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.