The good thing about not having a French keyboard (or knowing where the short cut keys are for the relevant accents) means that I can hopefully just write, leave out accents and people will accept it.
The good...
Good chicken, good onions and good broccoli - all perfectly cooked (although the chicken could use more salt, needed to be washed better inside and the onions were a blanc instead of a brun). I wonder if I flunked colors in kindergarten? Chef J liked the jus - there wasn't much of it and it was a bit thicker than the one in demo, but that may just have been a smaller quantity of liquid that had to reduce down to this brown, shiny, sticky yummy goodness of pan juices with the fat skimmed off as much as possible. I suppose it helped that I measured things exactly when quantities were indicated - apparently cooking is as precise as baking, I just got away with not measuring because cooking at home generally involved throwing everything together and seeing what came out. Super yummy - I had to taste it to make sure it was seasoned after all...
Trussing the chicken was a bit tricky because the instructions in the demo were a little different from the ones in practical. Apparently I now know how to truss advanced style - but I'm not sure I'll ever know how to do it the way they showed us today (in our Cuisine Foundations book with lots of pictures, tricky if you don't know what you are actually feeling around for). The chicken wing section ended up looking pretty, although photos will have to wait - too tired tonight. It may not look as pretty tomorrow, not being fresh out of the oven, rested and then carved but it should give an idea.
Onions - they didn't look as brown as what was in the book but they took a long time and I couldn't be sure - the last time there was no glazing at all so this time I am just grateful they were cooked, shiny on the plate AND they didn't slide around everywhere.
I disagree a tad with the broccoli - I like mine a bit crisper than what ended up on the plate, but on the other hand, if the Chef likes what's there then it's a good thing. I don't think I'd do butter for myself at home, but I can see why they want us to do things by the book the first time around and I know some people who love butter.
Any thoughts I may have entertained of immediately turning vegetarian while trussing the chicken disappeared the moment I smelled and saw the chicken sizzling away in its pan, all golden brown and oh-so-delicious. The skin made that amazing crunchy sound while I was carving it - my fingers were burning but my mouth was watering. If this were a cartoon, everyone would have had drool down their fronts.
Thank goodness for watching Dad carve the joints on chickens for all those years, it made things so much faster when I finally got to the carving stage. The pieces I presented looked fine but I made a hash of the other pieces.
The bad...
Am now doing my third load of cooking school laundry in 4 days - the days with raw chicken just don't do it for me - no way to know if that tiny drop is raw chicken juice so I have to wash it to prevent contaminating my locker and/or my bag - ick. At least with fruits and vegetables you can be pretty sure of what the spot might be and whether you can put off laundry one more day. I always keep a spare jacket in my locker in case I spill something - they require us to be in clean, pressed uniforms. I don't iron, so I have to hang everything up overnight to dry in order to avoid wrinkles.
Somehow managed to get dehydrated despite drinking a mugful of water and lots of the small plastic cups' worth later in the day and a whole bottle of Snapple. Yes, they have Snapple here! (Ok that should be in the good, but it's not.) I got about halfway through the next class before the headache, which had been hovering for a while, really hit me hard.
I was allowed to leave our third class (actually, I had to leave class) and go lie down outside by Reception. Chatted to a couple of people (another girl from Hawaii, doing intermediate Patisserie, and her lovely friend who gave me a croissant they made this morning - for the record, it was delicious) for a tiny bit but mostly drank water and kept my head down to see if the headache would go away without panadol.
Also managed a burn on the palm of my left hand and another on my right index fingertip.
Injury count: Monday (a little of the left index fingertip and nail); Tuesday (burn on the back and side of the right hand); Wednesday (left palm and right indext finger). Stoves and ovens 5, hands 0. Am a bit concerned that I will be out of fingers and hands by the end of the month, let alone the course. Apprentice injuries for an apprentice chef...
The ugly...
I can't remember the last time a headache got so bad that I had to throw up (I did say ugly). I think what pushed things over the edge was the smell of the stock from the production kitchen, which is down the hall from the female locker room. For whatever reason, the normally enticing aroma of soup stock was yuck today and made it a struggle to change back into my street clothes and bolt up to the bathroom in time - thank goodness the bathroom was not engaged.
Am now recovered - 2 panadol, a liter of water and a two hour nap can make such a difference. Have had dinner, shower and ready to go to bed as soon as I hang up the laundry. Cannot wait to crawl into my crisp sheets and snooze the night away.
Roast chicken dinner/s...
The rest of my chicken, which I carved LCB way, is now in my refrigerator. I have a tupperware container which has compartments (which can also be lifted out) so the carcass went into one bit and I used the other bits for the chicken and the broccoli. It's actually great timing because tomorrow and the next day we have class until 9pm - tomorrow is the basic Patisserie Preparations (i.e. whipped cream and variations, pastry creams and a meringue!) and the next day is a chocolate tarte (shortcrust pastry, filling and decorations) so I doubt people will want to go out for dinner or feel like cooking when they get home.
Method
The roasting itself is very different from the way my Mom does it. Maybe we'll learn another way later, but this basic way involved washing the chicken (inside and out), patting it dry and singeing off any feathers (or you can singe, then wash and dry), trim, truss, sprinkle with salt (inside and out), scatter a few knobs of butter over it, stick it in a pan on its side and put it in the oven for 20 minutes each side and 20 minutes on its back. On the side means that it will cook faster on the side that is up (because hot air rises) and legs take longer to cook. (I burned my right index finger on the blowtorch.)
My Mom puts strips of bacon over the breast (keeps you from having to baste it) and she stuffs it. We were told not to because we wanted to get the chicken up to temp as quickly as possible. So I miss Mom's stuffing, gravy and the crispy bacon strips (one of my few exceptions to the no pork thing), but I can try that at home as English style (Australian style?) roast chicken. Someone asked about something else and the Chefs are fond of telling us, yes, but this is a French cooking school so we do it this way. I'm not going to argue, especially if it means playing with things like blow torches and blast chillers, which we haven't gotten to use yet.
Other stuff
Tomorrow is a late start for our pastry - 3pm demo and then class until 9pm. Have plans to go to ballet class - Zena, our regular teacher, is away on vacation until next week but need to move around a bit. Maybe even have a snooze before class - and depending on the weather, a walk in one of many parks around the area.
There is so much greenery around and one of my favorites is to walk in Regent's Park and stand on one of the many bridges while enjoying the day. Another good one is the Serpentine in Hyde Park - some parts of it can look a little ick but the Serpentine Gallery is there - even though it's in the guidebooks, I discovered it by accident on my own so it holds a little extra appeal. The guidebook is merely a confirmation of something I already know.
These late starts are a good time to hit the museums, which can get so crowded on weekends but right now I can't face the crowds. Perhaps when we've all settled into a routine...for now it's all about getting a bit more settled.
So until next time - drink lots of water!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
#15 - Mother Sauces (SO not enough time!)
Serious bets
I forgot to mention - I got out of class early (was it yesterday? they're all starting to blur together) and there was this guy running up and down Marylebone High Street. Unremarkable except for several things: it was about 4pm or so and there was a bit of traffic; it was chilly; he was dressed in a little gold crown, gold short shorts (think Goldmember), a gold cape and...gold boots?
I had to pass him to go home because he ran past and then was just hanging out there on the sidewalk. "What happened? Did you lose a bet?" I asked him. I never expected him to say yes! So - further note to self: never make a bet with friends in London which involve humiliating yourself in public in the event of a loss. Who knows, there may be incriminating photographic evidence. I would have taken a photo but it didn't occur to me at the time.
Questionable girly credentials
The girls in London tend to wear really short skirts. How many of you boys just sat up and took notice?
