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Biggest theme in food safety: maintain control of your food temperature.
Danger zone for bacterial growth: 41°-135°F (5°-57°C)
USDA Recommended Safe Minimal Internal Temperatures (link):
- Steaks & Roasts — 145 °F
- Fish — 145 °F
- Pork — 160 °F
- Ground Beef — 160 °F
- Egg Dishes — 160 °F
- Chicken Breasts — 165 °F
- Whole Poultry — 165 °F
We are required to carry a thermometer in the side pocket of our chef’s coat uniform. A missing thermometer is considered incomplete and unacceptable dress code.
I started using a thermometer with my home cooking but didn’t realize I wasn’t using the instrument correctly. There is a dimple on the stem of the metal that marks the end of the temperature-sensing portion of the tip.
Thermometers must be inserted into foods at least up to the dimple for a proper reading. It totally explains why we had dried, overcooked chicken breast (despite the telaggio cheese stuffing and prosciutto wrapping) for dinner last weekend.
calibrating in ice slurry
As food service professionals, it’s important to know the proper use of a thermometer, keep it calibrated, and constantly monitor food temperature. There is such a thing as bad publicity when it comes to food safety. Unsafe food is worse than untasty food.
We finally had time to identify and learn the use for each tool in our bundle of power.
Lots of tools:
pastry tips
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
d
Knives:
Chef’s knife, meat slicer, serrated knife, boning knife, all-purpose knife, paring knife, tourne knife, channel knife, clam knife, oyster knife.
cutlery glory up-close
It’s just like Christmas, except that I bought my own present. We are told to guard it with our lives — clutch close on the train, cuddle with it at night. Replacement price tag: $650.
Finally busted out the knives. The IT knife of every respectable cook — Chef’s knife.
This knife is so sharp, it makes me want to cry. Made of high carbon, stainless steel, measuring at 9 inches, this knife is so awesome, it requires 2 protective covers.
A slip and a guard.
The handle is coated in non-slippery rubber that’s welcoming to the touch.
The blade is a thing of merciless beauty. When you thumb through the side of the blade off to the edge, it’s pure smoothness. How can something this smooth be so good at cutting?
So just how sharp is this knife? I conducted the following 2 tests.
1) Sharpness test: tomato
Holding the knife to a tomato, I simply glided the blade across the surface, without exerting any downward force.
The tomato ended up looking like this,
2) Sharpness test: paper
Holding a piece of lined paper in my left hand, I ran the blade down, easily slicing through the sheet.
I thought my old knives were really top notch, but a quick comparison revealed the clear winner. Two cuts on the same sheet of paper. A clean cut and the other jagged and not-so-clean. Also the ease of use of the sharp knife made it very apparent why one must insist on a sharp edge. It’s harder to get hurt with a sharp knife!
We started learning to make specific knife cuts. What does it mean to use knives this sharp? Slicing through carrots feels like cutting tofu (or cake). That’s how amazing this new experience is. Seriously, it makes me want to cry.
I’m going to become super anal about keeping a sharp edge on this baby. Sharpening stone and honing steel. I’m a’ comin’!
By the way, despite the strong urge, I decided that my new Chef’s awesome knife is too precious to be tested on leather shoes or aluminum cans. Damn all those TV influences!
Well-maintained knives can last a long time. Chef D’Addario still has all his knives from 30 years ago.
School at dawn
First class was scheduled to start at 7:00am sharp, however, school policy handouts distributed at orientation stated a proper attendance time to be 6:30am. Apparently, “to be early is on time, to be on time is late, and to be late is to fail.” There will be no messing around attendance. It counts as a solid 10% of the final grade and each 10-minute segments of tardiness will eat up a 25% of the daily attendance score, and 6 absences later, you gotta retake the class. Man, imagine flushing all that money down the drain just because of tardiness/absences. It was my own choice to take the earliest session (as opposed to the 9:00am option) so let’s not fuck around and then blame someone else at the end.
