Soup's Up 2

Yesterday, I talked about clear soups. Today, we're talking about thick soups.

Thick soups break into 2 categories:
1. Purée Soups
2. Cream Soups

In Tuesday’s class, we made another 3 soups.
1. Purée of Split Pea (Purée Soup)
2. Cream of Mushroom (Cream Soup)
3. Chicken Waterzooi (Cream Soup)

We started with the split pea. Purées are best made with a starchy star ingredient as the starch becomes the thickening agent. If additional thickening is needed, potatoes are often added because of their high starch. Puréed soups are similar to the French Onion in that, they are simple and focus heavily on the main ingredient.
Seriously, very simple:
Render bacon
Sweat mirepoix
Add stock, peas (star), ham hock and potatoes; simmer for 90 min
Remove ham hock; purée
Boom; done

This is where we jumped ahead of other groups. We had a purée secret weapon. Stormy has worked in a smoothie shop before and took control of the blender. Too bad for her, this is my blog and I’m gonna spill the secret. You only fill the blender about 1/3rd of the way full. Then as it purées in the blender, the smoother it gets, the higher it will shoot up the sides of the blender. When it gets to the top, it’s nice and smooth. Thanks to Stormy we got compliments from Chef Pierre on the consistency.

While Bobby was getting started on the split pea, Stormy took initiative on the mushrooms for the Cream of Mushroom, 3 lbs of them! In case you didn’t know already, mushrooms are light. Those packs of mushrooms you buy at the grocery store are 8oz. So imagine chopping 6 of those packs in 15-20 min.

I spent much of the first hour and a half working on chopping veggies as well. We had a lot to get through.
1. Split Pea:
-12 oz diced onion
-4 oz diced celery
-2 cloves of chopped garlic
-16 oz diced potato
2. Cream of Mushroom:
-8 oz diced onion
-4 oz diced celery
-4 oz diced leeks
-3 lbs sliced mushrooms
3. Chicken Waterzooi:
-5 oz allumette carrots
-5 oz allumette celery
-3 oz allumette turnips
-8 oz allumette potatoes
-4 oz allumette leeks

Allumette is a new knife cut that we all got to learn. This was important that we all practice this because we have a mid-term in 2 weeks and part of that mid-term is a knife practical.

Interjection:
Here are the cuts we’ve used so far in class.

Medium Dice: cube-shaped cut; dimensions ½” x ½” x ½”
Small Dice: cube-shaped cut; dimensions ¼” x ¼” x ¼”
Brunoise: cube-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 1/8”

Bâtonnet: stick-shaped cut; dimensions ¼” x ¼” x 2”
Julienne: stick-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 2”
Allumette: stick-shaped cut; dimensions 1/8” x 1/8” x 1 ½”
-This is normally only used for potatoes (matchsticks)

Paysanne: flat, square, round or triangular item; dimensions ½” x ½” x 1/8”

OK, back to soup. After finishing up the slicing, Stormy got started on the Cream of Mushroom. Cream soups are also puréed but are not called purées because they are not thickened with a puréed starchy ingredient but are thickened with a roux or an alternate starch and are finished by adding cream. After sautéing the mushrooms in butter (great smell by the way), we sweat the other veggies with them. Now, we need to do 2 things add the liquid and add the thickener. The order does not matter but the technique does. If you add the liquid first, you have to pre-make a roux (flour+fat). If you add the flour directly into the sautéed veggies you’ll make a roux with the veggies in it and can then add the stock after the roux has formed. At this point, you have a velouté with sautéed veggies. The mixture is still thick and has chunks of mushrooms. Stormy, the smoothie queen, again got our soup to a silky texture.

While that was working I got started on the Chicken Waterzooi (yeah, I’ve never heard of it either). We had been cooking an entire chicken for the first half of class in chicken stock, creating our own chicken broth (Why broth? Because we used the meat, not just the bones). We pulled the chicken from the broth and set it aside to tear up later. To this broth, we added a cold roux that we had already prepared and simmered it for an hour. After the hour we added the allumette veggies.

At this point, we have 3 almost finished soups. The cool part is that none of them are really done until just before service. For a cream soup, you don’t remember me saying “add cream” (you don’t have to scroll up and check, I haven’t). Just before service, we have to finish and garnish.