Yes, reallly short. They pair them with tights and boots, either with or without a heel. I am showing my age - all I can wonder is whether they happened to look in the mirror before they left the house and how come they couldn't afford to buy the other 60% of their skirts. Generally, short skirts are a bit like Speedos - you don't necessarily see them on the people you'd like to see wearing them. Call me Grandma.
I don't understand the super short skirts and I don't understand the ugly, ugly shoes. I blame the ugly shoe trend for the last 3 years on Hollywood and movies (I'm looking at you, Sex and the City!) - if there's a hot trend, wouldn't you want to have at least a couple of classic things that aren't trendy for the non-fashionista crowd who don't care about the plastic crystal triangly things that go up the front of your foot and ankle and make your legs look short and stumpy?
I'm just saying - just because it looks good on a supermodel. Um, hello - she gets paid a zillion (insert your currency of choice here) a year because she can make it look halfway decent. Are you a supermodel? No? Then don't! It could look great on you. Or it could look awful. Take a look at who writes your paychecks and then decide. (And while we're at it, even supermodels don't look good in those bubble skirts - and they're professional clothes hangers. If you're over the age of 5 - don't! My eyes, my eyes! They're not cutesy on you and they make you look like you have a big butt, so unless you're going for that look, in which by all means...)
Today's cooking lesson
We did 4 base sauces today: brown veal stock (very nice), white chicken stock (cloudy because it boiled too fast), tomato sauce (which was too thin and seasoning didn't come through because it didn't reduce enough) and a bechamel (a bit too thick and the flour not cooked enough - still gritty on the teeth).
But seriously - the only ones we actually had enough time to (sort of) finish was the bechamel and the tomato sauce. The others went into enormous pots which then went to the production kitchen to be finished.
In which a key ingredient is missing (and more than once)
So my partner sous-chef had taken her list and was very concientiously checking it against our ingredients, then checking it twice (we were ignoring who was naughty or nice, although the fellows in the Production kitchen are on both lists). They said, "don't worry, we know what you need." This is after she caught them out with missing bacon (pancetta - for the tomato sauce) and white wine (to deglaze our veal pan).
FYI - the elevator was fixed sometime between 4pm yesterday and 8am today.
Apparently what we needed was more exercise. We were short 2 veal bones so I went down for those. And then...
What do you think we would need for a tomato sauce? That's right, some tomato puree, chicken stock, mirepoix, garlic and...yes, tomatoes. There weren't any. So down I went for a tray of tomatoes. Luckily for the other 2 kitchens doing the same recipe, they were still in the basement so they didn't have to make an extra trip for the tomatoes, but since they still had all their other stuff to take up to their kitchens, I schlepped the tomatoes up by the back fire stairs.
And then...more exercise. Because there was no parsley, stalks or otherwise, in our boxes. Down again, because all the (one! You can see why I had that little problem yesterday) elevators were in use. I had to pass the other kitchens anyway, so I dropped some off with them because sure enough, I heard someone asking Chef in Kitchen 1/1 for some parsley for their mirepoix. Luckily on that last trip I could take the elevator up. It was getting a bit tiring, all this running and as some of you may know (and now all of you know) - I don't run.
Each time the guys saw me, I could see them thinking, "now what?" I finally said to them that I thought it was their way of contributing to our fitness regime, what with the gym which used to be across the laneway being gone and all. Chef D looked me up and down and said, "yes, you do need to lose weight." (I wish I could get his sarcastic tone in this post...)
So - 3 trips up and down the stairs after class had started - resulted in losing a fair bit of cooking time. We were given about 2 hours and I think I lost at least 15 - 20 minutes (running - sorry, walking, up and down several flights of stairs, getting the extra ingredients). When you're at my level (i.e. still takes ages just to peel an onion) that makes the difference between a cooked bechamel sauce and one that isn't. So flustered that the rest of my lesson was absolute chaos. Chef wanted to know what had happened. I think he said something like "it's so weird - yesterday your station was meticulous. Today it's all over the place - very messy."
So - must work on organization. Maybe not to so many trips up and down the stairs next time? And ew - covered in either chicken or raw beef juice - the smell was enough to turn me vegetarian on the spot. Everything came home with me and went through the laundry on hot water - twice. Maybe I should do it again...
Have succeeded on slightly singeing (???) my hand - an open burn on the back of the right hand and another along the side. Lucky the left index finger is almost completely back in commission, as long as I am careful. And the veal stock pot was super heavy. Once we had the water, the bone and all the other bits and pieces, I couldn't lift it because I couldn't get sufficient leverage and keep from touching the hot sides of the pot.
Didn't really notice the burn on the back of my hand at first except as a slight stinging sensation (200 degrees Celcius may do that, I haven't done the conversion into Farenheit - afraid the number will shock me). I only noticed later because the heat from the stove was hurting my hand and, oh yeah, there was a small hole in the back of it. I will have hands like the Incredible Hulk after this course.
Clearly I will not be able to work in a commercial kitchen because I won't be able to lift the heavy stuff (and according to a friend in the know, there is no chivalry in a commercial kitchen). If Gordon Ramsay is anything to go by, I would find conversation of limited interest there anyway, so most likely not going to be a career change even if I were confident of my cheffing abilities. At this point I will be grateful to finish the course intact. Have considered change of musical instrument - one where I don't need all my fingertips, or at least not the full reach and/or sensitivity. Voice? No, then you would need to sing in places other than in the shower...
So, tomorrow - roast chicken, broccoli and glazed baby onions (great - chance to practice glazing - more butter, more sugar!). Note to self: don't do anything not on the procedures (i.e. no more fingers/hands/any other body parts). After all, this is only the second week and I've only got 10 fingers and 2 hands. Can't use them all up now, what about Intermediate and Superior Cuisine? Not to mention all the fun in Pastisserie, especially when we get to the sugar work.
So until next time - use pot mitts!
How's this for a letter home?
Dear Mom and Dad,
I bet that you didn't think about what being in a kitchen would do to my hands and wrists. Neither did I! Is it too late to confess to vanity and say that I may never change careers because as painful as paper cuts and plastic folder cuts can be, they generally only leave small scars instead of taking chunks of flesh and/or nails? Good to know my previous education won't be wasted.
I forgot to mention - I got out of class early (was it yesterday? they're all starting to blur together) and there was this guy running up and down Marylebone High Street. Unremarkable except for several things: it was about 4pm or so and there was a bit of traffic; it was chilly; he was dressed in a little gold crown, gold short shorts (think Goldmember), a gold cape and...gold boots?
I had to pass him to go home because he ran past and then was just hanging out there on the sidewalk. "What happened? Did you lose a bet?" I asked him. I never expected him to say yes! So - further note to self: never make a bet with friends in London which involve humiliating yourself in public in the event of a loss. Who knows, there may be incriminating photographic evidence. I would have taken a photo but it didn't occur to me at the time.
Questionable girly credentials
The girls in London tend to wear really short skirts. How many of you boys just sat up and took notice?
Yes, reallly short. They pair them with tights and boots, either with or without a heel. I am showing my age - all I can wonder is whether they happened to look in the mirror before they left the house and how come they couldn't afford to buy the other 60% of their skirts. Generally, short skirts are a bit like Speedos - you don't necessarily see them on the people you'd like to see wearing them. Call me Grandma.
I don't understand the super short skirts and I don't understand the ugly, ugly shoes. I blame the ugly shoe trend for the last 3 years on Hollywood and movies (I'm looking at you, Sex and the City!) - if there's a hot trend, wouldn't you want to have at least a couple of classic things that aren't trendy for the non-fashionista crowd who don't care about the plastic crystal triangly things that go up the front of your foot and ankle and make your legs look short and stumpy?
