10 Things That Delighted Me During My First Culinary Course

                Last time I told you about the 10 Things That Irritated Me During My First CulinaryCourse. I didn't want to unbalance the system by showing all the negatives, so here is a list of the positives! And believe me; these alone make it worth it.

               

1. I learned a lot about knife cuts.

   This may not seem like such a big deal, but before, I just randomly chopped things up, impressing everyone with my speed. I never truly 'diced' things… more like cut into weird little bobbles. I thought dicing celery was just chopping it down its length and chopping a carrot was making half-moons and cutting that in half. Herbs were a little rough, garlic wasn't fine… I look back like damn, what was going on? Now, I take my time and I've gotten faster with perfecting perfect squares. I'm a little obsessed with making them exact squares as well. I can almost tell the difference between small, medium, and large dice as well, which is probably one of the hardest things. Another great thing is that I now know how to have less waste!

                               

2. I have committed basic things to memory through practice.

     I have a really poor memory- that's no secret. One of my worst fears in school is that even though I have get a degree, I will forget everything, so I'll be worthless in my field. How could I commit a ton of basic recipes to memory? With this class, there's no way I will forget how to make white stock, roux, or Velouté sauce. I know the percentages of mirepoix, a bouquet garni, and a sachet. I was amazed how easy it was to commit these things to second nature and I'm so glad that is happening. Now I'm hoping to get that with my baking!

                               

3. Good people.

     The entire class was one big family. Even the nut-jobs and the annoying people were part of our special group. I could talk to anyone and ask them a question, we could all laugh as a group, we all chatted about our exams after we took them, we all rolled our eyes at the same things… we had a good bunch! I really thought everyone would clique up and leave me out of everything, but it was completely the opposite! Which brings me to my next point…

                               

4. I thought I would be the old outcast, but everyone was of a different background and had different stories.

   I thought it would be typical. I would be the chunky black female that's too old to be starting an introductory culinary program while everyone else was perfect, skinny, white, high school graduates who had the best chef knifes, had to pin their jackets to fit their small torsos, and practiced every technique in the book through their high school vocational courses. I thought no one would talk to me, and I would just keep to myself the whole semester. Boy was I wrong! In the group of girls I told you about alone, two were lesbians (one black with a wife and two kids and one a white high school graduate), and one was a mixed girl. The class was sprinkled with different races and backgrounds. Some were old enough to maybe be my father. No one was stuck up and everyone had the attitude that they wanted to learn. Except for those who dropped out… that was cray cray. Anyway, I appreciate diversity and acceptance in a school, especially when Wikipedia will tell you that Livonia is the whitest city in America.

                               

5. Great, caring chefs.

    Each chef may have had their unique personalities, and each chef might have been a little tough, but you could tell instantly that they cared about every one of us. There was nothing that indicated that they didn't love to teach. Each conversation and lesson was given with warmth and tough love.

                               

6. The beautiful and unique facility.

     The reputation of Schoolcraft College's Culinary Arts program precedes itself. I've only heard about good things and success stories (one baker going on to work with a Food Network chef, another becoming  a personal chef for Lady Gaga) and I plan to be one of them. One of the things they don't talk about enough is how awesome and state-of-the-art the facility is. The VistaTech center is huge and beautiful. The various culinary kitchens have almost everything you need, and everything is curated specifically for that purpose. I still love that we obtained that panning machine! The school is proud of and cares about the culinary program for sure, and that makes everything an even higher quality.

                               

7. I felt like people were in awe of me in my uniform.

    I've worn a chef coat before. In fact, I get compliments because the stark white looks nice against my brown skin. However, when I wore one for MSU, it was obvious to everyone I just worked as a student cook in the cafeteria. When I walk around after a day at Schoolcraft in my white chef coat, white toque, and lame checkered pants, people stare and ask questions. I like to browse in the produce section of the grocery store so it can look like I'm about to cook something from scratch. It's like I get an instant professional upgrade!

                               

8. I learned about various herbs and spices I would have never used before.

   For our herbs and spices identification as you may recall, we needed to know what certain herbs looked like, smelled like, tasted like, and what it was used for. I've never heard of savory and mace, and I never thought to ever want to use coriander or fennel seeds. Now, when I shop at the store, I want to include new spices to add more dimension to my cooking.

                               

9. I am now the go-to person for everything culinary.

    Ok, this is sort of a win-lose type of thing. I mean, I took one freaking class and people are acting like I'm a Master Chef! Now my family and some of my friends already ask me things because I always knew a little more about cooking, but some people go over the edge! I can't make any accidents or people will be like 'I thought you were in culinary school!' it drives me crazy! However, I do enjoy it when people are interested in my opinion and my techniques. I like when people go for my things  first at work because they know I'm an aspiring chef, or when people request me to make things. My joy comes when people love my food and brag about me. It's embarrassing, but my boyfriend brags about me all the time to his family and friends and he has even told me I'm his inspiration and he admires me. My mom does the same, and random Facebook people will message me asking about something to do with cooking or a recipe. I will never get tired of that.

