Cooking with Jason

Tuesday at the Market

2007-03-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'd forgotten how great a trip to Pike Place Market can be, having not been there for nearly a year (we're in Seattle for a few weeks while our stuff is being transported to California).

Start at the far north end of the market, grab a couple of tamales at the appropriately named Mexican Grocery. Next, head one shop over for espresso at the original Starbucks store. Sure, it's a touristy cliche, but as a native Seattleite and Starbucks regular, I can pull it off. Next continue south for an onion-potato-cheese piroshky at Piroshky Piroshky. Mee Sum Pastries is the next stop; BBQ pork humbow. All this on the same side of the street! Best lunch in town. Finish up with a half-dozen cinnamon donuts at Daily Dozen Donuts. Yum.

But now it's time to actually shop. The entrance to DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine is just across from Daily Dozen. I always wind up buying more than I intended to at DeLaurenti. Today I bought some mild soprasetta to go on a pizza for dinner tonight. Next up is produce at Sosio's, where they always have samples and are happy to chat about produce. I bought some mushrooms, shelling peas, and asparagus (it's a bit early, I know, but it looked decent) for risotto this week, a plum for my son, a couple of Meyer lemons (probably for an adult beverage), and a couple of Pink Lady apples (my favorite).

Mid-week and rain made for a lack of crowds, always a plus. I'd much rather hit the market at a time like this than, say, on a sunny summer Saturday when everyone and his brother is out to see a flying salmon.

Dinner at Daniel

2007-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

Canapes
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin ’99

First
Jason: Guinea Hen and Fois Gras Terrine with Poached Leeks, Pickled Chanterelles, Young Watercress, Tarragon Mustard
Carrie: Duck Fois Gras Terrine with Port Gelee, Poached Quince Walnuts, Mache Salad
Wine: Gewurztraminer, Alsace, France

Second
Jason: Peekytoe Crab Salad with Ruby Grapefruit Gelee, Watermelon Radish, Fennel Coulis
Carrie: Yuzu Marinated Tai Snapper with Shiso Cream, Shaved Crudites, Lemon Balm Oil
Wine: Gruner Veltliner, Austria

Third
Jason: Scottish Langousitines with Jerusalem Artichoke, Pig’s Trotter, Caramelized Endive, Roasted Porcini
Carrie: Wild Mushroom Raviolo with Sherry Emulsion, Sweet Garlic Coulis, Parsley-Celery Salad
Wine: Chateauneuf de Pape Blanc (100% Rousanne), Rhone, France

Fourth
Jason: Paupiette of Dover Sole with Rock Shrimp, Celery Root Mousseline, Marcona Almond Emulsion
Carrie: Chanterelle Stuffed Skate, Creamy Spinach, “Carotte Fondante” Bordelaise Sauce
Wine: Red Burgundy, Burgundy, France

Fifth
Jason: Duo of Dry Aged Beef: Braised Short Ribs, Red Tardivo with a Bone Marrow Crust / Seared Rib Eye with Sweet Potato Hazelnut “Pomme Macaire"
Carrie: Colorado Lamb Saddle with Anchovy Crust, Stewed Flageolet, Esplette-Ricotta Gnocchi, Braised Romaine Lettuce
Wine: Meritage Blend, Sonoma, CA, USA

Sixth
Degustation of Cheeses

Seventh
Jason: Lemon Biscuit with Blood Orange Ginger Sorbet, Darjeeling Mousse, Fresh Citrus
Wine: Late Harvest Pinot Gris. Loire, France

Carrie: Bittersweet Chocolate Praline Cremeux, Amer Cocoa Biscuit, Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
Wine: Vin Santo Reserva, Italy

Orange Madelines and Coffee

Nothing but Napa

2007-03-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

OK, that's a lie, because I'm going to tell you about my exam last week as well. To make a long story short, I passed the Level I exam of the Court of Master Sommeliers. It wasn't all that difficult, to be honest. Mr. Weiss' class at school was plenty of preparation; I wish they had just let me take the test instead of sitting through a day and a half of class first. If I take Level II it's a test only, so that's good. I'd much rather study on my own for this sort of thing.

After getting back from the city late Tuesday, I flew to Sacramento Thursday night. The plan was to get a rental car, stay the night in Sacramento near the airport, then drive to Napa Friday and find us a place to live while I do my training at Rutherford Grill. Unfortunately, my flight from JFK took off nearly two hours late, so I didn't land in Sacramento until 1:30am, at which time the rental car counter (I had a reservation, mind you) had closed. I took a taxi to the hotel (thank goodness I booked one near the airport), slept for a few hours, then took a taxi back to the airport to get the rental car. Then, the drive to Napa.

I quickly forgot about my rental car ordeal upon arriving in Napa Valley -- it's gorgeous. Vineyards everywhere. It even looks great now, and there aren't even any grapes on the vines. The city of Napa is much bigger and city-like than I had guessed. It's much more pleasant as you drive north on 29 and go through smaller towns like Oakville, Rutherford, Yountville, St. Helena, and Calistoga. I looked at a few places Friday, one good and the rest... not so much.

Friday night, I trekked down to Sonoma for dinner at Cafe La Haye. Norm Owens, who was the sous chef at Canlis during my externship, is now executive chef at a really small place in downtown Sonoma. There are about 35 seats plus four more at the bar, and the kitchen is the size of a closet. He's got two ovens and maybe ten burners, one guy working beside him on the line, another guy doing salads and desserts, a dishwaher, and that's it. It's quite the departure from Canlis to be certain. The food's great, though. I had a treviso salad with candied walnuts, buttermilk blue cheese, and roasted pear vinaigrette. Next, Norm sent me a course I didn't order, crispy sweetbreads on house-ground polenta. Awesome. Then his latest addition to the menu, pork tenderloin with cabbage-apple slaw, whole grain mustard, and a bacon apple cider vinegar sauce. Also awesome. With this I paired a local (or course) pinot noir. For dessert, I had a dense apple cake with whipped cream, and a glass of one of my favorite ports, Warre's 1995 Late Bottled Vintage.

I got an early start today (Saturday), saw a few more places, decided on the good one from Friday, and then did some sightseeing. And by sightseeing, I mean I parked the car in Yountville and then walked around soaking up as much Thomas Keller as I possibly could -- The French Laundry, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc are all within a five-minute walk of one another. As it was over 70 degrees today, I grabbed an iced coffee (and a chocolate bouchon, which is like a really dense and fudgy cupcake) at Bouchon Bakery. Upon snooping around the grounds at the French Laundry, I saw the man himself standing in the kitchen. No, I didn't wave or knock on the window and say hi.

For dinner, I decided it was about time I dined at Rutherford Grill. As it was when I dropped in to meet with the GM earlier in the afternoon, the restaurant was packed. I hear them telling people it might be 90 minutes to get a table. Rutherford Grill doesn't take reservations. I was able to grab a seat at the bar, where I dined on a nice thick slice of prime rib with mashed potatoes and braised red cabbage, and key lime pie for dessert. Yum.

After dinner, I drove back to Sacramento, where I'm currently sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. Hooray for airports with wireless hotspots.

Anyway, I found a house for us to rent in Calistoga, which is at the north end of the valley (Napa is at the south end). It's about 20 minutes or so from Rutherford Grill, a bit more with traffic, and in a nice quiet neighborhood. I won't be at all upset if we wind up staying longer than the 16 weeks of my training.

Now all we have to do is work out details with the moving company, figure out how we're going to get across the country, and get nice and settled before I start work the first week of April. These are exciting times!

It's all over

2007-03-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

I graduated on Friday with an Associate of Occupational Studies in Culinary Arts. At the graduation ceremony, I received two awards -- the Management Award, for having the best GPA in non-kitchen classes, and the Katherine Angell Scholastic Achievement Award for best overall GPA among all culinary graduates.

Last night, Carrie and I dined at Daniel in New York City. I will post the details of our seven-course, nearly four-hour extravaganza later on.

The best news of all, however, is that I got the job I've been after since November. Hillstone Restaurant Group has accepted me into their management training program as a KMT (Kitchen Manager in Training). Even better? I'll be doing my training at Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley. After 16 weeks there, I'll get a more permanent placement at one of their 40+ restaurants as an assistant kitchen manager.

In a few hours I'm going to hop on a train back to the city, as my sommelier certification class and exam begins tomorrow morning. After getting back late Tuesday night, I'm going to be off again on Thursday, this time on a plane out to California to find the four of us a place to live.

I have no idea what the future holds for Cooking with Jason, but thanks to everyone who has checked in to read my irregularly posted ramblings.

Final Round

2007-02-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

I'm headed out to California once again, for a deciding interview. Eeek!

It's San Francisco this time instead of LA. And instead of a single interview and a couple of meals, I'm in for a full-day test -- time in the kitchen, time in the dining room, interviews...

