So Close

Only 5 more classes until my final from FCI. I'm so excited that the end is near. It has been quite year for me, and I have learned so many new things. The past few weeks at school have been great, too. I love the menu we are cooking now, especially on the meat station where is where I am currently (at least for 1 more night). We have a hangar steak in a bordelaise sauce with brussel sprouts and pomegranate, as well as a pan seared pheasant stuffed with a foie gras mousseline. I was in charge of the pheasant Wednesday night and again tonight. It was great cooking up some extra plates at the end of the night and actually getting to have a meal that I enjoyed :-)

I would also like to thank all of my friends who have made it out to L'Ecole for dinner in the past few weeks. I appreciate the support, and hope you had fun!

So, after 9 months of culinary school, how have I changed?

I'm definitely much more confident in the kitchen these days, and I like how I need to rely less and less on actual recipes. People often ask me if I am more critical now when I go out to eat of the food that gets served to the table. Overall, I would have to say no. I still like the same places I always have, and I still think Benihanna is the best meal a person can have, haha. I have definitely become more adventurous in my eating and I'm more willing to try almost everything. Just recently I had dinner with a friend a Japanese grill restaurant and tried chicken heart and gizzards, which I found to be quite good (however, the texture of the gizzard is less than appealing). I have even developed a love for foie gras (sorry to all you PETA folks out there), and find enjoyment in a nicely grilled squid with a good sauce. In the past, unless the calamari was breaded and fried, there was no way I would have gone near it! I have also learned that venison and rabbit are delicious, however, I'm still on the fence with lamb. I enjoy a nice medium rare chop from time to time (especially baby lamb, yum!), but I'm still not a huge fan of lamb when its braised and cooked through in a stew. I have also learned I may never eat monkfish again (ask me if you really want to know), and only order the barramundi if you feel like having a fish that tastes like dirt.

I will tell you, however, what has changed for me when I go out to eat. When it comes to sanitation and food safety, I notice EVERYTHING. I was at a really nice restaurant in Union Square this summer, and the waiter placed our bread plates on the table and placed his hand directly on the top of the plate. Thanks buddy, but I don't know where that hand has been. I sent the plate back. We had to take a food safety certification, and one of the things you learn is never, ever touch any part of a plate, silverware or glass that a diner will put to their mouth or where food will be placed. Unfortunately, I have become a psycho over this. I'm also crazy with time and temperature as it relates to cooling things before saving the leftovers, and re-heating before eating again. The rate bacteria can grow is astounding and those upset stomach one can get after a meal from time to time are often directly related. Fun topic, yes, I know.

I will get some pics up of our level 6 dishes soon!

Woo Hoo

Our "savory choucroute" got a mention :-) haha

Time Out NY Article

Here is a pic too. It got sent out with cute little spoons in the cup.

Follow Up

As a follow up to my last post, you can read about the event here.

Home Stretch

Well folks, it will all soon come to an end. On Wednesday I start day one of the final level of culinary school. I can't believe how fast it has gone! With the switch in levels, the menu will again change. I have not looked through all the recipes yet, but I do know they include a hanger steak and a foie gras stuffed pheasant. I'm really excited for this menu, but worried at the same time. With all the rotating through the stations, you only get to really cook each dish once or twice. When our final comes around, we need to be prepared to cook every dish on the menu, as we will randomly select 2 from a hat that we need to prepare. Best of luck to my level 6 friends that will take their final on Wednesday night. Cooking with you guys the last 6 weeks has been fun, and I learned so much from watching everyone!

So, although last night marked my final night in level 5, we did not cook the regular restaurant menu for one last time. Instead, last night marked FCI's 25th anniversairy, and there was a private party for the celebration. So, instead the kitchen turned into a catering frenzy, as we pumped out 20 different passed hor d'oerves. Not only were all the deans in attendance, including Jacques Pepin and Nils Noren, but Eric Ripert was in the house too! For those of you who are not familiar, Chef Ripert runs the ever so wonderful Le Bernadin in NYC.

My classmate took pictures of some of the dishes that went out, so I will post those when I have them. I, specifically worked on one that was warm saurkraut topped with pork belly, bacon, and bratwurst. Yummy goodness does not get any better than that :-)

In the meantime, here are some of the dishes we made during level 5 for the restaurant.

Pappardelle with Royal Trumpet Mushrooms, Pancetta and Butternut Squash Jus


Pork Osso Busco with Risotto Milanese


Buttermilk-poached Chicken with Salsify Puree and Heirloom Tomato Ragout


Pan-fried Branzino with Ratatouille, Lemon Aioli, and Tapenade


My Dessert Special when I was in Pastry - Spiced Chocolate Pudding with Sweet and Sour Cherries and Sesame Tuille


Fall Fruit Strudel with Armagnac Ice Cream

Menu Project

While in level 5, every student must submit a menu project. The menu can be on anything that you want, as long as you choose a theme and can write a related research paper. The paper needs to include the reason for your theme, the history of one ingredient used and a wine pairing for one of the courses. We have to then either cook the menu at home and take pictures of it, or provide illustrations. Since I am an awful artist, I decided to make my dishes at home. We also had to illustrate cooking and plating techniques we have learned up to date, as well as cost out one of the courses with a price per receipe (for 8 servings) and a cost per person.

Of course I waited to until the very last minute to complete the cooking, so after getting the pictures developed I was definitely not pleased with all the platings, but by this time it was too late to do them over. Oh well. In any case, thought I would share mine with you.

I based my menu on the Victorian Era, since a lot of advances in the culinary world came at this time. For example, Louis Pasteur completed his first tests on pasteurization, the first culinary school opened up, and the first cookbooks with step by step instructions were published. It was also a time when the upper class took great pride in entertaining their friends with 10-12 course meals, while also enjoying "smaller" 5-6 course meals when dining with just the family. The meals usually began with a savory soup, then moved onto a fish course, followed by heartier meat courses and finally dessert.

