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Best Dishes NY Editors Ate This Week: June 9
1 year ago
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Developing an Appreciation for the Soup Nazi
I have a little catching up to do. I wanted to share with you our soup lesson from Wednesday night. We made a split pea soup and a potato leek soup, which we were allowed to bring home :-) This made for some good lunches during the week! We also made a beef consomme, which was based off the beef stock we made last week, and french onion soup.
A consomme is just a purified and clarified beef stock. To clarify the stock, and bring out all the impurities, a mixture of ground beef protein, julienned vegetables, tomatoes and egg whites are used. The acid in the tomatoes and the blood from the meat protein, help to set the egg white, and are essential in ensuring a clear and brilliant clarification. A "raft" forms on the top of the pot, which catches all of the impurities. I thought that this was an interesting process, so I wanted to share several pictures with you to take you though the different stages.
Here, you can see the "raft" beginning to form:
It forms over the entire top of the pot:
Once the raft forms, a hole must be made through the center with a ladle. After an hour of simmering, the consomme needs to be ladled out through this hole. In making the hole, you need to be extra careful not to break the raft, or your consomme will be cloudy:
Once the consomme simmers for an hour or so, it is ladled out and strained through a chinois covered in cheese cloth so only the liquid remains. Here you can see the fat on the top of the consomme. To remove the fat, you skim the top with pieces of parchment paper. The fat sticks to the parchment. This is done until all the fat is removed.
My consomme after the fat was skimmed:
Final presentation. This is a classic dish in french cooking. The broth should be crystal clear and the vegetables should be uniformly cut into small macedoines (cubes):
Additional pictures to be added to my photo album.
A consomme is just a purified and clarified beef stock. To clarify the stock, and bring out all the impurities, a mixture of ground beef protein, julienned vegetables, tomatoes and egg whites are used. The acid in the tomatoes and the blood from the meat protein, help to set the egg white, and are essential in ensuring a clear and brilliant clarification. A "raft" forms on the top of the pot, which catches all of the impurities. I thought that this was an interesting process, so I wanted to share several pictures with you to take you though the different stages.
Here, you can see the "raft" beginning to form:
It forms over the entire top of the pot:
Once the raft forms, a hole must be made through the center with a ladle. After an hour of simmering, the consomme needs to be ladled out through this hole. In making the hole, you need to be extra careful not to break the raft, or your consomme will be cloudy:
Once the consomme simmers for an hour or so, it is ladled out and strained through a chinois covered in cheese cloth so only the liquid remains. Here you can see the fat on the top of the consomme. To remove the fat, you skim the top with pieces of parchment paper. The fat sticks to the parchment. This is done until all the fat is removed.
My consomme after the fat was skimmed:
Final presentation. This is a classic dish in french cooking. The broth should be crystal clear and the vegetables should be uniformly cut into small macedoines (cubes):
Additional pictures to be added to my photo album.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
What's Up Doc?
Sorry, Bugs, but I think you taste pretty good.
Chef Alain Sailhac, the Dean of the French Culinary Institute, performed a Chef demonstration at school on Tuesday afternoon. Chef Alain is well known in the food industry. In the 1970's, he was the Executive Chef at Le Cygne in NYC, which earned the first ever 4 star food rating from the New York Times. He also spent 8 years as the Executive Chef at New York City's legendary restaurant, Le Cirque, in addition to time at the 21 Club and the Plaza Hotel.
Chef Alain is someone who I believe truly enjoys his time teaching students at FCI. I often pass him in the halls and he always stops to say hello, asks how things are doing, and asks if we have any questions about anything we are learning. In watching him work during the demonstration, I envied him because it was so clear that this is a man that genuinely loves his job.
His demonstration was a sauteed saddle of rabbit, a fricassee of spring vegetable, a confit of rabbit leg and thigh, and a gibelotte of rabbit breast and shoulder (ragout). He worked with six burners going at once, prepped and cooked everything in front of us, and made it all seem so easy to do 100 things at once.