                               

10. I actually enjoyed school and learning.

      I have always hated school. Now I know it's necessary and I've always worked hard to get good grades but I just want it to be over with! Especially an 8 am class! With this course, I looked forward to spending my entire Saturday in class. It didn't feel like the usual learning. It was so engaging and informative that I couldn't wait until the next class. I had zero problems studying and reading the book because it was interesting. I didn't have that even in some of my fashion and interior design courses which I loved. This is probably the hardest I have every worked in a college course and came out smiling.

So these are some pretty positive things and if you are thinking about going to culinary school, you should start thinking about what is important to you in a classroom setting. You're going to be spending hours at that place! Make sure your dedication lines up with the requirements of any program you are going into. Everything is not going to be easy, but if you really want it and you work hard, you will succeed!

10 Things That Irritated Me During My First Culinary Course

Now that the course is over, the glamour is gone and I can gripe about some of the things that irritate me in hindsight. I still love it and I'm going to do it, but I think there should be some changes to help out new students that are especially new to this college thing!

1. Getting out early but my tuition bill is the same.

After the first few classes, we got out early almost every week. And it wasn't like a few minutes, some was more than 2.5 hours! Yet, I still paid the fool eight-hundred-and-something dollars out of pocket. I feel like if you can't fill the whole long day, cut the credit hours.

2. Constant stains on white jackets.

Okay, this is more my fault. I guess chef coats are white to reflect the heat and yada yada, but come on! We only had waist aprons… I needed one for the top too. For a custom jacket that was a little pricey, I want some protection. I feel like every semester I'm going to have to purchase a new one. Sometimes it was my carelessness, but when mysterious stains started showing up, I knew that some things around the kitchen were coated in something designed to make me look bad!

3. Know-It-Alls were legion.

If you are not my professor, I do NOT, repeat do NOT need you to come over and check my stock. Go away! When you're over here being nosey all in my grilled and the chef is calling to you telling you your stuff is messed up, you need to check yourself bro! Okay, that was one guy. The next guy would just tell me things that I didn't ask nor want to know. Yay, you used to work somewhere where they cooked this differently… sorry but we are doing Classical French cooking and your method is Disillusioned American. I repeat: GO AWAY! I wouldn't be upset with these people if it was a one-time occasional thing, but it happened every class to both me and my girls. Also watch out for the 'know-it-none's'. These people did not retain any information and kept the class slow and constantly asked for answers even in the last few weeks. It's like they didn't even try. One even whined and accused the chef of picking on her when she claimed that a mixture can be 60/60 and he asked her to show where in the world possible that can happen. Sigh…

4. The supply list was a lie.

Ok, not really but come on! I shouldn't have to be scrambling to purchase things for the next week when you suddenly decide we should all have something. That expensive of a facility should have enough wooden spoons and scrapers for us all. Or you could just, you know, figured out it was needed from the prior classes and put it on the supply list. Thank goodness my mom had some 'mesh' that suddenly became required to put underneath our cutting boards!

5. We had two chefs overall, both with different directions.

I spoke about this in my previous posts. There was Chef Loving and Master Chef Gabriel. It looked as if Chef Loving commanded the most respect, but everyone wanted so bad for it to be that the Master Chef always knew what he was doing. It usually turned out that Chef Loving's methods were the best and not only was that a bit odd, it left the class confused as to who wanted what on the exam.

6. There wasn't enough time set aside to do everything we were supposed to.

Maybe this was just my opinion, but it seemed like we were supposed to learn a little more. The beginning was focused on knife cuts, but it became almost the focus of the entire course. Though I'm grateful for that, I wish we had enough time to make ALL of the mother sauces, make some brown stock, spend more time on fresh herbs and dry spices, and see the uses of all of the equipment. Everything else seemed like such an afterthought.

7. My group never got enough feedback.

It's true that my group did a good job of working together and were usually successful at our attempts, but I wish the chefs and the assistants came over to us more and critiqued more. Sometimes we all got to walk up to show our work, but they paid more attention to others during our cooking process. I guess that means that they trusted us, but still, it would have been nice.

8. There wasn't any real structure, just an illusion.

Not to say the course was unorganized, but we surely did not follow the syllabus. While I'm grateful we got to work more on things the class as a whole was bad at, I still feel like there were other things we needed to strengthen. We never knew which chef we were going to get and I really was disappointed when we didn't actually make that bread.