I'm just saying - just because it looks good on a supermodel. Um, hello - she gets paid a zillion (insert your currency of choice here) a year because she can make it look halfway decent. Are you a supermodel? No? Then don't! It could look great on you. Or it could look awful. Take a look at who writes your paychecks and then decide. (And while we're at it, even supermodels don't look good in those bubble skirts - and they're professional clothes hangers. If you're over the age of 5 - don't! My eyes, my eyes! They're not cutesy on you and they make you look like you have a big butt, so unless you're going for that look, in which by all means...)
Today's cooking lesson
We did 4 base sauces today: brown veal stock (very nice), white chicken stock (cloudy because it boiled too fast), tomato sauce (which was too thin and seasoning didn't come through because it didn't reduce enough) and a bechamel (a bit too thick and the flour not cooked enough - still gritty on the teeth).
But seriously - the only ones we actually had enough time to (sort of) finish was the bechamel and the tomato sauce. The others went into enormous pots which then went to the production kitchen to be finished.
In which a key ingredient is missing (and more than once)
So my partner sous-chef had taken her list and was very concientiously checking it against our ingredients, then checking it twice (we were ignoring who was naughty or nice, although the fellows in the Production kitchen are on both lists). They said, "don't worry, we know what you need." This is after she caught them out with missing bacon (pancetta - for the tomato sauce) and white wine (to deglaze our veal pan).
FYI - the elevator was fixed sometime between 4pm yesterday and 8am today.
Apparently what we needed was more exercise. We were short 2 veal bones so I went down for those. And then...
What do you think we would need for a tomato sauce? That's right, some tomato puree, chicken stock, mirepoix, garlic and...yes, tomatoes. There weren't any. So down I went for a tray of tomatoes. Luckily for the other 2 kitchens doing the same recipe, they were still in the basement so they didn't have to make an extra trip for the tomatoes, but since they still had all their other stuff to take up to their kitchens, I schlepped the tomatoes up by the back fire stairs.
And then...more exercise. Because there was no parsley, stalks or otherwise, in our boxes. Down again, because all the (one! You can see why I had that little problem yesterday) elevators were in use. I had to pass the other kitchens anyway, so I dropped some off with them because sure enough, I heard someone asking Chef in Kitchen 1/1 for some parsley for their mirepoix. Luckily on that last trip I could take the elevator up. It was getting a bit tiring, all this running and as some of you may know (and now all of you know) - I don't run.
Each time the guys saw me, I could see them thinking, "now what?" I finally said to them that I thought it was their way of contributing to our fitness regime, what with the gym which used to be across the laneway being gone and all. Chef D looked me up and down and said, "yes, you do need to lose weight." (I wish I could get his sarcastic tone in this post...)
So - 3 trips up and down the stairs after class had started - resulted in losing a fair bit of cooking time. We were given about 2 hours and I think I lost at least 15 - 20 minutes (running - sorry, walking, up and down several flights of stairs, getting the extra ingredients). When you're at my level (i.e. still takes ages just to peel an onion) that makes the difference between a cooked bechamel sauce and one that isn't. So flustered that the rest of my lesson was absolute chaos. Chef wanted to know what had happened. I think he said something like "it's so weird - yesterday your station was meticulous. Today it's all over the place - very messy."
So - must work on organization. Maybe not to so many trips up and down the stairs next time? And ew - covered in either chicken or raw beef juice - the smell was enough to turn me vegetarian on the spot. Everything came home with me and went through the laundry on hot water - twice. Maybe I should do it again...
 |
| It actually doesn't look bad in this picture at all... |
 |
| The burn 3 days later... |
Clearly I will not be able to work in a commercial kitchen because I won't be able to lift the heavy stuff (and according to a friend in the know, there is no chivalry in a commercial kitchen). If Gordon Ramsay is anything to go by, I would find conversation of limited interest there anyway, so most likely not going to be a career change even if I were confident of my cheffing abilities. At this point I will be grateful to finish the course intact. Have considered change of musical instrument - one where I don't need all my fingertips, or at least not the full reach and/or sensitivity. Voice? No, then you would need to sing in places other than in the shower...
So, tomorrow - roast chicken, broccoli and glazed baby onions (great - chance to practice glazing - more butter, more sugar!). Note to self: don't do anything not on the procedures (i.e. no more fingers/hands/any other body parts). After all, this is only the second week and I've only got 10 fingers and 2 hands. Can't use them all up now, what about Intermediate and Superior Cuisine? Not to mention all the fun in Pastisserie, especially when we get to the sugar work.
So until next time - use pot mitts!
How's this for a letter home?
Dear Mom and Dad,
I bet that you didn't think about what being in a kitchen would do to my hands and wrists. Neither did I! Is it too late to confess to vanity and say that I may never change careers because as painful as paper cuts and plastic folder cuts can be, they generally only leave small scars instead of taking chunks of flesh and/or nails? Good to know my previous education won't be wasted.
Monday, April 11, 2011
#14 - Wounds of battle
Too tired to write much - it is late and my finger hurts. More later this week, but as promised, here are some pictures of my pretty, pretty knives (just the most interesting ones)... if you look really carefully, you may be able to see my initials engraved on the blades.
Gross Stuff (aka don't look if you are squeamish)
Some bitching and moaning
Today we made glazed vegetables (not enough butter and sugar so no glaze), turned turnips (totally undercooked), tomato concasse (undercooked) and duxelles mushrooms (chopped up really small and cooked with shallots, butter and a couple of other things, quenelled - which means you do fancy stuff to it with two spoons and hope it doesn't fall apart before Chef tastes it) - underseasoned...I would put up a photo except I didn't take one. Not enough time!
Gross Stuff (aka don't look if you are squeamish)
And here's a picture of my first cut:
Conversation went something like this:
Chef D: All right everyone, no more cuts today! We've used up our quota of one cut!
Me (a few moments later): Chef! (Looking at the lack of a nail on half of the tip of my finger and thinking, wow, that kind of sucks, but maybe it's not that bad, there's no blood...oh wait, there it goes.)
Chef D: That's not so bad. Go wash off the debris and we'll get you a plaster.
(The band aid was bright blue - so that if you drop it in the food you can see it and fish it out. He also showed me the scars on his left index finger - scars from several cuts which had obviously been quite deep. Yikes!)
Me: I kind of need that finger, Chef. It's the fingering hand for my violin.
Chef D: Can't you play with a band aid on?
Me: Um, not really. The size of the band aid makes a difference. (Not to mention it hurts to put pressure on it and we still have most of the cooking, plating and cleaning up to do.)
The initial cut didn't hurt and it took a little while for the blood to well up. It hurts a bit now and washing my hair was a bit complicated. Must remember to get blue band aids and a finger condom from Reception at the school tomorrow. Yes, they really do look like condoms - only thing is, I think they're made for bigger hands. Mine kind of fell off - luckily it was after class so I know it wasn't in the food!
Sigh...suffering for my love of food. Tomorrow we make sauces and basic stocks.
Some bitching and moaning
Oh, I forgot. I was one of two sous chefs today. The other one left immediately after she got her feedback. The lift was broken - it went up to the 3rd floor and stayed there. Luckily the things I had to carry down were light so Chef M (who was just starting the advanced Patisserie class) didn't have to help me down to the basement. I just hope it's fixed before roast chicken on Wednesday. And we have a class after our practical on Wednesday - how's that going to work with our cooked chickens and a 3 hour class after? Hmmm...but if we're clever, that's dinner...
So until next time - be careful with those knives!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
#13 - (full) Week 1 finished
Each of the things that we have been given in the past week (raw salads, cooked salads, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, boiling eggs, making custards, etc.) would have taken one of the chefs about 30 minutes. To be fair, they did things a bit more slowly in demonstration so that we could see what they were doing, but they also demonstrate other things (which we don't have to do in the practical). It's like watching my own personalised cooking show every day. No wonder I don't need a TV at home...