Many of my dishes were based on recipes by a lady well known during that time, Miss Elizabeth Beeton. I also aimed to make dishes with ingredients and spices typical of the era.

So, here is what we have.

Course 1: Oxtail soup





Yep, I was able to find oxtail at a meat market on the UWS. Actually tastes very similar to beef shortribs, and yes I made Nate taste it too! Pretty good actually!

Course 2: Curried cod over a vegetable macedoine salad with potato cocottes



Course 3: Veal Collops with sorrel sauce, served with sauteed spinach and truffled potato gratin



This is actually the course I am the least happy about the plating...um no garnish??? Oops. I almost omitted it from the menu, but felt I had to do at least 5 courses to stay in theme with a typical victorian meal. If I had the time to do it over, I would have also changed the plating to add some height to it, and perhaps sauced the plate as opposed to the meat. Sigh.

(Oh, and for those of you saying, "what the heck is a veal collop?", it is basically veal pounded thin, rolled up with bacon stuffed inside, seared and then finished in the oven. It was actually quite tasty!)

Course 4: Lamb fillet served with red currant sauce and mint butter, parsnip puree and balsamic honey roasted cipollini onions



I paired this course with a Ferarri Carano Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine has rich tannins and a coffee/blackberry/currant aroma. Tannic wines are good to serve with fatty foods, since the fat helps to minimize the astringent effect of the tannins, and make our food seem more flavorful and juicier.

Course 5: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake



I don't have my Kitchenaid stand mixer yet - this was a gosh awful experience making by hand!!!!!!!

(Oh, and it cost me $1.41 per person for this dessert, so think about that next time you pay $8 for a dessert at a restaurant! Ha, ha!)

No Pressure

Jacques Pepin came and had dinner at my school tonight. When the order came in for table 1, my chef said to me, "no pressure or anything, but table 1 is Jacques Pepin".

Um, OK.

Shit.

I had heard during prep earlier in the evening that he was lurking in the kitchen. But that is not unusual. He does that often and sometimes you just look up expecting to see your Chef or classmate, but instead you are greeted with his cheery face. "Hi, chef!" is usually my embarrassing reaction. However, his presence is usually a result of some other event going on at the school, so rarely does he stay to actually have a meal.

I am in poissioner now so tonight I did the spiced monkfish over a bed of green lentils. A lot of the time we make stuff in bulk so it lasts 2 or 3 classes. Good thing tonight I made a fresh batch of the lentils. Actually, I had made it, but the intent was to use it on Wednesday, and finish the stuff we had from Friday. Sudden change of plans. As for the fish, they actually went to the store room and got the freshest one they had (as opposed to the ones we used the rest of the night that were filleted yesterday).

He never came back into the kitchen after his meal so I have to assume my dish did not totally disgust him.

And on we go.....

A Look Inside L'Ecole

CLICK HERE TO WATCH :-)

And Here It Is.......

My very first self made dish plated and served to the public :-)

Mango-Yogurt Terrine with Almond Jacond

"Mommy, wow! I'm a Big Kid Now!"

That's right. It's time to grow up and be an adult. Meaning, on Friday, we actually start in the restaurant at L'Ecole!

As it turns out, both levels 5 and 6 are spent in the restaurant. This means my class and I will be there until early January. I am starting on the pasty rotation which I'm not super excited about, but I guess it's a good way to ease into restaurant service.

The menu consists of 4 app, 4 fish, 4 meat and 4 pastry. My level 5 class is responsible for 2 of the 4 dishes in each, while the level 6 class is responsible for the other 2. There is also another station I will rotate through where we are responsible for 1 special and a vegetarian option. For the vegetarian option, each student will have the chance to create a dish of their own. So, if there is some dish you have always wanted to put on a menu of a restaurant, let me know!!!

It was intimidating getting a tour of the main kitchen last night and learning how the orders would come in, timing and everything else. However, I am definitely less nervous having some experience in a kitchen from my internship.

Wish us luck! And please come down to eat some time! My class will be there Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights!!!! I just checked the menu online and it does not look like it has been updated yet, but I'm sure it will reflect the new menu soon. To give you a taste, here are the dishes my class will be doing for the next 6 weeks. I have not seen the level 6 recipes yet so I don't know what the other half will be.

Smoked Duck Roulade with Poached Eggs and Frisee
Pappardelle with Royal Trumpet Mushrooms, Pancetta and Butternut Squash Jus
Roasted, Spiced Monkfish on a Bed of Green Lentils
Pan-fried Branzino with Ratatouille, Lemon Aioli, and Tapenade
Buttermilk-poached Chicken with Salsify Puree and Heirloom Tomato Ragout
Pork Osso Busco with Risotto Milanese
Mango-Yogurt Terrine with Almond Jacond
Fall Fruit Strudel with Armagnac Ice Cream

Level 4 Update

I know, it's been a while. With my internship and a little dog named Jake, it's been hard to sit down and write. Which is frustrating because a lot of fun stuff has been going on!

So, in level 4, we rotate through 3 stations. Buffet, family meal and production. My group started in buffet, which we were in for 2 weeks. Basically, we planned a buffet and for 2 weeks prepped for it. Then on our last day in the rotation, we produced the buffet for the entire school. It was a ton of food!!!!

We definitely had an Asian theme to our buffet, but also just did some dishes that some of us had just been wanting to try. It's hard to remember all of them, I think there were close to 40 dishes.

