Yes it’s been some time (over a month) since I did a posting but things have been crazy busy here at the CIA. Skills 3 class was way more work than expected Chef McCue work us very hard with extra class work and lots of home work. So far it was my hardest class and the one I have earned the worse grade so far. We were doing production and Chef had us doing way more than is normal. One day I made 63 orders of Chicken Fricassee and sold 50 orders most of my friends made only 20 orders and one of them only sold 2 orders.
One day me and 4 other members of the class helped the Chef make a video he needed to make showing his teaching skills as he is attempting to become a Certified Hospitality Educator. He instructed us on how to make risotto and I was one of the students that were to make it incorrectly so he could show us what we did incorrect. It was lots of fun because there was no pressure to get it done for service and it was just one portion. Then one day about 5 of us helped the chef with preparing the food for a banquet in the Escoffier Room (the premier French restaurant on campus) and I was cooking the mushrooms and green beans for the entire dinner. The Escoffier Room chef was very complimentary to us and it’s a great thing for us in Skills 3 to have been asked to do that as it’s the last kitchen the students cook in before they graduate and we have only been cooking here at school for 12 weeks.
I am now in the Cuisines of the Americas with Chef Keif and we are making cuisine from the north eastern and mid western parts of United Stated this week and next week we move to the south and south west. The class we scheduled to have 16 students in it and we started on Tuesday with only 12. With the 12 we were able to get the food cooked and served on time Monday and Tuesday saw two students out sick so we were only 10 but we still coked all the food required and opened on time but we had to hustle to get it done.
I am still at school this Friday catching up on some stuff and enjoying a glass of wine with some friends. I don’t stay here that often but I feel I am missing out part of the experience by not being here on weekends so every once and a while I stay on Friday night and hang out with some friends. Yesterday I was back in Connecticut at Fine Cooking Magazine for an interview for an internship. We need to find a job for our internship that lasts 18 weeks starting in December so I am working on finding a job for the first time in very many years.
Lots going on here at the CIA next week. First my friend Diane Corcoran from Easton will be here taking a boot camp so it will be nice to see her. Second on Wednesday Heidi is coming up to visit and we are going to eat at the Escoffier Room for my Birthday I am looking forward to that as the evening chef is a friend and I know he will take very good care of us. Also I almost forgot the other day I received a card in my mailbox (I don’t get much snail mail) from the Dean Congratulating me for making the Dean’s list first semester, pretty cool.
So long for now and I will try to post news a little more regular in the upcoming weeks.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
It’s been a couple days since the last posting and I am sitting out in the gazebo in front of Roth hall working on my foie gras project and thought it’s time for me to post some news on my blog.
Well it’s been a good week as we started Monday with cooking our fist complete meal. Monday was submerged (deep) poach of salmon with béarnaise sauce. Tuesday was shallow poach of trout with a blance sauce? Wednesday was roasted chicken with pan gravy. Thursday was braised beef short ribs. Friday was stewed chicken. I thought all the dishes came out great but I still don’t like pan gravy. Also this week I received my grade for the Skills 1 class and I earned an A as far as I know the only one in the class to do so. I also found out to day that my chef for the next bloc will be Chef Mc Cue and he is an outstanding instructor. I am very excited to have him and I am looking forward to getting into that kitchen as we will be producing food that is feed to students as their lunch so the pressure is on to have the food ready on time.
The writing class foie gras project is fast coming to a close. I should have the booklet to the printer this week and we do our presentations on Wednesday in the Echo Lab at 4:30. So lot’s has been happening and I have lots to look forward to over the next couple weeks.
I started this posting on Thursday afternoon sitting out in front of Roth hall but did not get to finish it and post it until Sunday afternoon.
Well it’s been a good week as we started Monday with cooking our fist complete meal. Monday was submerged (deep) poach of salmon with béarnaise sauce. Tuesday was shallow poach of trout with a blance sauce? Wednesday was roasted chicken with pan gravy. Thursday was braised beef short ribs. Friday was stewed chicken. I thought all the dishes came out great but I still don’t like pan gravy. Also this week I received my grade for the Skills 1 class and I earned an A as far as I know the only one in the class to do so. I also found out to day that my chef for the next bloc will be Chef Mc Cue and he is an outstanding instructor. I am very excited to have him and I am looking forward to getting into that kitchen as we will be producing food that is feed to students as their lunch so the pressure is on to have the food ready on time.
