Day thirty nine

a courtesy of

Is alcohol high in calories?

We have started a new block  at school. Today we have two new subjects. The first one is Introduction to Gastronomy. The second one is Nutrition.

Gastronomy is very interesting. The only difficulties I can see now - it requires a lot of reading. I do mean a lot. That will be a challenge. I do like reading, but at my own pace. If I am tired, I like to close a book until tomorrow and then continue. With Gastronomy that does not work. And the reading is not simple.

With Nutrition is a bit easier, however it also requires reading, but a reasonable amount. That will be really useful to get knowledge about all nutrients, how to produce a nutritious meal and so on. The first class we just touched calories and basic nutrients. I was shocked to learn that alcohol

Day thirty eight

Risotto, is it a dish?

Today we had rice cookery. We made rice pilaf and risotto, also we made two sauces - Robert and Marchand de Vin, and Jardiniere vegetables. So it was a busy day again, however it was much better then yesterday.

What was new for me with risotto? First, this is a method of cooking rice. You coat rice grains with fat (butter) while applying the heat, then you introduce HOT liquid gradually, waiting while it absorbed by rice. Interestingly enough, that wine we add to the risotto, can be added at the beginning (the first part of liquid) or at the end. The wine (acid) will add additional flavor, but what is more important, will prolong cooking time. 

Rice pilaf is another way of cooking rice. It starts the same way -

Day thirty seven

What is the most important things in the kitchen?

This is a Culinary Fundamentals day. After mid term practical I can see a big difference. Our production is really big now. Today we made: 1) glazed beets; 2) braised red cabbage; 3) potato Duchesse; 4) Coccotte potato (Chateau); 5) potato gratin. That was our individual production. And as always we had a class task: chicken stock; roast veal bones; start brown veal stock (will be ready tomorrow).

It does not seem that today was difficult day with a big production for no reason. I think (looking for the production schedule) that this is a new norm. We have to make more and more during one day in the kitchen every time. So again, the most important things are:

Day thirty six

a courtesy of

If you precook squash with fennel, mix with béchamel sauce, add some cheese and put it into oven, what will be the dish?

Today I was at Google for my stage interview. It was four hours work, may be not under microscope, but under control.

First and the most important, I did enjoy working there. For sure, some things are done differently as we taught in the school (making bechamel by feeling and not by measurements). It was unfamiliar kitchen for me, but the experience was great. I was teamed with a cook from that kitchen and we worked together.

At the beginning we made vegetable graten. Butternut squash was peeled and sliced, as well as fennel. Then we partially cooked them together. Meantime we made bechamel sauce (milk with roux), mixed it with parmesan cheese for flavor. Then we mixed everything together and distributed mixture in a number of

Day thirty five

Sturgeon (a courtesy of)

Question of the day? None.

Sorry for being late. This post about Friday, but was really busy and had no chances to write it yesterday. Better late then never:-)

It was a cool day. I had two classes only, then break and a had stage at the restaurant at the school.

Math was as always easy, we are moving further calculating quantities of ingredients for different recipes. The next topic is going to be even more interesting - preparing 'shopping list' for a bunch of scaled recipes.

Product knowledge was a tast as it was the end of the class. We had to identify

Day thirty four

a courtesy of

Are all canned tomato equal? 

Today was a big day (may be not so big). I have had ServSafe exam. This is quite important, because you are not suppose to touch food in professional kitchen before you pass the exam and obtain the certificate. I passed the exam and certificate should arrive in about two weeks. That's right one problem down.

We are going to have our test for Product Knowledge tomorrow. There will be two parts. The first one is to identify 15 different product (all from produce category). The second part is multiple choice test. That should be fine.

It was an interesting experiment today, what was called

Day thirty three

What is the main point during practical exam?

Today we have mid term practical. It's amazing how fast time goes. It was just recently that I started my program and we are already in the middle of the first semester.

There were two parts of today's practical. The first one was written exam. If I remember correctly 35 questions. Some of them were multiple choice, some true/fals, and some essay questions. I think I missed a couple. The second part was cooking practical. We have to make Consomme, Espagnol sauce, Mayonnaise, and  Hollandaise. For all of our cooking we had 2 hours and 30 minutes and we had another 20 minutes for plating and serving.