Some of the highlights included an Uni risotto, various sausages and pates that we made, a foie gras terrine, tons of pork, baby lamb, lamb chops, red snapper, fried sweetbreads, Asian meatballs, hanger steak, seafood salad, fresh tomato and mozzarella, asparagus and truffle salad, BBQ spareribs, and much more. For desserts we had white chocolate cheese cake, molten lava ginger chocolate cake, chocolate egg rolls, Guinness ice cream, lemongrass sorbet, pineapple upside down cake and a banana bread pudding. Of course, I forgot my camera the day of our spread, so I was only able to snap a few with my camera phone which does not give justice to the magnitude of the buffet or how good everything looked.

Hats off to our chef and my teammates for a great meal!!

First Day on the Job

My first day as a culinary intern is behind me and it could not have gone better!

I think the main reason why I enjoyed it so much is because I had the right mindset and was fully aware of the "bottom of the totem pole" tasks I was going to be given. When I met with my career counselor last month she asked me what my expectations were as to what an intern gets to do. I said prep work. I was fully prepared to be asked to peel pounds of carrots, wash lettuce, whatever. I was fully aware that I would not be in the service kitchen whipping up dishes and sending them out to the public. Unfortunately, there are many many students out there that just refuse to accept this. I, on the other hand appreciate this. These mundane tasks are what will help me work faster, cleaner and more organized. They are the things you need to build a proper foundation. So, although she told me that 99.9% of interns HATE the first few day and weeks of their internship, I loved mine!

The morning started out a little slow. The chef had asked me to come in at 11 since he was not going to be in before that and it was my first day. I showed up, but he was running 30 minutes late. So I hung out at the bar (no, I was not drinking!) and chatted a little with the waitstaff. It also gave me a chance to look at the lunch menu and see what kind of dishes they were serving. When the Chef finally arrived, he asked me to change into my uniform and meet him in the upstairs kitchen. The kitchen upstairs is the service kitchen. This is the one where all the meals are made and sent out to the diners for service. The one downstairs, is the small prep kitchen where all of us interns "slave" away cutting, chopping, peeling, washing, etc. I head upstairs and the first order of business was my schedule. I was only planning on 2 days a week (this is the schools suggestion too because once you commit to a certain amount of days you can never scale it back. It also helps prevent their students from being "abused" by the free labor they give). Although he was totally fine with it when I met him a few weeks back, yesterday he was not. I got some "I only take on Interns that will commit at least 3 days a week" speech, and as I saw this partnership getting off on the wrong foot, I sucked it up and agreed 3 days would be fine.

Hoping I had not lost too many points on that discussion we quickly moved on to a corn pudding he was making. He was explaining the ingredients that went into it, when I said, "oh, this is the corn pudding that is served with the salmon dish". Chef smiled and replied "I see someone has done their homework. Thanks, I appreciate that. Good job". Woo hoo! Looks like any points lost with the schedule thing were gained back with knowing the dishes. I have to admit though, that was pure luck. If I had not been left to wait for 30 min and looked at the menu, I NEVER would have known that. Ha, ha. After he let me taste that and an heirloom tomato salad (also served with the salmon), it was down into the basement kitchen for me. I was paired up with another intern and was off to help prep. First order of business was peeling asparagus in a very specific way. Only removing the very, very top layer of skin while preserving the bright green color. This had to be done slowly to not mess up. Then it was onto picking off leaves from pea shoots for garnish (zzzzzzz) and peeling 10 pounds of shallots.

At 4pm we are served family meal, which is cooked by the sous chef. Yesterday it was roasted chicken, a house salad and a baked potato. The chicken was really good, as was the jus served on the side. At this point it was getting close to 5pm and I assumed I would get to go home soon. However, since it was my first day, I was not entirely sure. I decided it only made sense to ask the Chef how long he needed me for the day, and hoped it did not reflect badly and make me seem like I wanted to go home. He told me that since it was my first day, he would like me to stay for part of dinner service so I could see what it was like in the service kitchen upstairs. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, I said that would be great and asked if there was anything else I could do to help prep. He told me to go downstairs to the prep kitchen and peel 40 large idaho potatoes and come back up when I was done. I headed down, set up my station and noticed I was the only one down there. This is where I became suspicious.

Chef had mentioned to me at one point that he did not expect me to be lightning fast at first with any task given to me, but that he just expects that day after day, as I am given the same thing to do again, that I do it faster than the time before. As I looked at the 40 potatoes in front of me in a solitary kitchen, I immediately heard the clock ticking away. I peeled like I had never peeled before, ha, ha! I don't know for sure if he was timing me, but I'm pretty sure this was just a "test" of my skills. I don't know how long it took me, but when I went back upstairs when I was done I was just hoping it was fast enough.

At this point, the night got awesome.

The service kitchen is small. Only 4 Chefs and 1 intern (other than me). But it is immaculate, and the way these guys and gals work is so organized and well planned. Dinner service was just starting to get underway, but their busy time is not until 7 or so. I was allowed to shadow the sous chef for the night and he is great! Not only fun to watch in the kitchen, but a really nice person who was more than happy to have me there. When he saw I was a student at FCI, he told me that his first time in the kitchen was working under the FCI's Nils Noren at Acquavit. He had also spent time on the line at Jean George, before being promoted to sous here. Pretty cool.

As I watched him work, I had so many questions. I wanted to know all the ingredients in everything and and how things were prepped. Not only was he more than happy to explain, he made me side dishes of almost everything that went out the door so I could try. Yum!

Watching the kitchen during service was one of the coolest things ever. Day 2 of my internship will be this Sunday during the day. While I will not normally be working on Sunday, the sous there said that he liked my professionalism and maturity, and that on Sunday I can work in the service kitchen with him!!!! I will most likely be assigned to work with the chef in garde manger (generally this station does all cold apps, salads, etc, but in this kitchen they are responsible for desserts too). The intern that helped with this last night got to plate a lot of the dishes that went out to the diners which is pretty cool. But who knows?!?!?! They are generally very busy on a Sunday for brunch, so should be fun!