Works in progress (aka you didn't do that very well)
Oh thank goodness for comment sheets. At the end of each practical, we get feedback from our chef (what you did well, what you didn't do well, what needs work). So far I have to work on the consistency of my cuts (still haven't figured out how I get curved edges with a straight blade when I am trying to cut straight - maybe I should try to cut curved???) and how quickly I work. Because I am S-L-O-W. Yesterday was our practical class on custards. Thank goodness we worked in pairs or we would never have finished on time.
Custards
Baked (i.e. in a water bath in the oven - creme brulee and creme caramel) and stirred (i.e. cooked on the stove) custards. One of the girls had a mishap with her creme anglaise mixture and it turned into scrambled eggs. Chef N was sorry he had missed it. She had chucked that one out and made another one and still finished before I did. Not such an issue for the moment - the school allows us plenty of time to start to get into the groove, but it may be a problem later on when we have more complicated and time consuming dishes (and they have to be served at a certain temperature - that gets marks too).
Ludovic, our lovely porter who makes sure we have enough clean bowls, measuring cups, paper towels, etc. assures me that we will all get faster. He comes from the somewhere in the south of France (he didn't say where) and lets me practice speaking French with him. He also got the brulee with the perfect crust (not in the presentation dish, so not the one Chef marked!) and I piped Merci on it with chocolate (no, not a traditional accompaniment to brulee).
Piping - also needs work. Must buy non-stick paper so that I can practice piping. The chocolate was only for the practice because it is thicker. The coulis was too runny still to be able to pipe anything (unfortunately I tried).
Decorations
The sugar and tuile patterns were fun but the tuile only allows a short window (8 - 30 seconds, depending on which chef you ask) after you take it out of the oven before it sets and cracks. The flowers I made over the patterns were lopsided and goofy. The ones I tried to do freehand were...well, here are some pictures of the various ones I've done:
 |
| Sugar spiral (which I made!) |
 |
| Tuile and sugar decorations |
Chef N has a different method for making the tuile mix than Chef M (who did the demo) but at the end of the day, it's 4 ingredients that you mix together, make into shapes and then bake for a few minutes in an oven.
Creme caramel and creme brulee...
 |
| Creme brulee with more practice decorations |
 |
| Creme caramel with piping practice, tuile, sugar drop and spiral |
(Think all this in a French accent)
My custard was too light - too much air in the yolk. Apparently these are one of the few things we want a bit heavier.(Think all this in a French accent)
Messy plate (caramel) and piping "too in your face". Brulee - not enough sugar, so no crack and never, never put coulis on brulee.
I have to say, hearing something is always nicer when it's in an accent. Given that everyone here seems to have an accent of one kind or another, I am finding chatting with people enjoyable. Of course, I can't remember anyone saying anything unkind anywhere, but who knows, that may change.
Not pretty yet, but hopefully things will look better by the time finals roll around in May. I have a list of things to study/practice for the finals. Apparently it's both written and practical. I have visions of Meryl Street as Julia Child sitting the written exam with recipes running around in my head.
So much to do, so little time...
So we have lots of practicing to do: piping, dicing, slicing, mixing (whipping the eggs for mayonnaise and the creme anglaise? yikes!). There's a certain physicality to some of this, which means that we will all have to build up stamina. Mayonnaise is particularly trying and I have to say, after feeling the burn, I'm not looking forward to meringues. Yes, yes, we get the big balloon whisks, but I'm all for using the machine if one is available. I suppose it's something of the philosophy of knowing how to do it by hand - what if the machine breaks? But if the machine breaks, somehow I don't think you're going to be making 600 meringues for a banquet? I'll have to ask a chef.
I can't believe all of this was in our first week! They did have to move up the schedule a bit in terms of what we were going to learn and when, but still, this is usually only in week 3 or 4.
Must go and fix up my notes now, so a hui hou (until next time)!
I have to say, hearing something is always nicer when it's in an accent. Given that everyone here seems to have an accent of one kind or another, I am finding chatting with people enjoyable. Of course, I can't remember anyone saying anything unkind anywhere, but who knows, that may change.
Not pretty yet, but hopefully things will look better by the time finals roll around in May. I have a list of things to study/practice for the finals. Apparently it's both written and practical. I have visions of Meryl Street as Julia Child sitting the written exam with recipes running around in my head.
So much to do, so little time...
So we have lots of practicing to do: piping, dicing, slicing, mixing (whipping the eggs for mayonnaise and the creme anglaise? yikes!). There's a certain physicality to some of this, which means that we will all have to build up stamina. Mayonnaise is particularly trying and I have to say, after feeling the burn, I'm not looking forward to meringues. Yes, yes, we get the big balloon whisks, but I'm all for using the machine if one is available. I suppose it's something of the philosophy of knowing how to do it by hand - what if the machine breaks? But if the machine breaks, somehow I don't think you're going to be making 600 meringues for a banquet? I'll have to ask a chef.
I can't believe all of this was in our first week! They did have to move up the schedule a bit in terms of what we were going to learn and when, but still, this is usually only in week 3 or 4.
Must go and fix up my notes now, so a hui hou (until next time)!
Friday, April 8, 2011
#12 - almost end of Week 1
Uncooked salads
The first few things we did this week included an unstable emulsion (aka oil and vinegar vinaigrette), tomato and basil salad, julienned carrot salad and seasonal salad.
What didn't go right...
My vinaigrette kept splitting - I'm not sure why, since I've been making them at home for ages. I want to blame the vegetable oil but I'm afraid it's user error.
The julienned carrots are still uneven. For the record, I have a different idea of what centimeters and millimeters are from what the chefs say they are. I will have to learn their distances because frankly, it's a lot easier for me to learn inches. I know we are learning French cooking but I was hoping to catch a break since we are in England. Apparently not, which is also the reason why we don't use olive oil in our dressings (extra virgin is too flavored and I suppose it would be just as quel horreur to suggest extra light olive oil, which would also draw approbation from the Italians. Did I use the right word? I am so tired...)
What did go right...
Well, I can blanch a tomato. The proper word is monder, although I've seen several spellings of it and will need to check the cook book I bought from the bookstore. Basically you drop the tomato into boiling water for a few seconds (just long enough for the skin to split) and then drop it into ice water so that it doesn't cook. That just loosens the skin enough so that you can peel it - better for presentation and also because the skin is acidic and indigestible.
Cooked salads and stable emulsions (aka mayonnaise)
So - I can boil an egg. I got the comment, "They really are starting you right at the beginning aren't they?" Well yes. We have a couple of people in my class who have pretty much never cooked before. Also, there has always been several ways to hard boil an egg. Now I have one which will result in perfect eggs as long as something doesn't happen to the stove (like it not being hot!).
Making mayonnaise by hand (no garlic, otherwise it's an aioli and we are learning French cooking!) - so, there is a lot of oil in mayonnaise. We were all kind of grossed out by how much there is (one egg yolk to 250ml/2 cups?) of oil. And you have to beat it all by hand so you can't have wrist, elbow, shoulder or muscle problems in your dominant hand. If you can beat the egg sufficiently with your weaker hand or you are ambidextrous, then I am jealous.
More tomates mondes (?) - yippee. More vegetable cuts (my cubes are still not cubes and I can't tell how big 5mm are) - blanched carrots and turnips. I am really starting to dislike carrots. At the beginning of the week, it was mild distaste. Yesterday it turned into actual dislike. Of course carrots are on my shopping list for the market on Sunday morning!
Salads were fine but my mayonnaise was too thick for the potato salad and didn't coat it evenly. I can tell I'm super hungry by how many things I would normally not eat all of a sudden become appealing. Our Italian vegetable salad had salami as one of its ingredients. Tonight I can't believe I actually ate it, but it was delicious yesterday, right after we made it. Especially with a small piece of hard boiled egg. Sounds totally disgusting to me now.