The good news is that they like me well enough to have me out for the final round. And just over a week from now, I should know if they're hiring me or not. The bad news should be self-explanatory. This whole thing is nerve wracking.

Anyway, I fly out Sunday, spend the day with them Monday, and return Tuesday morning.

Greetings from LA

2007-01-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Los Angeles -- Santa Monica to be specific -- and it's nearly 70 degrees outside. Meanwhile, back in good old Pleasant Valley, NY, it's 25 degrees and snowing.

Anyway, I'm nearing the end of what has been a very quick trip. I left JFK Sunday at around noon, landed in LA at 3pm, and am flying out tonight (Monday) at 10pm, getting back to NY at six in the morning. The reason for this whirlwind excursion? A job interview with the company I mentioned two months ago. I'm still wary about mentioning the name of said company, what with this being the Internet and all. You never know who's reading.

Things have gone well so far. I went to dinner at one of their restaurants last night, had an interview and lunch today, and a tour of three other restaurants. I'll be dining with them once more (in about an hour) before flying out tonight.

As this part of the trip winds down, I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning, when I'll undertake my first airport-to-subway-to-train trip (as opposed to driving home from the airport, which I've done a dozen times).

Year End

2006-12-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in weeks... sorry about that. Since my last post, I think I've had a total of three days completely off (meaning no school or work), so needless to say, I've been busy.

My one piece of exciting news for you before I head off to bed (no, I won't be making it until midnight tonight) is that I'm officially signed up to take the Introductory Course with the Court of Master Sommeliers in March. It's a two-day event, mostly consisting of a crash-course in wine production and regions, followed by a test at the end. They're offering it in New York the week after I graduate, so the timing works out well. I don't know that I'll ever want to go farther than this first level, as things get much more difficult after it, but I have been wanting to get this taken care of and on my resume. It'll also force me to study, which is always a good thing.

So close!

2006-11-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Admit it. You're dying to know -- did Jason ace the Wines final?

Yes and no. I correctly answered 69 of the 70 questions, so technically no. However, way back on the first test, everyone in the class received a free correct answer because Professor Weiss felt bad about not being in class the day before the test. Having aced the first three tests, I cashed in my freebie on the final and thus my grade will show up as 70 out of 70, so sort of yes.

Sadly, I lost one point on my food and wine paring paper (from Monday's lunch), leaving my final grade in the class at 99%. And it wasn't even that my pairing was wrong, either. I picked a port and a madeira as my alternate pairings for the dessert course, but those are both fortified wines. I needed to pick a fortified and then a late harvest, ice wine, or botrytis wine. Bummer.

In other related news, I'm starting at Arlington Wine & Liquor on Tuesday afternoon. I dropped by today both to pick up a bottle of port and to introduce myself to Bob, the fine wines manager. He informed me that because I'm coming in with more knowledge than most new hires, they're going to start me off in France/Spain/Italy rather than the boring new world. Yikes! I'd better study.

I'm also starting a wine log to track everything I taste. I have detailed notes from the ~100 wines we tasted in class, so I'll start there, plus two reds and two ports I've bought myself in the last month. I think I'm officially a nerd.

Three in a row!

2006-11-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

Italy, Portugal, and Spain were by far the hardest areas to study, at least for me. They're not nearly as organized and compartmentalized as France (or even the US), and they use all sorts of different grapes that they rest of the world doesn't use. As of 10pm last night I wasn't feeling very good about this at all, but less than 12 hours later I was completing another perfect test. This performance trumps my previous best "I don't know this stuff!" to doing well on a test effort, which you may recall was in meat class way back in June of 2005.

But alas, no rest for the weary. Tomorrow is the cumulative wine final, covering everything we've done so far plus some new information on wine storage that we went over today. We get 75 minutes to 70 questions, and while this test (unlike the first three) is open-book, you'd better know your stuff because there's no way you have enough time to track down every detail.

Big Tuesday

2006-11-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

All sorts of happenings today.

I started my day at the career fair, where I only had about half an hour to spend thanks to a special lunch I was invited to (more later). As a result I only talked with a representative from one company, but it was the company I was the most excited about. They're a small (~45 restaurants) company, privately owned, with restaurants all over the country. They're not fine dining, but they're definitely upscale and would be a great place to get started. They have an intensive manager training program, are growing, and offer really good compensation. I had a nice talk with the recruiter, and will sit down for a formal interview with him tomorrow before class. I'm really, really excited about this one.

I then trekked from the career fair on over to St. Andrew's Cafe, where we had our class wine lunch on Monday. This time it was a more exclusive affair -- just me, one other student, Professor Weiss, and the co-owner of Cave Spring Cellars (our guest speaker later in the afternoon). The other student and I had been invited because we have the top grades in the class. We had a really nice lunch, starting with a pizza, then a special treat from the chef, then soup, then an appetizer, and then an entree. Two bottles of wine -- from Professor Weiss' personal cellar -- went along with all of this. Yum.

Class today was on the fortified wines of Spain and Portugal, so Port, Sherry, and Madeira. We then had a lecture and tasting with Tom Pennachetti from Cave Spring, who brought with him five of their wines: three Reislings, a Pinot Noir, and an Icewine Riesling. The three Reislings, despite all being semi-dry and 2005, were quite different thanks to which vineyards they came from and the yields of these vineyards (lower yields = better wines). The Pinot Noir was good but not what I was expecting; it was extremely smoky without much in the way of fruit. The ice wine, however, was the best dessert wine I've ever had.

Ice wine, if you're not familiar, is a risky proposition in which the winery leaves the grapes on the vine well past harvest time (generally September). Cave Spring won't pick grapes for ice wine until it's -8*C, and more likely will wait until it's a degree or two colder than that. For them this means December or January. They then pick the frozen grapes at night, when the weather is the coldest, and, moving quickly as not to thaw them, press them while they're still frozen. They discard the ice cube that shoots out and keep the super-sweet, syrupy stuff that's left. Because most of the water is lost, there's a great deal of natural sugar. At this point they add yeast and begin fermentation (sugar is converted into alcohol) but there's too much sugar for the yeast to handle -- once the alcohol reaches around 15-16%, the yeast dies and all the residual sugar is left over. You get a very sweet, very full-bodied, wine.

What made this wine so good is that it was more than just sweet -- there was a wonderful acid to it, and it also had spice and dried fruit (apricot, raisin) flavors to it. It was so good on its own that you would want to serve it with a very simple dessert, as not to overpower the wine. And as in most things, you get what you pay for. A half bottle (375ml, pretty standard for dessert wines) runs around $60 in a store and might be $30 a glass in a restaurant. Amazing, amazing stuff, though. As much as I complain about certain things about school (well, maybe not publicly), this is something that wouldn't have happened at another culinary school.

I'm off to write my paper on Monday's wine lunch.

Oh, almost forgot! Arlington Wine and Liquor officially hired me to work in their fine wines department. I'm still waiting to hear about my schedule from the department manager, but I'm in.

The Week in Wine

2006-11-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

Friday's wine test (everything France) went very well; another perfect score for this blogger.

This got me thinking that I don't want to lose this knowledge after class is over, since it would certainly serve me well in the future. I'm also planning to take the Court of Master Sommeliers Level I Certification at some point, probably shortly after graduation. But other than some limited wine service while I'm working in the restaurants, how will I stay sharp in my wine knowledge?

Yesterday while at my favorite liquor store, Arlington Wine and Liquor, I asked one of the owners if they'd be hiring for the holidays. Sure enough, they need extra help since they're incredibly busy from Thanksgiving through the New Year. Next thing I know, I'm filling out an application, taking their wine "pop quiz" (no problem, other than Spain and Italy which we haven't covered in class yet), and talking about my availability. Nothing's certain yet, but I think it's going to work out. They have a couple other culinary students already working there, even. Should be a good deal all around -- I can keep learning, keep my existing knowledge sharp, and make a few bucks to boot. Stay tuned!

Tomorrow, the class will dine at St. Andrew's Cafe. We'll have a three-course lunch and two wines with each course. The on Wednesday, I'll turn in a paper about the experience -- which wine I liked best with each course and why, as well as two other (specific) wines I thought would have worked instead.

Tuesday, we have a guest speaker from Cave Spring Cellars in Canada (Niagra Peninsula, to be exact) coming to speak about the winery. Also Tuesday, the CIA is having its career fair, with employers from all over the country in one place to see and be seen. I haven't attended a career fair before, but with graduation less than four months away (woo!), I'll be there.

Wednesay is interview day for the career fair, when the majority of companies stick around to conduct, you guessed it, interviews. I actually already have one lined up (you were required to apply on-line in advance of the fair), with a major hotel chain you've certainly heard of.

Thursday I'll have another wine test (Italy, Spain, Portugal), then the final on Friday (cumulative, plus storage). This is one of the quickest blocks I can remember, and I'll be bummed when it's over.