Here are the 3 soups we made on Tuesday:
Top: Purée of Split Pea is bowled and garnished with the diced up meat from the ham hock we pulled from the soup earlier and a few croutons.
Bottom Right: Cream of Mushroom is finished with cream (pouring in hot cream), bowled and garnished with some sliced mushrooms that we removed and saved before puréeing the soup and some finely chopped parsley
Bottom Left: Chicken Waterzooi is finished with a liaison (1 part egg yolk and 3 parts cream whisked together to add richness and smoothness). This, just as the cream is added, bowled and garnished with finely chopped parsley. The reason that the veggies for this soup were all cut allumete was because this soup is not puréed and that these veggies should look uniform to enhance the visual appeal of the bowl.

A little advice that we got from Chef Pierre on our cream soups:
The soups will always thicken as they cool. As soon as the soup is served it starts to cool. Make the soups thinner than desired in the pot so that when they are served, they don’t get too thick as ours had started to do.

The best part about preparing served items is that after we plate things, we get to eat them. I'm gonna let y'all in on a little secret, I've always loved French Onion and Split Pea Soup. Now, I love them more than ever. I’ve had 6 bowls of soup in 2 days and I still hunger for more.

--Rees

Soup's Up

Stocks and sauces, while important, don't impart a true feeling of cooking. I mean, what's the best part about cooking? You get to eat it! The focus has been entirely on technique. In 2 weeks, I've already learned more about cooking than the last 5 years of watching it on TV and attempting it at home. Unfortunately, the stuff we've cooked (stocks and sauces) aren't a lot of fun all by themselves.

This week we applied stock and sauce making to a final product, soup. Without understanding stocks and sauces, we would be lost. The first 2 weeks are truly about learning to appreciate technique and learning to feel comfortable in the commercial kitchen environment.

The class is starting to run like a kitchen. We're all starting to understand what prep has to get done to 1. start cooking sooner and 2. get out faster. Now remember, these classes are 5 hours long. The faster we get started, the more time we can spend cooking and the more work we get done, the faster the cleaning goes at the end of class. In every class, Chef Pierre starts by discussing what we are preparing much like a head chef would go over responsibilities for that night in a restaurant kitchen. Because it's a class, his discussion is not about who makes what, he instead is reminding us of the techniques that each team needs to apply to properly prepare our dishes and some pitfalls to look out for. After the 30 minutes of discussion, bang, the teams split up and handle different jobs in order get prepared or as they say in the get kitchen, "Mise en Place". I usually go straight for the fridge to grab the food that we'll need in order to prepare each dish; Stormy usually goes for the cutting boards for each of us and Bobby always grabs the towels and the garbage and sanitation bins for the table. Within 5 minutes, knives are out and prep work begins.

It's good that we all move fast because it's amazing how long it takes to prepare 3 soups. Soups can be broken into 3 distinct categories:
1. Clear Soups
2. Thick Soups
3. Special Soups

Monday we tackle Clear Soups. Clear soups start with stock or broth as a base.
The difference:
-Stock is made from bones only. This keeps the flavor neutral.
-Broth is made from meat and meat+bones. This adds extra flavoring.

On the menu for Monday:
Chicken Consommé
Minestrone Soup
French Onion Soup

I had heard of consommés before and heard chefs make a big deal out of them. Now I know why. You can never appreciate a consommé until you make one. A consommé is a stock or broth that is clarified to remove all impurities so that it becomes crystal clear (Note: clear does not mean colorless; it means that you can see through it).

To start a consommé, you have to develop the Clarification, also known as the Clearmeat. The clearmeat consists of egg whites, ground meat, fish or poultry, mirepoix, herbs and spices and an acidic product (usually tomatoes, lemon juice or wine). The ingredients for a clearmeat are mixed together by hand (kinda gross and kinda fun). Then we added the clearmeat, which looks like meatloaf, into a pot of cold stock. If using chicken meat, use chicken stock; if using beef, use beef stock to keep the flavoring consistent. Then we brought the pot up to temperature (110°-140°). At this point, Bobby had to stay close to the pot becuase he had to stir frequently to avoid any of the clearmeat to sink and stick to the bottom. These pieces would burn and cause discoloration and cloudiness.