Stay tuned!!!

Fire Drill

This is what the streets of SOHO look like when the fire alarm goes off at the French Culinary Institute at 8:30 pm. I wonder what they told the diners why there was a 15-20 lapse in service? Um, yeah, really sorry, but if you look outside you will notice that all the cooks are standing on the street and can't go back in until cleared by the FDNY...please be patient. Hopefully they got a free drink or something ;-)

And Away We Go

Today starts the second half of my culinary education, and perhaps the best of what the education has to offer.

In level 4, we learn to cook for the masses. We will rotate through three stations - buffet, family meal and production. We will also learn the wonderful world of charcuterie (sausages, prosciutto, etc)! Yeah! My first rotation is buffet. In addition to family meal, which is when we cook dinner for the entire school and deliver it to the various classrooms, there is also a buffet every night in one of the kitchens by the restaurant. This is also available to the school, and an alternative for those who may not like the family meal delivered. Today, we are all to bring in 10 recipes, and with our Chef we will try to plan out our buffet stations for the next 2 weeks. Finally, the production rotation is responsible for helping with the butchering for the restaurant, as well as making all the mass quantities of different stocks used as the base for almost anything served with a sauce.

When this level is done, I will officially be off to cook in L'Ecole!!!! I had originally thought it was just in level 6 I got to be in the restaurant, but it is actually levels 5 and 6! So, I will get a full 12 weeks in the restaurant! Can't wait!

Oh, I forgot to tell you all - last Friday, while I was taking my midterm, the level 6 students were hard at work at their final. One of the celebrity judges was Hung - Top Chef season 3 winner! The girls in the locker room before the exam were really nervous because he is known to be VERY critical in his feedback. If I see any of them today after their graduation, I will be sure to find out how it went!

Half Way Home

Wow, what an experience the midterm was! I am happy to report that I have successfully passed and will be moving on to level 4 on Monday!

We each drew randomly from a hat which dishes we would cook. Half the class, including myself, drew the Consomme and the Chicken "Grand-Mere". The other half of the class had to make the Skate Grenobloise and the Apple Tart. I did a silent dance when I looked at my draw and saw it was not the apple tart! Have I mentioned a million times how much I HATE that dish?

We were each given an ID number. There are 18 of us so, there was A1-A6, B1-B6 and C1-C6. In the next room, there was a panel of 9 judges, broken up into groups of 3, and each group was assigned to judge all the A's, all the B's and all the C's. Our head chef was left to taste all of our plates. So, there was no room for error. We had to produce 4 plates of each dish and each one would be eaten.

I successfully got both my dishes out on time! It's a great feeling when you hear the chef yell "It's 8:59! Consomme group 3 let's go!" And you look down on your tray and see 4 perfectly plated dishes ready to go and pick up your tray and head to the next room for service. Remember, I have been late almost every night on my dishes leading up to tonight, so when I hit the time for dish one, I finally realized I had the ability to do this.

Both dishes were a challenge. You think you have so much time in the beginning, given that we started at 6pm and my first dish did not have to go out until 8:59 and the second at 9:41. But there is so much you have to juggle. All the perfect .5cm cubed vegetables that go in the soup. The football shaped potatoes, 3 per plate, for the chicken. Not to mention all the other garnishes like bacon, mushrooms and caramelized pearl onions (which are a "bleep" to peel)! It was not until about 7:30 that I realized I may be in trouble. I had not even prepped or trussed my chicken. Prepping consists of removing the wings at the second joint, removing the wishbone and then having to "machonner" the wing tips and drumstick ends. This just means removing the skin and cartilage at the end and scraping it back so that the bone is exposed at the tips. Once that is done you can truss and season your bird. I have never done this as fast as I had last night. Primarily because there was one angry Chef yelling, "Chicken people who do not have your chicken in YOU BETTER PUSH, NOW! COME ON!!!! YOU ARE IN THE WEEDS!!!" There was actually a lot of yelling going on last night. The Chefs were constantly trying to get us to work faster, cleaner, and did I mention faster??? It was intense. So much, in fact, that one guy in my class had a panic attack and left the exam before he even presented his first dish. Guess we are a party of 17 now?

I love this stuff.

As for the judges feedback, they were really happy with my vegetables in the soup and said I did a perfect job of cutting them into the little cubes and cooking them to the right consistency. They also thought I hit the mark on the seasoning on it as well. Their only criticism was that there seemed to be a slight "roasted" flavor to the soup. I knew this right away, because after I strained out the consomme from the clarifiation mixture, I noticed that some of the ground beef that should have floated to the top, had fell to the bottom and burned a bit. As for my chicken, it was just a bit dry (after it came out of the oven and I quartered it, I noticed that all the pieces except the breasts were still raw - I put them back in the oven to finish cooking, however, perhaps a couple minutes too long). Despite that, they were really happy with my jus that was served with it and again thought I had hit the perfect seasoning and consistency.

With this behind me, I have a totally new level of confidence of what I can do. I was really worried going in that I would not be able to hustle enough and stay focused. I definitely need to work on being more organized and keeping my station cleaner, which is where I lost most of my points during the night. That's ok. I'm a newbie. And that is exactly the area I hope my internship will help me in. So, only good things to come!

Make It or Break It

Time flies when you are......running around a kitchen like a chicken with your head cut off and constantly "branding" yourself on the oven, flat top or stove.

Believe it or not, but my midterm for FCI is here, and I will take it on Friday. This is the level that basically determines your future in the school. You can be a straight A student up until now, but if you do not pass this practical, you must be held back from your class and repeat the level. Oh, and did I mention that you have to pay for that too?!?!?

