It's crazy to me that I have been doing this for three weeks now. I had my first two quizzes this week. I think I did pretty well on the first quiz (culinary skills) the second (sanitation), not as well as I would have liked. Chef took a quick look and thinks I got somewhere around an 81. Not terrible, but not the greatest. I made a really stupid mistake on boiling points (not the MTV show.)
I learned how to make mayonnaise and vinaigrette from scratch. The mayo making process is pretty much the same as hollandaise with three major differences: you don't mix it over heat, you add oil as opposed to clarified butter and it kills your mixing arm. If you didn't have muscles before making mayo, you surely will after. Someone needs to tell Jillian Michaels that instead of doing curls with 3 pound weights, you can just make a few batches of mayo and burn about 400 calories. There was not a dry forehead in that kitchen. If you know me, you know I have the upper body strength of a 5 year old so, for me, this was pretty exhausting. When I finally got it to the right consistency, I couldn't wait to try it. If you know me, you know I hate condiments with the exception of bbq sauce and hot sauce. I thought it tasted like eggs + oil which meant I did it wrong. A little lemon juice, some salt and more mixing and I had mayonnaise.
Vinaigrette was a bit more of a challenge. I started by adding 3 oz of red wine vinegar to 1 oz of oil. Wrong. Added some shallots and a tablespoon of mustard. Wrong. I tasted it and it was awful. Chef told me the ratio was wrong and now it is forever burned in my brain. I fixed it by adding a bit more oil and more shallots to balance the overabundance of vinegar. I still didn't like the finish product but I think it was just me. Chef approved so it's fine by me.
10:30 came fast tonight and I have to hit the hay. Trying out round 2 of "I'm going to get up at 5 a.m. and work on my fitness" since round 1 went much better than I had imagined. I had a 3 p.m. slump but after a can of Monster I was ready to go. I'm attempting the Broad Street Run this May so I basically have to go from not being able to run at all to running 10 miles. I'm able to run for about 20 minutes straight at a 12 minute mile pace. Hey, you have to start somewhere.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
"o solo mio... i don't know the words"
So I'm not getting nearly as much exercise as I would like. Chef has been said "you're not allowed to get sick." Thinking about a new schedule: Rise at 5 to exercise, go to work until 5, class until 10, sleep, repeat.
Starting tomorrow. We'll see how this goes.
Starting tomorrow. We'll see how this goes.
"I'm going to start tap dancing if you look at me like a deer in headlights."
Week two: Off on Monday due to Martin Luther King day so some friends and I went to Iron Chef Garces's restaurant Chifa for restaurant week. Let me publicly profess my love for pork belly buns. Amazing. Something you need to try before you die... or at least before 2011. Besides that we had various ceviches, vietnamese spring rolls, bbq ribs with daikon, pho (not a huge fan), chaufa rice, chifa mussels, and on and on. The service was outstanding as was the atmosphere. I'll definitely be back.
Tuesday was culinary skills class and we learned hollandaise sauce and the battering technique. I was really nervous when we started the hollandaise and I heard chef telling everyone around me to throw theirs away for one reason or another: either the eggs started to cook or they added the butter too soon. He came up to me, took a look at my sauce and said "looking good, you can start adding your butter." I smiled and said "yes chef" but inside I was like "yesssss!!!" I added my butter, continued whisking until my arm was sore, baby burned my pinky (later chef laughed in my face about this) and called him over to see my finished product. He dipped his spoon in and I did the same. "What do you think" he asked. Never having been a fan of condiments, I confessed that I was tasting this for the first time. He explained how all of the flavors should come together as one and you shouldn't taste anything in particular. I tasted butter. He did too. Added a few more drops of lemon juice to cancel that out and he tasted again. "Perfect" he said. I said "thank you, chef" but inside I was doing cartwheels. As class went on we batonned some zucchini, battered and fried them. I noticed all of my knife cuts took the longest, however a majority of them were the dimensions they were supposed to be. *Note to self: work on speed.* We cleaned up and class was over.