So now you're thinking to yourself, how do you get a clear soup with all of that crap in there? Well, here's the nerd in me.
Caution Science Content:
The albumen (protein in the egg whites and meat) trap impurities in the stock and begins to coagulate (big word for clump). As the coagulation continues, these clumps run into each other, get bigger and float to the top.When the pot reaches temperature (you don't have to test it, the pot will tell you), the clearmeat will rise to the top. At that point, it is now called a raft (shocking, because its floating). Amazingly, the clarification (clearmeat) has clarified the stock!

While the clearmeat is pulling out impurities, the hot liquid of the stock is pulling flavor out of the clearmeat. Next, we have more science. With this raft floating on the top, it's difficult for evaporation to escape so we must cut a window in the raft. With the window side of the pot over the burner, we pull the other end off of the heat. The heated liquid will rise to the top, basting the raft with hot liquid, as the hot liquid rises, it is replaced by the cooler side, the cooler side is then replaced by the liquid that is running off of the clearmeat. It creates a temperature loop. For the next 60-90 mins, our job was to watch the consommé baste and cook itself.

After the 90 mins, we strained it through cheesecloth. Last week, I complained that I hated cheesecloth because it takes forever to strain. The clearmeat apparently did its job because the consommé shot right through the cheesecloth. It was pretty awesome compared to what I had seen in previous weeks. When you're finished there may just be a little bit of grease coating the top. We simply dragged a few paper towels across the top; the fat sticks to the towel!

While the consommé was simmering we got started on the other two soups. Luckily, for my wrists' sake, you should all be familiar with these soups so I don't have to explain them. Here are the highlights:

Minestrone is a simple stock or broth soup with extra ingredients added for flavor.In our case it has lots of vegetables floating in the soup. This provides an opportunity to make it look fancy. We applied a new cut to our knife skills, the Paysanne. This cut is a 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch square. Imagine a scrabble tile but only 1/8th of an inch thick. Time consuming but fun.

French Onion soup is awesome because of its simplicity. Onions sauteed in clarified butter, deglazed with white wine and simmered in beef stock. You let this simmer until the onions are tender.

After completing the 3 soups, we had our first adventure in plating. Chef Pierre explained a few guidelines on plating soup.
1. We heated bowls for the consomme and minestrone, because soup should always be served hot. We didn't need to heat the bowls for the onion soup because those bowls were added to the oven to melt the cheese over the toast on top of the soup.
2. Fill the soup about 3/4 of the way full to help avoid spills
3. wipe down any spills on the lips as it doesn't look good or and the soup may burn and stick on the hot bowl.

Here is what Monday's soup looked like:

Top left: Chicken Consommé. Notice how clear it is... you can see the bottom of the bowl.

Top right: Minestrone. Tons of veggies and garnished with parmesan.

Bottom: French Onion. Mmmmmmmmmm


Tired of typing today... I'll update Tuesday's soups tomorrow.



--Rees

Competition

So, I have been talking with a lot of folks in the Houston area about my sandwich hangout idea and they all have some places in mind that I absolutely must try. The establishment that comes up most often is Kenny and Ziggy's.

I figured, what better way to understand what I want to do and how I want to do it is to see how others have been doing it well. So, today I went to check it out. First off, this place is much larger than I imagined. When I imagine a deli, I imagine limited space. This place is huge. There are at least 4 different divided seating sections. Even with hardwood floors and diner-style seating, you still notice that this place is huge. Although they do have a deli counter, you have to get past the hostess. I didn't know delis had hostesses.

It does have a New York City feel though, exactly as they want it to. There are a ton of servers dressed nicely that swoop in and respond quickly (this is never a bad thing). The place is immaculate; I mean, I expect this place in downtown New York City.

The food, to change gears quickly, is awesome. I had a pastrami and corned beef triple decker sandwich. This is rye bread + coleslaw + pastrami + rye bread + corned beef + rye bread, measuing 5 inches in height. Also, instead of bread or crackers, the free appetizer is 2 dill pickles (I'm hoping they're homemade). The food is awesome and from what I understand, all of the stuff is homemade.