While the Chef is doing his demonstration for us, there are actually a handful of other chefs in the back kitchen preparing the same meal so that there will be enough for everyone to taste. This is great, but I don't want to taste that....I want to eat the one made by the man himself. Luckily, I snagged a seat in the front row, so was able to get to his dishes before it was all gone. And, I must say, it tasted fantastic, and nothing like what came out of the back kitchen. Sorry guys, it was a good effort, but Chef Alain put out a dish with much bolder flavors, it was 4 star.
I have uploaded pictures in my album - it covers the butchering, the prepping and cooking, and the final presentation. Here is a taste, but please have a look!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Gods Love We Deliver
Gods Love We Deliver is an organization in NYC that prepares and delivers nutritional meals to people with life altering illnesses. They are always looking for volunteers in their kitchen to help prep and pack their meals. As a student at FCI, we are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity during the first 6 weeks of school to hone our knife skills, and get accustomed to being in a kitchen.
This morning, I went down there for my first shift, and it was a great time! I can't wait to do this again. I diced a ton of peppers, helped prepare vegetable dishes, and packaged some meals of rice, vegetables and pork chops.
This is a great organization, and anyone willing to donate time is welcome.
For more information, you can visit their site by clicking here!
This morning, I went down there for my first shift, and it was a great time! I can't wait to do this again. I diced a ton of peppers, helped prepare vegetable dishes, and packaged some meals of rice, vegetables and pork chops.
This is a great organization, and anyone willing to donate time is welcome.
For more information, you can visit their site by clicking here!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Feelin' Saucy
Saucier, noun, 1. The chef responsible for the preparation of all stocks and sauces.
Last Friday night, we made the stocks. The stocks, when combined with a binding agent such as flour, leads to the creation of basic classic sauces.
There are 5 "mother sauces" (sauces mere), that once created, can serve as the basis for many different types of other sauces. Last night, we made 3 of the 5 mother sauces, and then several other sauces based on those. The first sauce we made was Espagnole - this is basically based off of the veal stock we made in class last week. After you add the flour/butter and all the other aromatics used for flavoring, it's reduced and then strained to just leave you with the sauce.
Below is my Espagnole simmering on the stove. As the fat rises to the top, it gets skimmed off and discarded.
The next mother sauce on the list was Bechamel - this is just basically milk based. My partner made this one, and here is how it looked:
We also made a white wine sauce and a port wine sauce. I was particularly pleased with the port wine sauce, and was given a wink and a nod from the Chef after he tested the consistency and taste of my final product. Come on, did you really think I would screw up a WINE sauce...haha....
Port Wine Sauce - Step 1 - Reduction of port, shallot, thyme
Step 2 - Combined with sauce Espagnole, orange/lemon juices, pinch cayenne and further reduced.
The final product is strained so only the sauce remains.
So, now, here is the big question.....what do you do with all the sauces made in class? Throw them out? Well, in the case of the white wine sauce, yes. This is because it has heavy cream in it so you either use it or trash it. The other sauces we will be able to reheat and use again. I also think portions get sent to other classes for them to use as well. The Bechamel, however, which was the milk based sauce, is the perfect base for a cheese sauce. So, after we all made our bechamel sauces, we combined them together, threw in a lot of cheese, and made ourselves mac and cheese for dinner!
It's a good thing too. Family dinner was was interesting. Actually, it was good, but it would be better if they told us what the meal was when delivering it. Leads to a lot of guessing. It ended up being a curried lamb, rice and then spinach (or something spinach like) which had a sweet taste to it and I saw some raisins in it too. I like curry and I like Indian food, so I actually didn't mind it. I just didn't know at the time that the meat was lamb. Didn't have a game taste to at all, which is good, I guess!
I apologize if these early posts are not too exciting (I mean, who wants to read about making stocks and sauces????) Tomorrows class we will be making soups, and then FINALLY next week I think we will be starting solid foods! Woo Hoo!
I have uploaded more pictures to my photo album too, that has some shots of some of the other sauces we made last night, including the white wine sauce and Chateaubriand.
FINALLY, before I let you go......the pastry students had their chocolate projects on display yesterday. They did an amazing job so I wanted to share!
Last Friday night, we made the stocks. The stocks, when combined with a binding agent such as flour, leads to the creation of basic classic sauces.
