Happy Anniversary!

Last week our restaurant celebrated it's 1 year anniversary! We celebrated with a late night party that started at 10:30 pm. Chef closed the restaurant early that Sunday and we enjoyed a big party with music, dancing and lots of Italian wine, beer and champagne to satisfy the crazy party goers. We snacked on lots of delicious salumi, cheeses and desserts from our pastry team - and tons of pizza from a local place so that none of our hard working cooks had to lift a finger. It was a ton of fun :-) We only stayed until about 1am since we both had to work the next day, but I hear the party lasted until 4:30am! I had some terrible looking co-workers the next day, haha. It was a really rough one!

On another note, Chef made GQ! Read about it here!

Another Photo Shoot!

These hands of mine are gonna be famous soon! Ha, ha :-)

NBC Feast came in and did a photo shoot today, which included me rolling out some pasta dough and making our malfatti. I will let you all know when the article is up!

DON'T BLINK

Because if you do you will miss the 2 very short shots of me making squash agnolotti!!

LXTV First Look (we are the 3rd restaurant featured)

Set Your DVR's!

LXTV was in at work today doing a bit on my awesome Chef. They filmed the kitchen and came in and filmed me making some squash ravioli's. It is supposed to air this Saturday morning at 7:30am on NBC (and I think re-run after SNL). Can't wait to see the piece, although if they actually do show me making pasta I'm sure that all will you see will be my hands....haha.....anyway, another opportunity to have a look inside the yummy kitchen :-)

Results Are In!

We we voted best new restaurant for the year :-)

Apologies

Sorry my updates have been next to nothing lately. Things in the kitchen have been quite busy and longer than normal hours coupled with other things have caused me to slack lately.

But I promise, new posts soon! Including the delicious tasting meal I had at Daniel for my birthday! It was quite a dining experience!

A Look Inside

Here is a short clip and look inside the kitchen I work in every day. And yes, I stare at those poor little pig faces all the time. And here is a funny story. One day I had to go down to the meat locker to get the pork and beef for our bolognese and the light was not working. Nothing like being in the dark with pigs hanging next to you. I got such an eerie feeling and was so scared one of those suckers was going to come to life or something! Haha.....

Click here to watch

A Whole New Look

Check out the new website! I love it :-)

Hurt Day

Today marks the first time I have had to call into work and I'm feeling awful about it. I'm not sick, no fever, no chance of me transmitting anything bad to the food. I'm just hurt.

It all started yesterday when I was getting ready for work. By doing nothing out of the ordinary I heard a "crack" like noise in my neck and from then on it was pain. Sharp shooting pain in my neck. Like a Charlie horse pain. These spasms happen at the slightest move and so frequent. Like every 5-10 minutes. I didn't know what to do. This is not like a normal office job. I can't just get myself to work and sit in a chair and not move. My job is labor intensive. On my feet all day. Constant moving, lifting, kneading dough.....

I didn't know the protocol either. People who work in a kitchen are tough as nails. Call in and you look like a weakling. One of our hot line guys had 500 degree oil spill all over his lower arm 2 weeks ago and just bandaged it up and kept going. So I picked myself up and made it in. I surprisingly accomplished a lot yesterday. More than I thought I was going to be able to. Of course my poor co-worker had to do all the heavy lifting, but all in all I think I was useful. However, towards the end of the day my body was trying to tell me something. I over did it. Something as simple as wiping down the table or weighing out a portion of pasta sent lightening bolts through my neck. So, when I got home, I loaded up on advil, attached a heating pad to my neck and just rested. Rested and hoped that I would feel better in the morning.

Well, no such luck. This morning I was in so much pain and could not move at all. Just trying to roll over to try and get up sent multiple spasms through my neck. It was beyond anything I have ever felt.

I continually kept replaying a conversation I had with someone in the kitchen once. She said she just did not feel like coming into work that day and thought over and over in her head of things she could say to call in and get the day off. Then she said she realized that the only excuse she could think of that would allow her to not come in and it be ok was that if she was hit by a bus.

So, I tried. Tried to get dressed to go to work. But I just couldn't. Even just walking would send a random spasm. So I had to break down. Make the call. I feel so incredible guilty. Like I am letting my team down. Like I'm not tough enough.

On the other hand, my discomfort is my dogs delight. It's 12:30pm and neither of us have gotten out of bed.

I have promised myself that no matter what, I will make it in tomorrow and Sunday. Even if all I can do is just stand there. Then, if this pain does not subside, I will take myself to the doctor on my "weekend", which is Monday and Tuesday. But, hopefully, all the advil, heating pads and icy hot will help the healing process.

So, is this what happens when you get old?

Restaurant Week is Almost Here!

My first restaurant week is approaching and I'm shaking in my boots!!!

Ha ha, not really, but it is sure to be an adventure. We are going to feature three of our fresh pasta dishes on the lunch menu so hopefully we can keep up :-) Personally, I feel our restaurant week menu is awesome! Unlike many other restaurants where you only get to pick out of a choice of 1 or 2 dishes, we are giving a really large selection and it features many of our most popular dishes.

If you can still get a reservation, come out for lunch!!! Three courses for $24! (We are only partaking in restaurant week during lunch....dinner is the regular menu).

AND, just maybe if you have been trying to get in for dinner you may have some better luck the next 2 weeks. My hunch is that many other diners may be trying to take advantage of the places that are participating in restaurant week for dinner so maybe things may open up? I don't know for sure, but it's just my thinking.

As for me, I have my Tuesday all booked up! Lunch at Aquavit and dinner at Apiary! I'm excited :-)

The "Nils and Dave" Show Hits the Road!

Last year I talked about a demo at school given by Nils Noren and Dave Arnold. They are an interesting pair, in a good way.

This friday they will be featured on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!

Don't forget to set your DVR's!!!!

Rayuela, Check!