I managed to do all these dishes on time. The main point I discovered -

Day thirty two

a courtesy of

What are the main characteristics of well made tomato sauce?

Tuesday - another day in the kitchen - Culinary Fundamentals. Yesterday I did not miss writing post, it was a holiday in US.

We have made today a bunch of recipes again. As we are going further, we are doing more cooking every day. Today we made tomato sauce, red pepper coulis, red wine vinaigrette that was individual work. As a team we cooked Demi-Glace sauce and dry pasta.

Tomato sauce was really great and what is more important -

Day thirty one

A courtesy of

Do you like cheeses?

Friday! This is wonderful. The day was gorgeous, so warm outside. It was like summer.

Today we had Liberal art classes. We had quiz on Math. I feel I missed one question. The question was more linguistic and not mathematician  Product knowledge - we are heading towards the end of the course, today we learned milk and milk products, including cheeses. I believe we have one more class before end of the course and final quiz.

Food Safety was basically last class - next week we are going to have our test. Today it was

Day Thirty

A courtesy of

Do you like tropical fruits? What about nuts?

Thursday - is a day for classes. We are heading to a mid term of the semester. Time flies! Next week there will be Food Safety exam. Also we are going to have a couple of quizes, practical exam on Culinary Fundamental. So the next week is going to be busy.

At Math class we moved to size portions. So if you have 120 portions 4 oz each, but suddenly the number of people have changed and you have to feed 150 people. What will be size of revised portion (you do not have the luxury to cook another 30 portions)? Really useful and practical knowledge.

Product knowledge is getting better and better. Today we learned tropical fruits and

Day Twenty Nine

Two sauces ready to be strained

What is alternative to thicken sauce with flour?

Second day in the kitchen this week. It was GREAT! Finally we were able to keep schedule, to be on track for all tasks. The assignment for today was to prepare Hollandaise and make two sauces Espagnol and sauce with a fancy French name - Jus de veau lie.

Hollandaise came out very good, with slightly thicker consistency then required. That was easy to correct and confirm with the chef that that is perfect (this may not affect my grade for today, but I am know now what it should be and how to evaluate).

These two sauces were very similar The difference was in thickening agent. Sauce Espagnole was thickened with roux (flour cooked in butter) this time we used brown roux, since the sauce is brown. Jus de veau lie was thickened with arrowroot starch, which is an alternative to use flour.

Even though we can use starch instead  of flour, the end result will not be  exactly the same. The sauce will be similar in consistency, but slightly different in appearance (starch will not cloudy the sauce).

Today was the first day when I was satisfied with my grades for a knife cut tray. I've got 10 (!) for parsley and 9.5 for garlic. Other grades were aso not bad, please see picture. What was also good, that I finished these cuts approximately 8 minutes ahead of time. Good, I am happy about this. Still there is room for improvement.

I was working today after my classes. It was really long day for me. Work was also good. This is really a good place. Communication with peers is good. Also some chefs are really open for communication and when they see you in the kitchen it's easy to speak with them.

So yes, that was really good day, now is time for a rest.

Day twenty eight

A courtesy of

What is the biggest challenge with hollandaise?

Kitchen Fundamentals today. It was not an easy day due to the number of reasons. The first one we wer late for everything. Even though class sous-chefs did a great job creating a schedule who is doing what, we were still late. A little bit from the beginning and approximately 35-45 minutes at the end. Another reason probably is that production today was quite big. It may be was not SO BIG, but required a lot of organization and time management (we are not so good at this point).

We made today Mayonnaise, Hollandaise and Chicken consomme. Hollandaise and Mayonnaise I made first time in my life (consomme - second). I have never dared to think about Hollandaise, but about Mayonnaise I thought quite often. Each time when I read recipe and get to the point how to fix it in case sauce has broken, I was scary even to try.

So back to Hollandaise. This sauce is somehow similar to Mayonnaise, the main difference - it is hot and egg yolks are cooked (so you do not need pasteurized yolks) and butter used instead of vegetable oil. The biggest challenge to make it at home is

Day twenty seven

A courtesy of

Myths about cooking meat. Do you know any?