Truly, this place is as good as advertised. Am I worried or disheartened?
No. I am not.
As good as this place is, I think the place I have in mind has a different niche in the "great deli sandwich" mix. First of all, I spent $30 for a sandwich (albeit huge, probably 2 sandwiches), 2 sides and a beer. I was by myself!
The beer was a Shiner Bock; a good beer at a fair price $3.75. I can't complain too much. Next, the sandwich was almost $16 on its own including 1 side (coleslaw, potato salad or macaroni salad). To give some perspective, the sandwich was 5 inches tall: 2 inches of pastrami, 2 inches of corned beef, 3 slices of rye and a small layer of coleslaw. Then, being who I am, I ordered an additional side simply so that I could try both the coleslaw and the potato salad. So truly, $30 for 2 sandwiches, 2 sides and 1 beer + tip. I guess it adds up fair but when I repeat $30 for myself for dinner, it seems a little steep.

An aside: The 2 side order goes back to a precedent that my dad established that has been slightly tweaked. If my dad sees french onion soup on a menu, he orders it. If it's good, it's a sign that the restaurant is doing something right. I tend to agree with that; while he uses french onion soup, I use coleslaw and potato salad as my litmus for a good sandwich joint. Let's not kid ourselves here, anyone can make a sandwich that people will like. I mean, Subway, yes Subway, has the most franchises in the United States. I remember this from a Marketing class in 2003 (hooray, Iowa State education). I think most of the people reading this will agree that Subway sandwiches are not on their top 5 list. However, this same group cannot deny that they haven't purchased a subway sandwich, because they aren't awful. What I'm trying to get at is the fact that people don't always need the best sandwiches; they just need something they can tolerate and eat quickly. For heavan's sake, take a look at their new jingle: "5, 5 dollar, 5 dollar foot-long". They aren't even pushing healthiness anymore; they're just pushing "cheap". For me, if they don't offer coleslaw or potato salad as sides, skip the place.

-- that was a really long aside..... sorry. --

To get back to the point, Let me explain -- No, there is too much. Let me sum up (Michelle, that's a little Princess Bride for you).
Kenny and Ziggy's...
1. is huge
2. has great food
3. cost more than I would have expected but wasn't unreasonable
4. Am I worried? No.

What I learned from my experience at Kenny and Ziggy's is:
1. I want to have a smaller place with a more "local/regular" feel.
-It kinda had a little bit of a Hard Rock Cafe or Times Square location feel where they don't give a crap who you are but still treat you well.
- I want my place to feel like a local stop. Maybe I'll sacrifice some volume for the opportunity to absorb myself into a neighborhood.
2. It's obvious when food is made well.
- It's in the first bite. There is beef from Subway, beef from your grocery store and then there is beef from those that do it best.
- Be proud of what you do best. Kenny and Ziggy's tells you what they make in house. If it's not written in the menu like the pastrami or corned beef "we make it here" statements, it's in the more subtle pickle-starter actions.
3. People will pay a lot for good food.
- While suprised at the total bill, I still rationalized it. I'm supposed to know better. That's a lot of money and I still gladly paid for it.
- I may not be able to get away with those prrices, but I don't have to be afraid to price things for what I feel is appropriate.
4. I think that the place I have in mind doesn't compete directly with Kenny and Ziggy's. While I will try and compete with the quality of the food, I don't want to be a big establishment with a large staff like K&Z. I want a smaller, local feel where people don't hesitate to approach the deli counter or jump in a bar stool.

It's official, I now have to try delis everywhere I go because I keep picking up both ideas and influences as well as contrasting/non-competitive aspects to all the places I go to.

I'll keep eating; you keep reading.
-- Rees

Week 2

Sauces.... all sauces. 9 sauces in 2 days and I will smoke you in all of them.
This is what we made in class in 2 days (10 hrs total).