I am ridiculously nervous for this final. I have been having trouble meeting the time limits lately (although my team is down one person so we have been having to double up), and on Monday night I made the sauce for my fish with veal stock instead of lobster stock. That would have been a definite failure for sure. I mean, it was an honest mistake. They don't look or smell anything alike so anyone could have made that error....NOT! I don't know, I just was in such a rush to get things done, I just grabbed the wrong one.

So, here's hoping that Friday is not a complete and utter disaster!

And So it "Officially" Begins

I have found an internship! I actually do not start for another 2 weeks, but I'm excited!

I will be interning 2 days a week, for now, at JoJo on the UES. The head Chef there is Ron Gallo, and perhaps one of the NICEST people I have ever met!

It was really important for me, when looking for an internship, that I found somewhere I felt like I could learn the most. Chef Ron is so passionate about what he does. He totally loves his job, and also loves mentoring young chefs to be.

There are a lot of restaurants you can go to where the interns are just abused. When I met with the Chef today, he stressed that I was not there to help him, but he was there to teach me. I, Of course, will be starting in the "basement" (so not in the main kitchen), and be assisting in all of the prep work. This is standard for any culinary internship. He also stressed that he has no problem bringing interns up into the main kitchen as long as they can demonstrate their ability to handle it. In fact, there is a currently an FCI intern there now who has actually moved himself up to the meat station in the main kitchen.

I don't start until Aug. 20th, but I can't wait. My school recommended me to him so there are a lot of expectations. I just hope I can fill them!

Breaking News

We interrupt this blog to introduce you to the newest member of the household.

Jake

Stepping It Up

This week marks the first week we have class in a new format. We are no longer in our teams of 2. Instead, we are in teams of 4, and each team needs to make 1 dish from each of the 4 stations - this basically mean each person is responsible for the creation of 1 whole dish. That is, of course if you actually have 4 people on your team. My team is the one team of 3, so each night one of us doubles up and makes 2 dishes. I actually think this is good becasue it gives us more practice on making 2 dishes. Additionally, your team has to produce the 4 dishes no matter what. So, if 2 of your teammates are absent its up to the the rest of the team to get their dishes done. This is to prepare us for real restaurant service. If the fish guy calls in sick, the cooks in the kitchen need to step up and cover for him. You can't not serve any fish becasue someone is out sick....

We have also finally been introduced to the amuse bouche. This is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre served at the beginning of the meal. When we get to class, there is a list of items on the board that we can use in producing the amuse. We dont need to use all of the ingredients, though. The amuse needs to be up at 8pm, and then the rest of dinner service starts at 8:30pm with each course after that in 9 minute increments.

Here was our list for the amuse:

Zucchini
Radish
Cucumber
Mozerella
Aged balsamic
Jalapeno
Squash
Basil
Cipolini Onions

What we made - a chilled cucumber and basil soup with a hint of jalapeno and garnished with a shave of fresh radish. I must say, it was quite tasty! We served it in little shot glasses to create the "one bite". Credit goes to my teammate who came up with the idea!

Please Don't Mock Me

Ok, ok, after you read this post you are going to be thinking, "Geez, girl, you sure do choose some cheesy titles ;-)"

Anyway, to the point.

Last night we had our "mock" midterm for level 3. As I have mentioned before, at the end of this level, we will pick out of a hat 2 dishes and have to prepare them for a panel of judges. Last night, we did a practice run and prepared them for our Chefs.

At 5:45, we all drew out of a hat and were given a number. I was B5. When I looked at the board, I saw that B5 had to make the Skate Grenobloise dish at 8:54 and the apple tart to be presented at 9:56. Sounds like plenty of time. But when you think about everything that goes into it all, you definitely have to push. We then had 5 minutes to jot down any notes pertaining to these dishes on a sheet of paper. This is the only piece of paper we can have with us. No other notes, recipe cards, books...nothing.

The fist thing you have to do when you draw a pastry dish, is make the dough. The dough has to rest for at least 30 minutes, and the tart can take anywhere from 40-60 minutes to cook, and then needs at least 40 minutes to cool since it is not supposed to be served hot. I hate the apple tart. I have made this several times at home for the practice, and this dish just annoys me. Having to slice the apples so thin and perfectly, and fan them out 1 by 1 so they cover the entire tart with a pretty little rose in the center.....ugh. Not to mention the apple compote that is used as the filling and must be completely cool before you fill the tart with it or it will make the crust soggy. And don't even think of cooling it in the fridge, because the heat it gives off will raise the temperature of the fridge and put the other item at risk of contamination if the fridge does not stay at 31 degrees at it's highest temp. So, this basically means cooling it by placing it over a bowl of ice.

Before I even thought about filleting the skate, I made my dough and made the compote. Then I switched gears and filleted the skate, cut some slices of bread into small .5cm cubes and sauteed them in butter to golden brown croutons which is a part of the garnish. Then, I went back to rolling out the dough and after lining the tart pan it had to go back in the fridge to rest again and get cold. It was at this time that I remembered that with the skate dish I needed to make 12 fun football shaped potatoes (take me about 20-25 minutes to do) and cook them. Since they need to be started in cold water, and water can take time to bring to a boil, I decided to jump right on that. Once I had the potatoes on the fire, I went back to getting the tart in the oven. Slicing the apples and arranging the tart is so time consuming, it kills me. In the real world, you would use a mandoline that can produce perfectly slice apples in a minute. In culinary school, you use your chefs knife. Woo hoo!

In hindsight, I probably would not have spent time filleting the fish before I got the tart in the oven. By the time the tart went in, it was about 8:30, which means it was probably not going to have enough time to cool to be ready at the right temp by 9:56. In any case, it got in, and left me with 25 minutes to cook the skate, make the sauce and plate it.

