A week in review!

See, I told you I wouldn't be able to keep this up everyday. I thought about it every day though, so that's gotta count for something. :-) The trouble with this summary idea is I'm sure I'll miss something, but on the other hand, if I miss writing about it, it must not have been that important.

First off, I'm rockin' the Culinary 1 class! I've got a 95.5% and that's including the day when I found out I was sous chef with no clue as to what I was doing, so yea for me! Their grading sheets leave a little to be desired, and you can't hang onto them (they just let you glance at them and it goes into "the system" which I hope I'll be able to access online as some point), but bottom line is I'm feeling good about it so far. Brandi just sent me a text saying "It's easy to do well when you love what you are doing :-)" and I agree...and I really hope that holds to be true when things start getting more difficult! I'm doing well in the food safety class as well, but I have to admit I screwed up our take home test royally because I did it too fast and wasn't paying attention. Melissa and I had a conversation about being intelligent and resting on your laurels this weekend... ;-) Needless to say, I won't be doing that again!

So we did a lot with stocks this week, learning the foundation of French cooking, and really any base for all cuisines that have sauces, which is pretty much all food around the world. The foundation, or fond as they like to call it, is imperative to get right, because the "mother sauce" and "secondary sauces" come from the stock...so if you screw it up, you might as well throw it out, because it affects the taste and color of everything you make after that point. The perfect stock is graded on color, clarity and taste. Seems pretty simple, but it's amazing all the steps and time that it takes to get it right, which means there are plenty of places you can go oh-so-wrong. We did veal stock and chicken stock, so brown and white, one with a sachet and one with a bouquet of herbs for flavor. We learned the percentage of miropoix-10% (they refer to the standard ingredients as the "holy trinity" hee hee...50% onion, 25% celery, 25% carrots) to bones-50% (to be roasted or not, depending on the final result you desire), and water-100%. They teach it in percentages so you can know how to make stock in any amount, whether it's for a soup base at home or a vat for a huge hotel. They reminded us that they're here to teach us how to cook, not to give out recipies. Every chef has a slightly different variation on how he/she cooks their stock, and apparently if you ask one, they can pretty much do a short dissertation on stocks, how they make them and what they use different ones for. That's just for starters, literally. Kinda cool, I think. :-) Also a little nerve racking, as I'm pretty sure they're going to require us to make stock for our final in some weeks, so I'll have to practice one at home to make sure mine doesn't suck. That means a trip to the store for at least some cheesecloth, for straining, if not a Chinois. My colanders leave a lot to be desired when it comes to straining stock, I know this for a fact. None of them are fine enough.

We also are learning tasting, the four, no five senses of taste. Everyone knows the basic four: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But they've proven another that comes from the Japanese cuisine originally (specifically seaweed broth), so therefore kept it's original name: umami. I can't translate directly, I'll allow my Japanese speaking friends to do that, but basically it's the "yum factor." Think of things that really make a dish savory, add the flavor, no matter where in the world the food is from...Worchestershire sauce, sundried tomatoes, fish or oyster sauce, even MSG (which is naturally occuring in stock btw, from the gluten in the bones) which is why so many restaurants used to use it in food. They used the stock to teach this further, get our palates used to really tasting things. First we tasted the straight stock with no seasoning (salt). Then they added salt, and it was amazing how it brought the flavors out that were already present; the human taste buds actually need a bit of salt to taste all of those four basic tastes. Then they brought out the industrial stocks for comparison (think of bullion cubes, but in a big jar), and holy cow were they terrible! Kind of like straight top ramen seasoning with a tiny bit of water. I'll admit, I've got ramen packs in my cupboard for "emergencies" when I feel extra lazy, but I'm not sure I can keep doing that after I tasted the real thing. Stock is labor intensive, but soooo worth it, now that I've tasted it the right way.

