unorganized chaos

I started this blog not only to share my experiences of culinary school, but also as a journal for myself.  I want to be able to look back on these early days of culinary school and (hopefully) see how far I've come.  This week's class is one that I won't forget.  It felt like one of those C.R.A.Z.Y. reality shows on your favorite food channel....this wasn't a Central Market cooking class.

We started class with lecture reviewing and expanding on the cooking methods we learned last week.  We also talked about scaling recipes and plating.  I went into class not feeling my best - seasonal allergies in Texas have begun.  But by the time lecture was wrapping up, I had forgotten I wasn't feeling well and was ready to get into the kitchen.

We split the class into three groups.  There were three people in my group.  We were tasked with preparing, plating and presenting five dishes to chef: whole roasted chicken with wild rice, country braised chicken with white rice, seared pork chop with Brennan's red wine and mushroom sauce, pan-fried tilapia with lemon butter sauce, and teriyaki tuna with pineapple-papaya salsa.  We had just under two and a half hours to complete this task.  Now, this may sound like plenty of time.  But believe me, we needed every second we had.  We had to present hot, edible food...so timing every recipe was of utmost importance.  The protein items were the only items that had already been set out for us.  All other ingredients had to be gathered, measured, washed & chopped, or prepped in some manner before we even began cooking (remember, mise en place).  All tools had to be located and brought to our table.  We were sharing the stove and ovens with other teams.  The difficulty of this task was not lost on me.  I knew this wasn't going to be a nice, relaxing evening cooking with friends.

There were more caveats to this task.  We were told to read and follow the recipes, except that all of the recipes serve about a million people and we needed to scale it to one or two servings.  We had to keep our table clean.  Of course, we had to work as a team, but that also meant we couldn't just divide the recipes amongst ourselves and report back later.  We had to be actively engaged in what our teammates were working on.  We had to taste each other's food.  We had to consult with each other on doneness and quality.  We had to work together on plating.  We had to present each recipe to Chef as a team - everyone present; which means one person couldn't be back in the kitchen monitoring the food that was cooking - another timing consideration.  Chef also wanted leader-type people to lead less and follower-type people to follow less.  He didn't want one person to take charge of the group.  That didn't sound hard.  So, we were all set.

We were strongly encouraged to sit down with our group, read the recipes and come up with a plan.  This was harder than it sounds.  This is something I do very well on my own when I'm cooking for a large group.  But our group was made up of three people who plan and organize differently.  And remember, one person couldn't take charge...dang, I didn't think that was going to be difficult.  And I'm NOT saying I felt the need to take charge of the whole evening...no way!  I'm just particularly good at making lists and I find them highly valuable.  I could tell my teammates were ready to get into the kitchen.  We hadn't really gotten anywhere on our plan...gulp, time to walk into the kitchen without a plan (yes, I'm freaking out inside).

One person got started on one of the recipes with a longer cooking time (lucky for us, he had prepared this same recipe at home over the weekend).  My other teammate and I pulled ingredients.   I knew the roasted chicken would also take awhile, so I moved quickly to get that in the oven.  My other teammate got started on the red wine and mushroom sauce.  The feeling of unorganized chaos had begun and it did not end until we had presented our final product.

For the most part, the evening is a slight blur.  The three of us worked very nicely together, but we were all stressed and felt pretty haggard when it was all said and done.  We also ran into some stumbling blocks along the way: a difference of opinion between one my teammates and Chef about the cooking time of the braised chicken (long story), another team changing the oven temperature where my chicken was roasting because they put theirs in later and needed a higher temperature in order for their chicken to be done cooking in time, Chef not liking that I warmed the pineapple-papaya salsa even though the recipe said to (believe me, I thought it would be better chilled or at room temperature, but I specifically remember Chef saying to follow the recipes.  I'm very type-a in this way - if you tell me to do something, I will.  And if you change your mind about it, it makes my slightly crazy...just sayin').  Overall, I believe we did well on our product execution.  We had every item to Chef before the deadline (deadlines are a thing for me, so this made me happy).  Chef had some nice things to say about our work and we were aware of the things that didn't get executed as well as they should have.

We were moving so quickly and with such stress that by the end of the night I was questioning how much I actually learned.  We were slightly involved in our teammates recipes, but not to a point of learning much about them.  We listened intently to Chef's feedback, but timers would often go off indicating that one of our other products was done cooking and now my mind is worrying about that product over-cooking and less about what Chef is saying about the product in front of us.  I know the kitchen is a stressful, fast-paced place and I know I have to get used to that, but were we really ready for this?  This was only our fourth class.