From the minute you walk into Rayuela, you are overcome with this feeling of knowing that you are about to have a great experience. The outside of the restaurant is unassuming, and I realized how many times I have walked or driven past this place and not even noticed it. But once I stepped inside, I felt transformed into a magical place, kinda like Disney land for me with all the food and drink options like the different rides I could go on. I was excited. I always love it when restaurants bring a little bit of outside in, and the tree in the middle of the first floor, going up to the second, along with the little lights and candles, gave the place a feeling of coziness.

The service was outstanding. Our waiter in particular was not only attentive, but knew his job. We asked a lot of questions, about the food, the menu, the executive chef. He answered all without missing a beat. I have to admit, I truly believe that all front of house staff should be able to inform customers of the chefs intention and vision of a restaurant, but unfortunately not everyone can. When we asked about the background of the chef, our waiter was very knowledgeable. He also informed us that the idea behind Rayuela is that it is designed to serve food from Spanish speaking places around the world, with an Asian flair. This was evident from the food to the cocktails and even the beer and wine. We were particularly excited to see Imperial beer on the menu! This is the official beer of Costa Rica, and it had been a while since I tasted the sweetness of it. I was also excited for the Picso Sour I had to start off the evening. There was a Peruvian restaurant uptown in my old neighborhood where I had one for the first time, and since then it has become one of my favorite drinks.

The menu was fantastic. I had high expectations because my Chefs at school were always talking about how much they love this place. We are definitely looking forward to going back because there were so many great things on the menu, that we were not able to try everything we wanted. Which is really EVERYTHING. They do have a 5 course tasting menu, which is the chefs choice, but we had specific dishes in mind for that night. In a future visit we will definitely try the tasting.

Course 1

Tuna Rellena-Shrimp, crab, and avocado wrapped in sliced tuna served with cucumbers in a soy vinaigrette



Carica Tejada - Chilean papaya stuffed with duck confit, spinach in a pedro ximenez duck sauce



Course 2

Carne a la Parrilla - Grilled beef tenderloin with oven roasted potatoes, mushrooms, diced spanish onions, pork belly and cabrales fondue



Paella de Coco - Valencia rice infused with lemongrass, coconut milk and ginger, served with shrimp, calamari, scallops, octopus, manila clams and peas. Served with head-on shrimp and ginger oil



Dessert

Pear tres Leches - Traditional sponge cake with spiced white chocolate mousse and poached pear

For a Small Fee.....

You can come over and I will make a lasagna for dinner....

Just kidding. But, really, maybe a small dinner party and pasta tasting?

Insider Tips...

...and a small plug ;-)

Perfection

There is really no other word to describe dinner at Le Bernardin last night. I had been there before, but this is the first time since embarking on my culinary career. It was amazing.

I always feel stupid taking my camera out and taking pictures of food, and I really regret not doing so last night. Next time. I was also too caught up in being so close to Mick Jager enjoying his dinner at the same time I was.

I did, however, whip the camera for this one!



So, cool......

Here is the tasting menu we enjoyed along with the wine paring. The only dish, in my opinion, that did not knock my socks off was the nori crusted skate. Don't get me wrong though, it was still good. But all the other dishes....absolutely incredible.

TUNA
Layers of Thinly Pounded Yellowfin Tuna; Foie Gras and Toasted Baguette; Shaved Chives and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Botani Moscatel Seco, Sierras de Malaga, Spain 2008

OCTOPUS
Charred Octopus; Fermented Black Bean - Pear Sauce Vierge; Ink - Miso Vinaigrette; Purple Basil
Sauvignon Blanc, Paul Cluver, Elgin south, Africa 2008

SKATE
Nori Crusted Skate; Poached Oysters and Braised Winter Lettuce; Ponzu Vinaigrette
Jurançon, Domaine Cauhape “Chant des Vignes”, Southwest France 2008

STRIPED BASS
Baked Wild Striped Bass; Corn "Cannelloni"; Light Perigord Sauce
White Rioja, Crianza, Vina Gravonia, Lopez de Heredia, Spain 1999

SURF AND TURF
Escolar and Seared Kobe Beef; Sea Bean Salad and Eggplant Fries; Mr. Kaufman's Pesto and Anchovy Sauce
Malbec - Mendel - Mendoza/Argentina 2007

MASCARPONE
Mascarpone Cream in a Crisp Coffee Shell, Almond - Cocoa Pain de Genes
Château La Rame, Reserve, Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, France 1998

PEAR
Cinnamon Caramel Parfait, Liquid Pear, Smoked Sea Salt, Fromage Blanc Sorbet
Maury, La Coume du Roy, Roussillon 1998

Just Another Day in the "Office"

It's a Good Thing

It's always a good thing then you are excited about your work. I have only been working for 7 weeks now, and I have to admit that although this pasta making thing is still very new to me and I have a lot to perfect still, it was starting to get a little redundant. Everyday I was responsible for the same pastas. Since I started, we have made the spinach pasta for the lasagna, as well as the bolognese for that dish and assemble several trays of it a day (5 layers of meat :-) ) . We also make ravioli, as well as the raviolo with the egg in it. The other 2 pastas we make from scratch are the tonarelli for the Cacio e Pepe and the malfatti. Tonarelli is similar to a spaghetti, perhaps a thicker noodle, and the malfatti has a higher egg content as well as some semolina flour in it. We roll this out fairly thin and then cut them into small rectangles and then hand shape each piece into a shape I can only try to describe as similar to a bow tie, but it's really not (hard to explain or tell from the photo below!) In addition to these pastas, we also make the spinach ricotta filling fresh each day for the raviolis. It's enough to keep us busy, but I am always thinking in my head that I want to learn more!