So, the other exciting thing that happened in school is what I mentioned on Facebook on Wednesday, July 14th (Bastille Day!). At least once a quarter, the Parisian campus sends a chef here to make sure the education is up to par with what's going on in Paris (very cool), and this week it was a Master Pastry Chef who spent the whole week with the pastry program students, and also offered a demo for anyone in the school to come see. It was freakin' amazing! He made a European Frambois Genoise layered cake,a wall of strawberries on the outside, marzipan roses made from scratch right before our eyes, and chocolate piping. The cake was soaked in simple syrup with Grand Marnier, yum! I was bummed that we couldn't try any, but he was running over and there was another class ready to start, so we had to leave. :-( He totally whipped it together in an hour and a half, and it looked gorgeous, like something you'd see in a fancy French bakery. It was a piece of art, to be sure, and what was so cook to watch was his economy of movement...everything he did had a purpose, and was so smooth it was like watching someone dance. He mentioned the Chef's Religion (mise en place!!!) several times, being a teacher, and I can see more and more how important it is. I keep thinking of how many times I'm cooking or baking something, and have to stop in the middle to go get something, usually to the detriment of whatever I'm in the middle of (boiling over, burning/scalding, over baking). It's really very simple, but if you think ahead of time about what you're doing and plan out what you need and have it on the ready in advance, it all goes very quickly and efficiently, with less opportunity for screw ups. I can't tell you how many times I've had to start over, or at the very least let out some explatives when I realized that I'd not thought about everything I needed, and (shit!) had to run to the grocery store for a main ingredient right in the middle of cooking something. Not ok for a professional cook, that's for sure.

I'll leave you with news of my two firsts: my first cut, and my first internship. :-D I had my first cut on Tuesday, when we were doing tourne cuts (7 sided football shaped vegetable, used for sides in hoity-toity restaurants). It is not true that you always cut away from yourself, especially in culinary school. Yes, I was being extremely careful, and no, I didn't feel it and there was no blood, as my knives are so incredibly sharp. I was using the tourne knife, aka "bird's beak" (looks like a paring knife with a curved end) and I only noticed after we were done and had started cleaning up that I had sliced my thumb. So I've included a picture of my first finger condom (aka finger cot, but that's much too boring) for your enjoyment. ;-) No, the picture is not blury because I was woozy, but because I had to take it with my left hand. Note to self: if you're gonna cut yourself, try to do it on the left hand. Ha! I also added pics of my practice cuts from last Sunday including, medium dice, large dice, batonnet, julienne, fine julienne, brunoise, fine brunoise, and two shapes of paysanne, aka confetti cuts. When I decide to try the tourne cut again, I'll get a picture of some decent ones...which will take A LOT of practice!

My first internship happened (or will be starting, that is, in about a month) thanks to my friend Hana from dance class. Her good friend Blanca is starting a new fine dining restaurant in Federal Way, and has agreed to take me on as a trainee! I am so excited and amazed at this opportunity, and I can hardly wait for the place to open! I couldn't have found a better opportunity if I'd tried, as training under an executive chef who's ready and willing to train a brand new cook while opening her own restaurant is unheard of. It turns out she was going to look at the culinary schools for a student anyway, and when Hana told her about me Friday night, she was completely thrilled and asked her to get us together. Wowee zowee! Seeing a place get started from the menu on up is just what I'd love most to do in an externship, besides maybe getting myself into a four or five star restaurant or hotel downtown. Our Head Chef Instructor recommended this, as you'll learn "in dog years" due to the quality and sheer volume of food produced, it will help the resume immensely to get possibly a sous chef job and a "nice restaurant" right out of school, and you're more likely to get a job at a high level restaurant or hotel getting hired out of that externship). This may work out to be a nice happy medium. Plus, as an added bonus, her place is down the hill from Grandma's house, so Leo can chill with her for a bit if it looks like it's going to be an extra long day...but that's just frosting on the cake. :-) I've included a picture of "Peppercorn," since I simply had to go see it, at least from the outside today. I'll meet Blanca and see the inside of her place later this week, I hope. Things are falling into place...as Kate mentioned, "Green lights from the Universe." :-)

Ok, signing off for now, have to get some review done for tomorrow, and it's already almost 12:30 am! Need to get back on that schedule again...