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It was the same 6-week duration as Foundations I but these past 6 weeks of Foundations II seem to have gone by in half the time.
There was so much more materials covered in Foundations II.
And all the actual cooking made it much more content-rich.
I can’t believe how much we did but also feel unsatiated by how much more we could have learned.
I’m still hungry!
Starting Monday, those of us in the same program are heading into Foundations III.
Word on the street is, another giant leap in content and intensity.
Let’s GO.
Menu
Saute Chicken Breast (Statler breast)
with pan gravy, green beans almandine, and rice pilaf (brunoise red pepper, carrots, onions & shallots)
In the past 6 weeks leading up to today, we’ve steadily gone through the cooking of carbohydrates, vegetables, and proteins. This exam was the first time we were asked to produce a complete plate of food comprising all of those elements.
I love the pre-planning, the multi-tasking, and the satisfaction from composing the end product. And of course, eating my own work at 9am is always such a treat.
There’s plenty room for improvement, but what a great class it’s been!
It’s exam week again — 2 practicals and 1 written.
Today’s menu
Fresh Fettuccine Pasta in Blue Cheese Cream Sauce
(garnished with parsley and julienne red peppers & leeks)
A whole slew of points were noted through exam time. We were graded on mise en place, organization, cleanliness, time management, knife cuts, flavor balance, and final presentation. You know it’s a great day when you get stuffed from gorging on a plate of freshly made creamy, cheesy pasta at 9am. It doesn’t cease to amaze me how, given the same ingredients and directions, everyone produces a very different dish. There are some personal styles that are beginning to emerge.
The day finished with Chef Barret feeding us beautifully pan roasted salmon fillets (super crispy skin) and sauteed fresh chanterelle mushrooms.
<<food coma>>
It’s a bigger question than I would’ve thought.
Can you really teach motor skills? Walking, biking riding, sneezing with your eyes open?
How do you define cooking abilities?
One of the goals of a formal cooking education is to provide enough techniques and principles such that one is able to do away with recipes. How awesome is that? Being able to whip something up without recipes? However, a lot of it puts the onus back on the student.
As much as passion is proclaimed, a lot of students just don’t seem to put in the effort.
How much can you teach someone who fails to even show up on a daily basis?
What about repeated failure in following directions? Very straightforward and clear directions?
What about the fact that students come from a huge array of backgrounds?
How do you balance your time and attention across the different levels of needs?
And demos are tricky to perform. All eyes on you to demonstrate every detail of the techniques while delivering a lot of information, only to be quickly (and often harshly) judged by the students’ in-training palete?
In all, you get a full plate, and it ain’t no cake on that plate.
All of my chef instructors (Chefs Lentini, D’Addario, Oremus, and Barrett) have done a great job by making it look so easy.
Thank you and please continue your hard work. It’s very much appreciated.
Disclaimer: Yes, my nose is brown. This is my blatant kiss-ass piece. The Head Executive Chef of the school, Chef Mushin came in to class one day and asked me about my blog. He wanted to know if I was Dr. Joy and if I was cracking an egg (impeccable timing as I was whipping some mayonnaise). He then proceeded to ask chef instructors to check this blog out. I was quite embarrassed. As a way to give nods to my new audience, this is me insuring for my grades. LOL
The 4 fillets of flounder from yesterday’s butchering were turned into two completely different dishes.
One dish shallow-poached — I think this dish is called a paupiette, will have to confirm with chefs tomorrow. The rolled up flounder fillets were stuffed with salmon mousseline and finished in a cream-based fish stock reduction sauce. This is so French, so labor-intensive, and so white table cloth. Sometimes, it’s the technique and labor involved in a dish that makes the dish. This fish was delicate in texture yet powerful in flavor. The reduction of fish fumet (which was also the poaching liquid) intensified all the good seafoodness reminiscent of crab mustard. Unfortunately Chef Oremus says a perfect mousseline can only be achieved with a robot coupe and not a home model food processor.I’ll have to be creative with the stuffing for this to go on a dinner party menu.
The other dish fried — flakey, moist center with a golden brown crispy panko breading. Add a few fries, freshly whipped tartar sauce, and a drop of sriracha (genius, Tameka!), and it was the best lunch at 10am.