9. I felt like the homework was a waste.

It was cool that we had little quizzes or whatever, but it just seemed like busy work. There were right and wrong answers and that's it. Nothing to make us reflect, nothing to fill in our opinions on anything. I felt like it didn't even need to be there. We should have just been given a chapter to read and discussed it the next week. To make it worse, a completely different chef was in charge of the homework and it felt like a detachment from the rest of the course.

10. They overreacted on the ability to catch up.

I was really nervous because the attendance policy and syllabus let you know that it was near-impossible to catch up or make anything up if you miss anything. I call bull on that. Mainly because a lot of things were repeats. It may have hurt to miss a demo, but some of the things were simple to learn and practice on your own if you needed it. I really thing that girl should not have had to drop if she missed the first course because we basically learned it all again, plus it was in the book. I can see missing the time where we had to use stock from the previou- oh wait, the stock spoiled anyway so we had to remake it. I could really see missing one of the last few weeks when we practiced the timed exam and learned the herbs and sp- oh wait they tricked us and used other herbs and spices that we didn't learn about at all. See where I'm going here? If someone is dedicated, they will get the work done. If they want to continue and they end up failing out, let it be their choice.

Don't worry, I'm not here to complain. Even with all it's faults, I absolutely love this program and the chefs were amazing! I just wanted you to realize that everything that glimmers is not gold. Go into what you want with an open mind and the faults will be nothing to you. Schoolcraft College really is one of the best out there. I'm going to let you in on a secret. I took half of a culinary course at Lansing Community College before they shut the program down and I had to drop because they tricked me on financial aid. In that course, all we did was attend class, he would hand out various recipes, we would cook them either alone or in groups, and at the end of the night we all sat down for family dinner and ate it. We critiqued. We cleaned up. We went home.

I can do that ish at home.

With Love,

Cookie

Finding the Perfect Homemade Yellow Cake

In my culinary journey- in fact I feel like in almost everyone's culinary journey, we have been searching for the Holy Grail of homemade yellow cake recipes. Some of us own businesses or is the 'baking queen/king' in the family and gets everything down to a perfect science… except that darn yellow cake. So we doctor up Betty Crocker mixes and go along with that because most non-bakers can't taste the chemicals! Well I'm here to let you know that the search for you just MIGHT be over. I say might because I, like you I'm sure, have been told this over and over again with the same fails.

Looks pretty right? Too bad it tasted like nothing.

Really nice texture and very fluffy - no flavor!

The cake is too flat, it rises perfect but tastes bland, it came out more like cornbread or a muffin, it's too dense, it's dry, it's okay but I wouldn't eat it without the frosting… we've all been there. Today, just try this recipe out. If it doesn't work for you, I'm sorry for the wasted ingredients and time. I really hope it does because I've found the best cake for me. If it doesn't work, I say try it ONE more time. Then that's it… if it sucks, you can continue your search.

Weird crumb cake concoction that was the result of a failed yellow cake recipe. Tasty... but tasted like muffins. The second layer completely fell apart...

We want everything like a box-mix cake minus the chemicals. We want flavor, rise, moistness, perfection almost every time- but we want to be able to say we made this with our own fresh ingredients and our own loving hands. Before I move on, I'm going to link to where I got the recipe and add a thank you to this kind soul who posted it:

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/45372/finally-that-perfect-homemade-yellow-cake

I believe it's a combination of two recipes that came out great!

Delicious, moist, fluffy... excuse the mess!

I had to take pictures before it disappeared!

This was delicious, moist, and was definitely able to hold a good amount of frosting. In fact, the layers would have been perfect if I didn't rush the process and try to take the cakes out of the pan while still hot… good thing frosting covers everything!

So as I said, try this out this weekend. I'm going to try them as cupcakes and follow up, but this is the one that I will pass down to my children and their children!

With Love,

Cookie

Perfect Yellow Cake Recipe

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift the flour)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
Vegetable oil
1 stick butter (not margarine), softened
1-tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°

Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of (3) 9 x 1 1/2-inch round pans. Spray the pans with cooking spray, place the wax paper in the pans and spray the paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, mixing well.

Measure the 1-1/4 cups of milk in a 2 cup measuring cup….then add enough vegetable oil to bring the liquid up to 1-1/3 cups.

Add the milk/vegetable oil mixture, butter and vanilla to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium to medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Add the eggs and continue beating an additional 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near center of cake comes out clean, or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.

Cool cakes on wire racks for 15 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

Note: It rises well, but I only made two out of the three rounds... I had to cook it for longer but it still came out great.

Aftermath

Class is over... what now?

Grades are posted. They were up less than a week after I walked out of the VistaTech Center, head held high. 

3.3. That means I am most DEFINITELY in the program.  I might have been one of the first ones to the advising office to turn in the remaining section of the Culinary Arts application. She checked everything out, filled out the rest of my file, and sent me on my wait. Now... it's the waiting game.