There are 5 "mother sauces" (sauces mere), that once created, can serve as the basis for many different types of other sauces. Last night, we made 3 of the 5 mother sauces, and then several other sauces based on those. The first sauce we made was Espagnole - this is basically based off of the veal stock we made in class last week. After you add the flour/butter and all the other aromatics used for flavoring, it's reduced and then strained to just leave you with the sauce.
Below is my Espagnole simmering on the stove. As the fat rises to the top, it gets skimmed off and discarded.
The next mother sauce on the list was Bechamel - this is just basically milk based. My partner made this one, and here is how it looked:
We also made a white wine sauce and a port wine sauce. I was particularly pleased with the port wine sauce, and was given a wink and a nod from the Chef after he tested the consistency and taste of my final product. Come on, did you really think I would screw up a WINE sauce...haha....
Port Wine Sauce - Step 1 - Reduction of port, shallot, thyme
Step 2 - Combined with sauce Espagnole, orange/lemon juices, pinch cayenne and further reduced.
The final product is strained so only the sauce remains.
So, now, here is the big question.....what do you do with all the sauces made in class? Throw them out? Well, in the case of the white wine sauce, yes. This is because it has heavy cream in it so you either use it or trash it. The other sauces we will be able to reheat and use again. I also think portions get sent to other classes for them to use as well. The Bechamel, however, which was the milk based sauce, is the perfect base for a cheese sauce. So, after we all made our bechamel sauces, we combined them together, threw in a lot of cheese, and made ourselves mac and cheese for dinner!
It's a good thing too. Family dinner was was interesting. Actually, it was good, but it would be better if they told us what the meal was when delivering it. Leads to a lot of guessing. It ended up being a curried lamb, rice and then spinach (or something spinach like) which had a sweet taste to it and I saw some raisins in it too. I like curry and I like Indian food, so I actually didn't mind it. I just didn't know at the time that the meat was lamb. Didn't have a game taste to at all, which is good, I guess!
I apologize if these early posts are not too exciting (I mean, who wants to read about making stocks and sauces????) Tomorrows class we will be making soups, and then FINALLY next week I think we will be starting solid foods! Woo Hoo!
I have uploaded more pictures to my photo album too, that has some shots of some of the other sauces we made last night, including the white wine sauce and Chateaubriand.
FINALLY, before I let you go......the pastry students had their chocolate projects on display yesterday. They did an amazing job so I wanted to share!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
A Whole New Kind of Stock
The word "stock" takes on a whole new definition to me these days. In the past, when I heard "stock", I was immediately thinking "how has the stock price of GS changed today?", "where did the dow close?", "shall I dare look at my 401(k)?". Today, the word takes on a whole new meaning to me....and this time it it usually in French.
Friday's class was a lot of fun. We learned about the basic brown and white stocks and then in teams of 2 we made chicken stock (fond de volaille), vegetable stock (bouillon de legumes), and fish stock (fumet de poisson). As a class, we also made a marmite, which is a white beef broth with blackened onions (the blackened onions give the broth a warm amber color).
First we made the chicken stock. We started with the chicken bones in a stockpot covered in cold water, which is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer. Once you bring the water and bones to a boil, the fat will rise to the top and you need to skim this off. Then you add the vegetables, known as a "mirepoix" (carrots, onions and celery), along with a bouquet garni (thyme sprigs, bay leaves, parsley stems and peppercorns tied in cheese cloth), and cloves of crushed garlic. This all simmers on the stove for 2 hours (skimming off any fat that rises) and then strained so you are left with just the broth. These aromatic elements, as they are called, are present in all the stocks, with the addition of leeks for the beef, fish and vegetable stocks.
The fun part of the evening was definitely the fish stock. In making the fish stock, you should use a white fish, and one that is not oily (sea bass would be an example of an oily fish). For our stock we used halibut.....and what a big halibut it was! The fish that arrived to the classroom was basically the carcass. It was filleted ahead of time and the rest of the carcass (minus the head) was given to us. My partner and I had the "pleasure" of basically chopping this into usable sized pieces. This pretty much left us hacking away at the spine of the fish with our chef knives. Fun times. I actually have to admit that this was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach, but when you are "ordered" to do this and right away, you basically just don't think about anything but breaking it apart.
