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.

Knife Cuts and Buerre Noir

I apologize for being behind. That's what happens when so much stress crushes down on you, but not to worry, culinary school always brightens my day!

The second Day of class and Chef Loving was intimidating. He asked questions about the last class to poor students who were put on straight blast. After his initial frustration, he composed himself and issued a good morning.

There is no way I can stay awake sometimes without coffee... it's mostly cream though...

He let us know that we needed to train our brains not to just file these terms to memory, but to think of them as knowledge that we happen to have as chefs. Make it something things that all chefs know. A few students recently entered the class and he spoke to them while Chef Musto talked to us. We were going to learn knife cuts that day. I met a new woman when she walked back in after being told she should make 'other plans' since the class was already soooo far behind. (I didn't think so and told her my opinion. I don't think we learned so much that she couldn't pick it up quickly, and I was right).

Now, it's learning time. Last time we spoke of oignon brülée. This day, we went over the oignon piqué. It's an onion cut and studded with cloves and a bay leaf is either attached to it with a clove or place into a layer of the onion. This adds aromatics.

While he embarrassed more students, we also learned about beurre noir. It sound beautiful really, but it's black butter. Butter that is cooked until it turns a dark brown, adding a nutty flavor to dishes. This was made in parallel to 'clarified butter', which we learned about AFTER the knife cuts.

Here are the important cuts we learned:

• Small dice, medium dice, batonnet, and julienne of carrot, celery, and onion.  

• These would start off our standard mirepoix, and the julienned pieces would apparently make a 'great soup'. The trick is to make the size conducive to eating with a fork or spoon, so the julienned piece should fit on a fork.

• Small dice, medium dice, batonnet of potatoes. When you're peeling anything, peel over a piece of plastic wrap for easy clean up. Make sure you clean the hell out of that potato first.

• How to mince garlic. The trick is to add salt or water to a tiny diced garlic and then just start chopping it up.
•  Apparently, the crystals of the salt help make even pieces to create a perfect mince. The water keeps it all together I guess? I don't know, but it works.

• Chop parsley. Wash, remove the stems, chop, wrap in a towel, rinse in the towel, and squeeze until dry. Always chop parsley last because it will stain your cut board.

• Tomato Concassé. Wash the tomato, core it, mark an X on the top, blanch it for about 45 seconds, shock it in ice water, peel it, quarter it, seed it and remove and extra meat that is preventing the 'tomato petal' from being flat. Dice.

• Roast a red pepper. Wash, char the outside skin of the pepper on a gas stove burner on all sides. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit. Peel of the skin and get as much black stuff as you can off of it but DO NOT WASH IT. THIS REMOVES THE ROASTED FLAVOR! Cut in half lengthwise and slice that in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and the core and dice as you want.

Chef Loving diced the roasted red pepper, drizzled extra virgin olive oil over it, seasoned with a little salt and pepper and garlic, and added the fresh parsley. We got to taste it and it was damn delicious.

After lunch, it was our turn. My dicing of carrot and celery was laughable. The trick for the carrot is to square it of, cut into planks, julienne or batonnet those, and dice from there. As you can imagine, squaring off a carrot is freaking difficult.  The celery is even worse since it's a natural half-moon thing! You have to slice the peaks off to make it into a sort of plank before you julienne and dice. In  the end, this is what I had… it looks much better in the picture.

From left to right starting in the top left corner: Julienne onion, diced onion, small dice carrots, julienne celery, minced garlic, medium diced carrot, small diced potato, batonnet potato (but really planks), and medium diced potato.

After this, we were pretty tired, but the excitement still hadn't left our eyes. I am a pretty good cutter of veggies, I can get them to you in seconds as long as they don't have to look perfect… the problem with this is that he wanted us to practice on that. We were told to practice and that is exactly what I plan on doing. Come time for practicals, I'll be a dicing machine!

I told you there was always that 'one' person. Turns out there's more than 'one' in our class. The one kid is kind of rude (the guy that never pays attention) but Chef Loving shut him down quick. The other kid is foreign, so he gets a pass, but honestly sometimes I'm hoping he can pass the course. Some things he doesn't get as quickly as the rest of us, but I'm glad the teachers can understand him. Chef Loving invited him to his office hours to help him because the test would be the next week. He adamantly declined and Chef Loving proceeded to ask who would like to go to his office hours. Almost every female raised their hand. Including me. What I wouldn't give….

Next week, the first quiz!

Culinary School Day One, Part Two: Stocks, Sauces, and Burnt Onions, Oh My!