Malfatti



Tonarelli


Lasagna



Raviolo



Well, I got my wish! Chef just came back from a short trip to Rome with the big DM and while he was there, all I could do was hope that he would come back with some new menu items, which he did! So, in addition to the pastas we are making already, we now get to make a fettucini, a squid ink tagliolini and a gnocchi! I'm sooooo excited about the gnocchi - this is a pasta that I am dying to perfect, and I can't wait to see our Chefs approach to making this. On Monday, when Chef had come back, he asked us to make him 9 different types of fettucini, differing in dough recipes and thickness of the noodles. The fun part was when he invited us up to taste all of the pastas with the other chefs. They were basically buttered noodles but so yummy! And it was also great to taste all the different textures of the noodle and hear from the Chefs why they did or did not work.

I will give more info as to how these pastas translate to the table, but I'm pretty sure the fettucini will be with fresh clams, the tagliolini with fresh shrimp, and the gnocchi will be with fresh tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and basil.

Look forward to some tasting :-)

For the List

Remember my post about eating your pizza crust? Well, just a little follow up on that. To my surprise, I actually did get invited back to spend a day in the kitchen, which potentially could have led to a job offer. However, by that time I had already pretty much decided that I wanted to accept the offer from the place I am at now, so I turned down the kitchen trail as I did not want to waste the Chefs time.

In any case, they finally opened up last month and the reviews are great! I have not had the chance to head over yet for a meal, but I encourage anyone in the area to put it on their list!

Check it out!!!

Reflection

It's been a little over a year since life as I knew it was going to change in so many ways. I often wonder if the decisions I made were smart, or the right ones. About two years ago I had everything I thought at one time I had always wanted from a professional standpoint. But I was miserable. I hated my job, the pressures, the hours, the feeling of struggling to keep up in an environment where some people appeared to so easily grow while others had to work so hard to just keep up.

I had always been obsessed with all things food. I often imagined in my head what kind of things I could do to get me closer to it. My original thought was the "simple" way. Continue to do what I do, but for a Company in the culinary industry. Work for Food and Wine Magazine or another publication in the food world. What about Food Network? Certainly they have the needs for finance/accounting folks. I found it impossible to even get noticed by these industries. They wanted people with industry experience. Didn't even want to see my resume. And I was constantly questioned as to why I wanted to make the industry change. "You know, your gonna have to take a pay cut, right? Why would you even want to do something like that?"

WHY? First of all, I thought that decision was personal to me. None of your gosh darn business frankly as to why I would be willing to do so. But if you really want to know, here is why. Because I want to be part of an organization where I feel passionate about what my company does. I hated where I was. I could have cared less about things the Company was doing, and frankly I would have been totally fine to have seen them go down in flames with their peers. When you feel that way, you KNOW your time is done. For a year I tried to find something else. Anything outside of the finance industry, but over and over again it was the same struggle.

Then there were all the layoffs. I saw so many of my colleagues lose their job in a course of 9 months. At first I was scared. What if that happened to me? How would I live, pay rent, do anything???? It's hard enough now trying to find a job while still employed, how will I ever find one while not employed? After the second round of layoffs, one of my close friends was let go. That's when it finally hit me. You know what, you can still be OK. We are all smart and ambitious people who never would have been in this situation in the first place if that was not the case. Was I happy? No. I was just too chicken to give up a financial security blanket to pursue what I really wanted. But if that blanket was to be pulled out from underneath me would it be all that bad? Nope. I would be fine. I would be happy. I would be relieved of all the stress and built up hate I had for my career.

The day before I was laid off, I knew it was going to happen. I just had this feeling. I even cleaned out some of my stuff. Re-organized my personal papers, emails, etc, to make it as easy as possible for me to leave should I have to. I worked late that night too. It was a busy time of the year. I remember being so unhappy about being there late that I said to my co-worker, I wish I knew for sure if I was going to get laid off tomorrow because if so I would just go home now and not even attempt to meet this deadline. I was stressed. I had no idea how I was going to get through the next week and get everything done. And I was unmotivated which made it 1000 time worse.

The next morning I walked out of my apartment and headed to the subway to work. It was a beautiful day. Unseasonably warm for a December morning. I remember looking down at what I was wearing and saying to myself, "So, this is going to be outfit I wear when I lose my job". I had a backpack with me to put my personal stuff in should it be the day. I was not scared. I was ready to face whatever the day had in store.

The morning went as usual. Trying to continue to get through year end close. Still stressing over all the unattainable deadlines. Chasing people over the phone and email to get their stuff done. Then at about 11am, my phone rang. It was my boss asking me to stop by. There it was. I was gone. I walked into his office. He gave me about a 1 minute speech about how they "could no longer continue my employment", and slid me a piece of paper that had instructions as to where to meet HR on another floor, and a brief summary of my package. I went back to my office, packed up my things (which took all of 10 seconds since I was already packed and prepared), and headed out. As I was heading to the elevator, I saw my colleague walk towards my bosses office - him too, huh?

The elevator doors opened on the thirty-something floor and an HR rep was waiting right in the elevator bank. Gosh I guess they don't want you to have any doubts as to where to go. He immediately asked me to hand him my ID and said, "Follow me this way, Beth". I followed him into one of the empty classrooms where another HR rep was waiting for me. I sat down, she handed me a manila envelope and started babbling about what was in it. I don't think I heard what she said. All I noticed was that they had a box of tissues there next to the envelope. Are you kidding me? You think I'm SAD?????? Ha ha, you got me all wrong. I handed her my blackberry and headed on my way. When I got to the lobby escalator I remember standing on it as I went down and I literally felt the weight of the world being lifted off my shoulders. All that work I was stressed about? In a instant it was no longer my problem. It was gone. I was free.

Within six hours I had booked my ticket, and 4 days later I boarded a plane and headed to Aruba.

TONY Critics Choice

Photo #3 in the article here is the the raviolo al uovo..I make 40-50 of these a day.