I have some pictures below of the stocks my partner and I made.
Chicken Stock:
Fish bones broken up:
Sweating of vegetables and fish bones:
Fish stock simmering (bouquet garni on top):
Towards the end of class, we continued to practice our knife skills and all the different cuts of vegetables. I think the practicing at home is paying off, and I am getting much more accurate with cutting 1mm perfect cubes. I still lack in the speed department, but at this stage it's not speed we are graded on, but accuracy.
P.S. As for family dinners - Friday's dinner was pork marinated in a Dijon sauce, some kind of sausage w/ sauerkraut, veggies and a salad (all of this is entirely made from scratch by the students). This was better than the meatloaf on Wednesday (um, is that French???). I did take a bite of the sausage and had a piece of bone in mine. If this was Top Chef, I'm sure Padma would have said, "please pack your knives and go". However, I hesitate to be critical, as eventually I will be there making my own sausage and I'm sure it will happen to me!
I have a few more pics from school and will upload them to my photo album soon.
Friday's class was a lot of fun. We learned about the basic brown and white stocks and then in teams of 2 we made chicken stock (fond de volaille), vegetable stock (bouillon de legumes), and fish stock (fumet de poisson). As a class, we also made a marmite, which is a white beef broth with blackened onions (the blackened onions give the broth a warm amber color).
First we made the chicken stock. We started with the chicken bones in a stockpot covered in cold water, which is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer. Once you bring the water and bones to a boil, the fat will rise to the top and you need to skim this off. Then you add the vegetables, known as a "mirepoix" (carrots, onions and celery), along with a bouquet garni (thyme sprigs, bay leaves, parsley stems and peppercorns tied in cheese cloth), and cloves of crushed garlic. This all simmers on the stove for 2 hours (skimming off any fat that rises) and then strained so you are left with just the broth. These aromatic elements, as they are called, are present in all the stocks, with the addition of leeks for the beef, fish and vegetable stocks.
The fun part of the evening was definitely the fish stock. In making the fish stock, you should use a white fish, and one that is not oily (sea bass would be an example of an oily fish). For our stock we used halibut.....and what a big halibut it was! The fish that arrived to the classroom was basically the carcass. It was filleted ahead of time and the rest of the carcass (minus the head) was given to us. My partner and I had the "pleasure" of basically chopping this into usable sized pieces. This pretty much left us hacking away at the spine of the fish with our chef knives. Fun times. I actually have to admit that this was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach, but when you are "ordered" to do this and right away, you basically just don't think about anything but breaking it apart.
I have some pictures below of the stocks my partner and I made.
Chicken Stock:
Fish bones broken up:
Sweating of vegetables and fish bones:
Fish stock simmering (bouquet garni on top):
Towards the end of class, we continued to practice our knife skills and all the different cuts of vegetables. I think the practicing at home is paying off, and I am getting much more accurate with cutting 1mm perfect cubes. I still lack in the speed department, but at this stage it's not speed we are graded on, but accuracy.
P.S. As for family dinners - Friday's dinner was pork marinated in a Dijon sauce, some kind of sausage w/ sauerkraut, veggies and a salad (all of this is entirely made from scratch by the students). This was better than the meatloaf on Wednesday (um, is that French???). I did take a bite of the sausage and had a piece of bone in mine. If this was Top Chef, I'm sure Padma would have said, "please pack your knives and go". However, I hesitate to be critical, as eventually I will be there making my own sausage and I'm sure it will happen to me!
I have a few more pics from school and will upload them to my photo album soon.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thinking Twice
After yesterdays class I may never eat again.
You have to imagine that preventative food safety would cover topics to make you squirm. And this it did.
The system of food safety is based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), which was designed by NASA and the Pillsbury Corporation over 35 years ago to help ensure food safety for astronauts during space missions. One can only imagine how important it is for the astronauts to no not get sick from the food they eat.....no gravity.....throwing up.....wouldn't that be fun!