The writing class foie gras project is fast coming to a close. I should have the booklet to the printer this week and we do our presentations on Wednesday in the Echo Lab at 4:30. So lot’s has been happening and I have lots to look forward to over the next couple weeks.
I started this posting on Thursday afternoon sitting out in front of Roth hall but did not get to finish it and post it until Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Well the vacation is over and it’s back to the kitchen to learn lots of new things to cook. First the trip to Italy and the cruise was great. We toured Venice and Rome for a couple days at each end of the cruise and saw lots of cool stuff in the ports the ship visited. We took about 1000 photos and now I need to review and edit them. Like I need more stuff to do. I would like to think once my writing class project on foie gras is done I should have more time. What’s that all about you ask? My writing class made the decision a couple months ago to do a group writing project and the subject is foie gras. Each student in the class took a different aspect of the subject and is writing a paper on it. I took the production of foie gras as my topic. We plan to present the papers in an auditorium and invite all the students and faculty from campus that are interested in learning about foie gras to attend in a couple weeks so we are in the final stages of writing and reviewing all the papers. Until next time.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Well I know I did a posting last night but I have a little time today as we finished early and I am staying on campus until the morning for my field trip to the foie gras farm so I thought I would let you all know how I did on the practical final test. My consume came out great it was as crystal clear and had great taste and my Hollandaise Sauce also came out fine and had great taste.
Have a great day
Have a great day
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sorry it’s been some time since the last posting the time just flies by here at the Culinary. I have been making all kinds of soups and sauces the last couple of weeks and well as pureed potatoes and several vegetables.
Tomorrow is second day of final exams for Skills 1 class. Today we had our knife skills test. For this test we had to make small dice of one onion, medium dice of one onion, small dice of three cloves of garlic, small dice of one shallot, dice some parsley, make tomato consaceeconcasse out of two tomatoes cut several potatoes into 11 different cuts, Fine Julienne, Fine Brunoise, Julienne, Brunoise, Batonnet, Small Dice, Large Batonnet, Small Dice, Medium Dice, Large Dice, Paysanne, and Fermiere (all described in the post below) all done in one hour and the quality of your cuts was check and graded by the Chef. Tomorrows test is to make a Chicken Consume and Hollandaise Sauce both are challenging to do but I have done both before with success so I have confidence I will be successful. After tomorrow we are on summer break until the end of July but I am going on a field trip with some members of my writing class on Friday to the Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm. Our writing class is doing a group project about foie gras and we plan to print a booklet and make a presentation about foie gras in August to anyone interested in attending. The field trip is for research as Hudson Valley is the largest foie gras producer in the United States and its located about one and a half hours drive from school. There will most likely not be any posts during break as I will be on vacation spending two days in Venice then a 12 day cruise that stops all around Italy and the surrounding countries then two days in Rome before flying home so I will not have access to a computer during that time so look for a post in late July about the trip.
By the way despite the difficulty I had with Fish class I surprisingly earned a grade of B- so I was happy. My current GPA is 3.39 and I am happy with that as the book work is more than I expected and it’s been some time since I was in the school mode. My grades in writing class have been good so there is a change I could get an A or A- in that class and I think I am doing well in Skills 1 so that should be a good grade also.
Tomorrow is second day of final exams for Skills 1 class. Today we had our knife skills test. For this test we had to make small dice of one onion, medium dice of one onion, small dice of three cloves of garlic, small dice of one shallot, dice some parsley, make tomato consaceeconcasse out of two tomatoes cut several potatoes into 11 different cuts, Fine Julienne, Fine Brunoise, Julienne, Brunoise, Batonnet, Small Dice, Large Batonnet, Small Dice, Medium Dice, Large Dice, Paysanne, and Fermiere (all described in the post below) all done in one hour and the quality of your cuts was check and graded by the Chef. Tomorrows test is to make a Chicken Consume and Hollandaise Sauce both are challenging to do but I have done both before with success so I have confidence I will be successful. After tomorrow we are on summer break until the end of July but I am going on a field trip with some members of my writing class on Friday to the Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm. Our writing class is doing a group project about foie gras and we plan to print a booklet and make a presentation about foie gras in August to anyone interested in attending. The field trip is for research as Hudson Valley is the largest foie gras producer in the United States and its located about one and a half hours drive from school. There will most likely not be any posts during break as I will be on vacation spending two days in Venice then a 12 day cruise that stops all around Italy and the surrounding countries then two days in Rome before flying home so I will not have access to a computer during that time so look for a post in late July about the trip.