#1, Twice

2006-10-31T19:15:00.000-08:00

All that studying for Monday's wine test paid off. Oh sure, people laughed at me when I showed up with my 2" stack of notecards, but they weren't laughing when we got our scores back. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I took the test (40 questions, multiple choice) and didn't find it very challenging. I then went back through, as I always do on tests (every now and then you find something), and sure enough found a question I had misread. I changed the answer and handed in the test. Professor Weiss went off to grade them after everyone was done, returned to the room, and started handing them back so he could go over the answers and people could make sure their test was graded correctly. He's handing them out, calling out names. No sign of my test. Barrett says, "He must have lost yours." Instead, he hands out the last test, looks up at me and says, "You aced it. 100%. You don't need it back." Only perfect score, I might add.

Today there was a lottery to determine what restaurants you'll work in before graduation. Everyone works in the St. Andrew's kitchen (healthy cooking) and the Caterina kitchen (Italian), but after that there are two paths:

St. Andrew's (FOH) --> American Bounty (BOH) --> American Bounty (FOH) --> Graduation

**or**

Caterina (FOH) --> Escoffier (BOH) --> Escoffier (FOH) --> Graduation

"FOH" means "Front of the House," or working as a server. "BOH" means "Back of the House," or working in the kitchen. Add to this that you could be either AM or PM, so there are four possible restaurant paths.

The proccess is simple -- stand in line at the registrar's office, and when it's your turn, you take a folded piece of paper out of a bowl. The paper has a number on it, from 1 to 100, and that's your lottery number. You mark down wether you want AM or PM, then which track you want, and then (in the case that you don't get your top choice) whether AM/PM or the restaurant track is more important to you. As you might imagine, they fill from the top (#1) and make their way down, going until things get full.

As I was standing in line today (I was in the middle of the pack), people would come out of the office either pleased ("I got 24!") or displeased ("I got 96."). It's worth noting that while there are 100 numbers, there are only about 50 of us vying for these spots. It's a small group. Anyway, I got up near the front of the line. The two guys in front of me drew 83 and 96. Ouch. I looked at the bowl and saw the paper I wanted, only to have the woman who was running this show stir them around a bit before I picked. Fortunately my lucky paper was on the outer edge and wasn't disturbed by her stirring.

You can probably tell where this is going -- I picked the paper, unfolded it, and it had a big "1" in the upper left-hand corner. I probably should have sold the thing to the highest bidder, but instead I marked AM, St. Andrew's/American Bounty track. It wasn't really neccessary that I mark down my back-up, but I did so anyway (AM, please). I had a good feeling about the lottery for some reason, but it was still pretty cool to unfold the paper and see that "1."

Wine Blues

2006-10-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

I feel compelled to note that I've just stayed up until 12:30am -- on a Saturday -- to study for Monday's test in Wine. I have a stack of notecards that measures, conservatively, one-and-a-half inches tall. And this is just for the first test, covering how wine is made, wine and food pairing, the US, Canada, and the Southern Hemisphere. We haven't even gotten to the tough stuff, like France and Italy, where they don't label their wines by grape but by place. And of course those place names are in, you guessed it, French and Italian respectively.

I did manage to pull an A- in Mediterranean, which was a mild upset given how I felt about the class and that it was another "the chef doesn't give out A's; everyone gets a B" situation. Of course, they said the same thing about fish, and we all know how that turned out.

Fall Goodness

2006-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

I don't generally do much in the way of recipes here at CwJ, but I concocted a few things recently that have worked out really well. One dish in particular, the first one below, is one I'll definitely be doing for Thanksgiving.

Roasted Squash with Bacon and Apples

6 slices bacon, cut into 1" squares
1 onion, cut ~1/2" dice
1 apple, cut ~1/2" dice
1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut ~3/4" dice
salt and pepper to taste
maple syrup, as needed

Preheat the oven to 400*.

In a saute pan, render the bacon over medium heat (in other words, cook it but don't get it crispy). Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Saute the onion in the bacon fat until soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Turn the heat up a bit, add the apple, and let the pieces sit there until they start to brown (if you leave the heat down, they'll get soft before they caramelize). Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the squash and cook until it browns a bit. It should still be firm.

Place the squash and reserved bacon/onions/apples into a greased baking dish, toss it all together to combine, season with salt and pepper, and place in the oven. Cook until the squash is almost done, 10-12 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and drizzle several tablespoons maple syrup over the top. Return to the oven and cook until the squash is soft enough for your liking.

Another option you have -- and this is what I did -- is to cook everything in a cast-iron (or other oven-safe) pan. This way, I left the squash in the pan, added the reserved items, and then put the whole thing in the oven rather than using a baking dish. One less thing to wash this way. Oh, and I didn't have any on hand, but sage would be a nice addition.

Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Calvados

1 pork tenderloin, ~1#
oil, as needed (canola, vegetable; not extra virgin olive oil)
salt and pepper, as needed
1 apple, cut ~1/2" dice
1/4 C Calvados (apple brandy)
1/2 C chicken stock
1/4 C apple cider
2 TB butter

Preheat the oven to 400*. In the oven, place a cookie sheet lined with foil, and on top of this place a rack of some sort (roasting rack, cooling rack, whatever you've got).

Get a saute pan, large enough to hold the tenderloin, screaming hot. Season the tenderloin liberally on all sides with salt and pepper, grease it up with some oil and place it in the pan. Sear well on all sides, then transfer to the rack in the oven.

Pour any excess fat out of the pan, add the apples and let them caramelize. Reserve. Deglaze the pan with Calvados (please be careful pouring alcohol if you're using a gas burner!), scraping the good stuff off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Let this cook until nearly dry, then add the stock and cider. Simmer while the pork finishes cooking.

Check the pork after ten minutes or so. You're looking for something in the 145* range for internal temperature (that's still slightly pink, which I know scares people with pork, but it's cool). When you get there, remove from the oven and cover loosely with foil. Let it rest for a good five minutes before slicing, or you'll be sorry.

While the pork is resting, finish the sauce -- simmer until it's a nice sauce consistency, then remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Keep that butter moving so the sauce emulsifies and isn't greasy. Season to taste. Slice the pork into thin medalions, and serve with the apples and the sauce.

Now, if I were being really snobby about things and I wanted to serve these two items together, I'd take the apples out of the squash dish in order to not have two items with apples on the same plate.

European Vacation

2006-10-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

To address the question posed in the comments of my previous post -- no, Cuisines of Europe and the Mediterranean is not one of my favorite classes. I've always felt that it would be, but it just hasn't worked out that way.

For starters, my group is so small (ten) that we only serve three or four entrees each day instead of the normal five. Two people are on each entree station, one person is sous chef, and one or two people are on what I guess would call the finger food station -- "mezze" for the Middle East, "tapas" for Spain, and pizza for Italy. So right off the bat, we're not getting to experience one or two preparations. This would be something like showing up at a restaurant you've really been wanting to try, only to have your server inform you that 40% of the menu isn't available. Now, don't get me wrong, we've put out good food every day of the block so far. Most days things are excellent, in fact. But I can't help but feel we're missing out on a good chunk of the learning experience. It doesn't help that we had an attendance problem the first week (not once did we have all ten students in class), so chef had to trim the menu back in places.

Here's a quick rundown of what we're covering. The first three days cover four areas you probably don't think of when you think of the Mediterranean: the Maghreb (northern Africa), the Arab Levant (Syria, Jordan, Jerusalem, Saudi Arabia, Iraq), Iran/Persia, and Turkey. I thought that was a bit weird myself, but hey, they do touch the Mediterrean (well, most of them do). After that, we had three days of Spain. I think Spain is going to be one of the next big things... tapas and "small plates" restaurants are popping up all over the place, and there's a generation of high-end Spanish chefs who are just getting noticed in the US. Friday, we finished three days of Italy. Monday we start three days of France, and the last two days of the block cover central and northern Europe.

Here's what we've done so far. There's an asterisk by dishes I was involved in. If it seems like I haven't done much in places (like Spain) it's because I've also been sous chef and on tapas as well.

Middle East
*Marinated, Grilled Swordfish Skewers
*Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Couscous
( I know there was a third dish here, but it escapes me at the moment and I can't find my schedule)

Spain
*Grilled Lamb Chops with Chorizo, Potatoes, and Watercress Salad
Braised Oxtail, Chickpeas with Morcilla (blood sausage)
Serrano-wrapped Trout with Artichokes, Fava Beans, Arugula, and Sherry Vinegar Sauce
Fabada (white bean, chorizo, and morcilla stew)

Italy
Ricotta and Spinach Tortelli (kind of like ravioli), in Sage Brown Butter with Walnuts
Capellini with Mussels and Shrimp
*Gnocchi with Duck Ragu
*Risotto with Sausage and Mushrooms

The best thing, by far, I've been involved in was the Gnocchi with Duck Ragu. This was already one of my favorite dishes on campus, so I was really excited when the schedule came out and I saw I'd be on that station for two days. It's nothing fancy in terms of cooking techniques, but man, is it good. Light, melt-in-your-mouth potato gnocchi with shredded duck meat (from duck legs which have braised for hours and are falling-apart tender), plus a sauce made by reducing the braising liquid with veal stock and then finishing with a chunk of butter. Yum.

