H...is for Hell Week.

Week 6 is what is affectionately called, "Hell Week". It is the final week of basics and consists of 5 exams in 5 days and an oral report. Also 6 homework assignments. Pretty intense!

My written exams went really well. I got high A's on both of them. The three practical exams were much harder for me. I did well, but it just demands a lot more out of me. 2 of the practicals were plating exams, where you are given a menu and you have 2 hours to make everything and present on a plate hot, like in a restaurant. The timing can be a little tricky to make it all come out at the same time. For example: Chicken Consomme appetizer, Frenched chicken leg & thigh stuffed with Mushroom Duxelle in caul fat, Mushroom Supreme Sauce, Dauphanoise potatoes, and glazed carrots. (That was my 2nd plating). It feels a little Iron Chef-ish racing against the clock, and running around like a crazy person. Chef was a pretty tough critic, but it went pretty well and I'm really glad that it is over.

We also had a practical knife skills test. Basically taking different vegetables and cutting them extremely precisely against the clock (see image above for reference). We had 45 minutes to concasse 2 tomatoes, med dice a potato, cut 2 ounces of julienne carrots (1/8"x 1/8"x 2"), 2 ounces of brunoise carrots (1/8" cubes), and 4 tourneed potatoes (7 sided football-like shapes, 2" in length, 3/4" thick). 45 minutes may sound like a long time for all of that, but it really isn't. Especially because 2 ounces by weight of little tiny cubes is a lot of freaking carrot. And the tournes are really quite difficult. Chef even got out a ruler and measured each little piece. Time really got the best of me and I wasn't very happy with my exam. I did a lot better than most people, but I was disappointed with myself. Oh well, it's only one test.

The dreaded Tourne...striking fear in the hearts of culinary students the world around!

Overall, I felt like the week went pretty well. I'm fairly certain I'll get an A and I'm really excited to move on to the next class. I won't be the new guy anymore. And I can't believe I'm already a quarter of the way done with my classes!! (6 months of class, 3 months of internship).

Tomorrow I start Bake Shop!!!!! : )

M...is for Meat.

Week 5 was all about meat. We started the week with breaking down and frenching chickens, then frenching racks of lamb, after that we moved into pork (breaking down a full Loin which is about 3 feet long and foot across), and then into beef. Some days were spent fabricating (butchering) and some days on cooking techniques for each type of meat. And let me tell you, there's nothing like having a little meat in the morning. One day I had lamb chops and fillet Mignon with Bearnaise sauce for my 9am snack. Nice.

Meat really doesn't gross me out, so I actually thought it was a pretty fun week. I think the lamb chops were the biggest surprise for me. I didn't know how much I would love them. We also made a French lamb stew, Lamb Navarin, that was pretty good. I didn't used to eat anything with a cute face (ie: lamb, rabbit, etc.) but that has quickly gone out the window. But I still hold firm to my no meat on a bone rule. Bone on bone (my teeth on animals bones) is just WRONG!

We did however have to watch 3 videos on butchering meat filmed in slaughterhouses. One from a beef slaughterhouse, a chicken one, and a pork one. They left NO details out. They started out alive and came out the end in little steaks, etc. Not for the faint of heart. Could easily turn a meatlover to a vegetarian. I may never get the image of ripping a cow's skin off it's face from it's body-less head out of my mind. And now you can imagine it too. YUCK.

I talked a little earlier about "Frenching", and it is one of the things I thought was coolest this week. It is basically leaving the bone attached to the meat, and then scraping with your knife blade to remove any meat, sinew, or connective tissue. It is more for presentation purposes, but also helps with flavor. It is the perfect answer to the meat/bone problem I have. Genius! It's pretty simple on a chicken, but a little tougher to do with lamb, but most 8 bone lamb racks are sold pre-frenched, so it saves you a step. (see picture above. It was the clearest picture I could find, but that person is totally butchering up the meat, in a bad way).

Oh and did you know that Pork is not actually "the other white meat"? It's not white meat at all. It is actually classified as a red meat. And raw pork is very red. Apparently, the pork people came up with that a few years ago as a marketing campaign to make pork seem healthy (bacon & ham, the most commonly eaten pork give it a bad wrap.) It does cook up white, much like chicken, but is actually red meat and most closely falls in nutritional value with the red meat family. Who knew?

S....is for Survival!