On the agenda for tomorrow
Demonstration of decorating the creme brulee and creme caramel which were demonstrated today. Chef M even showed us how to make scrambled eggs out of the creme Anglaise (which you don't want) and then how to rescue it. I hope I got the rescue correct in my notes!
In any case, the custard desserts looked pretty simple, but we will see. Everything (especially the slicing, dicing and cutting!) looks so easy when the chefs do it, only to turn into a complete hash when we try it.
Eggy custards
One of the objections my sister and I have about ordering custard-y desserts at restaurants is that it's such a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes they come to you and all you can taste is egg. I finally found out today - it's because the restaurant cheated! Adding more egg makes the dessert set more quickly, so the ones I didn't like were actually bad custards. Good to know, next time I can send it back with no guilt and get a totally different dessert. Like it's going to be a better custard if I just ask for another one - they cheated on one, they likely cheated on a whole batch (if not all of them).
Anyway, some of my classmates and I have been discussing going to someone's house on successive weekends to practice our recipes (but unfortunately not the brulee because no one is quite game enough to buy the blowtorch, although I am so very tempted...) On the other hand, I'm quite sure that burning the apartment building down is bad form. The school is on very good terms with the local fire station, which should be indicative of the number of alarms which go off. I hope no alarms go off when I experiment with searing the meat and flambeing things with brandy (hm, is that something that has to wait until Superior Cuisine???) which was described the other day.
For the moment, must think of uses for all those brunoised and macedoined carrots. That's fancyspeak for super small dice (cubes) and bigger dice (cubes - actual size of playing dice - must remember that, but they said those cubes were too big...so confused with cm/mm!!!) for those who couldn't care less what the technical name is for the cuts.
Just so you know, I have no idea how a straight knife blade can turn out a carrot that is wavy in the middle and all skewed. They say that it is affected by how we hold the knives and what our pinky fingers are doing. I will worry about what my pinky is doing once I am more confident that I won't cut another finger while I'm checking it out.
For the moment, more veggies...but I hear that once we go to meats, it will be crazy (and yummy?). Must stock up on tupperware and bottles (for coulis). Thanks for the tips, Intermediate and Superior students!
Until next time...
The first few things we did this week included an unstable emulsion (aka oil and vinegar vinaigrette), tomato and basil salad, julienned carrot salad and seasonal salad.
What didn't go right...
My vinaigrette kept splitting - I'm not sure why, since I've been making them at home for ages. I want to blame the vegetable oil but I'm afraid it's user error.
The julienned carrots are still uneven. For the record, I have a different idea of what centimeters and millimeters are from what the chefs say they are. I will have to learn their distances because frankly, it's a lot easier for me to learn inches. I know we are learning French cooking but I was hoping to catch a break since we are in England. Apparently not, which is also the reason why we don't use olive oil in our dressings (extra virgin is too flavored and I suppose it would be just as quel horreur to suggest extra light olive oil, which would also draw approbation from the Italians. Did I use the right word? I am so tired...)
What did go right...
Well, I can blanch a tomato. The proper word is monder, although I've seen several spellings of it and will need to check the cook book I bought from the bookstore. Basically you drop the tomato into boiling water for a few seconds (just long enough for the skin to split) and then drop it into ice water so that it doesn't cook. That just loosens the skin enough so that you can peel it - better for presentation and also because the skin is acidic and indigestible.
Cooked salads and stable emulsions (aka mayonnaise)
So - I can boil an egg. I got the comment, "They really are starting you right at the beginning aren't they?" Well yes. We have a couple of people in my class who have pretty much never cooked before. Also, there has always been several ways to hard boil an egg. Now I have one which will result in perfect eggs as long as something doesn't happen to the stove (like it not being hot!).
Making mayonnaise by hand (no garlic, otherwise it's an aioli and we are learning French cooking!) - so, there is a lot of oil in mayonnaise. We were all kind of grossed out by how much there is (one egg yolk to 250ml/2 cups?) of oil. And you have to beat it all by hand so you can't have wrist, elbow, shoulder or muscle problems in your dominant hand. If you can beat the egg sufficiently with your weaker hand or you are ambidextrous, then I am jealous.
More tomates mondes (?) - yippee. More vegetable cuts (my cubes are still not cubes and I can't tell how big 5mm are) - blanched carrots and turnips. I am really starting to dislike carrots. At the beginning of the week, it was mild distaste. Yesterday it turned into actual dislike. Of course carrots are on my shopping list for the market on Sunday morning!
Salads were fine but my mayonnaise was too thick for the potato salad and didn't coat it evenly. I can tell I'm super hungry by how many things I would normally not eat all of a sudden become appealing. Our Italian vegetable salad had salami as one of its ingredients. Tonight I can't believe I actually ate it, but it was delicious yesterday, right after we made it. Especially with a small piece of hard boiled egg. Sounds totally disgusting to me now.
On the agenda for tomorrow
Demonstration of decorating the creme brulee and creme caramel which were demonstrated today. Chef M even showed us how to make scrambled eggs out of the creme Anglaise (which you don't want) and then how to rescue it. I hope I got the rescue correct in my notes!
In any case, the custard desserts looked pretty simple, but we will see. Everything (especially the slicing, dicing and cutting!) looks so easy when the chefs do it, only to turn into a complete hash when we try it.
Eggy custards
One of the objections my sister and I have about ordering custard-y desserts at restaurants is that it's such a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes they come to you and all you can taste is egg. I finally found out today - it's because the restaurant cheated! Adding more egg makes the dessert set more quickly, so the ones I didn't like were actually bad custards. Good to know, next time I can send it back with no guilt and get a totally different dessert. Like it's going to be a better custard if I just ask for another one - they cheated on one, they likely cheated on a whole batch (if not all of them).
Anyway, some of my classmates and I have been discussing going to someone's house on successive weekends to practice our recipes (but unfortunately not the brulee because no one is quite game enough to buy the blowtorch, although I am so very tempted...) On the other hand, I'm quite sure that burning the apartment building down is bad form. The school is on very good terms with the local fire station, which should be indicative of the number of alarms which go off. I hope no alarms go off when I experiment with searing the meat and flambeing things with brandy (hm, is that something that has to wait until Superior Cuisine???) which was described the other day.
For the moment, must think of uses for all those brunoised and macedoined carrots. That's fancyspeak for super small dice (cubes) and bigger dice (cubes - actual size of playing dice - must remember that, but they said those cubes were too big...so confused with cm/mm!!!) for those who couldn't care less what the technical name is for the cuts.
Just so you know, I have no idea how a straight knife blade can turn out a carrot that is wavy in the middle and all skewed. They say that it is affected by how we hold the knives and what our pinky fingers are doing. I will worry about what my pinky is doing once I am more confident that I won't cut another finger while I'm checking it out.
For the moment, more veggies...but I hear that once we go to meats, it will be crazy (and yummy?). Must stock up on tupperware and bottles (for coulis). Thanks for the tips, Intermediate and Superior students!
Until next time...
Monday, April 4, 2011
#11 (Day 1 Cuisine) - Basic Knife Skills
In which this doesn't even come close to resembling Julie & Julia
Apparently my Mom has been having visions of us chopping vast quantities of onions like in the movie Julie & Julia (did it come out last year?) in which there is an absolute blizzard of onion pieces when Julia Child's husband, Paul, came home after her first day of classes.
First of all, and lucky for us, no one in class is a professional chef except our teacher. Secondly, the chopping was only one of several things we did. Thirdly, I suppose usually people envision chefs cutting things very precisely and very quickly, especially if we've been watching cooking shows on TV. They do. We students most assuredly don't.
The reality
We have 2 1/2 hours for a practical class so that there is enough time to show your plate to Chef X, get your feedback, clean up and clear out in time for the next class to come in.