Picture from here.

Okay so it sounds better when it's pronounced 'oignon brûlé', but a burnt onion is a burnt onion which is… apparently a cool way to color stock. But we'll get back to that in a minute.

A student from another class showed up for a demonstration or practical I believe, so we got to watch Chef Loving work his magic. It was a Fish Velouté? Or whatever he pronounced he got to taste it and I swear to you it tasted like memories. I know I've never had it, but the flavor was so familiar… I just couldn't remember where I remembered it from. It obviously had wine in it, so maybe I'm just a crazy drunk and it reminded me of my favorite Chardonnay (kidding- I only really like sparkling wines).

In that part of class, we learned about Bouquet Garni (bo-KAY gar-NEE), Sachet d'Épices (sa-SHAY DAY-pees), Mirepoix (meer-PWAH), and our buddy, the Oignon Brûlé (uh-NYON broo-LAY). They add flavor to stocks, sauces, and soups and each have their own standards. The Bouquet Garni is usually a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, a couple of leek leaves, and parsley stems, all wrapped around a celery stalk with string. Add that in your soup, stock, or sauce and take it out when it's infused. The standard sachet is parsley stems, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, cracked peppercorns, and possibly a garlic clove wrapped in cheesecloth and infused in the same way as bouquet garni. Next is the burnt onion. You cut an onion in half or quarters and literally burn the heck out of it (okay, 'char' it) in a dry skillet. Cook it in your stock or sauce for a long time and the color will look nice and the flavor will be delicious, but it is mostly for color. Lastly is the mirepoix. We learned the standard will always be two parts onion, one part carrot, and one part celery. The onions can be intermingled or interchanged with leeks, the carrots with parsnips, and the celery with celeriac. There are different formulas, including an Asian and a Cajun one with different ingredients, but the onion family ratio is usually still the same.

During our small breaks, one of the girls in front of me turned around and we discuss our worries about the course. She was just as nervous as I was about how to fit in the time for school and work. Here is basically the schedule I have to work with:

Each 'plan' is a rotation for the semester,  each class one at a time for five weeks at a time. It looks intimidating, but I'll find a way...

We had an hour lunch (in which I indulged in Spicy Spaghetti and Meatballs at Noodles and Company), and it was our turn to meet Chef Sam Musto. He is the 'hybrid' part of the course and mostly works with us on Blackboard which is where we complete our quiz homework. Of course, the person who never pays attention said Chef Loving didn't go over the practical (which he did) so Chef Musto went over what will be on it AGAIN. Here is what will be on the practical:

• Equipment Identification and Usage
• Herb and Spice Identification
• Knife Cuts
• Sauce and Stock Making

In six more weeks, I hope to master this material and focus my energy on preparing for both the practical and the written exam.

Chef Musto was very nice. He told us the real about the industry and basically inspired me overall. Sitting in that class I knew that it was what I wanted to do. He told us that the education was worth it. He said don't let a chef tell you not to go to school and just work under him. That way, you most likely won't make more than $15 as a chef. He told a story of how he was offered a big promotion at a restaurant, but he would have to quit school. He refused, and one of his friends accepted the offer. He didn't hate, she said she was living the life, condos, she drove a Porsche, she was fancy. But then he said, what happens if they have to let you go? What do you have to fall back on? Education is important.

Lastly, he spoke to us about climbing the ranks in the culinary world as far as credentials. This is what made me want to at least attempt to become a Master Chef. There's Certified Culinarian, Sous Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Executive Chef, Personal Chef, etc, but the top is Master Chef and Master Pastry Chef. The requirements are pretty steep,  but I want to work to get to that point!

And that was the first day! I'm excited to find out what we learn tomorrow and I hope you are too! In the mean time, enjoy these videos we watched in class.

If these don't inspire you, I don't know what else will!

Culinary School Day One, Part One: CAP 103

CAP 103 is Latin for Introduction to Professional Cooking Skills and Techniques. It's the class you take after Culinary Sanitation which I bypassed because I'm awesome and just went to take my ServSafe exam to get certified. I'm really hoping that's not going to come back and bite me in the donkey.