Baking in Review

2006-10-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting activity lately... things have been pretty busy between school, home, and a new job (more on that later). In any event, I finished up my three weeks of baking and have moved on to Cuisines of Europe and the Mediterranean, as you already know if you've checked the sidebar recently.

Baking wound up being one of my very favorite classes, and Chef Higgins is now in my all-time top three chefs here at school (joining Chefs Vanoli and Kanner). Extremely knowledgable, a great teacher, and an all-around good guy to boot. I wish I could take the block over again, both to work on different projects than I did the first time and to learn more from him.

Here's a quick list of things I made after those first three days: puff pastry, chocolate mousse, edible almond cookie bowls, cottage cheese and dill soft rolls, baguettes, donuts, palmiers, apple turnovers, chocolate croissants, marshmallows (rolled in graham cracker crumbs and dipped in chocolate, for a sort of one-bit s'more), pastry cream, bialys, and Italian buttercream. I also frosted a cake (and did a darned fine job, if I do say so myself), tempered chocolate, and learned to make roses out of marzipan.

Moving on, I also started working for the hospitality office here at school as a student tour guide. The pay is awful, but the hours are very flexible. Most of the tours are bus groups of senior citizens who come from such exotic locations such as Buffalo or Rochester, have lunch and then take a tour, or take a tour and then have dinner. We also do daily public tours (your $5 fee goes to a general scholarship fund), prospective student tours, new student tours, new parent tours, and so on.

The most exciting news of the day, however, is that I'm taking on big business. Oh yes. Stay tuned.

Baking, Days 1-3

2006-09-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

I'm really liking Baking and Pastry Skill Development. The bakeshop is calm and cool. Chef doesn't yell and we don't have any hard deadlines. Sure, we have to provide rolls and desserts for the dining room next door and the employee dining room in the next building, but he's got backup rolls and desserts in the freezer we can use if something doesn't come out. He's more interested in the educational process and making sure we learn basic techniques.

Tuesday, the first day of class, I met my new group. We're pretty small -- only ten. The good news about a small group is that there's always something to do. All but two of them have been together since the beginning (they were Chef Vanoli's second group; I was in his first) and they're good about cleaning and looking out for each other, which you have to be with a small group. My partner, who was also new to the group, didn't show up on day one so I worked alone... further establishing me as the outsider. I made chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie doughs; no big deal. Another team made brownies and a third team made biscuits for strawberry shortcake. The other two teams were on bread.

Every day, two teams are assigned to bread. One team of two makes basic lean dough (just flour, salt, water, and yeast) for hard rolls, and the other team makes a rich dough (lean dough plus sugar, butter, and milk in place of the water) for soft rolls. Bread always has to get going right away, so it gets proper fermentation time. Chef Higgins, a Certified Master Baker (similar to Certified Master Chef, except there are even fewer CMBs than CMCs), is fanatical about baking and pastry. He has so much experience with all of this that based on the temperature of the bakeshop, how much time we have to work with, and the weather outside (specifically the humidity), he advises how to adjust the bread recipes. On day one, the water (or milk) was to be 75 degrees. Day two was quite cold, so he called for 80 degree water. Today was warmer, so back down to 70. He also varies the amount of yeast slightly, a quarter ounce here or there.

One of the bread teams today, despite his instructions to use 70 degree liquid, used liquid which was too warm. As the rest of us were going about our work, he walked over to the bread station and uncovered the dough which was resting on the counter. "Look at the bread!" he shouted. "It's running like crazy over here!" He wasn't upset, he just wanted us to take note. To slow things down, he folded the dough to release some of the fermentation gasses. If the dough is too warm, the yeast is too active and your bread will rise too quickly.

Wednesday my partner, Barrett, showed up. He had taken three blocks off to work full-time over the summer on a resort island off the southern coast of Long Island. I don't know why he missed the first day of class, but other than that I have no complaints. As the two outsiders, we have something in common and get along well. He and I cut and baked many dozen cookies from dough made by the previous class, and also rolled out the dough I had made into logs to be placed in the freezer for the next group.

Everyone made pie dough on day two as well. Each team was assigned either flaky or mealy pie dough -- same ingredients, different method. Mealy pie dough is used for pre-baked pie shells (for a pie you'll fill with an already cooked filling, like Boston Cream Pie) or fluted pie shells (for open top pies, like pecan). Flaky is used for double-crusted fruit pies, such as blueberry, cherry, or apple. I made a half recipe of 3-2-1 (3# flour, 2# butter, 1# water) flaky pie dough, which then became five, 9.5-oz balls of dough (one ounce of dough is needed for each inch of pie tin).

Today, day three, was pie day. Barrett and I made six pies, four blueberry (Chef's favorite) and two cherry. Other teams made pecan, Boston Cream, lemon merengue, and chocolate cream pies. Before heading to lunch today, we sampled the cherry, blueberry, and pecan pies, still warm from baking, with from-scratch vanilla ice cream. Yum.

It's a pretty rough life, this baking. We're busy but not rushed, we get a full hour for lunch (Cuisines of the Americas, probably my favorite kitchen to eat from, is right across the hall), it takes less than half and hour to clean the bakeshop, Chef is really good, and we sample freshly baked goods every day. I'm finally on bread tomorrow (and Monday). Other than being tired and not yet readjusted to this schedule, things are going quite well.

Get Your Bread On

2006-09-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

Baking and Pastry Skill Development starts tomorrow -- who's excited? I've gotten mixed reviews so far, though the general feeling seems to be "class boring, but chef good." OK, so that's what I heard from one person. Too small a sample, really, but it's all I have to go on at this point. I'll be in the bakeshop at 6:50 am tomorrow, so those of you on the west coast can think of me while you're still sleeping at 3:50 in the morning. Heck, most of my friends are starting Wines tomorrow (8:30 am start time), so they'll probably still be sleeping too.

Also, since I've been going over my uniform and knife kit tonight in the course of getting ready for tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to share my Top 5 Things I Hate About CIA Uniform Policy. Remember, I haven't been in a CIA kitchen since December, and I haven't been in a CIA classroom in over two months.

5. Neckerchiefs
4. Toques
3. Four-ply aprons (couldn't find a good pitcure; interestingly, if you Google 'four-ply apron chef' this very blog is the first two hits)
2. Ill-fitting issued check pants
1. Shaving every day

Return Trip

2006-09-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

We're leaving -- all four of us this time -- Saturday night, around midnight Pacific Time, on a flight back to New York. That gives us most of Sunday and all of Monday to get settled before I start Baking & Pastry Skill Development on Tuesday. See you then!

Ice Cream, Take Three

2006-08-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Last time out I used the following:
8 oz mascarpone
2 C whole milk
1 C sugar
1 ea vanilla bean

I personally don't like it as much as the initial batch of mascarpone ice cream, but it's still pretty good. Texture is just a slight step down (it's still creamy and spoonable, but with a few small ice crystals here and there) from the original, and light years ahead of the first (non-mascarpone) stuff I made. Flavor is good, slightly less mascarpone-y as you might imagine. It also wasn't as rich, an added bonus as the first batch was doing a number on Luke's diapers, if you catch my drift. Moving on.

If I were making mascarpone ice cream for a restaurant, a dinner party, or just for myself, I'd definitely go with the 8 oz mascarpone, 1 C whole milk version. Given that my goal in this was to create a product for Luke, however, I think the version with two cups of milk is a better choice, and it's also more cost-effective.

Next up -- flavors! Woo! I'll probably start with some sort of berry.

This stuff rocks!

2006-08-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

The mascarpone ice cream is incredible (well, it *was* incredible -- we ate it all). I do think it'd be a bit of a misnomer to call it vanilla ice cream, however, because it does have a very strong mascarpone taste. That's not a bad thing -- personally I think it tastes better than vanilla ice cream. Most impressive, though, is the texture. Despite lacking eggs, the texture is nearly identical to that of traditional ice cream. Even after several days in the freezer, it's still creamy and spoonable rather than hard as a rock.

Next up, I'm going to increase the quantity of milk (to two cups) while keeping the same amount of mascarpone, hopefully cutting down on the mascarpone flavor a bit. It's not that I don't like the mascarpone flavor, but I'd like it to taste more like vanilla. Assuming that works out, we can move on to the wonderful world of flavors. Woo.