By the way despite the difficulty I had with Fish class I surprisingly earned a grade of B- so I was happy. My current GPA is 3.39 and I am happy with that as the book work is more than I expected and it’s been some time since I was in the school mode. My grades in writing class have been good so there is a change I could get an A or A- in that class and I think I am doing well in Skills 1 so that should be a good grade also.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Ok well fish class is over and yes it did get better we still went from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm each day but we were able to get some short breaks and on the last day chef Clark took us to one of the kitchens that he had prearranged with that kitchen’s chef for us to be feed a nice lunch.
Yesterday I started in my first kitchen class called Skills 1 and today we actually got to turn on the stove top burned and boil water. It was part of our knife tray. A knife tray is a skills exercise were we peel three onions then we slice one, medium dice one and small dice one, next we peel and dice three cloves of garlic, mince one shallot, and make tomato concasse, that is to skin (this is done by putting them into the boiling water for about 20 to 30 seconds), seed and cut into quarters two tomatoes, then we chopped some parsley, next is peeling five potatoes and cutting them into lots of different things some fine julienne (that is 1/16” x 1/16” x2” long) and fine brunoise (that is 1/16” cubes), then some regular julienne (that is 1/8” x 1/8” x2” long) and some brunoise (that is 1/8” cubes), then some batonnet (that is 1/4” x 1/4” x2” long) and some small dice (that is 1/4” cubes), then some ½” x ½” x 2 “ long cuts and some medium dice ½” cubes and some large dice ¾” cubes and some ¾” x ¾” x 2” pieces. All that is graded by the chef for size, quality and straightness of cut. The Chef had nothing bad to say about my cuts so I guess I did ok. As a class we also made about 15 gallons of chicken stock and about 8 gallons of beef broth today. To make that much chicken stock we start with 120 pounds of chicken bones, about 22 gallons of water and about 30 pounds of mirepoix ( 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, 1 part celery chopped into large pieces) and one very large pot. In fact it’s not really a pot but a floor mounted steam jacketed kettle for making stock or sauces in.
I have a writing class mid-tern exam tomorrow that I have been thinking about what to write for it and it’s a challenge as the subject choices don’t excite me but hopefully something will come to me before the test tomorrow.
Only 12 more days of class until summer break we finish class on July 2nd and don’t restart until July 28th. I have big plans for the break and I will provide updates as it gets closer.
Until next time keep cooking and remember drink no wine before it’s time.
Yesterday I started in my first kitchen class called Skills 1 and today we actually got to turn on the stove top burned and boil water. It was part of our knife tray. A knife tray is a skills exercise were we peel three onions then we slice one, medium dice one and small dice one, next we peel and dice three cloves of garlic, mince one shallot, and make tomato concasse, that is to skin (this is done by putting them into the boiling water for about 20 to 30 seconds), seed and cut into quarters two tomatoes, then we chopped some parsley, next is peeling five potatoes and cutting them into lots of different things some fine julienne (that is 1/16” x 1/16” x2” long) and fine brunoise (that is 1/16” cubes), then some regular julienne (that is 1/8” x 1/8” x2” long) and some brunoise (that is 1/8” cubes), then some batonnet (that is 1/4” x 1/4” x2” long) and some small dice (that is 1/4” cubes), then some ½” x ½” x 2 “ long cuts and some medium dice ½” cubes and some large dice ¾” cubes and some ¾” x ¾” x 2” pieces. All that is graded by the chef for size, quality and straightness of cut. The Chef had nothing bad to say about my cuts so I guess I did ok. As a class we also made about 15 gallons of chicken stock and about 8 gallons of beef broth today. To make that much chicken stock we start with 120 pounds of chicken bones, about 22 gallons of water and about 30 pounds of mirepoix ( 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, 1 part celery chopped into large pieces) and one very large pot. In fact it’s not really a pot but a floor mounted steam jacketed kettle for making stock or sauces in.