Roman Holiday

Courtesy of Tasting Table

The Real World

It's been three weeks. New job, new career. First time in over a year that I actually have to return to a 5 day a week work week. My body is in shock. Unlike anything I have ever done before in my professional career, it's labor intensive. I don't sit at a desk all day in front of a computer. No access to the Internet or email for the occasional distraction from work. Just work. I ache. I have not felt this way since before college when I used to get up at 4am and breathe in the familiar smell of fresh shavings and sweet feed. Muck stalls, fill water buckets, get horses ready for their owners big show day, and then in the afternoon, barely able to feel my own muscles, get on my horse for a turn in the show ring. It was tiring, but so worth it. So much fun. I used to love the feeling of being at a big show, seeing everyone else around you that understood what it all meant. Taking a minute from the routine in the early morning to pause for the National Anthem. It was satisfying.

My new job gives me a similar feeling. It's an art. It takes practice. You get scolded for not doing things correctly. You learn, try to be better, faster. If you are not frustrated, you are probably not trying hard enough. There is no tolerance for anything less than perfect. Standards are high. Yesterday we had to trash 100 portions of pasta because of the moisture level in the air, when dropped into the boiling salted water they were not opening up correctly. Sticking together. Everything had to be done over, but with less liquid. Drier dough.

My hands hurt. Kneading anywhere from 10-30 portions of dough a day. Burns from touching hot pot handles opening up. My feet hurt. You don't sit for a second at all during the day. Employee meal is served. You eat standing up. I treasure the moments now when I can have a minute to sit (on the bus or subway). My back hurts. My neck hurts. I carried those very heavy hotel pans into the walk in and had to get them up in the top shelf. I'm short. The floor is slippery. Later, had to go and get them down. It's a miracle I have not injured myself yet.

I have barely eaten any pasta since I started my job. I'm around it all day. I don't want to look at it when I'm not at work. Prepping and tasting ravioli filling all day. The same for the bolognese and the bechemel. Things I used to love. Still great, but now I crave other things. The thing I used to love about Italian restaurants were the fresh, home made pastas. Last week I went to a great place and didn't even read what they had on the menu. Got fish instead.

I love it though. I'm learning a lot. I'm gaining an expertise that others may never have. My pasta maker with the little hand crank from Willam Sonoma looks so puny sitting on the shelf. Can I even use that anymore? The dough I deal with now is like a foot in width and 5-10 feet long. Do I even want to try? It's my Saturday. Maybe. But not today. I can barely move my fingers they are so cramped. Maybe they will feel better tomorrow.

Trying the Shoe on the Other Foot

Last week, I returned to school for my first time as a midterm judge.

It was interesting to say the least.

Although there were 9 of us, only 2 other people were from my class. When we got there we were set up in the bread kitchen (turned dining room for the occasion) across from the level 3 kitchen where the students were hard at work cooking. We immediately noticed a big difference to this class than ours. There seemed to be this calm over them. No one appeared to be running around with their heads cut off. Some students even had smiles on there faces and at one point 2 students actually went for a cigarette break (WTF?!?!?!?!?!? Are you joking me?????????)

Hindsight is 20/20. And I bet when they look back on this evening they will wish they worked with a sense of urgency. Halfway into service when I looked back inside it was complete chaos.

The night started with the potage cultivateur, a cut vegetable soup. I have to say I was quite surprised they were not asked to do the more difficult consomme, but I was happy to get the chance to eat a soup that actually tastes better. The biggest part to this soup is the knife skills you need for it. The soup contains a collection of carrots, potatoes, and turnips all cut into "paysanne", as illustrated in the picture below. The face of the vegetables by definition should be a perfect .5cm square by .1mm in width. I say "by definition", because at the end of the day, all the vegetables should be the same size, and since there are peas in the soup you have to end up cutting your paysanne to match the size of the peas. Overall, the soups were not bad. All of them needed a bit more salt, and one showed beautifully cut vegetables and perfectly cooked peas and green beans (meaning they were still a nice bright green color). Nothing spectacular, but no disasters either.



Until the next course.

Bass en Papillote - below is a picture with an example of a papillote from a student in a previous class. The fish is basically cooked in a sealed parchment paper package. The dish is served with mushroom duxelles and tomato fondue on the bottom with the fish placed on top. Then a very neat julienne of leeks, celery and carrots (all cooked separately) are placed neatly on top of the fish. A sprig of thyme is thrown on top as well as a splash of wine, before the package is sealed and placed in the oven. This dish is very challenging as you are essentially blind baking it. I was thankful to have not have had this dish on my midterm, and really felt bad for these students. The pressure of the midterm is hard enough. Of the 5 served, 3 were completely raw. One was over cooked (better than raw in my opinion because at least I was able to taste this one) but was marred by the fish bone I bit into. However, the 5th and final one was absolutely PERFECT. Cooked perfectly, beautiful demonstration of knife skills with the julienne, great flavor.....just right on the money. Thank goodness, I was getting HUNGRY ;-) The first raw one that came out, it was such an awful shame - this student had the most perfect and exact julienne vegetables I have ever seen. Her mushrooms and tomato fondue were beautiful and flavorful as well. You could just tell that she was an artist when it came to presentation and our Chef even expressed his sorrow as he said she is the top of his class. She just ran out of time in the stress of the midterm and instead of being late and cooking the fish longer, she chose to be on time and take it out knowing it was not yet done. She would have been doomed either way, but thankfully made up for her first course mishap with a home run on her dessert.