1. Espagnole (Brown Sauce)
2. Béchamel
3. Velouté
4. Tomato
5. Fresh Tomato
6. Demi-Glace
7. Hollandaise
8. Mayonnaise
9. Beurre-blanc (lemon-butter)

Day 1 - Monday:
We made sauces 1-4. Each member of the team was responsible for 1 of the sauces and the rest of the team was to help. We have a team of 3 so we needed to be more efficient. We decided to leave the Velouté for last as it took less time to cook than the rest. I got to start with the Tomato sauce because frankly, I knew that I was mostly likely/inevitable to get messy (yes, I did leave covered in red dots of tomato sauce).

Bobby (I finally remembered his name) got started on the Béchamel (milk + white roux) and Stormy worked on the Espangnole sauce (brown stock + brown roux + mirepoix and tomatoes). To be honest, both of these sauces are simple; however, they do take a bit more care than the Tomato sauce that I did because they both involve making a roux. A roux (flour + fat) cooks together very quickly and doesn't take long to burn. My team-members had to take close stock of how long the roux had cooked and how dark they needed it to be. Bobby (Béchamel) was making a light sauce and wanted a light or pale roux, so he wanted to cook his quickly and keep his roux on the pale/white side. Stormy, on the other hand, was making a brown sauce and wanted to use a brown roux which required more cooking. The tricky part is that there is a very small time frame between a brown roux and a BURNT roux. Stormy did well and we finished, after straining, with one of the better looking brown sauces.

I was responsible for the Tomato sauce. This was my first use of Salt Pork. I have substituted bacon in the past, but now, for real, I got to use salt pork to create the cooking fat. And, of course, as I was rendering it, Chef Pierre walked by and said, "turn it up; it's cooking to slow".
I responded, "I turned it down because it started to stick."
His response was, "Just add a bit of oil to get it going."

So far, the only profession where cheating is encouraged is in the kitchen. And it's not really cheating! There are 1,000+ shortcuts that don't hurt the quality of the food that I didn't know about. It's more about understanding what the ingredient is used for and if there is a viable substitute (more than likely, there are 9).

Most groups have 4 students; ours has 3. After we had each done 1 sauce, we combined efforts to make the 4th and catch up with other teams (Velouté = white stock + white roux). Luckily, the Velouté only takes about 35 min after creating the roux and doesn't require additional ingredients.

My tomato sauce turned out well. Bobby and I decided that Stormy is our official seasoner for the rest of the quarter because she got a “thumbs up” on all 4 sauces whereas other tables got suggestions for "more pepper" or "too salty".

Interjection: Straining is a pain in the butt. Chinois strainers and Cheesecloth + China Caps make sauce-making much more tedious than anyone should ever anticipate. In the future, if possible, I will buy pre-made sauces. Mark it!

Day 2 - Tuesday:
I'll tell you right now, the Hollandaise and the Mayonnaise are the hardest, by far! Unless you are a cy-borg with a whisk attachment, you're going to mess up 1 of the 2 sauces. Our group messed up the mayonnaise.

We added the oil too quickly to the beaten egg and never gave the emulsion a chance (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, look up the word "emulsion"). Chef Pierre came over, looked at our mayonnaise and said, "That's broken." Bobby, Stormy and I said in unison, "It never started." Chef Pierre saved our mayonnaise by adding it back to another bowl with a spoonful of water. If you're amazed, count me in for 4; it was pretty awesome. I was astounded. It seemed as if he was doing the same thing we did except that his technique worked. He explained to us that we probably added the oil too quickly and never gave the emulsion a chance to happen. FYI - Homemade mayonnaise = excellent and Homemade mayonnaise = illegal/unsafe (need to used pasteurized egg yolks).

The sauces made in Day 2 were ready much faster than those in Day 1. The Demi-glace (brown stock + brown sauce) took about an hour and a half to reduce but required no work other than skimming the fat off of the top of the sauce (degraisser). Beurre Blanc (lemon-butter) took about 15 min: 8 min to cook down the ingredients and then another 7 to melt the butter. The Hollandaise and Mayonnaise are simple in theory, but require good technique to execute well. *If you go to a restaurant and they offer hollandaise (only stores well for an hour or two), ask how long ago the hollandiase was prepared. If they tell you it was made the day before, order pancakes!

The crown jewel of Tuesday's class was the fresh tomato sauce: 1. It's something everyone recognizes or has attempted at home; 2. We learned an additional knife skill; 3. It tastes awesome and we got to add it to pasta in class!!!