I have a writing class mid-tern exam tomorrow that I have been thinking about what to write for it and it’s a challenge as the subject choices don’t excite me but hopefully something will come to me before the test tomorrow.
Only 12 more days of class until summer break we finish class on July 2nd and don’t restart until July 28th. I have big plans for the break and I will provide updates as it gets closer.
Until next time keep cooking and remember drink no wine before it’s time.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Hi all
Things have been going good but I have never been as busy as I am now each day seems to get even busier. The amount of material covered in Meat Identification and Fabrication class was to say the least mind boggling. We covered all the basic meat animals both from the muscle (meat) and bone structure stand points. I now know so much more not only about how to cut meats but I now know the reason different cuts are cooked using different cooking techniques. If that was not enough now we are in Seafood ID & Fabrication class and the amount of information to cover is many times more than Meat class. For example its 6:15 Saturday morning and I am up working on my computer to get a little ahead for next week. We star are days in class at 8:00, the first thing we do is to clear the ice off the fish in the cooler and bring out one of each fish in stock for the identification demo then we need to bring out the fish we need to fabricate (scale, debone and skin) for all the kitchens on campus for the afternoon classes (afternoon classes make dinner for all the students and faculty). Next we do a review of all the fish to be able to identify them and then we put the ones we do not need away before the fun begins. Now it’s time to scale and cut the fish. We spend the next several hours working on the fish. Once we fish that it’s time to bring in and ice the fish shipment for the day and clean up. By now it’s about 12:30 or 1:00 so time for our lecture and tasting. Chef lectures for a couple hours and then we taste small pieces of a couple of different fish finishing at 4:00 (notice I did not mention and breaks or lunch)
In meat class my days started at 5:30. I had class from 7:00 to 1:00 then homework until dinner then after dinner more homework until 11:00 then sleep. Now in fish class its up at 6:30 study and breakfast till class starts at 8:00 and so far fish class has run till 4 even though it’s only scheduled till 2:00. On Wednesday and Friday I have writing from 4:0 to 5:30 then its dinner at 5:30. After dinner it’s homework till I go to sleep between 11:00 and 11:30. I have no time to do anything but school work. I understand that once I start in the skills kitchen things will slow down a little. Well it’s time to run I have some more home work to do.
Things have been going good but I have never been as busy as I am now each day seems to get even busier. The amount of material covered in Meat Identification and Fabrication class was to say the least mind boggling. We covered all the basic meat animals both from the muscle (meat) and bone structure stand points. I now know so much more not only about how to cut meats but I now know the reason different cuts are cooked using different cooking techniques. If that was not enough now we are in Seafood ID & Fabrication class and the amount of information to cover is many times more than Meat class. For example its 6:15 Saturday morning and I am up working on my computer to get a little ahead for next week. We star are days in class at 8:00, the first thing we do is to clear the ice off the fish in the cooler and bring out one of each fish in stock for the identification demo then we need to bring out the fish we need to fabricate (scale, debone and skin) for all the kitchens on campus for the afternoon classes (afternoon classes make dinner for all the students and faculty). Next we do a review of all the fish to be able to identify them and then we put the ones we do not need away before the fun begins. Now it’s time to scale and cut the fish. We spend the next several hours working on the fish. Once we fish that it’s time to bring in and ice the fish shipment for the day and clean up. By now it’s about 12:30 or 1:00 so time for our lecture and tasting. Chef lectures for a couple hours and then we taste small pieces of a couple of different fish finishing at 4:00 (notice I did not mention and breaks or lunch)
In meat class my days started at 5:30. I had class from 7:00 to 1:00 then homework until dinner then after dinner more homework until 11:00 then sleep. Now in fish class its up at 6:30 study and breakfast till class starts at 8:00 and so far fish class has run till 4 even though it’s only scheduled till 2:00. On Wednesday and Friday I have writing from 4:0 to 5:30 then its dinner at 5:30. After dinner it’s homework till I go to sleep between 11:00 and 11:30. I have no time to do anything but school work. I understand that once I start in the skills kitchen things will slow down a little. Well it’s time to run I have some more home work to do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