Also, a quick note -- I'm back at Canlis through the end of August, back on the old veg station. The restaurant is waaay busier than it was on extern. Gone are the days of 75 or 80 covers on Tuesday and Wednesday... I worked last week, Tuesday through Saturday, and we pushed 200 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, topped it on Friday, and pushed 300 on Saturday. Wow.

Ice Cream, Take Two

2006-08-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Onward.

I thought I was soooo smart, coming up with the idea of using mascarpone in my eggless ice cream. But a quick Google search revealed all sorts of recipes for mascarpone ice cream, some with eggs and some without. In any event, I guess I'm not all that smart... but I stand by the fact that I did come up with the idea on my own, even if it's not some wonderful innovation.

The first hit that got my attention was here, at a site called The Cheese Diaries. This mix of mascarpone, simple syrup, and lemon juice comes to us from Alain Ducasse, via the great Thomas Keller. I decided not to go with this recipe (seems weird to reject a Keller recipe, I know) for a few reasons. First, 2.5 cups of simple syrup seems like an awful lot for one pound of mascarpone. Second, I don't like the idea of using water instead of milk, because it seems like the rock-hard texture would be an even bigger issue than with cream (or even milk). Finally, I had already decided that mascarpone, whole milk, sugar, and a vanilla bean were the way to go. But how much of each?

Fortunately, I came across this recipe, complete with picture. Eight ounces mascarpone, one cup milk, three-quarters cup sugar. And of course my prized vanilla bean. (Yes, if this one bombs I'll happily defer to Keller.)

Into a small saucepot went the milk, sugar (I'm using plain old granulated, not superfine, but the heat should eliminate any graininess), and scraped vanilla bean (pod too). That steeped over very low heat for about half an hour, then went into the fridge to cool. Tomorrow, that'll be blended with the mascarpone (minus the pod, of course) and then transferred to the ice cream maker. Stay tuned!

Ice Cream Report

2006-08-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

The final product was pretty good for a first attempt, but far from great. After freezing the ice cream in the machine, it went into the freezer. I stirred it every hour to help with even freezing. We ate it after about four hours, which turned out to be a good thing, as it was still relatively creamy (if a bit soft). The flavor was surprisingly good for vanilla extract as opposed to a real vanilla bean, and it didn't have the "coat your mouth with fat" problem I've read about with eggless ice cream.

The big problem with this ice cream comes when you try to eat it the next day and it's hard as a rock. I also found that the flavor diminished over time -- it was OK on day 2, so-so on day 3, and non-existant by day 4.

Final verdict: This particular recipe is pretty good, and best if you eat it the same day. Luke, who isn't nearly as particular as I am about these sorts of things, loved the ice cream each time he ate it as you can see from the pictures below.

Next up: Luke and I will make another batch this weekend. I'm going to try mascarpone as my secret ingredient... it's rich and creamy while being essentially flavor neutral. I think mascarpone coupled with a real vanilla bean will make a big difference in both texture and flavor. Given mascarpone's fat content, I'm thinking mascarpone, whole milk (as opposed to heavy cream or half-and-half), sugar, and the vanilla bean -- nice and simple. Stay tuned!

Jason on TV

2006-08-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

This isn't cooking related, and if you know me you probably already know about this, but I was on local TV here in Seattle over the weekend on a sports show called "Q It Up Sports." Two other guys I write with over at the good ship USS Mariner and I were on for a pair of five-minute segments, talking about the Mariners. You can check it out over on YouTube.

The Great Ice Cream Experiment

2006-07-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

As I'm not starting school for quite awhile now, we're going to head off in a completely different direction.

My son Luke is allergic to eggs. We unfortunately discovered this the hard way, when I baked him a cake (from scratch, of course, including buttercream frosting) for his first birthday last year. It had been my idea to bake him a different kind of cake every year, getting fancier and fancier each time, in order to keep up on my dessert skills. No matter -- instead of cakes, I'll make him pies, tarts, and so on.

But what to do about ice cream? I love making my own at home, but all those egg yolks won't work for Luke. So no homemade ice cream. Or so I thought... turns out there's "Philadelphia-style" ice cream, made without eggs (or cooking, for that matter).

All that in mind, I began my quest today to create the best eggless ice cream I possibly can. I'm starting with a recipe I found online but will adjust from there until I develop the perfect base (that means nothing but vanilla for now -- without a good base, you can forget about making good ice cream).

The "control" recipe can be found here. I scaled it back a bit both due to the contraits of my ice cream maker and because I don't want a gallon in case it's no good. The only other change I made was heating the dairy on the stove slightly to help the sugar dissolve. The mix is cooling, and once it's chilled, it'll go into the machine.

This recipe is pretty simple: heavy cream, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla extract, a pinch of salt. Moving forward, I'd like to experiment with things like sweetened condensed milk, powdered sugar, and instant vanilla pudding. I'm also not happy about using vanilla extract, but I didn't have a vanilla bean handy.

Anyway, check back in for report on the final product.

Heed the call

2006-07-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Two interesting phone calls this week.

The first was from Cascadia Restaurant, on Thursday while I was on my way to the airport. They're looking to fill a position in the kitchen, were going through some old resumes, and were wondering if I was still looking for something. Cascadia was actually my first choice for externship originally, but I never heard from them and of course took a position at Canlis instead. In any event, I told the guy I had only been looking for an externship position and was now back at school. He seemed disappointed when I told him I wouldn't be finished until February, but he said he'd keep me on file.

The second came on Monday--Chef Aaron from Canlis. Due to some unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, they've found themselves temporarily short in the kitchen... would I like to work my old station for a few days? So I'm working three nights, starting tonight, back on good old Vegetable and Saucier station. I'm a bit nervous, seeing how I haven't cooked for two months, but I think it'll be fine once I get back in the swing of things. And at least I'm starting on Thursday instead of Saturday, when it'll be really busy.

Home stretch

2006-07-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Two finals Wednesday: Cost Control and Nutrition.
Two finals Thursday: Management and Menu Development.
Also, final project for Menu Developement (sales projections and labor schedule for my fictional restaurant, Nosh) due on Thursday.

Then, Thursday night, the best part of the week--my flight back to Seattle. I've also officially pulled out of next block (I was scheduled to being Baking and Pastry on August 1st) in order to be home longer after the baby is born. For the moment I'm set to resume school one block later on the 21st, but that could potentially be pushed three weeks later depending on when the doctors give the OK for mother and baby to fly.

Happy Fourth everyone.

Extra Tasty

2006-06-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to report from school, but I found a great new website this weekend -- ExtraTasty.com. They provide what I've been looking for on the web for awhile now, a database of drinks based on what you have on hand. Register for a free account, tell them what's in your bar (alcohol, mixers, garnishes) and they'll tell you what you can make with what you've got. Brilliant! You can even submit your own drinks if you're that ambitious.

I'm also pleased to announce that I'm typing this post on my new laptop, a MacBook. Yes, I've taken the Mac plunge.

Still got it

2006-06-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

As expected, L-block classes haven't proved much of a challenge through the first three weeks. I just got home from taking my Restaurant Law final (it only meets for seven days), on which I got a perfect score. Professor Gold said I was only the fifth person to do so in the history of the class -- he's been teaching this course for at least 20 years -- and that one of the other five is current CIA president Tim Ryan.

I did turn in a substantial amount of work today in Menu Development, namely the menu for my fictional restaurant. It's a "small plates" concept, sort of like tapas but not Spanish in nature. Jonathan Sundstrom's Lark would be a good comparison. My menu is divided into five categories: garden, grain, sea, land, and sweets. With no plate more than $20, the idea is that you'd order a variety of dishes and share at the table. Owning my own restaurant isn't really what I want to do, but if I had my own place, it would be this style. Eventually for this project I'll cost out recipes, predict sales, schedule labor, and come up with a one-month budget.

There's not much else to report... Intro to Management, Nutrition, and Cost Controlling just aren't all that exciting. I did find out today that we're going to get a four-day weekend over the 4th of July, so that's cool. There's also a rumor that we can pick up our Externship manuals tomorrow, though I haven't been able to confirm that.

Let's get it started

2006-05-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

Classes start up, for real, tomorrow. They put us through two days of orientation and registration which easily could have been combined into one day (if not one morning), but hey, I'm not complaining. On the schedule for tomorrow are Intro to Management, Menu Development, and Restaurant Law. Of the three--of all five classes, for that matter--I'm most looking forward to Menu Development. It could be a total dud, of course, but the course material looks the most promising.

