit. Chef said that it was a soup that kept the doctor away. You first drank the broth, then ate the solids, and then sopped up the rest with bread soaked with red wine. Shelby's Vichyssoise came out well, but Chef said that he cooked the potatoes too long which led to a pasty consistency. I was peeling and chopping mushrooms forever. I think I may be finally at peace with the friendly fungi. Three quarts of mushrooms takes a long time, but I had lots of great help from Shelby, Molly, and Eve. I couldn't have finished on time without their help. Rodney actually made his soup with chicken not turkey, but it was still excellent. Kalei had to leave early but managed to finish his soup. Blair's soup looked really good, but there was way too much ginger in it. Jen's soup will be part of a class on Saturday taught by Chef Holtermann to the public. The topic is about making a Thanksgiving feast. Quite a few people from the Blue team including myself are going to help out.

I realize that this is nothing like a restaurant situation where repetition is the norm. That may be what the stock group is facing, but making a gallon of different soup a day is lots of fun. Sauces might be interesting. They got to make small sauces using the tomato sauce from yesterday. Chef got us a bunch of steaks for family meal intending for us to sample the sauces, but there was a problem with the demiglace and a lot of the brown sauces weren't up to par. We'll just have to wait until next week when the teams rotate. The stock team got make consommes today. Everyone made super clear soup with different garnishes. They also made some penne with sauce bolognese. Jen made another magical tray of biscotti. I realize now that she has been testing out a recipe for the Chef for his class on Sautrday.

Chef conveniently made our knife cuts potato batonnets (1/4" x 1/4" X 2"). Each day we do a knife cut to practice for the final. Jim, the Kitchen Manager for the day with Molly, made French Fries with our cuts to go with our sautes. As if everyone didn't have enough red meat for today, the saute was Boeuf Hache Au Poivre. In other words, we made a hamburger. But not any old hamburger. We encrusted it with crushed black peppercorns and topped it with a creamy dijon red wine sauce. Again I thought I might have charred it a bit too much, but Chef liked the color. What suprised me the most was when he cut into it, it was medium rare, just like he asked for. I was certain I went too far with the doneness. I'm gaining more confidence in my saute skills bit by bit. As stuffed as I was, I couldn't stop eating the saute with the fries. They were the best fries that I've had in quite some time. These are the fries that In-N-Out could have if they only cut their spuds a bit thicker.