I will receive an acceptance letter, more details of the program, and I will talk with an advisor about which rotation I want to start. During the wait, I'm going to research and share with you everything I can before I enter into the program. I'll figure out how I'm going to pay for it, I'll practice a ton of techniques, and most importantly, I won't leave you hanging until next fall.

Stay tuned!

The Final Test: This Is IT

DISCLAIMER: Today was the only day there were no pictures. I hope my words can paint a vivid image of my experience and my nerves… Enjoy!

Seven weeks went by so fast.

Chopping, slicing, dicing, simmering, tasting, laughing, smelling… all of that culminated into one final showdown. The Final Practical.

Homework quizzes have been done and graded. Whatever you got on that was what you got, what you didn't finish was a plain zero. The end arrived. You either studied or you didn't. You either got those knife cuts and the smell of Old Bay down to a T or you didn't. You either passed this exam or you didn't get into the Culinary Arts Program. If this is scaring even you, imagine how the class felt.

I walked in twenty minutes early. L was already there and we went around smelling spices and checking out large equipment. Surprise! Some spices were those we have never heard of. We scrambled to figure out what it was and what it smelled like before we had to return to the demo kitchen. Once Chef Gabriel and Loving arrived, everything was put away. At that point, it was time to prove our worthiness.

We set up our station first. Mise en place. Then we sat back in the demo kitchen and began our written exam.

What is a demi-glace? I know that it's half veal stock and half espagnole reduced. While taking the written exam, I completely forgot. What are the five grading criteria for stock? Clarity, Flavor, Body, Aroma and… No fat? That is what I marked. The last answer was color.

Once I turned that exam in, that was it. I couldn't dwell on it. Either I passed or I didn't. Don't worry, the other millions of questions I was sure I answered correctly, but I am not without mistakes.

Knife cut time. This was the most nerve-wracking. I barely finished last time and that was a few cuts. Here were the cuts we were given:

Medium and large dice of potato

Batonnet of potato.

Small and julienne of carrot

Short julienne of onion

Roast a pepper, slice it, deseed it

Chop parsley

Mince garlic

Perform two of tomato concassé

Perform oblique cut of carrot

Perform weird cut of carrot we don't remember learning

All this in 1 hour 15 minutes.

Ready…. Set… GO!

I have been more scared in my life, but most scares are artificial. This was real. I nicked myself with my knife and kept going. I peeled, diced, julienned, evened out… but soon there was only five minutes left.

I still had to chop garlic, do my tomato concasse, perform the last two carrot cuts, chop parsley, and julienne onion.

I julienned the onion. I minced the garlic. I started the parsley with thirty seconds to go because at least I could have SOMETHING.

11:15 came. I threw my hands up in exasperation… 11:15 went… the buzzer didn't stop.

1 hour and 15 minutes meant 11:30… not 11:15.

Chef Loving came over and calmed me down. He let me know I still had 15 minutes. It was the scariest thirty seconds of that day, but with relief, tears poured out of my eyes. I let out a humorless chuckle as he placed a hand on my should. It wasn't the time for a meltdown. He said now wasn't the time to mess up, helped me figure out what to clean up, and said to keep going. I did. I finished my cuts. My parsley was not perfect, but I finished with time to clean my station.

They scored in front of us. Each cut was out of five (the tomatoes and extra carrot cuts were not on there) I got 5/5 on both the medium cut of potato and the batonnet, 4/5 on all of the other cuts, but a 3/5 on the parsley because it was rough. I didn't care… that was an awesome score to me!

Next we warmed our stock from the week prior and let the chefs taste it.

5/5 Taste and Body, 4/5 Aroma, Color, and Clarity. PASSED.

We made a roux with clarified butter and flour. I used half of my stock and a little roux to start my Velouté. It immediately started to reduce when I suddenly got an idea. My girls around me had a thicker sauce, but L said you can't base anything off of anyone else's because they might be wrong. I added more stock and put in more roux so that it looked like Velouté instead of adding roux little by little until it simmered into a Velouté look. With that method, my sauce stopped reducing. It sloshed around, it had good nappé (coating consistency), so I place it in a little cup and waited.

M- too thick, L- too thick, A- too thick… mine?

"Not bad!" he goes. I sighed in contentment. This was happening. I was passing.

After the clean up, it was time for the Identifications. We were split into two groups. I was ready. I knew most of the items, so instead of wasting time, I went as fast as possible. My group started with small equipment. I waltzed around the room, writing down everything I knew, guessing what I didn't (only two pots looking things and I think my guess was pretty good). After that, I sat in a small area and wrote down the uses. I did the same for Large Equipment.

