Today was a busy day! I arrived early to print out my two school assignments I did this weekend in the school library, only to find out I was food steward, and so I was put to work immediately by the Chef Instructor and Sous Chef (who happened to be my seat neighbor and sauce partner, Jeff) getting the food ready for the tomato sauce demo today. Oops, no time to print. So I tried at the end of class, AFTER the whole kitchen was cleaned and the food put away after everyone was served pasta for the taste experience (veggie tomato sauce vs. the one cooked with bacon...yes delicious smoked bacon! Mmmmm....). I ran upstairs only to find out all personal email is cut off from the school computers, so my idea of sending it to my yahoo address wasn't going to work (argh!); instead I had to email it to one of the staff so she could print it out for me, and I was late to class. Note to self: do not like being treated like a child by not having full internet access, but then I guess I'm spoiled from all my years at MS and having my own laptop. I guess I won't take the data off my phone after all, since that might come in handy!
In any case, besides making two tomato sauces and having a lecture on that and pasta, the Chef Instructor also taught us how to truss a chicken. Apparently the famous chef Thomas Keller (of The French Laundry, in Napa) was humiliated at an early stage in his career and had a knife thrown at him by a French chef who couldn't believe that he had the gall to call himself a chef without knowing how to truss a chicken. Apparently every child in France knows how to truss a chicken by the age of four. :-) So, we all had a chance at it, and I thought I did great, and it looked reeaaalll pretty, even tied it with a bow...then our second Chef Instructor came by and yanked it up, and the string came right off and the chicken fell with a large plop on the sheet pan. He said with a grin, "Next time tight it tighter. It's already dead, it won't feel a thing." Ha, ha. Ok, lesson learned, thanks Chef. Good thing we're not graded on our first attempt. Oh, funny trivia of the day: the little nob on the butt of of a chicken has a name, called the "Pope's nose," because apparently awhile back there was a Pope who had a nose that looked just like that. So next time you have a whole raw chicken, take a good look at it's butt! Lol! Reminds me of the other day when our second Chef Instructor came strutting in, and had to interrupt the other instructor to teach us a new term he just learned: a buttload. It's a real term, they Googled it. It's 126 Fluid US Gallons. Gotta love it!
We were graded on our knife cuts today, and hopefully I did well enough to keep my 96% A-grade going! I know I was jill-on-the-spot with the food steward job, so I'm expecting to get full points out of that. I'd better, since that nearly made my paper late for the sanitation class, due to the printing snafu. Ok, signing off early as I need to do my reading homework and study for two quizzes tomorrow before dance class. I'm adding some pics of the Saturday evening chicken stock project, which took much less time than the veal (about 9 hours of simmering, probably an hour and a half total prep & procedure time pre/post cooking). Next I'll try my hand at a veggie stock, and see what I can come up with. :-)
In any case, besides making two tomato sauces and having a lecture on that and pasta, the Chef Instructor also taught us how to truss a chicken. Apparently the famous chef Thomas Keller (of The French Laundry, in Napa) was humiliated at an early stage in his career and had a knife thrown at him by a French chef who couldn't believe that he had the gall to call himself a chef without knowing how to truss a chicken. Apparently every child in France knows how to truss a chicken by the age of four. :-) So, we all had a chance at it, and I thought I did great, and it looked reeaaalll pretty, even tied it with a bow...then our second Chef Instructor came by and yanked it up, and the string came right off and the chicken fell with a large plop on the sheet pan. He said with a grin, "Next time tight it tighter. It's already dead, it won't feel a thing." Ha, ha. Ok, lesson learned, thanks Chef. Good thing we're not graded on our first attempt. Oh, funny trivia of the day: the little nob on the butt of of a chicken has a name, called the "Pope's nose," because apparently awhile back there was a Pope who had a nose that looked just like that. So next time you have a whole raw chicken, take a good look at it's butt! Lol! Reminds me of the other day when our second Chef Instructor came strutting in, and had to interrupt the other instructor to teach us a new term he just learned: a buttload. It's a real term, they Googled it. It's 126 Fluid US Gallons. Gotta love it!
We were graded on our knife cuts today, and hopefully I did well enough to keep my 96% A-grade going! I know I was jill-on-the-spot with the food steward job, so I'm expecting to get full points out of that. I'd better, since that nearly made my paper late for the sanitation class, due to the printing snafu. Ok, signing off early as I need to do my reading homework and study for two quizzes tomorrow before dance class. I'm adding some pics of the Saturday evening chicken stock project, which took much less time than the veal (about 9 hours of simmering, probably an hour and a half total prep & procedure time pre/post cooking). Next I'll try my hand at a veggie stock, and see what I can come up with. :-)
So glad you are enjoying yourself doing this!
ReplyDeleteexcellent! one question - what is "trussing"?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ed! :-)
ReplyDeleteChris, trussing is basically tying the bird up with string so it stays together in the oven while it cooks. Ususally Thanksgiving turkeys come pre-trussed, with the legs all tied together for you.