day three blues

Modern Banquets. Its a simple-sounding class. And, it is simple!

Although simple never, ever means easy. Okay, maybe it does in some circumstances. Like drawing cubes. That's pretty simple, and its pretty easy.

Day three of modern banquets, my team was responsible for a cabbage braise, sautéed apples, and some hash brown potatoes. Easy and simple!

Right? Right? That is, until you throw into the mix: a new chef, some unruly potatoes, and your own poor judgement. We're here to learn, right?

My teammate and I stare down into the pan of potatoes we cut yesterday. "Uh-oh" I say, cheekily but with all seriousness. "Yup" he replies back. The 10 lbs of potatoes we cooked, cut, and saved yesterday, have in some pieces turned a lovely deep purple-black on the tips; a mar against the pale yellow-white of the rest of the Russets sitting in the pan. We dig though them, snatching up all the ugly hash brown pieces like they are dollar bills on a game show. The loss of 5 lbs of potatoes is annoying, but not a total loss.

My sliced apples are not my ideal. I read the recipe posted online by my other chef, "Cut apples in to 1/8ths". I do so. However, this is before the morning lecture by the chef. Chef DePaula says, "No, not eighths, just thin slices!" for the apples. Trying to cut an already cut apple isn't the best situation, so my slices are tiny bit uneven. Okay, they're fairly uneven. WHATEVER I say. Chef disagrees, and I tell him sorry. He said, "I'm sure you didn't try and hurt my feelings with your apple slices, Courtney!" I say, "Well, Chef, they'll be perfect tomorrow!"

And then, I realize that the most important thing about cooking isn't what you're cooking. Its cooking whatever you are on, to the most, absolute best that you can. It doesn't matter that I think that sauteed apples are stupid on this menu. I want people to taste the apples and think, "Shit! These are like, the best apples EVER!"

Tomorrow you will be able to take a ruler to my apple slices.
Shouldn't we strive for perfect in every single slice? Do I want to take my apples and feed someone a sub-par apple? That's me on their plate! Why should I represent me with anything less than fantastic?

fish and intro to modern banquets

We enter into the new kitchen apprehensively.
I belt out, "Good morning, chef!" to Paul Delarose, in my most cheery, "its 6:30 am" voice I can manage. I pull behind me about 30 packages of cauliflower, pearl onions, peas, turnips (both yellow and white), parsnips, and other orders from the stockroom, down the tiled ramp that leads into the main area of our new, K15 kitchen. My roommate Victoria follows me, pulling down more baskets of food with my other classmate. The three of us throw the items onto the shiny stainless countertop that divides the space. I check items off the list, while the other two go down to the "Meat room" to grab turkey and beef brisket. I hurry, not knowing our new chef for "Modern Banquets". This man will dictate our attitude for the next three weeks, yet we have no clue who he is. I figure, I've been in class 10 minutes, and the chef hasn't said anything yet, so I can't be going in the wrong direction all that much...

Meat meat meat meat meat

So we have all just gotten back from summer break and its due time that I made another blog post...
from the title I bet you can guess what the photos will be. Just before break we finished our "Meat ID" class, which was fantastic because it was taught by Chef Scheneller, who is an amazing butcher and everyday he wow'd our whole class by his skills. It is really a lost art, and I hope it doens't go away, because even though our whole class did well, we all felt as if we really wanted to learn more, or, at least improve our skills.

end of three weeks

hi fam and friends!
there hasn't been an update in a while because we have be super busy here! Four days a week we have class, with Mondays usually being the most free, with only one lecture or special presentation. Today, we had a presentation at 7 am on "ingredient functionality". Today, at the end of three weeks, also marks the fact that new youngin's are coming in, and so my group is no longer the youngest group here. Yay!
So far, we have had four culinary fundamentals classes, or "skills" classes. These are the non-academic classes where we actually do some cooking. Every class, we make huge vats of stocks, chicken and beef, which are used throughout the school's restaurants. Then, we also turn in a "knife tray", which include many different vegetables which are meticulously cut, as in potatoes "julienned", aka 1/8th inch by 1/8th inch by 1 and 1/2 to two inches. And the chef will measure them! So you learn pretty quickly to be accurate. Then we also make something else, like last Friday we made French Onion Soup with gruyere and parmesan croutons. I am excited every day that I don't chop off my fingers, or totally mess up what I am supposed to make. So far, I have been doing very good on both these accounts.