All hell breaks loose.

I ended up 4 minutes late on this dish. And this sauce is a beurre noisette (brown butter) with lemon, capers, chopped parsley and finally the croutons. But when I say lemon, I mean carefully removing all the skin, pith and fiber from it, and then carefully removing out the "supremes" (or slices) from between the membranes.

Can the french get any more labor intensive?

I put the capers in about 10 seconds too early and instead of just popping, they burned. When you make a buerre noisette, the butter melts in the pan and then starts to froth up. Once the froth subsides, the proteins in the milk start to coagulate, turning brown and creating the sauce. I have made this sauce about half a dozen times, and generally the froth subsides rather quickly. This time it seemed like an eternity. After a minute the thing was still frothing!!!! Why the !@#!@# was it still frothing?!?! Cook, butter, cook!!!

I delivered my 4 dishes to the Chefs across the hall late, and very frustrated that the sauce and its components had burned.

Fantastic. Now back to the moderately designed apple tart that still needs at least another 30 minutes in the oven. At least I got this one out on time. Although, it was definitely warmer that it should have been.

At the end of the night I was frustrated. One of my classmates told me I was being too hard on myself, as he thought my dishes didn't look bad. I, of course believed he was just being nice.

One by one, we were called into the other room and given feedback on our dishes. I was told that my skate was late, and that the capers were burned. Other than that, they thought my fish and sauce was good. I was surprised that they did not think the whole sauce was burned. This made me feel a little better. As for the tart, I was told it probably needed another 10 minutes in the oven. I can't argue here. I knew that, but took it out early so that I could have more time to cool it. In addition, my whipped cream was not sweet enough, so next time, a bit more sugar. But they thought the crust and the compote tasted good.

Wow. I thought it was going to be much worse than that.

From here on in, my biggest obstacle to over come is organization and timing. Given that last night was the first time we have ever been asked to cook 2 dishes entirely on our own, I guess it was not as bad as it felt. Just growing pains.

Let's see if I can pick it up this week. I will keep you in the loop!

Finally!

Chef Nils will finally be on Top Chef Masters tonight! Don't forget to catch it on Bravo, 10pm EST!

Go, Nils, Go!

Flying Solo

Although last nights class ended with two hours of wine tasting, it was the first half of the class that gave you the spins.

I can only explain it in one word. Disastrous.

I don't know. Maybe that is an exaggeration. I won't know for sure until we get our feedback tomorrow from our Chef. However, it felt like a disaster.

We were on our own for the first time last night. On my side of the kitchen all the students had to make a dish called Chicken Grand-Mere. This is actually a nice dish. Its a roasted whole chicken served with garnishes of bacon, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized pearl onions and potato's that are sauteed till crispy and golden brown. The chicken is broken down into 8 pieces to produce 4 plates and all served over a jus.

My partner and I did a pretty decent job when we did this dish together. However, on your own its a completely different story. When we made the dish together, we had 2 and a half hours to get it done. Last night, we had less than and hour and a half. You can also no longer share burner space with your partner because they have to do the same dish as you. So, we each had half of the amount of space to work on, and had to share the oven.

We had to have the dish ready at 7:52. None of us were on time. I finished about 5 minutes late, which was in the middle of the pack. There is just so much to think about. I really thought I had a good plan of attack. However, when you are running around and doing everything on your own sometimes your brain freaks out. For example, how exactly do I break down this chicken again? It has to be done in a very precise way and we have to plate the pieces paired in a specific way.

I'm not 100% sure I got all the pairings right. Also, when we roast the chicken, we take it out of the oven when the breast reaches 145 degrees (chicken is not really done until about 160-165). But it continues to cook when it rests and then after we break it down and before service it goes back in the oven so it is served hot. The biggest reason for this is that the breast cooks much faster than the legs so if you left the whole chicken in until the legs were done the breast meat would be dry. Anyway, I'm worried that maybe some of the pieces were not cooked all the way through, which is not that big of a deal with other meats, but when it comes to chicken, it must be done. Don't want to give your customer salmonella! I am also not entirely happy about all the garnishes. The bacon was too crispy, and I had taken the potatoes out of the oven thinking I was going to start plating, but then decided to put the chicken back in the oven another 2 minutes, so by the time the plate was actually composed, the potatoes were soggy. Gosh darn.

I found some comfort in the fact that my entire class felt the same way I did. We were all pretty frustrated by the end of night. And if it was not bad enough, after I presented my plates to the Chef, I turned around to go back to clean my station and who is standing in the doorway observing? No one other than the great Jacques Pepin. Can I crawl into the 400 degree oven now?

So, What is it Really Like???

It's hot. Really hot. Every burner in the small kitchen is on. Every oven is about 350-425 degrees. There is no air. Just 20 students with their heads down, barely any talking unless it's to communicate with your partner. The banging of pots and pans is really all you hear. Except when it's close to presentation time...."Where are you poissonnier? My skate is 30 seconds late!" or "1 minute and my Beef Bourguignon better be sitting in front of me!"

Ahhhhh, this is what I have been waiting for!

I have been anticipating level 3, with some fear I have to admit, since I first made the decision to start school. I walked though this class when I was taking a tour and remember seeing the concentration and fear on a lot of the students faces. I even questioned my ability to make it to this level. I mean, I didn't even really know how to use my knives!!

This is the level where repetition, consistency, technique and timing are enforced. We have a selection of 16 dishes for the entire level - 4 Garde Manger (soups/salads), 4 Poissonnier (fish), 4 Saucier (meats), and 4 Patissier (desserts). You and your partner spend 2 classes at each station, and on one night are responsible for 2 of the 4 dishes, and then the next night you do the other 2, and then move on to the next station. My partner and I were assigned to start the class in pastry. I think we were lucky, because it was hard enough to get used to the new format of the class, and pastry is just a lot of waiting. Waiting for the dough to rest, waiting for the tart to cook, waiting for it to cool....