Well, you may think my absence since the dreaded fish post meant I didn't make it. Perhaps you thought the blood, guts, offal, and bones were just too much for me. Well you were wrong. I did it. Actually twice. Once a flat fish (yellowtail flounder) and then a round fish (hybrid striped sea bass). Not to mention the famed lobster.
I have to say, it probably is one of the grossest things I have ever done. Period. The smell alone. A flounder is a flat fish and actually has both of it's eyes on the same side of it's head...very creepy. I actually felt like it was watching me. Gross.
The roundfish I cut up with surprising efficiency and accuracy. Luckily this one came eviscerated (already gutted). Who knew? 2nd try and I did really well. But don't worry there is a not a career throwing fish at Pike Place anywhere in my future!! There will be a 4 week break before I have to touch a fish again......Do we think that is sufficient time for me to recover???
Oh and the lobster as always was excellent. We cooked them three ways and did a blind taste test of which was best: grilled, steamed, or boiled. Mine one the test (it was steamed over a court bouillon) so I felt proud. We also threw back some raw oysters on the half shell and clams. Shucking is sure fun!
Well I hope I didn't gross you out too much. My pregnant sister said reading the last one almost made her throw up so she had to stop reading. Just think, even grosser than reading about it is doing it. YUCK!

F...is for Fear & Fish

Today is the day. The day I have been dreading has officially arrived. I thought I had at least another 2 months, but it snuck right up on me. In fact it is one of the things I knew would come, and really made me think about NOT going to cooking school. Today is the day I have to butcher a fish...
See I've always been disgusted by raw/alive fish. I don't even like them in the aquarium all that well. I have to be dragged into the ocean and I absolutely detest their smell. In fact I won't even make tuna fish sandwiches because I get so grossed out - ask my husband. The odd part is that I do like eat some fish. A little salmon or john dorry....yum. I just don't want to be the person who has to cut it's head off and then rip its guts out. But today I have to be that person.
Chef told me I'll need to carry the fish like a baby, as to not injure it. It made me want to injure him. Seriously, a stinky dead fish and he wants me to carry it like a baby? Maybe like I'd carry a baby animal with rabies. Ew.
Oh yeah and tomorrow I've got to stick a knife in a LIVE lobster's head.
I'll let you know how it goes.

A...is for A!

That's right...for my big fat "A" I got in my first class. Can you believe I already finished my first class?! Basics 1, check! We completed it last Friday and I got my official grade today, which was a 96%. I had the highest grade in the class and I'm rather proud of it. I think I'm officially the Hermione Granger of chef school. I lost most of my points for being messy while I cook. And I deserve that. I make good food, but sometimes I'm really messy. : ) Many students in my class didn't do very well, and 2 already failed out. So I want you know that A was hard to get and well earned. Yea for me!

W...is for War Wounds

Some days the kitchen seems more like a battlefield than a place to make food. That has certainly been the case this week. I "earned" my first battle scars, and I'm sure there will be many to come. We all knew it was only a matter of time!

Monday I gave myself a nasty little burn on the top of my right hand. I was opening the 475 degree oven to get out my french onion soup (which was perfection, btw) and bumped it on the outside of the oven. That's the trouble with a commercial kitchen. It's not like at home where I could put my face on the outside of my oven and barely have it warm the skin. Commercial ovens get crazy hot and they are entirely made of metal. Touch it anywhere and you'll get burned. Also, you don't get to use hotpads in a commercial kitchen....those are for housewives (gasp!). Instead, you just use a little tiny side towel. I'm well on my way to being able to elude the FBI by not having any fingerprints left. And then I completely seared my tongue on the soup. Just getting my taste buds back today. Maybe by tomorrow food will taste normal again.

Tuesday was even worse. I filleted my own finger!!! I had been dicing onions and was going to put my chef's knife down (8" blade and VERY sharp) and just sliced open my left pointer finger. And boy was it a bleeder. It actually spurted blood. One girl even almost threw up after seeing it. Chef was afraid I was going to have to get stitches, but we finally made it stop bleeding. We threw a few bandaids on, a latex glove and put me back to work. I didn't even cry. I then proceeded to make the world's best veal consomme...one handed. Not to mention a rocking Caribbean black bean soup and a perfectly balanced vegetable soup.

I guess the scar count is up to 2. Wonder how many I'll have by the time this is all over?