The next course was the chicken grand-mere. I must have cooked this dish over half a dozen times at school and practiced it just as many times at home. It's not hard, but time consuming. All the garnishes - bacon, caramelized pearl onions, pommes rissoler (those freaking football shaped potatoes blanched, sauteed and roasted), and mushrooms must be a specific size, cooked in specific way and flavored just right. Not to mention the chicken which should have a nice, brown crispy skin, with the tips of the legs and wings cleaned precisely to remove all skin and sinew to expose the bone. It needs to be cooked correctly, seasoned nicely. And then the sauce - should meet the right consistency, taste good, be carefully strained of any bits and particles and degreased. I had this dish on my midterm and was so far behind in everything else I almost did not get it in the oven in time for it to cook. While none of the dishes that came out were all that good, my own past experiences made me remember how hard it is to nail this one under the time pressure. One sauce was so watery and oily I could not go beyond the first taste. Another was served on a plate so hot that the plate almost made the sauce boil and it came to us completely congealed on top. Another was so incredibly salty with everything on the plate, I could not eat it. Not to mention the completely burned pearl onions. There was one, however, that although not perfect, was seasoned nicely, and on the bright side no one served us raw chicken. Below is a pic of this dish made by another class, but at least gives you a visual.



The fourth and final course was the apple tart. My most despised dish of all of culinary school because of how perfect it is supposed to look. When you are in a hurry, that's a challenge. The crust must be crimped perfectly but we can't use those pretty tart shells that have it cut out already that way. We have to crimp it ourselves. And the apples should be thinly and evenly sliced, with a beautiful brown color when it comes out of the oven. And lastly, the whipped cream - not over whipped, not too sweet, with a hint of vanilla. Overall, all of the tarts tasted good. One was visually spectacular - could have sat in any of the best pastry shops in the City. The others all lacked the finesse and 2 were just down right sloppy. Only one student remembered to serve us our slices on a cold plate.

The one below is from my level 3 class that my partner and I did, as well as an example of the plating we needed to do. Next time I judge a midterm I will remember to use my camera!!!

Preview

Raviolo al Uovo - (Egg yolk, potato, ricotta, sage)

More Good Vibes

My #2 on my wish list of places to work contacted me last night and invited me in for a trail!

Not sure what day I will be going in yet, but please send me some good vibes and lots of luck!!!

P.S. It's one of the places listed on my top 10 for 2010 (which, btw, I will be crossing off the list as I'm gonna have dinner there this Sunday. I had to book it a month ago and all I could get was a 9:30 reservation!)......hmmmmmmm, where could it be???

Eat Your Crust

So, I had an interview yesterday. A real actual interview with no knives or cooking involved.

I'm not so sure it went very well.

The Chef was running late and I had to wait about 15-20 minutes. That didn't bother me at all - the kitchen was kind of an open kitchen style so I was able to peek in and see what was going on. The place is not actually open yet (not until March), but the cooks were all there trying to finalize and perfect what will be on the menu opening day.

So, as I am waiting, the Chef comes over and gives me 2 different slices of pizza that they are working on. "We may as well feed you if we are going to make you wait", he said. They were both really good. One was a white pizza with spinach and dill and the other was a homemade sausage pizza. I was savoring each bite. Trying to taste each herb and spice present just incase I was asked any questions on it. Is this a test?

Now for those of you who don't know, I NEVER eat my pizza crust. I just just don't. I would much rather have the "good part" with all the sauce and cheese. Yesterday, it should have crossed my mind to just eat the whole thing. Not leave anything leftover. But, I didn't.

So, the Chef comes over to start the interview and right away says, "You didn't like the pizza?" An offended face accompanied the question. "Oh, no I loved it! I just don't eat the crust of pizzas", I said.

I should have just excused myself right then and there. The interview continued. And it followed with a meeting with the sous chef (who asked me the same horrifying "you didn't like the pizza???" question).

About 40 minutes later, the interview concluded . "We will be in touch with you in the next day or 2".

Swing and a miss!

While I think I answered the questions quite well, I think the pizza thing really hurt me. I mean, the crust is a really important part!! Most people actually judge the quality of the pizza by it's crust.

Do I think will get an offer? Probably not.

Next time, eat your crust.

Firsts

First trail under my belt. First job offer in my new career!

No decisions yet. Meeting with another Chef next week for a new restaurant opening up in the next few weeks. Also trying to arrange a few more trails but we will see.

Trailing was not nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. Although I must admit I was put completely at ease when I walked into the kitchen and heard, "Hi, Beth!" I turned around and it was a former student from school who was a level ahead of me, but in the same kitchen rotation as I was in the restaurant at school, so I worked a lot with him when I was in level 5. It was nice seeing a familiar face and almost made me feel just like I was in school again and it calmed my nerves.

Now I think trailing is fun. How long can I put off getting a job so I can just trail in a bunch of kitchens and get to see different things????

:-)

Top 10 for 2010

It may be a little late given that we are halfway through the month of February, but here is a list of top 10 places I want to eat this year (and one has already been crossed off the list!).

In no particular order:

1) Blue Hill at Stone Barns (check! Wonderful 8 course graduation dinner here which included a peek into the kitchen too!) BUT, the menu is seasonal based on what is fresh each month so maybe I should go monthly????
2) Maialino
3) WD-50
4) Marea
5) Locanda Verde
6) Marlow & Sons
7) Rayuela
8) Perilla
9) Daniel
10) Corton

Ahhhhh!

I got my first trail!!!

For those of you saying "what is a trail", let me explain. In the culinary world, interviews as we know them don't always happen, but before anyone will hire you, you always come in for a "trail". Basically, you come in for prep and stay through service and do everything you are told.....from chopping, slicing, maybe helping during service. I will be going in later in the week for dinner service.

This is my FIRST trail in my career. I'm NERVOUS. I have no idea what to expect. My school tells us that in addition to prepping and stuff, students have been asked to make things on the fly for the Chef. This is what I hope does NOT happen. I will die from nerves!

Anyway, I'm still setting it up, but should be going later in the week. Keep your fingers crossed for me! While this place is not my #1, it's still a really good restaurant, and being my first trail I have no idea what to expect so the anxiety is killing me :-)

Oops

Just noticed I forgot to include the salmon dish in the pics below. Updated!