Each student got 2 onions, 1 leek, 1 rib of celery, 2 carrots, 3 sprigs of thyme, a few stalks of parsley, 2 cloves of garlie, an eschallot (aka French shallots) and 2 oranges. We were practicing a few specific cuts and it's not a matter of good enough, it's a matter of perfection. It took 2 carrots for me to get 4 acceptable sticks (which were a bit on the skinny side), a large dice (also on the small side) and a small dice (a bit on the big side). By the way, these are all Chef's comments to me. Hopefully they will get better once I know what 2mm looks like.
What I learned: I can't cut straight. It doesn't seem that hard - you line up your vegetable and you slice down, avoiding any fingers. It's getting the exact right angles that was the problem. So you shave a bit here, shave a bit there (in order to even it out) and pretty soon half of your carrot is gone because you've shaved off bits and pieces. Celery is a bit easier because it won't be exactly a cubed piece given its barrel shape.
Leeks get curly when you slice them (or even just cut them in half) so you end up wasting a lot squaring them off in order to get an even cut. No wonder they asked why we wanted to come to cooking school - if you didn't already love food, you might not last. I seriously think that not only will I not start a love affair with carrots, I may may actively dislike them, at least until I can cut them at right angles.
I think one piece of the large dice carrot passed muster - completely by accident - and the julienne of leek (the orange zest julienne was too fat, barely passable; the onion slices were too uneven - some fat, some skinny and there wasn't enough orange juice in the bottom of the bowl). I never thought I would be so happy and relieved to hear that the precision wasn't there but there was some promise and I should practice. A Lot.
Also - onions weren't too bad but the echallots are a real killer when it comes to making you cry. For me personally, they are supremely painful, unlike onions which are only mildly painful. I considered wearing a snorkelling mask but you can't bring in equipment which hasn't been provided or approved by the school.
AND - your hands must grow calluses. A blister on the index finger was indicative of holding the knife incorrectly (demonstration Chef and teaching Chef's examples notwithstanding) and I must hold the handle only - not the handle and the blade. So no band-aids - your hand has to toughen up.
As for cutting in general and hand/finger placement - cutting the palm of your hand is ok - you can bandage it up and still keep working. Cutting your fingers, especially if it's the tips of your fingers, is not ok because it makes things so much harder. No nicks and scrapes today, but time will tell.
It helps if you have bigger hands. It's a lot harder to maneuver the paring/turning knife and the peeler (for zesting) when you can't get a proper grip and leverage on the knife without cutting yourself.
Zesting and julienning the orange took any remaining garlicky/oniony smell off my hands (yes, of course we washed our boards, knives and hands before we did the oranges). But I still smell like celery...
A warning from someone more advanced to the newbies...
An intermediate Patisserie student warned me that the final exam for our basic Patisserie is a killer. They judge against professional standards (after all, isn't that what we're there for?) and a lot of competent students still do not get super high marks. Apparently no one in her group got a distinction.
It seems that the requirements to succeed well are that you have a knack for Patisserie, you have prepared well and that you have good luck on the day.
I must confess that I don't aspire so high after our first day. Right now it will be a cause for celebration if I can get a properly squared off piece of carrot so that I can do the other cuts. At the moment they are more trapezoidal than cubic. Trapezoid does not fit into any of the categories of recognized basic cuts.
There is a vast difference between cutting things up at home (where you're the boss) and in a school which expects to turn out professionals. I suppose we all got so caught up and excited about the course that we forgot that this is to teach us the stuff that you can't/don't do at home.
Chef's suggestion
Practice, practice, practice. It won't get us to Carnegie Hall but we might be able to do the above list in 20 minutes (the standard) without too much wastage, rather than the 2.5 hours which then resulted in pieces good enough for the stock pot.
Also - it's French cooking. So the fact that I didn't know 4cm is approximately 2 inches - well, I must learn centimeters (thank goodness for tomorrow's conversion class, although I am afraid that will be more weights and measures than lengths...).
On the agenda tomorrow (and possibly more cutting practice) - salads. Lots of salads - and lots of different salad dressings.
Prediction for the fate of some vegetables for the next few months
I have a feeling that London runs short on sugar, scales, carrots, onions, celery, leeks, eshallots and oranges at the beginning of each intake for the Cordon Bleu because we all need to practice.
It's a good thing it is still relatively chilly because we can at least use all those cut/sliced vegetables in a winter soup or stew...or perhaps there is a soup kitchen nearby where I can practice. Have definitely thought of offering my services to the advanced students to prep when they are putting on their final exam of multi-course dinner.
I also predict that I may never buy another vinaigrette dressing again.
In the meantime
Spring continues apace with all of its vaunted variability. The cherry blossoms around the corner on Devonshire Place have mostly been blown off the trees but the ones below my kitchen (Something-or-other Mews) are still on the trees. Westminster has started to put up baskets of flowers on the hooks hanging from the streetlight posts. Window boxes have daffodils and tulips growing tall over the ivy and smaller bushes for which I don't know the names.
We have days which seem to have four seasons at once - freezing early this morning, quite warm in the afternoon, rainy/drizzly but not overcast at the moment and who knows that tonight will bring?
So until next time - happy eating! (And remember that it took a lot of practice for the person in the kitchen to be able to make those carrots perfectly cube shaped.)
Apparently my Mom has been having visions of us chopping vast quantities of onions like in the movie Julie & Julia (did it come out last year?) in which there is an absolute blizzard of onion pieces when Julia Child's husband, Paul, came home after her first day of classes.
First of all, and lucky for us, no one in class is a professional chef except our teacher. Secondly, the chopping was only one of several things we did. Thirdly, I suppose usually people envision chefs cutting things very precisely and very quickly, especially if we've been watching cooking shows on TV. They do. We students most assuredly don't.
The reality
We have 2 1/2 hours for a practical class so that there is enough time to show your plate to Chef X, get your feedback, clean up and clear out in time for the next class to come in.
Each student got 2 onions, 1 leek, 1 rib of celery, 2 carrots, 3 sprigs of thyme, a few stalks of parsley, 2 cloves of garlie, an eschallot (aka French shallots) and 2 oranges. We were practicing a few specific cuts and it's not a matter of good enough, it's a matter of perfection. It took 2 carrots for me to get 4 acceptable sticks (which were a bit on the skinny side), a large dice (also on the small side) and a small dice (a bit on the big side). By the way, these are all Chef's comments to me. Hopefully they will get better once I know what 2mm looks like.
What I learned: I can't cut straight. It doesn't seem that hard - you line up your vegetable and you slice down, avoiding any fingers. It's getting the exact right angles that was the problem. So you shave a bit here, shave a bit there (in order to even it out) and pretty soon half of your carrot is gone because you've shaved off bits and pieces. Celery is a bit easier because it won't be exactly a cubed piece given its barrel shape.
Leeks get curly when you slice them (or even just cut them in half) so you end up wasting a lot squaring them off in order to get an even cut. No wonder they asked why we wanted to come to cooking school - if you didn't already love food, you might not last. I seriously think that not only will I not start a love affair with carrots, I may may actively dislike them, at least until I can cut them at right angles.
I think one piece of the large dice carrot passed muster - completely by accident - and the julienne of leek (the orange zest julienne was too fat, barely passable; the onion slices were too uneven - some fat, some skinny and there wasn't enough orange juice in the bottom of the bowl). I never thought I would be so happy and relieved to hear that the precision wasn't there but there was some promise and I should practice. A Lot.
Also - onions weren't too bad but the echallots are a real killer when it comes to making you cry. For me personally, they are supremely painful, unlike onions which are only mildly painful. I considered wearing a snorkelling mask but you can't bring in equipment which hasn't been provided or approved by the school.
AND - your hands must grow calluses. A blister on the index finger was indicative of holding the knife incorrectly (demonstration Chef and teaching Chef's examples notwithstanding) and I must hold the handle only - not the handle and the blade. So no band-aids - your hand has to toughen up.