Anyway, the system and the guidelines analyze the flow of food and aim to eliminate contamination, or at least reduce it to an acceptable level. In addition to learning about different viruses, bacteria and parasites that can make you ill, we learned about guidelines set by the FDA for serving safe food.
I'm not going to bore you with all the detail, but I will share with you this one article we talked about in class.
Click here to read.
Having fun yet?
You have to imagine that preventative food safety would cover topics to make you squirm. And this it did.
The system of food safety is based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), which was designed by NASA and the Pillsbury Corporation over 35 years ago to help ensure food safety for astronauts during space missions. One can only imagine how important it is for the astronauts to no not get sick from the food they eat.....no gravity.....throwing up.....wouldn't that be fun!
Anyway, the system and the guidelines analyze the flow of food and aim to eliminate contamination, or at least reduce it to an acceptable level. In addition to learning about different viruses, bacteria and parasites that can make you ill, we learned about guidelines set by the FDA for serving safe food.
I'm not going to bore you with all the detail, but I will share with you this one article we talked about in class.
Click here to read.
Having fun yet?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
First Day of School!
There was no yellow school bus to pick me up, but the first day of school was just as fun and exciting as any other first day. We showed up early so they could properly inspect our uniforms and make sure we had everything on properly. Once all that was done we went into our classroom and met our chef instructor for the first level. There appeared to be about 22 people in the class and only 4 girls. However, one girl got really sick and had to be taken to a doctor so I'm not sure if she will be back or not.
Last night we covered basic kitchen safety, hygiene, the layout of the kitchen, equipment and tools, etc. We also got our student toolkit which included our knives, as well as a lot of other fun gadgets.
We learned the proper setup of a work station (poste de travail), and how to properly wash and peel - or as the French say, lavage et epluchage. Yes, this is a French school so almost all of the terminology we learn is in French.
It was then time for us to start learning how to properly use our knives and moved onto the the different methods of cutting vegetables. The proper cutting of vegetables is essential because it leads to uniform shapes and sizes. This is important not only so the dish is aesthetically pleasing, but it also ensures that all the items will cook uniformly. The chef instructor demonstrated all the various cuts, and then we were off to try on our own.
The school is nice enough to allow us to have cameras so we can take pictures of our work. Below are pictures of what all of these cuts are supposed to look like (sorry my photography last night was not great, I was snapping them quickly. The camera is a bit of a pain because it can't touch the workstation and after I have to wash my hands so I tried to get these in at the end of class):
The vegetables we worked with were onions, shallots, carrots, turnips, cabbage and parsley. I also snapped a photo of my workstation right at the end of class. Just carrots and turnips here. The cuts on my board are supposed to be the julliane and brunoise (carrot), and the jardiniere, macedoine, and paysanne (turnip). I also have a chiffonade of cabbage - this I think was the only one that came out correctly.
My julianne was too thick in width, so as a result the brunoise was not the right shape since this is made after you julienne the carrot. The jardiniere are the rectangular shapes on the top right of the photo. They are supposed to be about 2 inches in length, but my turnip to begin with was small so I had to make the best of what I had. I also need to practice making these perfectly rectangular. Below the jardiniere is the macedoine (they are supposed to .5cm cubes.....again my cuts were a bit wide) and below that is the paysanne (I need to work on making these thinner in width).
That pretty much took the entire 5 hours of class, believe it or not. We do get a 30 minute dinner break at 8:30 - or as the school calls it a "family meal". The level 4 students are learning cooking for large groups of people (catering and buffets), so they cook dinner for the entire school every night and the meals get delivered to your classroom buffet style. Last nights dinner was a fillet of sole (ok, I think it was sole...haha....the menu is supposed to be on the student site but I can't find it so I'm still not 100% sure what I ate :-O But it had a nice sauce on it which also had some grapefruit and tangerine in it). This was accompanied by cous cous, sauteed green beans with cherry tomatoes and a salad with a lemon vinaigrette. All in all, nicely done.