Our Level 6 Dishes

Here are photos of the dishes we made in the restaurant at school for level 6. Also, to give you a visual to go along with my final exam post, the salmon w/ horseradish crust dish and the gingerbread pudding dessert were the 2 courses I had to make for the judges.

Ah, the good old days ;-)

Chicken Consomme with Mushroom Flan and Gougeres





Hamachi with Apple, Fennel and Horseradish



Sauteed Pheasant Mousseline with Parsnip Puree, Fig and Egg Toast



Hanger Steak Bordelaise with Brussels Sprouts, Pommes Dauphine and Pomegranate Seeds



Tournedos of Salmon with Horseradish Crust, Baby Spinach, Spaghetti Squash Cakes and Beurre Blanc with Caviar



Seared Bass With Celery Root-Apple Puree, Mustard Greens, Hen of Woods Mushrooms and Smoked Shallot Sauce



Chocolate-Porcini Cake with Cardamom Crème and Chocolate-Olive Oil Sorbet



Gingerbread Pudding with Malted Crème Anglaise and Caramel Ice Cream

This Is How We Do It

Some flashbacks from school that I never got around to sharing. These pics are from level 4 buffet. This was not my group, but one of the other groups in my class. It was right around July 4th I think and their theme was BBQ.

Pates and sides:



Lots of goodness:



Yes, that is buffalo frog legs:



Whole piggy and beef brisket:



Travis prepping whole piggy:



Coconut creme pies and peanut butter pies:



Tres leches creme brulee, cheesecake and homemade chocolate candies:

Graduation Day

With the craziness of the final behind us, we all gathered the next day for our graduation. It was fun to get together as a class and have no pressures from any of our chefs.

I have made some good friends over the past nine months, and I look forward to following their culinary paths, as well as finally begin mine. (Which hopefully will start soon now that I am back from a 2 week trip to Costa Rica!)

(A full collection of photos can be found in my album)

The Crew

Judge's Table

So after 5 hours in the kitchen our chefs assembled us all together in one of them. We were congratulated on our efforts, and were told that overall the service went smoothly and as well as they had hoped.

So, now it was time for the judges to give us their feedback. At the beginning of the night, we were all given an ID number. Everyone whose number started with the letter A, was graded by 1 panel of 4 judges, and the rest of us who had a number beginning with the letter B, were judged by a separate panel of 4. Were were going to get our feedback together, in our groups, in an effort to learn as much as possible from all of our classmates.

"This will be the last time in your careers that you will be able to get constructive criticism on your food without your job being on the line for it", our Chef said as we headed out, "Learn as much as you can from this experience".

We filed into the dining room, and were each handed a VERY needed glass of champagne. My group sat down in front of our panel of judges, consisting of the following:

Judge 1 (S.R.'s Sous Chef)
Judge 2 (AKA Rockstar Chef)
Judge 3 (V.T. Pastry Chef)
Judge 4

And then we got our feedback. The Chefs were very constructive, and a lot of their criticisms were directed more on the actual recipes, which they understand we have no control over (for example, chocolate porcini brownie??? Um, yuck!). But they also had a lot of good advice on our actual cooking techniques.

For my salmon dish. the panel complimented me on being the only one who actually served hot plates to them, and noted that my presentation on the plate was tight and very neat and clean. Judge 1 felt I used too much caviar in my sauce (I did put in a touch more than I should have, but I like caviar!). However, he noted that this is an expensive item and should be used sparingly. Judges 1 and 3 though my salmon was cooked to medium, as opposed to the medium rare I was supposed to achieve, and judge 2 commented on the liquid from the spinach leaking onto the sauce, so he gave me some helpful tips on how to prevent that in the future. Judge 4 told me the biggest thing I should take away from the entire experience is how important it is to learn consistency in your cooking. This is something that they don't expect a student to master, but I should continue to work on it and with time, it will come. This is because he had only written down 4 words on his scoresheet for my salmon dish, which were "best dish all night". The salmon that he got was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and he personally enjoyed the balance of caviar in my sauce. That was good to hear, and in hindsight I was kicking myself for overlooking the obvious, which was that I should have been more in tune to the fact that each piece of salmon would cook at different rates, and I should have taken some out of the oven sooner than others. I was just so crazed with getting the other components done, i did not even think about it.

Then onto dessert. It was felt across the board that my cakes were slightly under cooked. If you remember I mentioned that when I checked on them I saw that the tops were cracking and I pulled them out in fear I had over cooked them (in the restaurant, we cooked these in the pizza oven which gave them such an even cooking that when I saw the cracks I panicked). And, here is another time I wanted to kick myself in the butt. I had checked one of the cakes with my cake tester and it pretty much ran clear, so I decided they were done and took them out. Why, I ask you, did I not think to cut one open and check it???I did make EIGHT of them, after all, and only needed to serve FOUR. Good one, Beth, good one. Judge 1 said that it's unfortunate that we were instructed to serve this cake room temp as opposed to warm. He said had I served it warm, I probably would have been saved, because a slightly gooey center would have been really good in that case. He is also a huge fan of gingerbread cake and would never think about serving it room temp, but again we need to do what our chefs tell us so that was beyond our control. As for my malt anglaise that was served on the bottom of the bowl, they all were really happy with it. Judge 4 said I could have bottled it up and sold it for money, and Judge 1 reiterated that with my malt anglaise, had the cake been served to him warm, he would have jumped up on the table and and yelled out of excitement from the combination of the two.

You win some, you lose some.