After returning from externship, the general rule is that if you had AM classes before you left, you'll have PM classes when you get back. There was a group of us who wanted to switch from PM to AM this time around, but more requests than spaces. Here's a big thank you to John "The Man" Kliefgen, who gave up his AM spot for me. It appears that things will work out and that he'll be able to join us in AM after this block (once we're back in the kitchen), but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Chef Vanoli, who I had for Skills I and II, told us back in the day that he was going to give teaching at the CIA a try for a year before deciding if it was for him. I talked to him today, and he's decided to give it another year. That's good for everyone--he's a very good instructor with a lot to offer. If the CIA is smart, they'll get him over to Caterina post-haste, where his wealth of knowledge of all things Italian would be put to the best use.

Another Pleasant Valley Monday

2006-05-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

(Apologies to the Monkeys.)

I arrived back in the Hudson Valley on Sunday afternoon, after four really long days of driving followed by a relaxing day and a half in East Hampton, NY (thanks to Allison and Shane for the invite). The Hamptons are kind of like spring break, except for adults. New York is hot and humid, while it's raining in Seattle. You can probably guess where I'd rather be.

Anyway, classes start up tomorrow. Well, registration at least. I don't think we'll have much in the way of actual classes. It'll be good to see everyone and hear how their externships went.

Anyone out there?

2006-05-15T01:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Sunday night the 14th, was the last night of my externship at Canlis (though I'll be at the restaurant on Monday; details later). Overall, I had a great last night. First, I led the 2pm hot line meeting. Later, Chef Aaron invited me to the pre-service front of the house meeting, where he told the assembled staff that I was the most advanced student they'd ever had, that I'd been an integral part of the kitchen the past five months, that he wished I wasn't leaving, and that I should keep them in mind for employment after graduation. He then presented me with a copy of the menu, signed by many of the staff, as well as an All Clad one quart saucepot because, in his words, I am "master of butter sauces."

During service, I was in the dining room working as the expiditor, wiping plates as they came off the broiler, adding final garnishes, organizing the plates for the servers, and working as the point of contact between the front and the back. This was quite an honor; in all the time I've been at Canlis, I've only ever seen Aaron fill this role.

Tomorrow, as mentioned above, I'll be back, but in an entirely different capacity. I have the opportunity to shadow Canlis General Manager Chris Heldridge as he goes about his day as GM. This will including "working the floor" with him when the restaurant opens for dinner, so I'll be all dressed up in a suit. If you're in the neighborhood (and properly attired, of course), stop by and sit in the lounge for a drink and perhaps an order of truffle fries.

I'm about a week out from leaving Seattle for the Hudson Valley, my third trip between zip codes 98116 and 12569 in roughly a year. I hope the car is up for it.

In case you were wondering, yes, I did finish all my homework. Thanks for asking. I'll post some of the more interesting modules in the next week or so.

Week Six

2006-02-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, two posts in one day. And yes, I'm now caught up with my modules. This one's another summary. I admit that this sounds pretty sappy, but I'm not embellishing here; Canlis is an amazing place to work for all the reasons I've listed. I'd be thrilled to get a job here in any capacity after graduation.

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Things have continued to go well at Canlis Restaurant, and I am amazed almost on a daily basis how great a place it is to work. In many respects, the atmosphere is exactly the opposite of the typical restaurant industry stereotype—ownership and management at Canlis truly care about more than money, and are genuine in their affinity for employees and guests alike. That isn’t just talk, either. Canlis employees have access to health benefits, a 401(k) plan with company matching, and even a profit sharing system which in 2005 gave a full ten percent of the restaurant’s profits back to its employees.

If those three plans weren’t enough, Canlis offers little perks as well. Two of the line cooks told me that for Christmas, each person in the kitchen received a crêpe pan as a gift, including one cook who had only been working at the restaurant for two weeks. At a recent meeting, managing owner Mark Canlis and his wife invited the entire staff on a snowshoeing trip in early March, on a Sunday when the restaurant is closed. Upon returning from the trip in the afternoon, everyone is invited for pizza at the Canlis’ home just up the hill from the restaurant.

For an owner who isn’t a chef-owner, Mark Canlis is incredibly hands-on. He regularly dons a suit and works the floor, greeting guests and connecting with regulars. Last week while chatting with the line cooks near the end of a shift, he took a minute to wrap a few hotel pans with plastic that were on their way to the walk-in at the end of the night, then apologized to Sous Chef Norm that his wrapping skills needed some work. Another time, while dining at the restaurant, he brought back a Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower Cassolette, one of the newest menu items, to say it wasn’t quite up to standards. He wasn’t upset about it—he instead offered a few ideas and suggested we do some experimentation with the dish.

This is not to say that Canlis isn’t run to make money, because it most certainly is. The difference is that employees are made to feel that it’s their company too, that the restaurant doing well means good things for them, rather than being made to feel as though they’re working hard for someone else without reaping the rewards themselves. The profit sharing system is designed to foster this feeling—Mark Canlis says that through the system, each employee owns shares of the restaurant, but without the actual risk of owning shares of a business.

Another amazing aspect of Canlis is that despite their incredible success over the past fifty-five years, the Canlis family and the restaurant’s management team aren’t content to rest on their laurels. At a recent all-staff meeting, the newly-formed, eight-person executive team detailed the restaurant’s vision for the future and made it very clear that every single person there should try to make the restaurant a better place to work and dine every day they come to work. It’s certainly true that on some level every job is just that—just a job—the positive, supportive, and forward-looking atmosphere put forth from the top down makes working at Canlis feel more like being part of something tangible rather than just going to work to pay the bills.

From a practical standpoint, the kitchen has been making progress as well. Personally, I’ve been challenged by Chef Aaron on a variety of culinary topics. In particular, he has pushed me to learn that butter sauces aren’t nearly as delicate as the conventional wisdom would have you believe and can be made much faster than is often taught. As a result, I’ve been able to cut down on the time it takes me to complete my sauces each day, allowing for more time to work on other aspects of prep.

For the kitchen as a whole, Chefs Aaron and Jeff recently decided that the dynamics of the hotline were, for some reason, not quite right. Specifically, the communication between my station and the plating station was off, leading to struggles during busy points of a shift. To investigate the problem, Chef Aaron worked the plating station one night and Taylor, who generally works the plating station, worked my station. Chef Aaron fished out several inefficiencies caused by last month’s menu change, and as a result, the hotline decided after Saturday night’s shift to change the way calls are made. Rather than call for the specific items he needs from the sauté and vegetable stations, Taylor now calls for the plate as a whole (i.e., “Lobster” instead of “Market Greens and Gratin”). As a result, he’s able to communicate the same information using fewer words and clearer language. This might sound like a little thing, but the last chef I worked for wouldn’t have taken the time to work the line and figure out the problem. Instead, he would have told the cooks involved, “This isn’t working. Fix it.”

In short, nobody is on their own at Canlis. People are more than willing to help you out, because they want you to improve. And when you improve, the restaurant as a whole can improve... and that, ultimately, is the goal of everything Canlis does.

Week Five

2006-02-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Six Recipes! Six Pictures! OK, so I'm not going to be posting the recipes. I will, however, post six pictures and my descriptions of the dishes. I'll also let you in on a little secret -- if you really want them, the recipes for both the Peter Canlis Prawns and the Canlis Salad are available on the Canlis website. Here's a link, even.

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Menu Name: Calamari
Menu Description: Spiced semolina crust with roasted pepper aioli
Jason Says: A relatively new item on the Canlis menu, Calamari has become an increasingly popular appetizer, particularly in the bar and lounge areas of the restaurant. The squid is cleaned, trimmed, and cut in a standard manner, but is given a unique flavor thanks to the semolina and Montreal steak seasoning breading. The real key to this dish is in frying the squid for only a short period of time so that it doesn’t become tough and chewy.

Menu Name: Canlis Chowder
Menu Description: Dungeness crab, scallops, and prawns in ginger-scented cream

Jason Says: The Canlis Chowder is a very popular soup, particularly in the winter months. With a base of chicken stock rather than clam juice, and by using scallops, crab, and shrimp instead of clams, it avoids the overly fishy taste which dooms many clam chowders. The addition of ginger lends a subtle flavor which balances nicely with the seafood and also gives a slight nod to the Asian culinary influences present in much of Seattle’s cuisine.

Menu Name: Peter Canlis Prawns
Menu Description: The classic, with jasmine rice and sautéed greens

Jason Says: The Peter Canlis Prawns is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, and along with the Canlis Salad, dates back to the earliest days of the establishment. Prawns are sautéed in oil, then flavored with a combination of vermouth, lime juice, and chili flakes. What really makes the dish, however, is the rich pan sauce made to order using roasted shrimp shell butter. This is also available as an appetizer, with five prawns, no rice, and no sautéed greens.

