What do you know about meat?
Astute readers will recognize the title of this post as the title of a chapter from Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which I highly recommend.
Yesterday we received the course information for our next class, Meat Fabrication & Identification. Prior to attending the first class Monday, we have no less than 121 pages to read and four videos to watch. Chef Johann Sebald -- he's an old German chef/butcher, and probably just what you're imagining him to be -- makes it clear through his materials that he doesn't put up with any crap. Class officially starts at 7am, but you'd better be there no latter than 6:45. Tardy even one minute? You just lost 33% of your daily grade. I pity the fool who dares show up out of dress code, too. I get the impression that student would be used for the day's work, if you catch my meaning.
I'm looking forward to it, to be honest. This discipline is exactly the sort of thing my group needs, having coasted through nothing like it the past six weeks.
Today was a good day. I finished two classes, Food Safety and Intro to Gastronomy, and feel a-OK about both finals. It also finally cooled down here -- when I went to bed last night it was actually less than 70 degrees out, and I don't think it hit much more than 75 during the day today. As I type this, it's 65 and pouring rain. Ah... just like home.
We also had Grand Buffet for lunch today. Grand Buffet happens every three weeks on the day before graduation, and is sort of our little version of a culinary Christmas. Last time out, we were GB rookies and didn't know what to do. Like fools, we went to one of the classroom kitchens to pick up entrees, as we'd been told to do. This is a mistake for three reasons: First, there's so much great food at the buffet that you don't have any reason to pick up an entree. Second, by waiting in line, you risk not getting a seat in the dining hall (all those extra buffet tables take up quite a bit of space). And finally, you risk not getting dessert, which is always first to go.
Today, seasoned GB veterans, we skipped entrees and went straight in to Farquarson Hall (the main dining hall). Next up, make a beeline for an empty table and stake out your seat. Then hit the dessert table, fill up a plate with whatever looks good -- and it all looks good -- and set it back at your place. Then, and only then, should you approach the buffet. Today we lost someone who decided to fill up a plate on the way in, only to arrive and find our table was already full. Live and learn, live and learn.
The buffet was awesome. There are a ton of finger foods, numerous salads, some hot stations that put together soups and pastas for you (the ingredients are primarily cooked, they just finish and combine everything) while you wait, and of course the big winner: Garde Manger. Garde Manger, which literally means "protector of the food," is the cold kitchen: pates, roulades, terrines, and so on. Today I sampled a foie gras terrine and a pork roulade, to name two. Last time we had beef tongue, and it was quite tasty.
I'll try to remember everything I ate... Caesar salad with pork roulade; foie gras terrine on brioche with poached fruit; pear and bleu cheese tart (stellar); miniature pulled pork quesadilla; beef tamale; saffron and mussel soup; cold cherry soup with creme fraiche (sweet and tart all at once, very refreshing); pierogi with cabbage and bacon; fried risotto ball; pasta with mushrooms and truffle oil (today's favorite); grissini (long, skinny breadstick) with bleu cheese and poached figs. There are others I can't recall right now, and it's also worth noting that I probably only tasted a tenth of what was available. It really is an amazing spread.
That's about it for me. Two more finals tomorrow, Product Knowledge and Math, and then that's the end of B-block. I don't need to study for those nearly as much as I did for today's finals, but I suppose I should get cracking. OK, and I have to brag: Having not missed a single point in math, I could skip the final tomorrow and still pass the class with a solid C, and a 60% on the test still gets me an A.
Yesterday we received the course information for our next class, Meat Fabrication & Identification. Prior to attending the first class Monday, we have no less than 121 pages to read and four videos to watch. Chef Johann Sebald -- he's an old German chef/butcher, and probably just what you're imagining him to be -- makes it clear through his materials that he doesn't put up with any crap. Class officially starts at 7am, but you'd better be there no latter than 6:45. Tardy even one minute? You just lost 33% of your daily grade. I pity the fool who dares show up out of dress code, too. I get the impression that student would be used for the day's work, if you catch my meaning.
I'm looking forward to it, to be honest. This discipline is exactly the sort of thing my group needs, having coasted through nothing like it the past six weeks.
Today was a good day. I finished two classes, Food Safety and Intro to Gastronomy, and feel a-OK about both finals. It also finally cooled down here -- when I went to bed last night it was actually less than 70 degrees out, and I don't think it hit much more than 75 during the day today. As I type this, it's 65 and pouring rain. Ah... just like home.
We also had Grand Buffet for lunch today. Grand Buffet happens every three weeks on the day before graduation, and is sort of our little version of a culinary Christmas. Last time out, we were GB rookies and didn't know what to do. Like fools, we went to one of the classroom kitchens to pick up entrees, as we'd been told to do. This is a mistake for three reasons: First, there's so much great food at the buffet that you don't have any reason to pick up an entree. Second, by waiting in line, you risk not getting a seat in the dining hall (all those extra buffet tables take up quite a bit of space). And finally, you risk not getting dessert, which is always first to go.
Today, seasoned GB veterans, we skipped entrees and went straight in to Farquarson Hall (the main dining hall). Next up, make a beeline for an empty table and stake out your seat. Then hit the dessert table, fill up a plate with whatever looks good -- and it all looks good -- and set it back at your place. Then, and only then, should you approach the buffet. Today we lost someone who decided to fill up a plate on the way in, only to arrive and find our table was already full. Live and learn, live and learn.
The buffet was awesome. There are a ton of finger foods, numerous salads, some hot stations that put together soups and pastas for you (the ingredients are primarily cooked, they just finish and combine everything) while you wait, and of course the big winner: Garde Manger. Garde Manger, which literally means "protector of the food," is the cold kitchen: pates, roulades, terrines, and so on. Today I sampled a foie gras terrine and a pork roulade, to name two. Last time we had beef tongue, and it was quite tasty.
I'll try to remember everything I ate... Caesar salad with pork roulade; foie gras terrine on brioche with poached fruit; pear and bleu cheese tart (stellar); miniature pulled pork quesadilla; beef tamale; saffron and mussel soup; cold cherry soup with creme fraiche (sweet and tart all at once, very refreshing); pierogi with cabbage and bacon; fried risotto ball; pasta with mushrooms and truffle oil (today's favorite); grissini (long, skinny breadstick) with bleu cheese and poached figs. There are others I can't recall right now, and it's also worth noting that I probably only tasted a tenth of what was available. It really is an amazing spread.
That's about it for me. Two more finals tomorrow, Product Knowledge and Math, and then that's the end of B-block. I don't need to study for those nearly as much as I did for today's finals, but I suppose I should get cracking. OK, and I have to brag: Having not missed a single point in math, I could skip the final tomorrow and still pass the class with a solid C, and a 60% on the test still gets me an A.
posted by JMB at
5:21 PM
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