But after some time to reflect, I did learn a lot.  Maybe I didn't get as much hands-on experience with all of the cooking methods as I would have liked, but I learned a lot about myself, about working with other people in stressful situations, about being flexible and not being so type-a"ish".  I have no doubt that my attention to detail and instructions will serve me well in the kitchen, but sometimes things are not going to go as planned and I need to just go with it.  (I'm working on it.)

I survived the night of unorganized chaos and I'm proud of what my team accomplished.  I plan to recreate the recipes we prepared in class this week at home so that I do have a good understanding of what my entire team worked on.  And this time I can prepare them in a nice, relaxing kitchen...with a glass of vino.    

my favorite roller coaster ride

It's an amazing experience to be in an educational environment where every single person present is super excited to be there.  Think about it...you may have been wise enough to know what your passion was at the young age of 18 and studied it in college, but you probably had to take a bunch of classes that didn't interest you either.  I didn't follow my bliss until I started culinary school a few weeks ago, so I spent my college years studying because I was supposed to.  This is totally different.  I'm not in culinary school out of obligation or because it is the logical, expected next step in my life (quite the opposite, really).  I'm studying and practicing because I absolutely want to.  And that seems to be the case with my classmates too.  Everyone is there because they want to be.  Heck, most of us show up for class 30 minutes early because we are so eager to get back in the kitchen and learn.

But even with all of this big love for culinary school, I'm still dealing with some serious nervousness.  To be honest, the range of emotions I go through on Monday nights feels like a crazy roller coaster ride.  For example, I walk into school completely giddy with excitement, next enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn take over during lecture, then Chef gives us our tasks and I literally want to cry or vomit from pure nervousness.  I don't think I know how to do what he just asked me to do - did I miss something??? - we just briefly spoke about this thing he is asking me to do and it involves very sharp knives and/or very hot fire.  Do all of my classmates feel confident about the tasks???  (And it is so reassuring to discover that they are feeling a bit intimidated and/or nervous too - it's true, misery adores company.)  Chef is watching, he is evaluating me...I better figure it out fast.  This is where I am for most of the class - unsure, but plowing through.  And then a beautiful thing happens...not only do I learn a million things about cooking, I learn a lot about myself.  I learn that I was able to do that task that Chef asked me to do....or I learn I was completely wrong about the chicken being done and there is beauty in that too.

Last night's class was on Cooking Methods.  Chef gave a lecture and then we had to execute each of them - we did a few as a group, but most of them were individual efforts (see above for how I was feeling about all of this!!!).  We had a lot of items to cook and not a ton of time, so we had to work very efficiently and in concert with our classmates as we are sharing kitchen space and equipment.  We had to present each item to Chef for evaluation.  Below is a complete list on what we cooked and how we cooked it, along with notes on how I did (or how the group did).

• Braise - chicken leg and mirepoix (combination of onions, celery and carrots) - group: My group did really well on this.
• Roast - chicken thigh - group: Remember that undercooked chicken I mentioned above...yup, I was SURE it was done.  Sorry, group...my bad.
• Roast - carrots - group: Those little suckers were beautiful!
• Grill - pork chop - individual: This was my first time to grill anything and I did pretty well.  I need to work on perfecting the grill marks.
• Grill - zucchini - individual: Lovely.
• Deep-fry - chicken tender - individual: I know how to use a deep-fryer and a fry basket now.  And I make a darn, good chicken tender.
• Deep-fry - onion piece - individual: Not bad on the frying...need to do better on the breading.
• Deep-fry - potato - individual:  I undercooked the darn thing.
• Pan-fry - tilapia - individual: I should have changed the oil since it had already been heavily used and had gotten slightly too hot.
• Sear - pork chop - individual: Hockey puck, anyone?  I needed a hotter pan and less cooking time.
• Saute- shrimp - individual: A tasty little morsel.
• Saute - onions - individual: I used a bit too much olive oil, but overall did pretty well.
• Blanch - zucchini - individual: Lovely.
• Steam - shrimp - individual: Slightly overcooked.
• Steam - carrots - individual: Good job.
• Shallow poach - tilapia - individual: I have a lot of growth opportunity with this cooking method.  =)
• Deep poach - egg - individual:  To me, this is the holy grail of cooking methods (probably because I LOVE eggs benedict and it looks so darn complicated).  I have never attempted to poach an egg before.  I did it last night and I did it very well.  Can you hear I proud I am?  And my whole class totally rocked the poached egg!!!  I'm so proud of everyone!!!  So, I will be making homemade eggs benedict this weekend.
• Simmer - potatoes - group: Not a difficult thing to do, but we failed to notice that we had a million different-sized potatoes in our pot...so that was a miss on our part.
• Simmer - rice - group: We did just fine on that one.
• Boil - pasta - group:  Good job!