We started with raw, Roma Tomatoes. We cored (cut out the top) and scored (x-cuts on the bottom) them and dropped them into boiling water to peel the skins. After 20 sec, we dropped them into an ice bath to keep them from cooking. The three of us then peeled off the skin, quartered and seeded -- Seeding tomatoes requires cutting out the ribs and just shaking or pushing out the seeds in cold water-- about 16 tomatoes. At this point, we are left with quartered, seedless segments and a pile of tomato ribs. We practice our "small dice" skills on the quartered, seedless segments adding anything that didn't fit to the "rib pile". Then, for fun, we chop the crap out of the rib pile and add it to the rest.

Interjection: The whole point of separating the tomato pieces is that the rib and the trimmings are just extra. The perfect small dice, or any cut in particular, is really made in perfect proportion so that, if necessary, can be used as garnish.

We add our fresh tomato to onion, carrot, celery and garlic that have been sweating. To that mix, we add a bit of chicken stock just to thin down the tomatoes and let the whole pot roll for about 30 min. After that 30 min period we add fresh basil -- I'm pretty sure I rule at the chiffonade (slice leafy vegetables)--, parsley, salt an pepper.

While making these 4 sauces, Chef Pierre, for fun, cooked up some fettucine so that we could all try our own fresh tomato sauces.
....
....
Just to let you know, there isn't a drop of sauce or fettucine left.

Dude, school is awesome.

--Rees

First Week

2 days of class down, 2 to go.

Monday 5:30 PM:
My first class was a "lab" class, in which we sit in a commercial kitchen on the 4th floor of the school. It's a bit awkward walking past art students with their facial piercings, tattoos, "fashion statements" and crazy hair (length, color, proportion) wearing a pressed white uniform, until you get up to the 4th floor where you see everyone, wearing the same pressed white uniform.

I can't really describe the feeling of excitement as I walked into that first class. I was 20 min early and the class was half full already and the smell of roasting bones was left from the class before. My friend John probably has the best written description for the feeling, and I quote, "knf;lksadnvo[va" (yes, it's just smashing your fingers on the keyboard). The class is small; there are 21 of us scattered across 6 stainless steel tables.

The first half of the first class was 2 and 1/2 hours of admin stuff (paperwork, tours, safety videos); it was brutal. You can see everyone in the class anxious to touch anyone of the toys in their kit or the tools around the kitchen. The next hour we talk about stocks (the different kinds, the difference between those kinds, what they're used for, how to make them and most importantly, why they are made). Finally, Chef Pierre says, "OK, lets brown some bones. We are roasting veal and beef bones for a brown stock. Once we put them in the oven to brown, Chef Pierre does a short demo on some basic knife skills that we'll use in the class. Everyone goes back to their tables and does 2 things: 1. Practice the knife skills and 2. Prepare the mirepoix (onions, carrot and celery) for adding to the stock. He has us prepare a small dice on an onion and a carrot. Now, we don't practice just to learn to do it fast, we are practicing slowly to ensure that everything we dice can be used as a garnish. Appearance is very important and we get graded on how our cuts look.

The last half hour of the class is clean-up. We pull the bones from the oven and store them for the next class; we scrub clean the roasting pans; we wash rinse and sanitize the cutting boards, baking sheets, knives and pans used in todays class; we wipe off the tables and sweep the floor. It takes 20 of us, 30 min to make the room immaculate.

Tuesday Noon:
Management by Menu is one of the classes that really inspired me to go to school. In this class, we learn how to build a menu. On day 1, they make it very clear that a menu is not just a list of what you serve and how much they cost, but that it is a description of who you are and who you serve. My reason for taking these courses is to open my own place and this is the first step in helping me understand how to open it.

This class is held in a standard classroom, whiteboards, projector and those attached desk and chair things (no uniform in this class). The chef instructor in this class is funny and we have some characters in the class as well; so, it ought to be fun as well as informative.