Imagine walking around a room and seeing the things you either used at home or have used while working on campus in a cafeteria. You have to treat this like this is what you want to do. It's not 'studying', it's knowing what you're using. That has to be your mindset in this program. You can't 'memorize' that this is a buffalo chopper and you can use it for chopping carrots. You need to know first hand in the back of your mind- I want to chop my carrots or mince my garlic quickly- I'm getting out the Buffalo Chopper. It soon becomes second nature.

The herbs and spices were my favorite. It was challenging, but I ran around the room inhaling and tasting spices. That can't be paprika because it's burning my tongue something awful… it must be cayenne! Mace smells like nutmeg, ground mustard tastes like crap! This sage stuff is what I can use to make stuffing! For the herbs, I broke those leafs apart and inhaled. That saved me so much because the basil and the mint looked alike. I broke it open- one smelled of Italy, the other like fresh chewed gum. What would I use this mint for?? CRAP! Oh… I can make Mint Julep!

That's how it went. No lunch break, no bathroom break, nothing from 8am-3pm. I finished that and turned in all of my papers. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone, but I knew it wasn't good bye… it was see you when we're in the program, crying on each other's shoulders.

I stepped outside and there was my future hubby, in the same clothes I left him in, but well-rested and looking like love and promise. I was exhausted, I was shaken, I was almost defeated, but I smiled at him. First thing I say? "I need a drink!"

Bahama Breeze, Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea… thanks.

Practic-No's and Velouté Woes

Remember when I gushed about how my boyfriend was 'my rock' and was extra 'supportive'? Not the first day of practicals. In fact, he was a lazy bum and I ended up being five minutes late.

I walked into the class and both Chef Loving and Chef Gabriel were there giving instructions on how we were to start our test. Step one was to set up our mise en place. Then we would:

• Cut the mirepoix and make another stock (apparently our batch spoiled because the refrigerators stopped working that week. I think they used it)

• Take quiz #2 that we were supposed to take a week or two weeks ago.
• Practice knife cuts in a timed manner that would mimic the timed practical the next week.
• Medium and small dice, battonet of potatoes
• Julienne and brunois carrot
• Mince garlic
• Roast a pepper
• Chop parsley
• Julienne an onion
• Do all this in an hour (SURPRISE, they gave us 55 minutes)

• Practice making veloute using their stock and a team effort of roux.
• Learn herbs
• Learn more smallwares

Do you know what we DIDN'T do? Take the actual practical. I'm definitely not complaining, but realize that this is mainly because we didn't have time to learn most of these.

Mirepoix and Standard Sachet

We set up. Mirepoix does not need to be perfect, so I got those out of the way in no time. We got our stock going, and we went to start our quiz.

I didn't study for it because I assumed it would be our herb and spice ID quiz and some other things for the practical, so I studied that instead. I BS'ed on pretty much everything, including what a buerre manie (kneaded butter) and a remouillage (reusing bones and stuff from another stock) was. Some things were pretty easy, but it wasn't the practical, so I'm not extremely nervous about it.

We immediately got back to work in the kitchen. Our timed knife cuts practice was set to start at 11am and end just at lunch. When he said GO, my team (A, L, and M) started on roasting our pepper first, while we worked on our cuts. We reminded each other to turn the pepper, and gave feedback on what our cuts looked like. I peeled everything first (I forgot to peel the garlic. Damn you garlic!).

My approach was to start with the hardest- battonet of potatoes. Then I moved on to the carrots and onion, minced my garlic, finished off my pepper- all while random people were staring at us through the display windows. I was in the process of chopping my parsley when the timer went off! We still had another five minutes, but I have no idea why they stopped early.

Not bad...

Chef Gabriel said I had the idea of the cuts. It was really a generic critique. I basically just need to get my sizes in order and consistency. Of course, the parsley wasn't fine enough, but whatever.

VERY Rough...

Lunch broke up the day. My chicas and I decided to go to Wendy's- the first place we went out together. How sappy! It was cool though, of course they teased me about how messy I am.

After lunch, we added our mirepoix and got to work on Velouté making. The Assistant J scooped us gelatinous globs of stock and said 'I'll give you a little extra because I like you." Giggle. We cooked the stock to a liquid, made our clarified butter, and gathered flour to start our roux. Remember, Velouté is just pale roux and stock.

I make a nice roux and M says she'd hire me to work in her kitchen. Yeah right. I'M going to be the one with the restaurant kitchen, ha! When it came to Velouté making… eh…

My Velouté was way too thick, I figured that much. It did taste pretty good, though. I had no idea what I was doing wrong because it kept reducing into nothing. For my practical, I knew I couldn't mess up and I swore I would find out what happened.

After the stocks finished, they were strained. Mine was a little cloudy, but the flavor was amazing.

It was clean up time, and that's when J, the assistant, reminded us the importance of being a team. Everyone helps out in the kitchen and no one leaves until everyone can. We were family in a manner of speaking.