Today we have our third lecture on Culinary Science. The topic was quite broad - Animals and Plants. As we were at the beginning, it's easy to cover animals in one hour, but to cover different plants in one hour is not feasible.

What was really interesting is speaking about some myths regarding cooking meat. The first one is that marinating meat will tenderize it. This is not true. Marinating meat will introduce additional flavor to your meat and also will create filling that it's has additional moisture. During usually recommended marinating time (24 hours for meat) the liquid will not be able to penetrate and break fiber.

Another myth is about resting meat after cooking. Many people believe that if you rest meat after cooking all juices are going to be absorbed back by the piece of meat. The actual thing is

Day twenty six

Bergamot Orange

What is the flavor of Earl Grey Tea?

It is Friday today! The best day of the week. All as usual math, product knowledge and food safety. Good thing that there is no first year experience on Fridays.

I have to apologize, yesterday I mixed up what was in class for product knowledge with my homework (what suppose to be today). So, we learned about peaches, grapes and oranges and tried different fruits as well. Peaches are not in season, this is for sure. Donat peaches were ok, with smell and good taste, all others were absolutely unremarkable (probably because I am spoiled with Ontario peaches). Citrus fruits are great as usual.

Yes about citrus. Two interesting things I learned. First, everyone know Earl Grey Tea (at least heard about it), I always thought that it is flavoured with Bergamot pear. However bergamot is

Day twenty five

A courtesy of

What is the major difference between apples and pears?

Another day of Liberal Arts. All as scheduled - Math, then Product Knowledge, followed by Food Safety and First Year Experience. We have two quizes today (Food Safety and First Year), hope I did allright.

Math - we moved to percentage yield. Interesting topic, slightly complicated. To do exact calculations, we have the Book of Yields. The whole books is numbers, numbers for different product. How many ounces in 1 cup of diced potato? What is yield percentage of tomato? This is important to know, because let's say the recipe calls for 2 kilos cored, skinned and sliced apples. How many apples do you need to buy to make this recipe?

Food Knowledge we moved from vegetables to herbs and then

Day twenty four

Creamed Spinach and Cauliflower Gratin

What is the most important when you cook vegetables?

Another day in the kitchen. Today is much better then yesterday. We have to make four recipes - sauce Béchamel, sauce Mornay, Cauliflower Gratin and Creamed Spinach. It sounds like a daunting task, but it was not, because one recipe bring you to another.

Béchamel sauce is a mother sauce used to prepare a lot of derivative sauces. Sauce Mornay is derivative from Béchamel. To make Cauliflower Gratin we used Mornay and to make Creamed Spinach we used Béchamel. Easy!

Also we have knife cuts for a grade today. Knife cuts is still not as good as I wish. I can do them quite efficiently, but the shape of the cuts is not perfect. Will have to take additional time to practice knife skills.

So, the most important when you cook vegetables is

Day twenty three

Why do we need a good organisation in a kitchen?

Dear readers, I did not forgot about my blog yesterday and did not slack out. Yesterday we had a Special Day Project - we had to write our answer to the number of questions regarding externship. The question were quite straightforward, but a lot of thinking was involved (what I want, what can I afford where is the balance). I was able to find a consensus with myself (it's really hard!).

Today was the Culinary Fundamental day, unfortunately not great. The task was to prepare Chicken Veloute and Cream of Broccoli Soup. I slightly overcook roux and color was darker than it suppose to be. Next, I was looking too long for a fine mesh strainer (it was a mystery where all of them gone) and while I was looking for it

Day twenty two

Time for quiz. What is on  the picture?

TGIF. Friday is a good thing. Short day of classes, as we do not have first year experience and our classes are over by 11:45. Then lunch and then trip to San Francisco.

The weather was great today, sunny and really warm. My trip to San Francisco was quite long today. I had to pick up prescription for the cat at San Rafael, then I went to the Berkeley Bowl to buy food and then home (San Francisco). Also I got my knives back with my name engraved (it was another stop on my way), so now they won't be mixed up.

At math I was confused today