Now, my parking fiasco. There are two garages next to the building. One costs $8, the other $6. We were told by a few professors and some signs around school to park in the $6 garage. I noticed a sign saying they closed at 10 p.m. so I always chose to play it safe since class finishes at 10. I asked one of the chef professors about the 10 p.m. closing time and he said they know many students park there and generally wait a bit longer for everyone to come out. I took my chances to save a few dollars and parked there. I came out no later that 10:05 on Tuesday evening to a locked up garage and no employees in sight. Lovely. I weighed my options of what I could do.
A) take a $60 cab to the suburbs where I live.
B) take a chance and check out the trains
C) ask my best friend/roommate to come and pick me up or
D) call one of my friends that live in the city to invite myself over for a slumber party.
A) I'm not Miss Moneybags so no.
B) I still have to get back to the city in the morning. Hassle, so no.
C) I'd feel awful because she would be going to bed any minute plus I'd still have to trek back in the early morning. No, again. so...
D) Friend 1 was mugged earlier that day and had a broken nose so I couldn't be heartless and ask to stay there. (she's recovering nicely if you're concerned.) So Friend 2 wins. Generously, he picked me up and inflated an air mattress.
I had a horrible night's sleep panicking about what's going to happen to my car, how much it's going to cost me and how tired I was going to sleep because I am spending too much time worrying when I should be sleeping. 6 a.m. came fast and my friend gave me a ride. Luckily, my bill only came to $12.
Wednesday: A tired day at work came to a close and I drove to Culinary Science, Safety and Supervision. I just refer to it as Sanitation since that's mainly what we discuss anyways. The week prior we learned about all types of hazardous foods, foodborne illnesses and how our mothers tried to kills us by defrosting chicken on the counter tops. This has made my new dinner diet of eat-in-the-car-on-the-way-to-school-sandwiches very difficult to stomach since a number of food borne illnesses can be obtained by deli meats. Listeriosis, staphylococcal gastroenteritis, and norovirus: I'm looking at you. I was so skeeved out one night I had to throw it away. Every time I would try and take a bite I would think of all these little micro-organisms in a Lysol commercial all over my food. My best friend/roommate (a microbiologist) thinks my new bacteria obsession is hilarious since I have had no shame calling her a germaphobe in the past. A trip to the grocery store today had me looking in the glass cases of chicken salads and ready-to-eat foods with a shudder.
Thursday: night off. Exercise + actual dinner + clean hair + reading = a happy culinary student.
Friday: Use and apps. We made brown stock tonight which was much easier than expected. I did something a bit cutthroat which I feel a bit ambivalent about. On one hand, I am trying to be the best and looking out for number one. On the other, this is school and we're here to learn. The moral dilemma continues.
Two quizzes next week. These will be the first tests I have taken since sometime in May of 2006. Here's hoping for good grades.
Not sure if anyone is reading this, but if you are ... thank you.
Tuesday was culinary skills class and we learned hollandaise sauce and the battering technique. I was really nervous when we started the hollandaise and I heard chef telling everyone around me to throw theirs away for one reason or another: either the eggs started to cook or they added the butter too soon. He came up to me, took a look at my sauce and said "looking good, you can start adding your butter." I smiled and said "yes chef" but inside I was like "yesssss!!!" I added my butter, continued whisking until my arm was sore, baby burned my pinky (later chef laughed in my face about this) and called him over to see my finished product. He dipped his spoon in and I did the same. "What do you think" he asked. Never having been a fan of condiments, I confessed that I was tasting this for the first time. He explained how all of the flavors should come together as one and you shouldn't taste anything in particular. I tasted butter. He did too. Added a few more drops of lemon juice to cancel that out and he tasted again. "Perfect" he said. I said "thank you, chef" but inside I was doing cartwheels. As class went on we batonned some zucchini, battered and fried them. I noticed all of my knife cuts took the longest, however a majority of them were the dimensions they were supposed to be. *Note to self: work on speed.* We cleaned up and class was over.
Now, my parking fiasco. There are two garages next to the building. One costs $8, the other $6. We were told by a few professors and some signs around school to park in the $6 garage. I noticed a sign saying they closed at 10 p.m. so I always chose to play it safe since class finishes at 10. I asked one of the chef professors about the 10 p.m. closing time and he said they know many students park there and generally wait a bit longer for everyone to come out. I took my chances to save a few dollars and parked there. I came out no later that 10:05 on Tuesday evening to a locked up garage and no employees in sight. Lovely. I weighed my options of what I could do.