After clean-up, Chef Gabriel took us through more smallwares and dismissed us.

Adrenaline kicked in at the oddest of times. I felt ready to take on the world… I felt ready to take one of the most important exams of my life.

One. More. Week.

Could I handle it?

Mother Sauces

Are we going to survive final practicals?

We got a surprise this morning. Chef Loving came back! He actually taught us the entire day. Remember I told you about the confusion because there are two different chefs teaching us? Well, the struggle, guys, is real.

I've become addicted after a while. Eye twitches, commence.

He wanted us to make another stock because he didn't see us make it last time. The problem with this is that repeating things we did the week before, we don't have time for new things. How on earth were we going to get ready for practicals in one week? Remember how to make stock, guys? No? Here goes:

• Get your tons of chicken meat with bones (mostly bones) and your chicken feet . I don't remember the amount. I want to say 4 lbs?
• Rinse the nasty blood off those bad boys.
• Place in your stock pot and fill the water up to two inches above the meat. Bring to a light simmer. A LIGHT SIMMER guys. DO NOT BOIL STOCK EVER AT ALL.
• If necessary, skim all of the skum (that weird foamy gunk that floats to the top but don't skim the fat yet).
• Let simmer for at least five hours.
• Add your standard or white mirepoix (2 parts onion or leek or a mixture of both, 1 part carrot or parsnips or a mixture, 1 part celery or celeriac root or a mixture) and your loose (without the sachet part)  sachet d'Épices (we are going to call this a sachet from now on but remember it's parsley stems, whole peppercorns, a sprig of thyme, and a bay leaf). Let all of that simmer for at least an hour.

• Remove the stock from heat, strain (try with a china cap (metal triangular strainer) and a cheesecloth). Skim the fat off the top  before using.

While the stocks cooked lightly simmered, Chef Loving did a demo of all five mother sauces.

Beautiful Mother Sauce Photo Comes From Here.

Velouté, Béchamel, Espagnole, Tomato,  and Hollandaise. I didn't get to try the Velouté. Remember the foreign guy I told you I'm worried about? He doesn't understand that double-dipping is a sin. The Béchamel was delicious. It was like the start of an Alfredo, but without the cheese. The Hollandaise was disgusting! I know people like that, but to me it tasted like sour, lemony mayo. And I HATE mayo! The tomato sauce was delicious, as expected. The Espagnole wasn't memorable. In fact, I don't remember how it tasted, but I know it wasn't one of my favorites.

After lunch, (we chose McDonald's), we added our mirepoix, and once the stock was finished, we reserved a quart to use for sauce making the next week. You'll find out later that was a waste.

We practiced knife cuts again and apparently we wasted a ton. I have no idea how we square things  like a freaking potato off WITHOUT a ton of waste. Chef Loving shamed us and blatantly told us we were his messiest section EVER and that he would FAIL us for being messy and having a ton of waste.

This is the waste of the four of us. It's 'edible waste' though which means it can be used for mirepoix.

After feeling like children, we cleaned together and stood for our lecture of smallwares and what would be on the exam:

Herb and Spice Identification

Small and Large Equipment ID

Written Exam

Knife Cuts

Stock Grading

Velouté Making

Practicals were the next week. I was nervous, but I knew I would make it through. Our group decided we would go to H's house to practice a Velouté and study. We studied for a little bit, but the night was marked by my first visit to The Cheesecake Factory. 

Stock It To Me!

I am not sure if we will ever see Chef Loving again.

 At least not as our teacher. That kind of worries me, although I do enjoy Chef Gabriel.

At the beginning of class, some lady came in with her daughter in matching blue track suits. She basically told us about starting the program, how there were a few spots in the Winter, and how we will all have a spot Fall 2014. That's a relief because it gives me time to save up cash! Like I told you before, we take one class at a time in 5 week rotations. Once we turn in the grades for CAP 103, we get accepted so long as it's over a 2.5 and we start the intense rotations. Bring it on, random lady.

Chef Gabriel immediately had us go the kitchen and set up (mise en place, remember???). We were told to make a white mirepoix because we were going to make our very own stock! Remember what goes in a white mirepoix?

• 2 parts onion
• 1 part parsnip

• 1 part celeriac root (but we used celery)

We also created a 'loose' sachet, which means it didn't have a bag. That was okay because we were straining it. Remember what goes in a standard sachet?

• Sprig of thyme

• Peppercorns
• Bay leaf
• Parsley stems

Standard sachet ingredients

After we set up, we went back to the demo kitchen for surprise surprise! Herb and Spice identification! Aren't you excited? Be excited because we all got our own herb or spice that was number and were told we would stand up and present them after doing research. Guess who got #1? Your girl! I had cloves and went first. It was funny because I said everything off memory and they were horrified like 'We can't use our notes??' I said, oops my bad! Chef Gabriel thought I did very well but said we could use notes. Way to not look like a total douche, me…

If you don't want to see the herbs and spices we passed around, skip until you're past the photos!