And This is What It Felt Like........(cont'd from post below)

First order of business was to get the spaghetti squash in the oven that would be used for the squash cakes that went with the salmon dish. Cut the squash, season salt and pepper, olive oil, thyme, butter, oven, done. OK, gear switch...dessert. Right away I got stared on the caramel ice cream. Make the caramel, boil the milk/cream, add caramel, whisk yolks, add to caramel cream, stir until thick, strain, cool over ice, taste and season with salt, sugar and vanilla. Give to proctor to get graded on it before getting combined with the rest of the class and made into one batch of ice cream.

Done. Ok, what next?

The gingerbread cake. Get the 25 or so ingredients that go into this darn cake and then process in the mixer. Continually check on squash. If you burn it you are screwed, they will not give you another one to start over. Back to the cake batter. I see the mixer, but where is the bowl? Who has the bowl? Why is it in the sink dirty? Why didn't you clean it after you used it?? Clean it and get it to me ASAP. Thanks. OK, I have the bowl now, lets go....make cake....dry ingredients in mixer, bring wet ingredients and spices to a boil, add to dry, whisk milk/cream/eggs, add to mixer. Mix, but not too much or there will be too much gluten in the cakes and they will not have the right texture. Check and pray there are no lumps...looking, looking, looks good! yes! find the ramekins, spray molds pour batter into molds. I need 4 but have enough to make 8. Make 8 just in case disaster strikes. Check on the squash again. Why is it not done yet? I need the oven for the the cakes but its at a lower temperature.....hurry up squash and cook!

Ok, they need to finish cooking so next gear change, back to the salmon dish. Need to make the horseradish crust as it needs to set in the fridge for over an hour before cutting into molds. Get the ingredients, prep them, find the food processor to mix them all in. Check on the squash again. It's done! Remove to cool, adjust oven, put in cakes. Back to horseradish crust. Puree the fresh horseradish, add the smoke salmon, puree again. Add butter, mustard, cayenne, salt, pepper. Puree. Add bread crumbs slowly to right consistency, taste, adjust seasoning......oh, shit, the cakes!!!!! Check on the cakes. They are cracking a little on top, but I think they are ok. Take them out to cool. Return to horseradish crust. Finish and roll out the crust on a sheet tray. Put in the freezer to speed up the setting process.

Regroup. What time is it? What do I have left? Chef just said all the ingredients are going to go back to the storeroom in 30 minutes. Get everything I will need for the rest of the night. Damn it, that's gonna take time, I don't have that time to waste. Do it anyway. Hour and a half now till the salmon dish has to be out. Need to finish making the squash cakes, make the sauce, clean the spinach, chop all the shallots. Oh my gosh do I have enough time? Can't worry, just keep going.

Squash cakes. Chop 2 shallots, saute until translucent. Spoon out the squash, whisk eggs, add salt. pepper, curry, squash and sauteed shallots. Mix. Add sifted flour. Mix. Pan fry a small amount to check the seasoning. Too bland. Season again. Move on. Sauce. Need to make the beurre blanc. Chop more shallots, cook in wine and verjus. While that is reducing cook the squash cakes. I will need to make 6 to have enough for 4 dishes. Make some extra just in case. why do they give us these small non-sick pans? I can only fit 3 in at a time??? Keep multi tasking. Sauce reducing, cakes frying. Chop more shallots for the spinach. Flip cakes. Keep chopping, keep an eye on the sauce. If I screw up now, everything has already gone back to the storeroom, I can't start over. I don't have time to anyway. Ok, another batch of cakes, get them going. Back to spinach, wash, spin. Can't get the damn spinner to work. WTF spinner. Bang it. Bang it again. Chef comes over in my fury and bangs it too. Fixes it. Thank you, Chef. Spin it, pick off stems. Look at the sauce, its reduced to one third, add cream, reduce a little more. Back to spinach. God damn these stems, why do I have to pick off all these stems, I don't have time. Keep picking, keep picking, flip squash cakes, keep picking.....sauce looks good. Remove from heat. Squash cakes done, remove from pan. I should really do another batch just in case, ok, get another one going. Back to sauce. Find the immersion blender, add heart stopping amount of butter, blend, blend, blend, oh, shit the squash cakes?!?! Flip them. Crap, too dark. wont be able to use them. Don't have time to make extra. hope nothing goes wrong. Back to sauce. Taste, season, taste, season, taste. Tastes good. Strain, keep warm in water bath.

Breathe.

Time check. It's 8:30. Need to serve my 4 dishes at 9:09. Chef comes in and says we should have the salmon cooking by 8:45 so it can rest and we are not rushed. Hurry, saute the spinach with shallots and garlic. Oh shit, the horseradish crust. Remove from freezer, Get ring molds and make cut outs. Top with extra breadcrumbs and make stupid design on them with paring knife. Keep eve on spinach. Taste, season, cool over an ice bath to stop the cooking. Back to horseradish crust. I need 4 but make 8. These suckers are fragile and I broke a lot of them when in the restaurant. Need to regroup. Prepare for service. Everything on my station not related to service needs to be gone or I'm gonna get major points off for organization and cleanliness.

Clean, organize, clean, organize. Oh, shit, Chef is yelling. It's 8:45. Start cooking my salmon. Shove any unrelated items on my station on the shelf underneath. Crap, I'm gonna get points off for that.

Ok, salmon. Heat oil in pan to hot. Season salmon. We only get 4 pieces, I have to serve 4 judges. Don't screw up there is no do-over. Sear one side and get a good color. Flip. Get color on other side. Wow, first side looks nice. I would eat that. Add shit ton of butter and sprigs of thyme. Baste, baste, baste. Get the sides to cook. Baste. Chef comes by, tells me to get it in the oven so it cooks faster because the pieces are thick. I listen to him because I would be stupid not to. Fish in oven. 20 minutes till service. Get the squash cakes cut in half. Check on salmon. Still not done. Get saute pan and put spinach in and ready to be reheated for service. Get another pan and put the sauce in it and get ready to warm. Check salmon. Looks good, remove and rest them on the wire rack. Organize station. Pick my pieces of dill for the garnish.