Wednesdays class I think will pretty much be 5 hours of lecture as we will be covering preventative approaches to food safety. In the meantime, I will be chopping away at home....something tells me there will be a lot of carrot soup and turnips on the dinner menu at home in the next few weeks...haha...
Last night we covered basic kitchen safety, hygiene, the layout of the kitchen, equipment and tools, etc. We also got our student toolkit which included our knives, as well as a lot of other fun gadgets.
We learned the proper setup of a work station (poste de travail), and how to properly wash and peel - or as the French say, lavage et epluchage. Yes, this is a French school so almost all of the terminology we learn is in French.
It was then time for us to start learning how to properly use our knives and moved onto the the different methods of cutting vegetables. The proper cutting of vegetables is essential because it leads to uniform shapes and sizes. This is important not only so the dish is aesthetically pleasing, but it also ensures that all the items will cook uniformly. The chef instructor demonstrated all the various cuts, and then we were off to try on our own.
The school is nice enough to allow us to have cameras so we can take pictures of our work. Below are pictures of what all of these cuts are supposed to look like (sorry my photography last night was not great, I was snapping them quickly. The camera is a bit of a pain because it can't touch the workstation and after I have to wash my hands so I tried to get these in at the end of class):
The vegetables we worked with were onions, shallots, carrots, turnips, cabbage and parsley. I also snapped a photo of my workstation right at the end of class. Just carrots and turnips here. The cuts on my board are supposed to be the julliane and brunoise (carrot), and the jardiniere, macedoine, and paysanne (turnip). I also have a chiffonade of cabbage - this I think was the only one that came out correctly.
My julianne was too thick in width, so as a result the brunoise was not the right shape since this is made after you julienne the carrot. The jardiniere are the rectangular shapes on the top right of the photo. They are supposed to be about 2 inches in length, but my turnip to begin with was small so I had to make the best of what I had. I also need to practice making these perfectly rectangular. Below the jardiniere is the macedoine (they are supposed to .5cm cubes.....again my cuts were a bit wide) and below that is the paysanne (I need to work on making these thinner in width).
That pretty much took the entire 5 hours of class, believe it or not. We do get a 30 minute dinner break at 8:30 - or as the school calls it a "family meal". The level 4 students are learning cooking for large groups of people (catering and buffets), so they cook dinner for the entire school every night and the meals get delivered to your classroom buffet style. Last nights dinner was a fillet of sole (ok, I think it was sole...haha....the menu is supposed to be on the student site but I can't find it so I'm still not 100% sure what I ate :-O But it had a nice sauce on it which also had some grapefruit and tangerine in it). This was accompanied by cous cous, sauteed green beans with cherry tomatoes and a salad with a lemon vinaigrette. All in all, nicely done.
Wednesdays class I think will pretty much be 5 hours of lecture as we will be covering preventative approaches to food safety. In the meantime, I will be chopping away at home....something tells me there will be a lot of carrot soup and turnips on the dinner menu at home in the next few weeks...haha...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Orientation
I am officially ready to start! Yesterday I had orientation at the French Culinary Institute. I received my text book for the first level (there are 6 levels in total) as well as my uniform :-) Feels strange putting on a chefs coat.....nothing like my riding coat...haha....At least when I went to my first job and had to put on a suit, it was similar to dressing up and going to a horse show. This is a whole new feeling!
Anyway, I had fun at the orientation. A few of the deans came and spoke, and then after getting through all the logistics of the school, there was a reception with wine and appetizers. I got to speak to some students that have been in the program for a few months now, as well as meet some new classmates. I was also impressed when we went around the room to introduce ourselves, at how diverse the classes were (there were both day and night students in my orientation, so it was not just my class). About 50% of all the students there were from outside of the NY area, coming from Florida, California, Texas and even Hawaii. Then there were about 8 students from other Countries including the Philippines, Israel, Germany, India and Japan! I was excited to see this mix, and I think people will really be able to learn a lot from each other. Age and experience wise, it was a complete mix too. Some people were career changes like me, have their own catering company, are waiters or cooks, as well as students at local universities studying nutrition and even finance.