Menu Name: The Canlis Salad
Menu Description: Romaine, bacon, Romano cheese, fresh mint, oregano and a dressing of lemon, olive oil and coddled egg

Jason Says: Perhaps the most famous preparation at a fifty-five-year old restaurant, the Canlis Salad is Canlis’ top seller on almost any given night—on Valentine’s Day, a night when the restaurant had more than 300 reservations, nearly 100 Canlis Salads were served. Saveur Magazine recently wrote, “The original Canlis Salad... one of the 100 best dishes in America.” Until two years ago the salad was made tableside; now it comes from the pantry station.

Menu Name: Lamb Chops
Menu Description: Israeli couscous, Oregon blue cheese and Swiss chard with pancetta lamb jus

Jason Says: This plate looks great and is also one of the least labor intensive for the hotline to send out, as the vast majority of the work—making the couscous packet (hidden behind the lamb chops) and the pancetta lamb jus—is done ahead of time. At pickup, all it requires is taking the packet out of the oven, inverting it on the plate, adding a ladle of sauce, garnishing with microgreens and sending it out to the broiler.

Menu Name: Forest Mushroom Risotto
Menu Description: Sherry-shallot butter, Pecorino Lucano and white truffle straw potatoes

Jason Says: The lone vegetarian friendly entrée at a restaurant known for its meat and seafood, this risotto receives a nice texture contrast from the straw potatoes (tossed with white truffle oil) which ring the bowl. A deep mushroom flavor (and vegetarian status) is achieved with house-made mushroom stock, as well as the inclusion of additional sautéed mushrooms to garnish.

[Side note: Wow, I'd forgotten how annoying laying out pictures is with Blogger.]

Week Four

2006-02-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, a bit late with this one... Wednesday is normally the day I turn in my essays to Chef Aaron, but this week he let me take part in produce ordering on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so I wanted that experience before writing the essay about -- you guessed it -- ordering and purchasing. Away we go.

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Canlis spends between ten and fourteen thousand dollars per month on produce alone and between five hundred thousand and three-quarters of a million dollars per year on meat and seafood, so to say purchasing and ordering are a big deal at the restaurant would be an understatement. Because there is so much to order from so many vendors—at least 20 are ordered from regularly, in addition to smaller specialty sources—and the restaurant does not employ a purchaser, Chef Aaron has implemented a system in which ordering and purchasing duties are split between different people. Sous Chef Norman inventories and orders produce (from no fewer than three vendors each night), Chef Jeff handles all meat and seafood, lead pastry cook Liz takes care of dry goods, and Chef Aaron is responsible for specialty items such as fois gras, caviar, and escargot.

I had the unique opportunity to take part in the produce ordering for three nights last week, allowing me to get a better handle on how things work. Working with Chef Aaron the first night on the produce order—Norman worked the line that night, so Chef Aaron was doing him a favor by taking care of ordering—I gained the most background information, while the next two nights with Norman were more practical and hands-on.

Three factors drive ordering and purveyor selection at Canlis: price, quality, and loyalty. Price is the ultimate dictator, though quality is certainly important—is this case of lettuce ten dollars cheaper because the company has a good buyer, or because it’s a bad product? Loyalty is least important on the list, though Canlis won’t generally cut off a vendor they’ve been using for years unless the replacement vendor has both superior price and quality. Ultimately, the restaurant is a business and ordering reflects that.

Because of Canlis’ reputation, companies often approach them with statements such as, “We want your fois gras business,” to which Chef Aaron will say, “Make me an offer.” Recently, the restaurant was able to secure a much more favorable price on truffle oil after just such a call. Most items are not ordered from a single source, however. Chef Aaron says, ideally, you should have three purveyors for each item you purchase, in order to force competition and lower the price you’re paying (though it’s worth noting that for some items, such as escargot, Canlis uses a single supplier because that supplier is the only one capable of giving the restaurant the quality of item they’re looking for). The best example of this at Canlis is in produce purchasing, where three main companies are used. Norman updates his prices each week, so he might have ordered carrots from Rosella’s one week but Charlie’s the next if prices change.

A typical night of ordering for Norman begins with checking the next night’s reservation sheet (Canlis does essentially no walk-in business, so reservation numbers can be adhered very strictly). He then checks the parties for the next two days—if there’s a party for 50 tomorrow having the Canlis Salad, that will require a different type of lettuce (romaine) than if the same party is having the Pear and Hazelnut Salad (bibb). Next, he checks in with the pantry and pastry stations on any special needs before completing a visual inventory. After doing this so many nights in a row, he says, he’s developed a very good sense of how much should be on hand, what he calls his “mental par.” While completing his inventory, he marks down on an order sheet how much of each item to order. Finally, he compares these needs to that week’s prices and decides which of the three vendors to order each item from. He doesn’t always decide on price, however, as he’s found certain products which are consistently of higher quality from one purveyor than another, and he’s willing to pay a few extra dollars for quality.

Orders are received and signed for by whoever happens to be in the kitchen, then put away (and cleaned as necessary, as with lettuces) by a prep or pantry cook. Norm has been working with the same three purveyors long enough that quality is generally not an issue, but he also doesn’t hesitate to return an item and request a credit if something is sub-standard. One day while checking in produce I had ordered the night before, I noticed a single eggplant that was mushy at the top; when I placing the next day’s order later that night, Norm had me request a replacement eggplant.

Invoices go in to a single invoice box and are later categorized by the person who placed the order—produce, proteins, dry goods, and so on. This makes it easier for expenditures to later be categorized by accounting, who might not know where to place an item such as ‘kohlrabi.’ After being paid, invoices are filed in the office until the end of the year, when they’re moved to storage.

Week Three

2006-01-31T22:09:00.000-08:00

Here we go again -- this time it's a three-week summary. If you notice that parts of these essays flow well while other sections seem forced, well, you're right. I get instructions like, "Summarize your first three weeks... and be sure to cover topics A, B, C, X, and Z." In this essay in particular, I wrote for awhile and then decided I'd better squeeze those required topics in there, giving the second half a bit of a disjointed feel. I know, I shouldn't have mentioned it and you wouldn't have noticed.

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Friends and family members like to ask me what I’m learning at Canlis Restaurant, perhaps expecting me to tell them about some fabulous new sauce, that I’ve discovered how to grill the perfect steak, or that I’ve happened across a trick to make people like Brussels sprouts (no trick needed here—I love ‘em). Instead, to their slight disappointment, I tell them that I’m learning how to work.

It’s certainly true that I’ve learned new sauces and been presented with new ways to prepare food, but that learning pales in comparison to the practical, hands-on knowledge gained by actually working the line five nights a week. Despite the best efforts of the CIA’s chef-instructors, there’s no way the kitchens at school could ever simulate the pressure of serving 300 guests on a Saturday night. I liked to think I was setting up my station appropriately and working efficiently during, say, Cuisines of Asia, but what I’ve discovered is that without volume, there’s no way to know for sure. At Canlis I’ve quickly learned how to best set up the vegetable station for my specific style, and am working daily to improve my efficiency both before and during service. Best of all, there’s almost immediate feedback—if your station isn’t set up well, the demands of a busy service will let you know in a hurry (if the chef doesn’t call you on it first!).

In my first module, I commented that the kitchen at Canlis was like that of any other restaurant. That’s somewhat true of the way the kitchen works, as well—despite what people outside the industry may think, the kitchens of great restaurants are not filled with a dozen chefs, each with 25 years of experience, painstakingly assembling each dish with tweezers and a miniature palate knife. The techniques being used typically aren’t anything groundbreaking, either—sautéing and braising have been around forever and aren’t going anywhere.

Rather, I’ve gathered that what sets a restaurant like Canlis apart are the quality of the inputs, the care that goes into preparing them, and that everything is made from scratch. The very best meat, seafood, and produce items available arrive each day, are checked in, and stored appropriately. If something isn’t right, it’s set aside to be returned.

Stocks and sauces are simmered, skimmed, strained, and put away, even thought you could take shortcuts or use commercial bases instead. It costs more to use the best and it takes longer to do things the right way, but ultimately your food, and your restaurant, will be much better off for it.

In the kitchen, up to four stations contribute to each plate: grill, plating, vegetable, and sauté. The flow is such that the plating station sets up the appropriate plate for the menu item, and vegetable and sauté bring their items to the plate. The plate is then pushed out to the grill, where it receives the correct protein before being passed to the server (or is simply passed to the server, in the case of a plate which does not receive an item from the grill). Fire and stage calls come from the grill as well as the plating station, both of which have ticket printers, with the grill ultimately making the “send out table six” call, followed by the plating station communicating what is needed for the table to sauté and vegetable.

As mentioned above, preparations are elaborate and carefully carried out, while presentations are quite simple, as mentioned in my previous essay. Canlis believes they are using the best possible inputs and treats their ingredients very well from receiving to cooking, then gives them top billing on each plate by making the steak or piece of fish the dish’s focal point.