That says 21. Mace, 22. Dill, 23. Fennel Seeds, 24. Dry Rosemary

Match the numbers with the list above.

Yes, we will have to ID all of these on the final!

After a brief intermission, it was time for some stock making!

Stock Making at a Glance:

• Clean meat and place in stock pot. Fill with water up to two inches above the meat.
• Bring to a simmer, skimming off the skum that rises to the top. Simmer (don't boil!!!) for 5-6 hours.
• Add mirepoix and sachet. Simmer for another hour.
• Strain and remove as much fat as you possible can from the top of the stock. Should be translucent and puurty. Not cloudy.

We gather our chicken bones and chicken feet (yes- chicken feet!) and got to work. Once our stock started to simmer, we were shown a demo on how to make Roux.

Roux is basically a way to thicken sauces, soups, and the like, and is usually made with 40% clarified butter (but you can use another type of fat) and 60% flour (cake flour thickens the best.) You cook that until it gets the desired roux that you need. There are essentially four types:

White- really pale, used for white sauces like the basic Velouté, or a Béchamel.

Blonde- a little darker but not too much. Used for the same as the above. The darker the roux, the more color it gives a sauce and the deeper the flavor.

Dark brown- Used for darker sauces and gumbo.

Very Dark- Used for gumbo.

The result is supposed to be smooth and creamy with a gorgeous gloss on it. Needless to say… that ain't how mine turned out.

First, you make the clarified butter (butter with the milk and water removed), which is a bitch to make. In fact, I had to take a break from finishing it up to take lunch. It sounds simple- we melted a pound of butter in a pan. You skim off the skum (the water part) and carefully dip out the translucent clarified butter, careful not to take any milk with it and make it cloudy and you have to start again. Like I had to.

After lunch, I melted the cloudy mixture down again and eventually made a see-through clarified butter. Success!

Then Chef Gabriel threw a curve ball and was like, make a tomato concassé too while you're at it! (He was joyful because we were technically making items for the next day's special event.) While I blanched the tomato, I started the roux.

Roux at a glance:

• Pour clarified butter in cold pan. Add enough flour to make a sort of thin peanut butter.
• Cook on low heat until the flour starts cooking and you get the colors you need.

We were to take out a sample of each stage and display it on a plate. My first two stages were okay, but the last two, I burned a bit of something and the chunks of that got into my roux! Other than that, one of the assistants said the color was really nice, I just needed to turn the heat down. As far as my concassé, the cut was neat and clean, I just need to blanch the tomato for shorter than what Chef Gabriel told us.

We added the mirepoix and sachet to our stocks and simmer for a while. Soon, we were to start straining. It took me a while to find something to strain in, so mine cooked a little longer, but that's a plus, not a minus.

I was so afraid! After a demo of fat skimming, I noticed that my stock was cloudy and I had a lot of fat. I darn near removed most of my stock before I was satisfied. Left and right people were getting straight dissed, and I wanted to run away and not show him anything! I hate being criticized on food items I make. But we couldn't leave without showing him, so I filled a shot glass with stock and slowly walked over.

He downed the shot and stared at me. Like really stared. It was a weird, evil, I-hate-you, 'curiouser and curiouser' stare, and I might have sounded a little disrespectful when I was like 'What?'

He stared some more and finally said, "This one has the best flavor of all the ones I tasted, I don't know what you did." The upper-level student next to him said that was good because he doesn't say that often! I did not hide my pleasure. I said YAY! And was all smiles as I made it back to my table. Of course I ignored him when he was busy telling the other upper-level students about my stock, but I was a little embarrassed and put on spot. He also like one other girl's, but all I know is mine came first! YAY! You really don't know what it means to have a master chef say something like that to you.

After that, we were asked to chop up some veggies for a stock for the special event, and it didn't have to be perfect. That's all I needed to hear. I banged out those veggies in no time. After cleaning, we sat around for a bit, talking, and then Chef Gabriel showed us a Velouté sauce… one of the mother sauces that we will learn to make. It was basically stock and roux. We all know the classical mother sauces, right?

• Velouté- stock and roux. (we tasted it… it's aight, but it's meant to start off other sauces)

• Béchamel- white sauce made of butter, flour, and milk.

• Hollandaise- This mostly goes on Eggs Benedict. It is made with yolks and butter, lemon juice, and seasoning.

• Tomato- Everyone knows what this looks like. A very basic one could be tomatoes, stock, seasoning, olive oil… but we like to add garlic, onion, basil. Yum!