Tuesday 5:30 PM:
Today we get to make stock! Because we are the late class, we don't get to finish the brown stock that we started on Monday because we don't have 8 hours to let it simmer, but we do get to make a chicken stock. First task of the day, Chef Pierre draws names for kitchen teams. My team is made up of 3 people:
me: 27 yrs old, business degree in 2003 with a white collar job who wants to change lifestyle
Stormy: 19 yrs old, transferred from Community College to pursue a career as a pastry chef, ultimately wants to build, design wedding cakes
Guy 2 (I'm forgetting his name right now): has been married and worked for the postal service for 30 years and is coming to school at night so that he can open a place with his wife

Along with team placement, we also are given roles on the team. I drew the Team Leader role. Stormy drew the Food & Equipment role and Guy 2 drew the Stewarding (responsible for safe and sanitary work practice) role.

Next, we get started on the stock. Stormy get 8 lbs of chicken bones, covers them with water and gets them to a simmer on the stove. While simmering, the rest of us work on the mirepoix for today's stock, again, practicing our knife skills from yesterday. Chef Pierre adds a new skill and shows us how to julienne celery. After simmering for 2 hrs and skimming the pot, we add in the mirepoix. We also prepare a sachet d'epice (french for spice bag), which is our seasonings wrapped in cheese cloth and sunk in our stock.

After another hour, we pull the stocks off the stove and begin to strain them. We hand ladle our stock into a china cup (looks like a large metal pastry tip that hash a mesh screen on the inside) which is lined with cheesecloth and coffee filters to strain out impurities of our stock. As you can imagine, this is a little slow going. During this process, you can start to see that people are getting more comfortable with the flow of the kitchen. While 2 team-members are straining stocks, you can see others hustling about cleaning up behind each other. There is an assembly line at the sinks, one washing, one rinsing and one sanitizing. Others are busy wiping down tables or sweeping up the floor.

After the stocks have been strained, Chef Pierre hands out plastic tablespoons and has us taste our stocks and compare them with stocks he intentionally had teams ruin to show what not to do.

I am confident that I know how to make stock. This class is awesome!

--Rees

Getting Started

As of 4:30 PM Central, I am fully registered in the International Culinary Schools at the Art Institute. It's still about 72 hours before my first class even starts and I'm already in trouble.

First, I am supposed to have 3 chapters in my book read by Monday and the book is sold out. My first class, the Fundamentals of Classic Techniques meets Monday and Tuesday nights for the next 11 weeks from 5:30 PM until 10:30 PM. I had orientation this past Wednesday night and I met my professors/chefs. The head chef said as we were leaving the meeting, "Oh and by the way, have chapters 1, 9 and 10 read for your first class on Monday. Apparently, these chapters relate to soups, broths, stocks and sauces.

Second, during this same orientation, I was the only incoming student pointed out for inappropriate attire. For those that don't already know, I am very fond of casual attire, love t-shirts and hate pants. However, in this orientation, I was wearing slacks and a button up shirt. The head chef pointed me out because he was talking about grooming and the beard that I have been so carefully growing for the past 2 months has to go. Technically, since I had a beard already, I am allowed to keep it on the condition that I wear a beard-net (yes, like a hair-net for your chin). I wouldn't wear a beard-net if Chef gave me one for free on the spot. So, now I have to trim this bad boy all the way down to an 1/8th of an inch [insert sad smily face here].

And last, all of the chefs made sure to point out that the 3 rules of culinary school are:
1. Show up
2. Show up on time
3. Be presentable (Clean and pressed uniform and good hygiene).

I'm certain that rules 1 and 2 will not be a problem. However, rule 3 may be difficult (no, not the hygiene part. The book store also ran out of uniforms. I only have 1 uniform and if you've met me before in a food-related setting, you would know that I have a habit of, um.... well.... I guess the only way to say it is: I have a habit of spilling on myself. I don't know why, I don't know how, but it happens. And if I'm going to be in a cooking lab for 5 hours on Monday night, how do they expect me to keep my uniform clean for the next night's class?

These are the little things that are making me nervous for my first day of school in over 5 years. Overall, I am very excited and even more fired up that this is the first step on my way to opening up my own restaurant.

I am writing this blog mostly for myself. This will be my way of reminding myself what I have learned and more importantly, why I'm going to school. I want to make killer sandwiches for a living. And I want people to enjoy them.

--Rees