So, I went from giddy to enthusiastic to very intimidated and nervous to deal with it and determined to proud to a little disappointed to proud again to completely exhausted all within five hours...and I can't wait to ride this crazy ride all over again.

tasty bits

We were tasked with practicing our new, killer knife skills at home last week and I did just that.  Tuesday morning I bought a 10 lb. bag of potatoes, 2 bags of carrots, 1 bunch of celery and a 3 lb. bag of onions (my least favorite veggie to chop).

Throughout the week I pulled out my pretty knives and practiced, practiced, practiced (all fingers are still intact).  And though I am improving, I still need to work on consistency and speed.  I used about 5 potatoes to yield 1 cup of julienned vegetables that were worthy of being turned in for my product grade (more on the grade subject in a different post) and it took way more time than it should have.

Last night's class was all about mise en place and stocks.  Let's start with mise en place.  It literally means "everything in its place" and it could be the theme song of my life.  I LOVE the concept of everything having a "home" and everything in its "home".  Mise en place in the kitchen means to have all of your ingredients prepped (meat thawed, veggies washed and chopped, spices measured, etc.) and all of your tools at hand BEFORE you start cooking.  It's brilliant.  I've always done this with baking - it just makes sense to have everything measured out and my tools ready before I actually turn on the mixer.  The mixing part goes faster and I don't question whether or not I already put in the baking powder.  But mise en place is just as important with savory cooking too.

As a mom with two elementary-aged children, I find that the cooking hour is the CRAZY hour.  Everyone needs me to check homework or help them with this or that right when I'm trying to cook dinner.  Another component of the CRAZY hour is carpooling.  Every after school activity has a drop-off or pick-up time when I'd like to be cooking dinner.  It feels like I'm driving two kids in four different directions (I know that doesn't make sense, but that is how it feels at that time of day).  This is where mise en place can save your life...well, not really, but it will help a LOT!  Instead of trying to decide what to make for dinner, chop ingredients and measure spices during the CRAZY hour, why not take 15 minutes while the kids are at school to decide what to make and thaw and prep your ingredients for dinner.  Then, when you turn on the stove during the CRAZY hour you are ready to rock and dinner will be on the table faster than ever before.

Mise en place isn't reserved for fancy meals.  It works for taco night too.  Thaw your meat, pull out your taco shells and seasoning (or measure your spices), make sure you have all the taco toppings of your choice and gather them into one spot in the refrigerator.  With the prep work complete, the actual cooking time will be greatly reduced and you might actually have time to make dinner during the CRAZY hour.

The vast majority of class was spent on stocks because it takes an enormous amount of time to make stock.  I admit that I have never made homemade stock prior to last night's class.  I've always felt that the organic, free-range chicken stock I buy at the store was just fine.  And I still agree with this thought in some instances.  But as Chef said last night, "you should make stock because you can."  And I agree with that too.  Believe me, I've never bought stock that looks and smells like the stock we made last night.    

Stock is simply flavored liquid from cooking bones, vegetables and seasonings together in water (or all veggies and seasonings if making a vegetable stock).  Stocks alone aren't particularly tasty.  They are the base for other dishes, such as soups and sauces.  Stocks aren't difficult to make.  But they require a lot of cooking time and a bit of babysitting because you are trying to extract as much flavor from the bones and veggies as possible while skimming away the unsavory bits.  I recommend you try to make stock at least once (when you have a free Sunday afternoon).  You should because you can and then you can determine for yourself whether or not it's worth the effort.

As part of our stock class, we learned about deglazing a pan.  During lecture Chef asks questions about the topic and we say the answers aloud if we know them (no raising hands or anything formal like that).  So Chef asked, "What is deglazing?"  I answered, "It's removing the tasty bits from the pan you just cooked in."  I promise I wasn't trying to be funny - this is just how I see it.  My classmates, however,  thought it was a hoot.  Apparently, Chef had never heard "tasty bits" before and a new phrase was coined (I do not take credit for "tasty bits" - I swear I've heard it somewhere else before.  Remember, imitation is the greatest form of flattery for whomever I borrowed this from).  But I can say this, I bet no one will forget what deglazing is.  