• Espagnole- Brown sauce made of very dark brown roux, veal stock, browned bones, beef, veggies, seasonings, and tomato paste.

Some of these sauces can be topped on things on their own, but some are also the building blocks to other sauces such as Alfredo or Mornay sauce.

While we were cleaning up, Chef Loving walked by a window and winked at me. I had to fan myself.

Next week we move on to sauce. Two more weeks until the start of practicals… are you nervous?

Enter the Master Chef

Everyone arrived bright, early, and nervous.

Okay, not everyone because some people were late. Either way, it was our first quiz and we were all in our books like we hadn't studied at all.

Come test time, I blasted through everything. The questions were simple: Name five parts of the kitchen brigade in English, French, and the duties; What is an oginon piqué?; Describe how to mince garlic and chop parsley; Name what goes in a standard sachet and standard bouqet garní, etc. I think I aced it and so did a few of my friends. We sat in the hallway and chatted about what we forgot, but overall, I think we all did well.

Chef Loving left us. We were introduced to our first Master Chef that we would see, Master Chef Jeffrey Gabriel. When I think of Master Chef, I think of someone like Gordon Ramsay.  I love him and all, but he is extra intimidating and has a penchant for being a little mean. Chef Gabriel was nothing like that. He was nice, funny/witty, patient, yet still had that air of respect about him.

He realized that we need more practice with our knife cuts, and I enjoyed his demoing more than Chef Loving's, only because Chef Loving demoed first in the demo kitchen and THEN we all went over and practiced. Chef Gabriel would do a demo of onions right in the practice kitchen and then we would do it and he would check it. Then he would do another demo and we would follow…. It helped a lot! This time, we delved into parsnips to make a white mirepoix for a white stock.

Before we go further, let me tell you about mise en place (meez ahn PLAHZ). It basically means you prepare everything before you cook your meal. That's an important step because it keeps you neat and organized, and Lord knows that is something I need in the kitchen. We set up this way: a cutting board with soft mesh underneath to keep it from moving, a small tray to hold our knives and other utensils needed, two dry rags folded neatly by our cutting board, three dishes- one for edible garnish (not necessarily pretty cuts that is for use in something like stock), non edible garnish (you can either compost this or throw it out), and basic trash (like plastic wrap or stickers off veggies), a thing with all of the items we need to chop, a red bucket of sanitizer and a rag, and a green bucket for detergent. After that, the next part of our mise en place is to prepare the veggies, meats, etc so that it is ready to add to the dish. That would mean peeling everything, dicing, chopping, etc. Peeling everything that needs to be peeled first, and then starting our chops would be an efficient way to finish our timed practicals.

Right before lunch, Chef Gabriel took the onions we julienned and caramelized them in what is called a Tilt Braizer. He added beer, stock, Tobasco, and some other stuff to make a French Onion soup. The assistants tossed some brioche in the oven to crisp and melt mozzarella on top. We grabbed bowls, topped our onion soup with the brioche and enjoyed a delicious meal from a master chef. I was so in awe and impressed. This is what I'm here for!

Delicious French Onion Soup!

Lunch was at Wendy's with three of my new friends. They are freaking hilarious and everyone is so nice and crazy! Walking into a Wendy's with our Culinary School uniforms was an experience. People stared at us and I'm sure wondered what everyone wonders: why the hell are fancy-pants culinary students in a Wendy's? I enjoyed that Single Cheeseburger and Strawberry Lemonade (a splurge from my water-only diet). Although culinary school may be grueling and intense, the important part is that you don't have to go it alone. We all become a sort of family, and it has only just begun!

After lunch, we moved on to the big stuff. Roasting a pepper on our own, chopping parsley, mincing garlic, and doing a tomato concassé. I think I did fairly well with these! As a matter of fact, Chef Gabriel said that I had a 'very nice' mince! :)

This is a ...  tomato concassé... you know what minced garlic looks like.

It's blurry, but I promise this is what a roasted pepper should look like.

Before we leave the kitchen everyday, we all work together to clean up, which includes an assembly line doing dishes, someone wiping down counters, someone sweeping… it's harmony. After, they let us try some delicious looking treats that the pastry students must have prepared. They were so cute and pretty that I had to try them. Big mistake! Not only were they kind of bland, but I soon got strangely dizzy… was it the effects of an allergic reaction or did they slip me some roofies?

By the way, this is that panning machine I told you about...

It had to be the latter. We huddled up in the bake shop and I could barely pay attention. Chef Gabriel told us how different baking and cooking was because in baking everything needed to be precise. He asked if I was tired and I smiled, not revealing that I was seconds from puking all over him. I held it in, don't worry. He let us out about an hour early with promises that we were going to BAKE BREAD the next week.

SPOILER ALERT: He lied.