This is the class that is really important prior to starting the rest of the culinary program. There's definitely a waitlist for it, but I lucked out and only waited for three  or so weeks to register for it because someone couldn't pay. Once I pass this class, I get into the Culinary Arts school and from there, the waitlist takes about a semester. I really need that because I need time to work on my savings and working, but never fear! There are culinary courses that don't require the rotating schedule and that will be on my list for next semester: Culinary Nutrition and  Introduction to the Chemistry of Food for Culinary Arts. Sounds fun AMIRIGHT??? Don't worry, I'll make it fun! God, help me…

Imagine the worries I had coming into the class. The day before, I was in tears because I had no idea how I was going to pay for the $249 chef hat. We all know how that worked out in the last post. The morning of, I had my nails trimmed, my pants pressed, and my chef coat buttoned. I was afraid that I would be the oldest person in the room. I was afraid that they would kick me out because my long braids didn't quite fit in the chef hat. I was afraid I would be the OBK (Only Black Kid) like the old days and no one would talk to me. I was afraid that everyone memorized the book cover to cover and the chef would constantly choose me to answer his many, many questions from 8:00am to 5:24pm. None of that happened. We didn't even stay the full day. Here's how it really went down.

My support is my boyfriend. When I'm afraid, he can make me feel better because he's silly and confident. He drove me to class and walked me up to the door like a kindergartener. He chatted with one of the chef's while I took a seat in the back of the class. There were three girls in front of me that I immediately joked with because they were also trying to fit their hair into the hat. Some people didn't even have a hat on. After getting advice to put my hair in a bun and stuff, I sat, staring around the kind of diverse room (I mean there were only black and white people, no Asians, no Hispanic people like I'm used to at MSU). There were quite a few older people, women, black people, and our professor, Chef Shawn Loving, was a nice looking black man.

Chef Loving was everything his name implied. He was so warm, witty, and real. He is the first teacher I've heard in my whole life say 'I'm not going to sit here and read you the syllabus. For what? You can read it at home!' He got right to the point. Of course we had to do introductions which always make me nervous, but I faked the confidence. He even teased me for being a Spartan. Sorry I made the only correct university choice in life! (Cut me and I bleed green).

The college itself is freaking amazing. Everyone who has ever told me it is one of the best culinary facilities in the country was quite obviously being truthful. The class room was a demo kitchen. We sat in chairs behind tables and in the front was a kitchen. There were three TV screens that detailed what the chef was doing as he showed it. 

It's lesson time lovelies! Our first lesson detailed the Kitchen Brigade. What is that, you ask? Why let me tell you! Without the help of my book. Created by Auguste Escoffier (yep you can say it all fancy ess-COFF-ee-AY), the Kitchen Brigade system basically gives each person the job they need to do while in the kitchen. It eliminates the chaos. Imagine you run a kitchen and there are about ten chefs. You're running around pulling up the fryer, the oven goes off you run over to open it while someone else places something in the fryer, the veggies need to be sautéed but two people are fighting over who should chop the garnish. If there is a designated fry chef, sauté chef, and veggie chop person, then wouldn't they make things so much better?  Here's a great guide to familiarize yourself with the various roles. I need to know all of these terms, including the French terms.

After the lesson, we toured the kitchens to learn all of the equipment we need to know for our practical exam which is the big timed final test the last two days of class. A few facts about Schoolcraft culinary institute:

• There is literally a separate kitchen for everything. You will not make sausages in the pastry kitchen or borrow items from the bread kitchen. Each kitchen has their own special equipment and dishes. There is a donut fryer in the pastry kitchen, a deck oven in the bread kitchen, and a smoking machine in the butchery kitchen.
  

• There is a machine called a 'panning machine' that coats things like candies and nuts with chocolate or a candy shell. According to Chef Loving, there are only three in the US, one in a New York restaurant, one in the M&M factory, and a nice copper-colored one at Schoolcraft. How awesome is that?
• Of the 74 Master Chefs in the US, 5 are at Schoolcraft College. Of the 13 Master Pastry Chefs, 1 is at Schoolcraft College.
• Our experience at the college will consist of us working at the student-run gourmet restaurant, The American Harvest. It's where we will live the Kitchen Brigade system the most, and give us our experience to gain a CC credential right after graduation.
  
• In Chef Loving's words, 'You can look for frozen and canned prepared foods around here all you want, but you won't find it, it doesn't exist.' If it can be made fresh, it is made fresh at the college. Even our own hot dogs.
• The style of cooking taught is French Classical Cooking.

I hope you've become just as excited and interested as I have! Part two is coming soon… don't want to bog you down with too much information! I will share with you one last funny bit of information. Of course, there's always that person who doesn't pay attention. THIS person in particular decided not to and just ask questions when Chef Loving clearly told us about it. Seriously? What a waste of time!