I only got to meet 7 people in my class - there should be about 20-24 in total. After orientation we went to a nearby bar and grabbed a drink. This gave me the opportunity to get to know them a little better. They all seemed really nice, and no one made me feel uncomfortable for coming into this with absolutely no experience. Hmmmm.....maybe because they figure I will not be their competition....hahaha....well, I hope not because they are WRONG. (Who is competitive? I'm not competitive, am I? ;-) )
Anyway, all in all it was a fun time. I'm very excited to start on Monday and finally get to meet the rest of my class.
Oh, and I get my knives on Monday, too!!!!
Anyway, I had fun at the orientation. A few of the deans came and spoke, and then after getting through all the logistics of the school, there was a reception with wine and appetizers. I got to speak to some students that have been in the program for a few months now, as well as meet some new classmates. I was also impressed when we went around the room to introduce ourselves, at how diverse the classes were (there were both day and night students in my orientation, so it was not just my class). About 50% of all the students there were from outside of the NY area, coming from Florida, California, Texas and even Hawaii. Then there were about 8 students from other Countries including the Philippines, Israel, Germany, India and Japan! I was excited to see this mix, and I think people will really be able to learn a lot from each other. Age and experience wise, it was a complete mix too. Some people were career changes like me, have their own catering company, are waiters or cooks, as well as students at local universities studying nutrition and even finance.
I only got to meet 7 people in my class - there should be about 20-24 in total. After orientation we went to a nearby bar and grabbed a drink. This gave me the opportunity to get to know them a little better. They all seemed really nice, and no one made me feel uncomfortable for coming into this with absolutely no experience. Hmmmm.....maybe because they figure I will not be their competition....hahaha....well, I hope not because they are WRONG. (Who is competitive? I'm not competitive, am I? ;-) )
Anyway, all in all it was a fun time. I'm very excited to start on Monday and finally get to meet the rest of my class.
Oh, and I get my knives on Monday, too!!!!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
A New Beginning
Well, the time is finally approaching for me to start on a new adventure in life. On March 16th I will officially be a student at the French Culinary Institute!! I can't even tell you how excited I am for this opportunity and I am really looking forward to this experience. The program is 9 months long and I will have class Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. I hope to fill up my days with an industry related job/internship to help get some experience. In the long run, I am aiming for a career in food media, and would ultimately love to have a catering and event planning business of my own! However, in order to get there, I will need to put some serious time in the kitchen, so here is where my journey begins :-).
The French Culinary Institute captured my heart right from the beginning, and separated themselves from the competition by making me feel like part of a family the second I showed up for a tour. I was able to spend time speaking with various chef instructors and staff including Nils Noren, former executive chef at NYC's notable Aquavit. The school itself is run by a list of great chefs including Jacques Pepin (Carla on Top Chef recently cooked her squab and peas for him!), Alain Sailhac (Le Cirque), and Andre Soltner.
A big part of the school is it's restaurant, L'Ecole. I encourage those of you in the city to please try this place, as this is where I will be cooking for the last 6 weeks of the program! Since the students are the chefs, the restaurant offers a $42 priced fixed 5 course dinner. The school was nice enough to treat Nate and I to dinner here a few weeks ago, and it was a great experience! The portions are very generous, and I truly think you are getting your money's worth!
For the next 9 months I hope to share this journey with you, so please check in often!
The French Culinary Institute captured my heart right from the beginning, and separated themselves from the competition by making me feel like part of a family the second I showed up for a tour. I was able to spend time speaking with various chef instructors and staff including Nils Noren, former executive chef at NYC's notable Aquavit. The school itself is run by a list of great chefs including Jacques Pepin (Carla on Top Chef recently cooked her squab and peas for him!), Alain Sailhac (Le Cirque), and Andre Soltner.
A big part of the school is it's restaurant, L'Ecole. I encourage those of you in the city to please try this place, as this is where I will be cooking for the last 6 weeks of the program! Since the students are the chefs, the restaurant offers a $42 priced fixed 5 course dinner. The school was nice enough to treat Nate and I to dinner here a few weeks ago, and it was a great experience! The portions are very generous, and I truly think you are getting your money's worth!
For the next 9 months I hope to share this journey with you, so please check in often!
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