As for cutting in general and hand/finger placement - cutting the palm of your hand is ok - you can bandage it up and still keep working. Cutting your fingers, especially if it's the tips of your fingers, is not ok because it makes things so much harder. No nicks and scrapes today, but time will tell.
It helps if you have bigger hands. It's a lot harder to maneuver the paring/turning knife and the peeler (for zesting) when you can't get a proper grip and leverage on the knife without cutting yourself.
Zesting and julienning the orange took any remaining garlicky/oniony smell off my hands (yes, of course we washed our boards, knives and hands before we did the oranges). But I still smell like celery...
A warning from someone more advanced to the newbies...
An intermediate Patisserie student warned me that the final exam for our basic Patisserie is a killer. They judge against professional standards (after all, isn't that what we're there for?) and a lot of competent students still do not get super high marks. Apparently no one in her group got a distinction.
It seems that the requirements to succeed well are that you have a knack for Patisserie, you have prepared well and that you have good luck on the day.
I must confess that I don't aspire so high after our first day. Right now it will be a cause for celebration if I can get a properly squared off piece of carrot so that I can do the other cuts. At the moment they are more trapezoidal than cubic. Trapezoid does not fit into any of the categories of recognized basic cuts.
There is a vast difference between cutting things up at home (where you're the boss) and in a school which expects to turn out professionals. I suppose we all got so caught up and excited about the course that we forgot that this is to teach us the stuff that you can't/don't do at home.
Chef's suggestion
Practice, practice, practice. It won't get us to Carnegie Hall but we might be able to do the above list in 20 minutes (the standard) without too much wastage, rather than the 2.5 hours which then resulted in pieces good enough for the stock pot.
Also - it's French cooking. So the fact that I didn't know 4cm is approximately 2 inches - well, I must learn centimeters (thank goodness for tomorrow's conversion class, although I am afraid that will be more weights and measures than lengths...).
On the agenda tomorrow (and possibly more cutting practice) - salads. Lots of salads - and lots of different salad dressings.
Prediction for the fate of some vegetables for the next few months
I have a feeling that London runs short on sugar, scales, carrots, onions, celery, leeks, eshallots and oranges at the beginning of each intake for the Cordon Bleu because we all need to practice.
It's a good thing it is still relatively chilly because we can at least use all those cut/sliced vegetables in a winter soup or stew...or perhaps there is a soup kitchen nearby where I can practice. Have definitely thought of offering my services to the advanced students to prep when they are putting on their final exam of multi-course dinner.
I also predict that I may never buy another vinaigrette dressing again.
In the meantime
Spring continues apace with all of its vaunted variability. The cherry blossoms around the corner on Devonshire Place have mostly been blown off the trees but the ones below my kitchen (Something-or-other Mews) are still on the trees. Westminster has started to put up baskets of flowers on the hooks hanging from the streetlight posts. Window boxes have daffodils and tulips growing tall over the ivy and smaller bushes for which I don't know the names.
We have days which seem to have four seasons at once - freezing early this morning, quite warm in the afternoon, rainy/drizzly but not overcast at the moment and who knows that tonight will bring?
So until next time - happy eating! (And remember that it took a lot of practice for the person in the kitchen to be able to make those carrots perfectly cube shaped.)
Friday, April 1, 2011
REAL Day 1 - Patisserie - Fruit salad, syrup and sugar decorations
Recipes/photos/etc.
I don't think I can put them up here. The school has copyright over recipes and photos and I have to ask their permission first - so it is safer for me not to do anything that might cause problems. I will share any tips I pick up though...
Fruit Salad
I hear you wondering, fruit salad? That was my first reaction too, when a more advanced student saw us scrambling into the remainder of our uniform to get to our practical class today.
I thought, geez - all this way and I'm doing fruit salad. Which sounds so easy until you get the chef's feedback: your orange segments are uneven, that melon ball has a flat spot, this strawberry is not happy...I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the idea.
It all looked so easy in the demonstration. They even had time to lecture us about all of the items in our equipment kit (yes, it actually comes with a lock, which I eventually figured out) and the different types of cuts, different temperatures for sugar work and what they are commonly used for as well as the fancy cuts for special fruit platters and the sugar caramel netting baskets and spirals for decorations.
And then we got upstairs. Chef's first remark to me when I walked in: You're not even dressed! I hadn't put on my apron because I couldn't tie it and still walk (FYI, it reached from the bustline down to my ankles - it was like wearing a long pencil skirt over clown pants). Then when I asked him how to tie the neckerchief, I got the withering answer: You don't wear a neckerchief in Patisserie. You only wear it in cuisine. The result: "Zero." Another zero for not having my safety shoes yet (we have until Monday to get them). Another zero for not having my scale (we have until Monday to get it). Another zero for whoever was supposed to sous-chef for today's practical - on our induction packet class list, going in alphabetical order (so luckily not me!). The word zero has actually ceased to have any meaning, at least for the next 24 hours. Evidently none of us met his sartorial standard because there was a lesson in apron tying.
I also got in a little trouble when Chef caught me taking my grapes to wash at the sink. "What, you think we would give you dirty fruit?" Um, well...the fruit still had stickers on them so even though I didn't think so, I wasn't sure. Plus it seems awfully spoiled not to have to wash our own fruit. And how do I know they washed the lemons and oranges?
On the other hand, I did note that the production kitchen which makes sure the ingredients for classes are ready seems to have done a lot of the work for us (i.e. stocks, etc.). Also, Chef F told us yesterday that usually kitchens don't have windows or as much space as we have in the various kitchens. And we don't necessarily have to beat all the cream and eggs by hand first (thank goodness for the Kitchen Aids)! So really, we are beyond spoiled...
Basic knife skills
What I learned today: most accidents occur when you are cleaning/taking out/putting away your knives. We heard this in the demonstration, in the beginning of our practical and right after someone cut her finger taking out her knives for our class.
I admit that I had a tiny run-in with my peeler, but as Chef put it, my fruit salad was still vegan.
Also, when your orange segments are uneven because some segments are naturally smaller than others, you leave out the small ones. I wish I had known that before I put in all the segments into the salad. I was also glad that I didn't like some of the fruits so I didn't get marked for them. Chef checked our cutting by going through our bowls and showing us what was good and what wasn't (pith on orange segments- not good; pieces being uniform size - good; flat spots on the melon balls - not good).
According to Chef, when you remove only the green part of the strawberry stem (instead of cutting of the stem end) - you are either being punished or you are really bored and lonely. If they tell you to do this, evidently you tell them to do it themselves. If I weren't so tired, I might know whether or not this was a joke, but since I can't keep my eyes open...which is also my excuse for any grammatical and spelling lapses in this post.
By the by, I will put up photos of my knives because they are so pretty. Unfortunately the school gave out the card for only one engraver, with the result that he has 32 pieces (or so) for each student. He claimed today to have missed only one item in the time that he has been doing this, but to bring back any items he missed - so I will take him my spoon sometime soon. At least 20 people got their sets yesterday and we all have to have our knives for class, so he has been very busy.
The patisserie students get to lighten the load by taking some of the knives out of the kit (for example, the meat cleaver is not required in patisserie).
Sugar work and hand testing
We did an infused syrup and a caramelly syrup (whose technical name I can't remember at the moment because I am brain dead and my notes are in my locker).
We left the cardamom out of our infused syrup but used the vanilla, cloves, orange and lemon peels, cinnamon and whatever else my teammates put in it. It tastes amazing - and I have some of it in the fridge along with my fruit salad in which there is no banana or mango because I don't like them. Ah the advantage of making your own - you only put in what you like.