A) take a $60 cab to the suburbs where I live.
B) take a chance and check out the trains
C) ask my best friend/roommate to come and pick me up or
D) call one of my friends that live in the city to invite myself over for a slumber party.
A) I'm not Miss Moneybags so no.
B) I still have to get back to the city in the morning. Hassle, so no.
C) I'd feel awful because she would be going to bed any minute plus I'd still have to trek back in the early morning. No, again. so...
D) Friend 1 was mugged earlier that day and had a broken nose so I couldn't be heartless and ask to stay there. (she's recovering nicely if you're concerned.) So Friend 2 wins. Generously, he picked me up and inflated an air mattress.
I had a horrible night's sleep panicking about what's going to happen to my car, how much it's going to cost me and how tired I was going to sleep because I am spending too much time worrying when I should be sleeping. 6 a.m. came fast and my friend gave me a ride. Luckily, my bill only came to $12.
Wednesday: A tired day at work came to a close and I drove to Culinary Science, Safety and Supervision. I just refer to it as Sanitation since that's mainly what we discuss anyways. The week prior we learned about all types of hazardous foods, foodborne illnesses and how our mothers tried to kills us by defrosting chicken on the counter tops. This has made my new dinner diet of eat-in-the-car-on-the-way-to-school-sandwiches very difficult to stomach since a number of food borne illnesses can be obtained by deli meats. Listeriosis, staphylococcal gastroenteritis, and norovirus: I'm looking at you. I was so skeeved out one night I had to throw it away. Every time I would try and take a bite I would think of all these little micro-organisms in a Lysol commercial all over my food. My best friend/roommate (a microbiologist) thinks my new bacteria obsession is hilarious since I have had no shame calling her a germaphobe in the past. A trip to the grocery store today had me looking in the glass cases of chicken salads and ready-to-eat foods with a shudder.
Thursday: night off. Exercise + actual dinner + clean hair + reading = a happy culinary student.
Friday: Use and apps. We made brown stock tonight which was much easier than expected. I did something a bit cutthroat which I feel a bit ambivalent about. On one hand, I am trying to be the best and looking out for number one. On the other, this is school and we're here to learn. The moral dilemma continues.
Two quizzes next week. These will be the first tests I have taken since sometime in May of 2006. Here's hoping for good grades.
Not sure if anyone is reading this, but if you are ... thank you.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
"If you ask me what you missed in class my response will be 'a good time.'"
Week one: It finally arrived. Weird to think back in October I was nice and cozy in my job as an office manager until I hung up the phone one Friday afternoon semi-unemployed. I never saw it coming. After a minor freakout and a weekend of thinking about what this meant, I decided to go to culinary school. It was always one of those things that I thought would be pretty great, but would never actually happen. My partial unemployment became a blessing in disguise. I made a few appointments at local colleges, took tours, did my research and started the application process for the Art Institute of Philadelphia's culinary arts program. Since I have a Bachelor's degree I was automatically accepted and would begin class on January 11th... just about a week ago.
Week one came and went. Up this quarter: Culinary skills I, Safety and Sanitation, and Use and Applications of Equipment. We went over the syllabi, checked out our knife kits, and got to work. I learned bâtonnet, brunoise (my personal favorite), julienne and the dices amongst others. I assigned myself some homework of practicing the different cuts so I would be prepared for the following class. I also learned that I would look ridiculous if I wore my hat this way to class.
The hardest part so far is sleep... or lack thereof. Besides the part time office manager gig, I also do a similar job at a law firm. I switch on and off days between the two and attend school from 6-10. My awesome friends/roommates welcomed me home one night with a packed lunch, a really nice card and 4-pack of much needed Monster. I'm pretty sure it will get easier once I am used to it.
Week two is coming to an end. What's to follow: hollandaise sauce, how my sanitation class is freaking me out, a parking fiasco and my first attempt at making stock.
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