There is a real sense of accomplishment in utilizing a fish in its entirety. From the breakdown into fillets, the turning of fillets into 2 distinct dishes, to the incredibly fragrant fish stock extracted from bones, all of it together honors the life of the fish.
I eat whole fishes. Breaking fish down to fillets is one of those things I never thought I would be doing.
But as with everything in school so far, I tried it and I liked it.
Flat fish breakdown was demonstrated with flounder and instead of waiting a day after the demo to get down and dirty, we got to play right away.
Down to the bone.
Did you know that one flat fish yields 4 fillets? (round fish yields 2)
There is definitely room for improvement on this one. Gotta make the bones and skin cleaner. In Foundations III we’ll each get to breakdown a whole salmon. That’s gonna be a riot.
The fish bones will go into a fumet (fish stock) tomorrow and half of the fillets will be breaded & fried. But maybe I’ll just accidentally flour this skeleton up and drop it in the fryer. One of the best crispy eating there is: fried-to-a-brittle-salty-crunch-thin-fish-bones. YUM YUM!
It’s about time!
Finally got some pork going. I ate a lot of pork growing up. Pork is the quadruped of choice in my family and we eat every part of it. But the funny thing is, the one part of pork we cooked today is the part that I’m least familiar with — loin. Lean and easily overcooked, loin hasn’t been terribly exciting in my food memory.
How about a nice grilled loin steak of medium doneness, with a little pink on the inside? That’s even more unfamiliar to my eating habits. Underdone pork comes as a little mental hurdle but hey, that texture was amazing. Moist and tender with a little chew, slabbed on a pad of compound butter, I couldn’t believe it was pork.
Might have to throw this on the grill at home next time. But just for more adventurous friends, my family’s not ready for this.
Chef Oremus cleaning the grill for us.
The all-important diamond-shaped grill marks.
Now another dish that is equally foreign to my pork consumption patterns but satisfyingly comforting: Pork Scallopine Marsala.
Pounding with a meat mallet is always a good way to start a day in the kitchen. Mushroomy, marsala wine sauce coating thin pieces of pounded pork that’s sauteed in butter. Ai-ya-ya. Delicious morning of non-stop tasty pork bites. After having to discard a pan of burnt bits and re-doing the sauce emulsion, the born-again dish came out just the way Jesus would’ve wanted it. Wait, did Jesus eat pork?
Doing 2 dishes at the same time is very exhilarating.
It calls into action all sorts of organization and time management skills.
Starting from a proper butchered, classical 8-cut chicken,
we produced 2 different braised chicken dishes: Chausseur (brown) and Fricassee (white).
For the brown braise, getting a nice brown skin crust sets up the dish.
Then after layers of earthy flavors and low oven love, you get a satisfying dish.
Chicken Chasseur
Another take of this technique goes in the opposite direction in color development, or as many in my class consider, a total lack of appeal.
Cream-based white braise. Mine was a touch more color on the chicken than perfection.
Chicken Fricassee
I’ve lost count of the number of roast chicken I’ve eaten in my life. And I’m not talking about roast chicken meals, I mean the total number of roasted birds I welcomed into my belly. Yes, if physiological consequences didn’t interfere, I would still be eating a whole bird by myself in one sitting.
Roast chickens are so tasty! From Costco, Boston Market, Whole Foods, German Beer Gardens, to Thomas Keller’s Bouchon (at all 3 locations!), I eat roast chicken everywhere.
In the past 2 years, however, I began a quest to produce my own at home. I’ve been roasting at least a whole bird a month but sadly, not yet satisfied.
Today’s class turbo-charged my power levels for this quest. I am now a total believer in basting and inserting butter pads under the breast skin. From the wafting smells, the enticing sizzle, to the deeply flavored gravy, roast chicken induces pure euphoria.
Constant moisture control and a gentle touch.
I made it to gnocchi heaven today.
Not enough the least bit humble about it, either. As I was finishing up my fresh pasta dish on the range, my plate of Chef-instructor-approved gnocchi sat at my work station. A classmate tasted my dish and yelled out, “Joy, these are so good,” and my response was, “I know!” So shameless. I had to pause for a second, catch myself, and only added a “thank you” to pretend being grounded. Love the gnocchi!
Next challenge: use even less flour in the dough next time.
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