Each station has times up on the board when you must present 4 identical dishes up to the Chef. We then get graded on time (not a minute early or late), presentation, taste, correctness of technique, etc. Since we are bringing up 4 dishes, each one must look and taste identical, be exactly the same portions, etc.

I have found the most challenging part of the class is plating. You never know exactly how long it's going to take. Especially when you are doing a dish for the first time. You can't plate too early because who wants to eat fish that has been sitting on the plate for 5 minutes? The plate needs to be hot, so if you plate too early, your plate and the food itself will get cold by the time you bring it up. And most likely your sauce will look pretty bad too. But, at the same time, if you wait too long to plate, you may underestimate how long it takes to cook your protein and it may not be done in time. You also then start rushing when you plate, and your presentation may not be clean and perfect.

My partner and I have struggled with both. One night, we were 2 minutes late on a dish, thinking that it would not take more than 8 minutes or so to compose our poached eggs over a mixed diced vegetable salad, topped with hollandaise. But while rushing, one of the eggs broke while placing it on the vegetables. We had made an extra, so it was not a huge loss, but by the time we got the dishes up, it was no longer warm. Another time we were so close to being late, that in rushing through we forgot to put parsley on the plate. On the other side of the coin, when we were on the fish station, we plated our Barramundi too early and the dish ended up being ready 3 minutes early. The sauce served with this turned out to have not been reduced enough and was too watery. If we had just trusted our instincts, we could have spent an extra 2 minutes reducing the sauce to a better consistency, and then the fish would have been plated and ready right on time.

In any case, I'm having a lot of fun with this level. As we get further into the level, times are moved up, and you have to work a lot faster. Pretty soon we will be expected to do 2 dishes a night on our own, which will lead us right up to the final for this level, where we will have to cook 2 dishes selected randomly for a panel of judges.

I was particularly pleased with our lemon tart, so here is a little "taste":



The next 2 photos are just a look at all of the dishes for a night. When we present 4, one of them ends up at the front of the classroom, and then at the end of the night the Chef goes through each teams dish one by one and gives good and bad feedback.

Say Cheese :-)

One of our classes at the end of level 2 was dedicated to cheese. We made ricotta and mozzarella, and spent over an hour cheese tasting and learning about the varieties from goat, cow and sheep milk. After tasting 14 cheeses, three types of milk and three yogurts I was sick to my stomach. I have to admit that as much as I love cheese plates, halfway through the tasting I didn't think I could go on. I finally now realize why when you do get a cheese tasting somewhere the portions of cheese are so small. They want you to actually enjoy it!

Here is a look at my tasting plate - looks like a lot, huh? I did not finish all of the cheeses, but we ended up having to eat a good amount because after we would try another, we would have to go back and re-taste to make comparisons, etc.



My favorite was the Pierre Robert, made from cow's milk. This is the first solid cheese you see in the middle of the photo on the left hand side (looks like brie). It's buttery, with a bit of a peppery kick, and tastes even better with bread!

Making Ricotta (we saved this for our next class to fill our homemade raviolli):




Making Mozzarella (got to take this one home and enjoy the same night!):

As Good As it Gets

When it comes to the culinary world, one of the biggest legends in the industry is Chef Jacques Pepin.

He is just awesome.

With over 60 years of cooking experience, various shows on TV, including one with Julia Child in the late 1990's, Jacques has also published many books. His most notables being La Technique and La Methode. For many years, these have served as the bible to French cooking. And they still do. If you have ever heard Tom Colicchio talk about how he got into cooking, it was by studying these books and self teaching himself the classic techniques of the French. In fact, in the latest season of Top Chef, Jacques appeared with several other Master Chefs on a panel for the top 5 contestants to cook them a "last meal" of the Chefs choice. Carla was assigned to cook Jacques his last meal request of squab and peas, which she did incredibly well.


As the Dean of Special Programs at school, we are often very lucky to have him come in and give a demo. Today he gave a class on basic techniques. Basically, he covered all the fundamentals we have learned over the past 2 months, but to see it from the master himself was just amazing. He literally filleted and skinned a fish in 4 strokes of the knife, and so fast that if you blinked you probably missed it. And deboning a whole chicken? Pretty close to a minute or so, and that was with stopping to explain some steps to us.

Like a dork, I brought in my book I had of his and asked him to sign it.





Life is good.

Time Flies

Wow, this Friday I take my final for level 2 already! I can't belive how fast this level flew by. The last 2 weeks we have been focusing on nutrition, menu planning, costing and more food safety. Tomorrow I actually take my certification exam for food safety, so wish me luck! And then Friday is both our written and practical exam - I will have to truss and then quarter a chicken, fillet a trout, "turn" 2 potatoes into those darn football shapes, and make a mayonnaise all in specific time frames. It's the timing that really trips you up. You need to hurry, but at the same time need to do it correctly, so hopefully I can jet the job done.

I am especially excited for level 3. This is the level where we basically make the same repertoire of dishes over, and over and over for 6 weeks straight. What we need to do is make it consistently and within a specific time frame and have the food ready at a specific time as well. So, for example, we will be given a dish and then told it has to be ready at 8:03. If you are a minute early or late, points off. If the dish is not seasoned properly or presented correctly (plate presentation, hot food on a hot plate, cold food on a cold plate, etc.), points off. If the shapes and sizes of anything you cut are not uniform, more points off. This is where we start to get a feel for what it will be like in the restaurant kitchen. Should be exciting. We will cook everything from apps to desserts, and will even be given a "quick fire" challenge at the beginning of each class. Everyday when we come in, we will also be given a random list of ingredients and will have to come up with an amuse bouche to be served at the beginning of the meal. At the end of this level, we will pick randomly 2 dishes from the level, and in a "Top Chef" format, have to cook and present the dishes within specific time frames to a panel of judges consisting of our Chef and a selection of Alumni. Ah, the nerves already!