Otherwise, school is very fun. Living in upstate New York is a far cry from living in the city, as there is no real "town" where we are, in order to go to somewhere more "townish" we have to drive to Poughkeepsie which is about ten minutes down the highway. There is a mall which is 20 minutes down the road or so. The train station isn't too far away either, which is good. On campus, we have a gym, and so far I have been going nearly every day which is good. Also, we have Zumba classes two nights a week that a couple of us attend, as well as some other events on campus every few weeks, such as a Clam Chowder cook-off which was fun, and a pizza making contest coming up next month, which a few of us will be competing in. I can't yet tell you our top-secret recipe (I'm pretty sure we don't even know it yet!)

the mighty hudson 

campus: there should be some geese, somewhere around there

first days at the culinary institiute of america

After moving in on Sunday night, the next day was a very informative tour of the Culinary Institute of America campus, which I had never seen before my arrival. The next few days we have spent going through many, many orientation sessions. What I can say about this part of upstate NY is that i is cold. However, this is my California attitude, as this whole winter has been unseasonably warm and everyone keeps telling me how lucky I am, as last winter there was at least 2 feet of snow at this time. Well. That's a good thing because I never did get around to buying those snow boots I really meant to, and I did bring my ski jacket that makes me look a little like the Michelin man...but i guess that's one of the benefits of no longer living in Los Angeles? Now I get to wear big, figure-eating chef pants that will (hopefully) hide the weight I will undoubtedly gain from being surrounded by terrific food.

Well, most of the food is terrific!
The fun part about being at a culinary school is that whenever you get fed, you automatically get to be really critical of what you are eating because other students have prepared it for you, and actually want your feedback, as opposed to a normal restaurant where you are a little worried that they will spit in your food. Your risotto came out cold? Tell someone! Underdone johnny cakes? tell anyone you want. Its a little addicting. I suppose next time I am in a normal restaurant I will have to watch myself.

Its actually very good food for the most part. My friends and I have been learning some tips along the way from the older students, aka: "Don't go to that kitchen for dinner. Those students are newer. If you eat a hamburger there it will DEFINITELY be raw". I mean I learned this after I had already picked up food from that kitchen, the good part being I don't eat meat, so I was not going to die from the undercooked johnny cake, but now I knew better.

Along with cooking classes, I will have to take "culinary math", catering principles, product identification, hospitality, and an introductory freshman class. These all start next week, but luckily we get our knives tomorrow. And, those smart folks at the CIA, they have already told us that we really should engrave our knives (engraver provided by school) which I think is very practical so that they don't get mixed up/stolen.

Throughout my time during orientation, I keep thinking back to when I started at UCLA four years ago. I really laughed during one info session talking about tutoring in the tutoring lab. At UCLA, this would usually mean writing, some high level math class, or organic chemistry (which I heard is nearly impossible to figure out on your own). However, in addition to writing and math help at the CIA, you can literally walk into the tutoring lab and ask for some potatoes or onions and have them help you practice your knife cuts/skills. I think of the high tech labs at UCLA being over run by small-dice carrots and kids at the computers crying as the air fills with onion fumes. Well, it made me laugh at least.

And now, some photos:

Weekly Beer Review: The Bruery's Autumn Maple

Brewery: The Bruery, Placenta CA
Beer: Autumn Maple (Seasonal)


Overall, this beer is really good if you enjoy Belgian style ales (not hoppy, decidedly sweet). As it says on the label, there are distinct spices that you can taste: maple and molasses being the most predominant. Maybe the yam flavor is missing, but I can't really say that I would want a lot of yam flavor in a beer! Has a good, amber color and smell. I really liked it, and its great for winter weather when you're craving something stronger in a beer. Would be great to share between two or more people, since its a 750 mL bottle and 10% ABV. Overall, A-. 
$10.99 @ Whole Foods, LA

all the photos i havent added