 

jitters and knives, oh my!

I was full of excitement yesterday.  It's not often that I allow myself to step out of my comfort zone and for this suburban mom going to back to school is way out of that sweet, safe zone.  But I was super stoked about doing something totally new and different.  However, I was equally nervous.  I had the "first day at a new school-I don't know anyone-is anyone going to like me-what if I don't know the right answer-gosh, I hope the instructors aren't mean-sweaty palms" kind of jitters...and it's been a long time since I've had that feeling.  But instead of allowing my nervousness to get the best of me, I decided to welcome it.  It's part of this experience and I'm here to take it all in. The first day jitters have passed, but I've accepted that this experience is going to be uncomfortable at times... I'm already not looking forward to my final exam.

Despite the jitters, last night's class was amazing.  It was jam-packed with information - a bit of lecture, some demonstration and lots of hands-on time getting to know my new, beautiful knives.

The big topics for the night were knife skills and food safety.  The knife skills portion was rockin' cool and the food safety lecture was sort of gross!  (Tip: If you use a crockpot, take the temperature of your food the next time you use it...it may not be heating up to a safe temperature.)

We learned how to properly wear our uniform - neckerchief and all.  We learned the rules of the kitchen - always answer "yes, chef" when given a direction, call out "hot" when carrying something hot, call out "sharp" when walking around with knives.  We learned the landscape of the kitchen - where all of the cool kitchen tools are located,  a brief tour of the equipment, along with an explanation of how the walk-in coolers and freezers are so perfectly organized.  We learned that the kitchen has no air conditioning because it is a traditional french kitchen.  We learned that although the school hires a person to wash dishes, we still have a lot of clean up responsibilities at the end of the night (labeling and storing food, sanitizing surfaces, sweeping, mopping, putting away the clean dishes) - culinary school isn't always sexy.

And we learned all sorts of beautiful, french words and how to execute them:

Batonnet - foods cut into small, squared stick shapes 1/4 x 1/4 x 2
Julienne - foods cut into squared matchstick shapes 1/8 x 1/8 x 2
Brunoise - foods cut into tiny cubes 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8
Concasse - peel, seed and dice tomato

We practiced our new knife skills on a variety of produce and I must say that potatoes are my friend and onions make me cry.  Apparently, if I cut the onion properly the whole teary-eye thing will be less of an issue...I've got aways to go on that one.  And although I was diligently focused on learning and perfecting proper knife technique, I was also holding my breath hoping I didn't slice myself.  My Wustof beauties are seriously sharp.

I went to bed completely delighted and exhausted after five hours of learning, cutting and cleaning.  And I dreamt very sweet dreams...batonnet, julienne, brunoise, concasse...batonnet, julienne, brunoise, concasse...batonnet, julienne, brunoise, concasse.



 

happy birthday!

I turned 40 back in April.  My husband and I spent a lot of time talking about how to celebrate this milestone.  We considered a fabulous vacation, a big party, and an intimate, lovely dinner with dear friends.  But he came up with a better idea - the best idea.  He suggested I go to culinary school.  Woo!  Did I hear him correctly?  Did my husband just suggest I go to culinary school?  The idea of me going to culinary school wasn't what shocked me.  It was that HE came up with it.

You see, I've given my dear husband a hard time for the past 12 years for being a "very practical gift giver" (aka: not very thoughtful).  Some of the most unforgettable are the Cranium game for Valentine's Day (and we already had one), an odd stick thing that would tell you when your plants needed watering, and a giant box full of food storage containers for Christmas (not completely lost on this food nerd, but way too practical for a gift).  But with one simple sentence he made up for years of random gift choices.  My favorite person in the world had just given me the best gift ever (well, besides our two children, of course).

But let me be clear...the financial support isn't what I'm most grateful for.  To me, his true gift is his support, encouragement and his unwavering belief in me and my dreams.  And that is the best gift ever.

I took some time to research the area schools and I've chosen to attend The Culinary School of Fort Worth.  It's a small school with an intimate, nurturing learning environment - perfect for me.  It's a two year program and today is my first day of school.

So, consider this blog my birthday cake - it's a little piece of my adventures in culinary school for you to enjoy.