For an inside look into the midterm at FCI, here is an interesting article written by an alumni judge.

The Great Pastry Finale

So, it finally comes to an end. The pastry portion of my education ended with nothing other than souffles. Awesome night!

The night started out in an unusual way. Our regular chefs were both out that night and we were greeted with 2 new chefs for the evening. Our head chef for the night was like a French military chef. Ha, ha. No, it was not that bad but he was such a contrast to our regular chef who is quite laid back and tries to strike a balance between serious behavior and having fun (which, don't get me wrong, I think he is great. Is serious and disciplined, as well as fun at all the right times). This night, however, it was all work and don't even think about cracking a smile. Honestly, I loved it. I'm a competitor, and sometimes I wish some people in the class would take things more seriously. Listen. Follow instructions. Focus. On this night, there was not a wimpy "Yes, Chef!" in the house!

Anyway, onto the the desserts!

Mousse Au Chocolat



And finally, the souffles!!! I was surprised at how fast it takes to actually make a souffle, and then once it goes in the oven it's just a lot of waiting and hoping! I'm happy to report that all my souffles rose and were very yummy! It's such a fine line between it being undercooked and over cooked which makes it so tricky. The first cheese souffle I presented ended up being too runny on the inside, but the sweet ones actually came out quite good :-)

Cheese Souffle



Grand Marnier Souffle (and my personal favorite)



Chocolate Souffle

Save Room For Dessert

Some of the sweets we made recently were ones right up my alley. Was fun having them to bring home and eat for dessert during the week. Well, that is if it even made it through the week :-)

Pate Feuilletee is another type of puff pastry that takes a bit more precision to make. In a nutshell, the dough needs to be rolled out in such a way that you are able to roll out butter in the same thickness as the dough and then place it in the dough and fold it in like an envelope. The dough then needs to be folded in thirds 6 times and allowed to rest in the refrigerator in between "turns", as it is called, for about 30 minutes. All the folding allows the dough to form "leaves", or layers, within, that puff up into a flaky crust when baked. When it's time for it to be baked, the dough is rolled out, and must be really cold and then go directly into a hot oven (400 degrees). The butter that is within the layers of the dough will then create steam that will cause the layers to rise and puff up.

Here is the tart before and after. Obviously, the sides puff up higher, allowing you to fill the middle with goodness. This is filled with pastry cream, layered with fruit and covered with an apricot glaze. Nate and I devoured this entire thing in 2 days.....oops.





Another favorite of mine is creme caramel - I was able to take the extra ones I made home too :-) The trickiest part to these is making the caramel carefully enough that it does not burn, which can literally happen in seconds. Then the bottom of the ramekin is lined with the caramel and the custard is added and baked in the oven.



This final dessert is called a Charlotte. The cake itself is called a "biscuit", and is similar to the Genoise in that it's and egg foam cake, but instead of whisking the eggs whole, the whites and yolks are whisked separately and then folded together. This cake is a little drier and lighter than the Genoise. Once the biscuit is baked and cooled, it is layered with jelly, rolled and sliced. The slices are placed in a bowl and then Bavarian cream fills the rest of the bowl. Once chilled, the cake is released upside down onto a plate, and voila! A Charlotte! Similar to the Genoise, I was not a huge fan of this one either. I guess I just don't like jelly in my cake???

GO, Nils, GO!

The premiere of Top Chef Masters airs tomorrow at 10pm on Bravo! (Of course, I will be in class, but it's a good thing Bravo repeats everything!)

Please watch and cheer on Chef Nils and his support of "Friends of FCI"!

Go, Nils, Go!

We Love You, Pate A Choux

Pate a choux is the basic dough for puff pastry. You know, profiteroles, eclairs, need I say more? The dough for this pastry is unique in that it is cooked twice. Once on the stove top to dry out all the moisture in the mixture, and then again in the oven after is it piped out onto sheet pans, which is when it puffs up into the shapes we know and love.

We are given a little leniency when it comes to pastry in that we can sometimes alter the final product to our liking. In this case for me it was the protiferoles. Traditionally they are served with a whipped cream filling, which I'm not a huge fan of. So, I just turned all of mine into eclairs :-)

The pate a choux dough can also be deep fried and then coated in cinnamon and sugar. All yummy goodness!

Lots of Catching Up To Do

OK, with the move to a new apartment last week, the past 2 weeks have been too crazy to give me time to update. However, now I want to try to bring you up to speed with my time in pastry.

We learned how to make basic cake doughs, different methods, pastry dough, puffs, tarts and souffles, ice cream, etc. It's a good thing I was sick for most of the time (insert swine flu joke here...) that I did not really have an appetite which saved me from gaining about 20 pounds!

Anyway, my first cake! A Genoise is what they call it. A "Look, Mom, I can work in a diner!" cake is what I call it. Simple cake, layer of raspberry jam and butter cream frosting. Personally, not my cup of tea, as I'm not a butter cream kinda gal. Brought it home, tasted it, tossed it.





The following class, we moved onto crepes. Yum. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. We made both sweet and savory, but here are my Crepe Suzette's - flambeed with Orange Liquor and garnished with confections sugar and orange zest cooked in grenadine.



That same night, we also made apple and banana beignets (deep fried in dough), served with a raspberry coulis and caramel.



All fun things to start out my time in pastry, but noting that really knocked my socks off. Stay tuned for some yummy things to come though :-)