The journey has begun. On Monday, I went to the school for orientation and to pick up my extra uniform bits. Oh good, I was worried I'd have to wash stuff overnight! I now have three of everything: toque, neckerchief, jacket, apron, and lovely baggy checked pants. Michele got me fancy clogs for my birthday, and Trisha got me casual non-slip shoes that look like Vans. I'm set. After the brief orientation presentation, I got to watch the conclusion of the second preliminary round, which would determine which three students became the exec chefs and who ended up in a supporting role as sous chef. One of my favorite students, Nour, produced a winning braised lamb wrapped in caul fat. I hope she survives to the Ultimate Clash round!
We didn't properly start class until Wednesday, but boy did we hit the ground running. We collected more books: the main Level 1 textbook, a ServSafe text book, and the full Techniques books for Culinary and Pastry. Lots to read & learn. On the first day, we had to show up in uniform (I was glad to have been shown those ropes by students during the competition) and report to the kitchen where the chef turned out to be the same guy who gave me my tour before the competition. Fortunately, he ended up being a nice guy once you got to know him, if pretty tough. I like that.
We were immediately inundated with a lot of French terminology for equipment, techniques, cuts, people, and process. We had a bit of lecture and then grabbed our knives and started cutting. I thought I had some ok knife skills, but here the key is consistency and accuracy. My initial brunoise was WAY too big, I didn't cut my julienne and jardinier batonettes to the correct length, and I wasn't consistent in my cuts. Definitely time to go home and practice.
The next day, we got Chef Tim for our ServSafe lecture. I was feeling pretty ill (did I mention I was recovering from the flu, which ended up turning into walking pneumonia??) so I was glad that it was going to be mostly a sit-down day. Chef Tim managed to take a completely boring subject and make it interesting. I have to admit, one of my biggest concerns about becoming a student again was whether or not I could sit still and pay attention through lectures. If they're as entertaining as Chef Tim, I'll have no problems. He also gave us some time to do some extra knife practice. I mentioned that I'd had problems figuring out the correct tranche lengths. He gave us a lot of great tips, and when I went home that evening I was able to execute with much more precision and consistency.
Friday, we had a lecture on product identification and began our first real recipes, a ratatouille and a goat cheese timabale with beets and apples, both of which required us to demonstrate proficient taillage. We were partnered into teams of two, so we could divvy up the slicing and dicing. One of the things I realized is that we have plenty of time to take things slow, and that the key to success would be to slow down and focus on precision. I figure speed can come later. I cut my beets into a pretty perfect macedoine, then handed my partner a tranche of my jardiniere batonnet so that the could cut the apples the same. His first attempt was pretty irregular, so I suggested that he try again. He too realized that it's ok to make mistakes and that we have sufficient time for do-overs. His second attempt was much better. I did the fine concasser on the shallot for the vinaigrette and cut the macedoine eggplant and zucchini while he diced the peppers and onion for the ratatouille. We altered the recipes in our books to tailor them to our chef, who is Nicoise himself and had rather strong opinions about the correct way to prepare the ratatouille. I like how it came out, so I won't argue!
Here's my completed timbale (we plated these on our own individually):
We didn't properly start class until Wednesday, but boy did we hit the ground running. We collected more books: the main Level 1 textbook, a ServSafe text book, and the full Techniques books for Culinary and Pastry. Lots to read & learn. On the first day, we had to show up in uniform (I was glad to have been shown those ropes by students during the competition) and report to the kitchen where the chef turned out to be the same guy who gave me my tour before the competition. Fortunately, he ended up being a nice guy once you got to know him, if pretty tough. I like that.
We were immediately inundated with a lot of French terminology for equipment, techniques, cuts, people, and process. We had a bit of lecture and then grabbed our knives and started cutting. I thought I had some ok knife skills, but here the key is consistency and accuracy. My initial brunoise was WAY too big, I didn't cut my julienne and jardinier batonettes to the correct length, and I wasn't consistent in my cuts. Definitely time to go home and practice.
The next day, we got Chef Tim for our ServSafe lecture. I was feeling pretty ill (did I mention I was recovering from the flu, which ended up turning into walking pneumonia??) so I was glad that it was going to be mostly a sit-down day. Chef Tim managed to take a completely boring subject and make it interesting. I have to admit, one of my biggest concerns about becoming a student again was whether or not I could sit still and pay attention through lectures. If they're as entertaining as Chef Tim, I'll have no problems. He also gave us some time to do some extra knife practice. I mentioned that I'd had problems figuring out the correct tranche lengths. He gave us a lot of great tips, and when I went home that evening I was able to execute with much more precision and consistency.
Friday, we had a lecture on product identification and began our first real recipes, a ratatouille and a goat cheese timabale with beets and apples, both of which required us to demonstrate proficient taillage. We were partnered into teams of two, so we could divvy up the slicing and dicing. One of the things I realized is that we have plenty of time to take things slow, and that the key to success would be to slow down and focus on precision. I figure speed can come later. I cut my beets into a pretty perfect macedoine, then handed my partner a tranche of my jardiniere batonnet so that the could cut the apples the same. His first attempt was pretty irregular, so I suggested that he try again. He too realized that it's ok to make mistakes and that we have sufficient time for do-overs. His second attempt was much better. I did the fine concasser on the shallot for the vinaigrette and cut the macedoine eggplant and zucchini while he diced the peppers and onion for the ratatouille. We altered the recipes in our books to tailor them to our chef, who is Nicoise himself and had rather strong opinions about the correct way to prepare the ratatouille. I like how it came out, so I won't argue!
Here's my completed timbale (we plated these on our own individually):