You may wonder what hand testing is. It was really freaky the first time I did it and I got scolded for lifting my hand out of the melted sugar solution too fast and for not getting enough of it in my hand. So - you put your hand in a bowl of ice water, then smoothly and in motion, quickly dip your hand into the melted sugar syrup (3 parts sugar, 1 part water and boiling by now) and grab a bit, then back into the ice water. Yes, sugar has a very high boiling point. Yes, it is creepy. Yes, it is also really cool to have the sugar in your hand turn into a little ball (soft or hard, depending on the temperature of the sugar in the pot) and then to play with it. Also cool to be able to do this and not have to use our thermometer, although you can if you want to.
We didn't really turn it into caramel, much less turn it into pretty nets/baskets/spirals because we were running out of time, but at least now we know the theory.
Dinner!
So that was our first day. We finished just after 8pm. There was a group of us (six) who were starving and none of us had anyone anxiously waiting for us to get home, so we went out for dinner at a Morrocan Place on James Street, near St Christopher Place. I think the general misconception is that we are cooking all day so we wouldn't need to eat at home because we would eat what we cooked. Well, not quite. There's just enough time to set up, prep, cook, clean and get feedback. Depending on the day, there might be another class (!) - and you're not supposed to eat in a demo. You don't have time to eat in a prac unless it's to taste. So we took home our fruit salads.
Note to self: pack (large?) clear tupperware to take to class and a plastic bag to carry our food in.
So until next time, happy eating. Hmmm, I've already brushed my teeth but now I am thinking about that fruit salad - especially the sauce. Who knew that a syrup could make fruit taste so good? Ugh, never mind. I'd have to get out of bed and it is so comfortable here...
Oh - and last tip re tomatoes. Chef F told us that tomato skins are acidic, which is why he likes to peel tomatoes before putting them in salads. I'm sure there are people who already knew this, but it was news to me.
I don't think I can put them up here. The school has copyright over recipes and photos and I have to ask their permission first - so it is safer for me not to do anything that might cause problems. I will share any tips I pick up though...
Fruit Salad
I hear you wondering, fruit salad? That was my first reaction too, when a more advanced student saw us scrambling into the remainder of our uniform to get to our practical class today.
I thought, geez - all this way and I'm doing fruit salad. Which sounds so easy until you get the chef's feedback: your orange segments are uneven, that melon ball has a flat spot, this strawberry is not happy...I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the idea.
It all looked so easy in the demonstration. They even had time to lecture us about all of the items in our equipment kit (yes, it actually comes with a lock, which I eventually figured out) and the different types of cuts, different temperatures for sugar work and what they are commonly used for as well as the fancy cuts for special fruit platters and the sugar caramel netting baskets and spirals for decorations.
And then we got upstairs. Chef's first remark to me when I walked in: You're not even dressed! I hadn't put on my apron because I couldn't tie it and still walk (FYI, it reached from the bustline down to my ankles - it was like wearing a long pencil skirt over clown pants). Then when I asked him how to tie the neckerchief, I got the withering answer: You don't wear a neckerchief in Patisserie. You only wear it in cuisine. The result: "Zero." Another zero for not having my safety shoes yet (we have until Monday to get them). Another zero for not having my scale (we have until Monday to get it). Another zero for whoever was supposed to sous-chef for today's practical - on our induction packet class list, going in alphabetical order (so luckily not me!). The word zero has actually ceased to have any meaning, at least for the next 24 hours. Evidently none of us met his sartorial standard because there was a lesson in apron tying.
I also got in a little trouble when Chef caught me taking my grapes to wash at the sink. "What, you think we would give you dirty fruit?" Um, well...the fruit still had stickers on them so even though I didn't think so, I wasn't sure. Plus it seems awfully spoiled not to have to wash our own fruit. And how do I know they washed the lemons and oranges?
On the other hand, I did note that the production kitchen which makes sure the ingredients for classes are ready seems to have done a lot of the work for us (i.e. stocks, etc.). Also, Chef F told us yesterday that usually kitchens don't have windows or as much space as we have in the various kitchens. And we don't necessarily have to beat all the cream and eggs by hand first (thank goodness for the Kitchen Aids)! So really, we are beyond spoiled...
Basic knife skills
What I learned today: most accidents occur when you are cleaning/taking out/putting away your knives. We heard this in the demonstration, in the beginning of our practical and right after someone cut her finger taking out her knives for our class.
I admit that I had a tiny run-in with my peeler, but as Chef put it, my fruit salad was still vegan.
Also, when your orange segments are uneven because some segments are naturally smaller than others, you leave out the small ones. I wish I had known that before I put in all the segments into the salad. I was also glad that I didn't like some of the fruits so I didn't get marked for them. Chef checked our cutting by going through our bowls and showing us what was good and what wasn't (pith on orange segments- not good; pieces being uniform size - good; flat spots on the melon balls - not good).
According to Chef, when you remove only the green part of the strawberry stem (instead of cutting of the stem end) - you are either being punished or you are really bored and lonely. If they tell you to do this, evidently you tell them to do it themselves. If I weren't so tired, I might know whether or not this was a joke, but since I can't keep my eyes open...which is also my excuse for any grammatical and spelling lapses in this post.
By the by, I will put up photos of my knives because they are so pretty. Unfortunately the school gave out the card for only one engraver, with the result that he has 32 pieces (or so) for each student. He claimed today to have missed only one item in the time that he has been doing this, but to bring back any items he missed - so I will take him my spoon sometime soon. At least 20 people got their sets yesterday and we all have to have our knives for class, so he has been very busy.
The patisserie students get to lighten the load by taking some of the knives out of the kit (for example, the meat cleaver is not required in patisserie).
Sugar work and hand testing
We did an infused syrup and a caramelly syrup (whose technical name I can't remember at the moment because I am brain dead and my notes are in my locker).
We left the cardamom out of our infused syrup but used the vanilla, cloves, orange and lemon peels, cinnamon and whatever else my teammates put in it. It tastes amazing - and I have some of it in the fridge along with my fruit salad in which there is no banana or mango because I don't like them. Ah the advantage of making your own - you only put in what you like.
You may wonder what hand testing is. It was really freaky the first time I did it and I got scolded for lifting my hand out of the melted sugar solution too fast and for not getting enough of it in my hand. So - you put your hand in a bowl of ice water, then smoothly and in motion, quickly dip your hand into the melted sugar syrup (3 parts sugar, 1 part water and boiling by now) and grab a bit, then back into the ice water. Yes, sugar has a very high boiling point. Yes, it is creepy. Yes, it is also really cool to have the sugar in your hand turn into a little ball (soft or hard, depending on the temperature of the sugar in the pot) and then to play with it. Also cool to be able to do this and not have to use our thermometer, although you can if you want to.
We didn't really turn it into caramel, much less turn it into pretty nets/baskets/spirals because we were running out of time, but at least now we know the theory.
Dinner!
So that was our first day. We finished just after 8pm. There was a group of us (six) who were starving and none of us had anyone anxiously waiting for us to get home, so we went out for dinner at a Morrocan Place on James Street, near St Christopher Place. I think the general misconception is that we are cooking all day so we wouldn't need to eat at home because we would eat what we cooked. Well, not quite. There's just enough time to set up, prep, cook, clean and get feedback. Depending on the day, there might be another class (!) - and you're not supposed to eat in a demo. You don't have time to eat in a prac unless it's to taste. So we took home our fruit salads.
Note to self: pack (large?) clear tupperware to take to class and a plastic bag to carry our food in.
So until next time, happy eating. Hmmm, I've already brushed my teeth but now I am thinking about that fruit salad - especially the sauce. Who knew that a syrup could make fruit taste so good? Ugh, never mind. I'd have to get out of bed and it is so comfortable here...
Oh - and last tip re tomatoes. Chef F told us that tomato skins are acidic, which is why he likes to peel tomatoes before putting them in salads. I'm sure there are people who already knew this, but it was news to me.
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