School Lobby
I am enrolled in the 36-week Certificate in Culinary Arts program, just about the same amount of time to carry a slightly premie baby. These 36-weeks are divided into 6-week blocks, each block building on the previous one. This first block for me will be Foundations I and Food Safety & Sanitation. At 6:30am, I ducked into the bathroom, put on my skull cap and chef’s white coat and reported to the Foundations I classroom, just to the right of the receptionist’s desk in the lobby. There were a handful of students there, getting a nice chat going with one of the Chef Instructors, Chef Albert D’Addario. It’s not that you had to be there at 6:30am but it’s a nice time to collect yourself, get organized, and sneak in some questions for the Chef Instructors. I think I made the right choice with an early session. (We were running out of time on both Days 1 & 2 and eating into the pre-class chill time of the mid-morning session.) Two Chef Instructors for each class. Chef David Lentini and Chef Albert D’Addario were both Italian and both Massachusetts natives, where as the 24 students in the audience comprises of a way more diverse group. At under 30 count, we are a smaller sized session than most other start dates. This will be a very interactive experience.
You realized that this was going to be a different kind of school when the last item listed during a lecture on professionalism was “keep your pants on!” hahaha. What’s that I hear? That’s what she said!
(disclaimer: the actual wording was “pants are pulled up at all time!”)
On Day 1, a lot of time was spent on the necessary logistics but just at the very end of class, we were finally issued our knife kits!!! This, my friend, is a 13.8 lb-bundle of pure (ego + self-defense) power.
Power
As we haven’t had time to go through identifying every piece in this bundle of power, I will delay unsnapping of the buckles for now. Stay tuned.
I got inconsistent messages from the Admissions office regarding orientation schedule. It was going to be 10am on Saturday but since I had already picked up my uniforms and textbooks, I was told that I didn’t have to show up until 11am. Later, a phone call from another staff advised me to come early regardless of having already made a trip earlier in the week. I ended up going with the golden angle of luxury watch advertising – 10:10.
LCB Boston is housed on the 3rd and 4th floor of a grand red brick building, with a school-run restaurant, Technique, on the first floor. Tables were set up for checking in and distribution of materials on the ground floor lobby Saturday morning.
The food competition shows have completely wired me to immediately register official-looking people sitting in a row at a long table to be judges. They were not. The judging will come much later, phew.
The only non-paperwork item for me to pick up today are those sexy, boxy steel-toed black shoes. 
These are quite comfortable. The clunkiness will help to balance out the roomy checkered pants. I’m not exactly known to rock hooker heels every night, but these are screaming out, “don’t judge me before you tried me!”
Don't judge me before you tried me!
How many seconds did it take for your “that’s what she said?” Be prepared next time. Don’t just take this blog to be passive information share, yeah? Gimme some Inter-ACTION!
The speeches during orientation were designed to inspire and included important tips like “show up to class,” “don’t give up,” “we have an extensive network at LCB, use it,” “respect the dress code,” “ask tons of questions,” etc. By this point, I’m beyond inspirable. I’m ready. Be back on Monday, May 17th, 2010. 6:30am.
Got my uniforms & textbooks!!
Look at this pile of stuff. I was getting all giddy and excited all day anticipating the pickup.
Uniforms: 5 each of chef’s white coat, checkered pants, skull cap, cravat (neckerchief), apron, and dish towels.
The pants are elastic waistband with drawstrings. They are comfy and super big. Anyone wants to come to my pants party? hehee.
I don’t think I’m gonna have to buy preggo pants in the future.
No idea how to tie the cravat. It’s supposed to be like neckties for guys. Maybe that’s something they’ll go over at orientation. The skull caps will serve as a hairnet, and boy, will my old lab mates be happy to hear that someone’s finally putting constraints on my hair. Imagine a -20°C freezer with vials of important research materials, and random strands of long, black hair. There will be no hair in my food. I promise!
I have to admit, I like wearing uniforms. I was wearing uniforms K-8 grades, with girl scout days mixed in. That instant pull-togetherness is very reassuring for the fashion-capable-but-rather-lazy person. If I don’t leave the house, I can be in pjs all day.
Textbooks:
Can’t wait to digest all this knowledge!
Orientation is on Saturday (May 15th, 2010). The steel-toed shoes will arrive on a special shoe truck and complete the outfit. ID photos and speeches from important school officials will take place.
But what? No knives until the first day of class?? GIMME my knives now!!!
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