Ok, it's show time. Place the horseradish crust cut outs on the salmon and take to the salamander to brown the top. Reheat spinach. Put plates in oven to get warm. Warm sauce. Add caviar. Put the squash cakes in the oven to reheat. Spinach is hot. Set aside. Check on salmon. Another minute more. Remove plates from oven. Shit they are HOT. That's ok, they should be the right temp by the time they get to the judges. Just don't touch them unless you want a third degree burn. Go back and get salmon. Put the spinach over the heat again to make sure its not cold. Plates are on the tray. Let's go! Gloves on. Sauce on 4 plates. Place spinach on 4 plates. Place salmon on spinach. Get squash cakes from oven. Arrange 3 per plate. Top salmon with dill. chef says, "Let's go!" I go. I did it!! I did it!!! I'm on time!!!! Walking with my tray to the dining room. Hand to waiter. Look down on the plates and see that on one of the dishes a little water from the spinach was bleeding into the sauce because I forgot to blot it before plating. Crap, that's not good, but if that is the worst of my problems, I will take it.

HUGE BREATH. Walk back to the kitchen. HUGE SMILE OF RELIEF. OH MY GOSH MY MOUTH IS SO DRY I WILL DIE OF DEHYDRATION!!! I NEED WATER. Don't have time for water. Dessert in 48 minutes and I still need to make the malt anglaise sauce that goes on the bottom and the caramel candy garnish!

Return to station. Clean up. Before I start anything, I need to erase any trace of the salmon dish. Ok, that took 10 minutes. Not too bad. Malt anglaise. Let's go. Boil milk, cream, malt syrup. While that is coming to a boil, whisk egg yolks and sugar to pale yellow color. My arm is tired. All is set. Pour some liquid into the eggs to bring up the temp, whisk, add back to boiling milk mixture. Stir until thick. Strain, cool over ice bath. Get sugar for caramel. Parchment paper, spray it with Pam so nothing sticks. Make caramel, make candy garnish. Done. Time check? I have 20 minutes until service. TWENTY MINUTES!!! I DID IT!!! IT'S ALL A PIECE OF CAKE FROM HERE. Literally.

Holy shit. I made it through my final exam at the French Culinary. Suddenly my legs ache from exhaustion and running around. I grab that glass of water. Plate my desserts and head to the dining room at 9: 57. Exactly on time.

The Big Finale

After 9 months of school, 3 months of working in the kitchen of L'Ecole, and countless cuts and burns, it was finally our time to face the big final exam.

About 2 weeks before the final, I felt pretty confident. I kept thinking to myself that it could not be any worse than the midterm, and I had made it through that. When I took the midterm, I had no idea what to expect. I had also never worked in a "real" kitchen before, so my experience was next to nothing. But, after 3 months at my internship and another 3 in the restaurant at school, I was more than prepared to face this challenge, right?

Maybe.

When you think about it, although we have been cooking the 8 possible dishes for the final in the restaurant kitchen for the past 6 weeks, each person only spends 2 classes on one dish before rotating on. And you do that with a partner, so not only do you have help, but you only really prepare half the dish one night and then switch and prepare the other half the next night. On the final, you are responsible for 2 dishes in their entirety, with no help from anyone. In the kitchen, you have 2 hours to prep the one dish with your partner before orders come in. On the final, you have about three and a half hours to prep 2 dishes all by your lonesome.

Then you have your Chefs. Sometimes it just feels like their sole purpose is to take away any confidence you may have and replace it with the feeling of, "Crap, I am so unprepared for this thing". My Chefs did a good job with this. Especially when they told us how during our final we would be joined by the students in the day program that ended just a few days before ours, who failed their final and had to take it over. They were cooking the same dishes as us, and we had been hearing all along how good their class was.

I tried to practice as many of these dishes at home, but at the end of the day you just don't have the same equipment and ingredients to really do it correctly. So, I would practice bits and pieces. This really left me only with one thing to do to prepare and that was just to memorize all the procedures and come up with a game plan for each possible dish paring as to what to prep first.

Our parings were going to be appetizer/meat or fish/dessert. With fish/dessert, even though the dessert goes out 45 minutes later, you have to do it all first because it takes the longest to cook, cool, make the ice cream, etc. With app/meat, depending on which pairing you got there were separate game plans.

So, on the evening of the final, we all assembled in the the private dining room on the 4th floor close to our level 1 and 2 kitchens. We first had to take a written exam, and then picked our pairings randomly. While we were waiting, Jacques Pepin came in and joked around with us a little to maybe calm our nerves. If you ask me, though, it just made me more nervous. No matter how many times you see him at school, you still can't help but think about how famous he is. Would he still be joking around if he knew how much we sucked??? Ha,ha....

Then if was off to business. I chose my random piece of paper which revealed the salmon dish and the gingerbread cake. I had a neutral feeling for this pairing. I was happy it was not the consomme/steak pairing (the most time consuming with all the sides and garnishes that went with it), but it was the harder of the the 2 fish/dessert pairings.

The next 3 plus hours went pretty smoothly, but without a second to stop and think. They split us up into 2 separate kitchens. In my kitchen was the half of the class that had fish/dessert. I took a sigh of relief when I walked into the kitchen (the same one I had my level 2 class) and saw we each had a whole station to ourselves. This meant I got an entire oven to myself, 2 burners and the whole flat top to myself. This was in contrast to the midterm where in that same amount of space, we had to share with another classmate. I quickly set up my station, sani solution, cutting board, bowls, six pans, pots, pans, tasting spoons, etc.

And then it was off to work......

Celebration Time

Full recap in the next day or so, but I have officially made it through my final exam!!!! What a relief to have it all behind me. It has been a fun 9 months at the FCI :-)