To this point, cooking techniques are very much the same as what I’ve been taught at school. As part of my daily mise en place, I make both emulsion and reduction sauces, and cook vegetables in a large pot of salted, rapidly boiling water, then shock them in ice water. I haven’t encountered any techniques which run contrary to CIA teaching, though it’s worth noting I’ve only been at Canlis for three weeks and have only really experienced one station.

Consistency, while not a stated goal or ideal, is certainly evident in the kitchen. I make my sauces the same exact way each day, and have observed other cooks going about their work with the same exacting repetition. This is particularly important for a restaurant such as Canlis, with its long history, stellar reputation, and established regular customers, many of whom have been dining there for more than 25 years.

As in any kitchen, utilization is very important—but not at the expense of maintaining high quality standards. If something is leftover, such as a vegetable mixture from the fish special, it might be saved and used for an upcoming family meal. Meat and seafood trim are similarly utilized. But if something is going bad, it gets tossed, not used for family meal. The chefs would much rather take the loss on an item than serve anything less than high quality food to either their employees or their customers. Other than family meal, utilization plays an important role in both daily specials as well as the daily amusé (known at Canlis as the “welcoming hors d’oeuvre”).

Week Two

2006-01-23T01:10:00.000-08:00

Here's my second module, this one a two-part essay—the first section covers the history, philosophy and vision of the restaurant, while the second focuses on the chefs and the food. While this essay doesn't include anything about my externship, I think it's just as interesting, if not more so, than the first essay, given Canlis' long history and how seriously they take being the very best in everything they do. Enjoy.

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Nicolas Peter Canlis opened Canlis Restaurant in Seattle in 1950 in its present location, on a hillside three miles north of downtown and overlooking Lake Union. Canlis was his second restaurant, opened three years after The Broiler in Waikiki, Hawaii, and immediately became famous in the city for charging an outlandish fifty cents for a baked potato. Until 1954, Canlis and his daughter Gloria lived in an apartment above the restaurant’s main floor, which was eventually remodeled into what is today the Penthouse Room, a large private dining room accommodating up to 90 guests. Four years later, two smaller rooms—the Executive Room and Caché—were added, giving Canlis roughly its current layout.

Canlis opened restaurants in Portland and San Francisco in 1959 and 1965, respectively, the former a joint venture with Barron Hilton. Following his death in 1977, his son Chris moved to Seattle to run the restaurant along with Chris’ wife, Alice. Two years later the Portland location was turned over to Hilton at the expiration of a 20-year lease, and in 1985 Chris Canlis sold the San Francisco location in order to focus on business in Seattle. With the restaurant beginning to show its age in 1996, Chris and Alice Canlis embarked on a two million dollar project which updated every facet of Canlis.

In 2005, Chris and Alice’s second son, Mark, became managing owner of Canlis, leading the restaurant in its third generation of family ownership, known as “Canlis 3.0”. The restaurant is truly a family affair—Chris and Alice remain involved in its day-to-day operations, and Mark’s younger brother Brian recently joined the management team as well.

Despite being over 55 years old, Canlis has actually changed very little since opening, and what changes have occurred are primarily physical changes to the restaurant itself. The Canlis vision, while not easily obtained, is simply stated—to create the best dining experience in the country. This vision begins with an extreme focus on service. Canlis believes that guests are bringing their most treasured possessions—their time, their privacy, their wealth, and their relationships—to the restaurant, and that it is of the utmost importance to guard these possessions. This is achieved by a list of priorities: hard work, high standards, knowledge and skills, personal attention to individual taste, comfort and elegance, and gracious service.

When Nicolas Peter Canlis opened the restaurant in 1950, he decided to go against the norm by not using traditional French service and the “captain system,” which he found stuffy and self-serving. Instead, he is credited with developing a team style of service which today is used around the world, as well as one of the earliest tip and profit sharing systems. The team style of service continues at Canlis today, as well as a “secret” valet parking system which uses no claim tickets but always has cars waiting for customers instead of the other way around.

Perhaps the best example of both how Canlis hasn’t changed and how much it values its customers is that many food items, despite no longer being listed on the menu, are still produced without hesitation if asked for. This may seem like an inconvenience, but when you have regular customers who have been dining with you for over 40 years, any inconvenience is easily justified by being able to provide treasured guests with their favorite dishes. Still other items, such as Peter Canlis Prawns, The Canlis Salad, and Steak Tartare, have been on the menu virtually unchanged in 50 years.

The Canlis philosophy on food is to serve the very best products prepared to their very best, with a focus on local, seasonal, and heirloom produce. The menu itself changes seasonally, in order to offer the very best and freshest at any given time of the year. The cuisine would generally be described as New American, though the restaurant is credited with giving birth to Northwest Cuisine, and as a result much of the menu features local and regional seafood such as Alaskan salmon and local oysters. In fact, the vast majority of the food received at Canlis, from produce to beef to seafood, can be described as coming from local producers—Misty Isle Farms (beef), Taylor Family Shellfish, Full Circle Farm, and Olsen Farm Potatoes to name four.

Because Canlis believes they’re utilizing the highest quality ingredients, many dishes appear simpler than you might expect from such an upscale establishment. This is particularly true of the primary proteins—steaks, lamb chops, salmon, and the daily fish special—which receive top billing on their respective plates without being covered in sauces. The plates still contain sauces, of course, along with vegetables and starches, but it’s clear that the protein is the featured item. When you’re paying $70 for a Wagyu beef (Kobe-style) tenderloin you want to taste the steak itself, not an overly rich demi-glace based sauce, so steaks are given a small swipe of Canlis’ steak butter and nothing more.

The restaurant’s chef team, made up of Co-Executive Chefs Jeff Taton and Aaron Wright, is best described as a blend of new and old. Taton, who began at Canlis after high school as a dishwasher and worked his way up through the ranks despite no formal training, will celebrate his 25th anniversary at the restaurant this summer. He brings the experience of having worked under previous chefs Rocky Toguchi and Greg Atkinson, and is considered the kitchen’s stalwart leader.

Wright has only been at Canlis since 2000, and in his current position since 2002, but brings balance to the team as a relative outsider. He is also considered the creative visionary, introducing new dishes, updating existing Canlis classics and writing the chef’s tasting menu. After ten years as an illustrator and graphic designer, Wright changed direction, beginning his new career in California before coming to Seattle and working at local restaurants Andaluca and Earth & Ocean.

Specials—the only true special currently is a daily fish preparation, soon to be a daily mixed grill with the launch of a new menu in late January—and menu changes are a collaborative effort of Wright, Taton, and Sous Chef Norman Owens, with some input from the rest of the kitchen. These changes are driven primarily by seasonality, what’s fresh and what’s on hand.

Week One

2006-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Hi there. Having survived the drive back to Seattle (accomplished in a mere three-and-a-half days, I might add), I started at Canlis last Monday, the 9th. As part of our Externships, the CIA requires that we write weekly modules about a variety of topics. For example, the week #1 module asks you to explain the restaurant's orientation process and summarize your first week. I figured I'd just go ahead and paste these essays right into Blogger, so you can see what I've been doing. Some modules might be more interesting to you than others, and I'll probably have additional comments now and then, but for now here's my first essay.

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I arrived at Canlis Restaurant on the first day of Externship shortly after one-thirty on a typically rainy Seattle afternoon, having never set foot in the restaurant before. I was early for my two p.m. start time, but since early is good, I walked to the front entrance. Locked. Following the "Office and Deliveries" sign, I made my way around to the side entrance, rang the bell, and was buzzed in.

Nearly four hours before service, the kitchen was cool, calm, and quiet. It was also large—not extraordinarily so, but bigger than anything I was used to or was expecting. I introduced myself to Norm, the sous chef, who told me Chef Aaron Wright, one of two co-executive chefs, was in a meeting but would be out shortly. Chef Jeff Taton, the other co-executive chef, hadn’t yet arrived. Norm led me downstairs, showed me where to find uniforms, aprons, and towels, and left me to change.

Back upstairs, I was taken on a tour of the kitchen. Once you get past its size, the kitchen is like that of a typical restaurant—dish washing station, pot washing station, a line for pantry and prep, a pastry station, and the hot line, made up of sauté, vegetable, and plating stations. One unique feature is the grill station, which sits in a small room open to the dining room and accessible to main part of the kitchen through a small door. There’s also a window between the plating station and the grill room, as all food flows from the hot line, to the grill, and then out to the servers.

We continued on a tour of the restaurant, making our way through the main seating area ("the floor") and the Executive Room (a small, private room for up to 20 guests) on the main floor, then upstairs to the Caché (a very small, very private room for up to four guests) and the Penthouse (the largest private room, for up to 90 guests, featuring a grand piano and full bar). While the kitchen is impressive in its functionality, the rest of the restaurant is immaculate. From the walls and the stunning views down to the tables, chairs, and carpet, every detail at Canlis is just right. I felt out of place walking around in my whites; a tuxedo would have felt more appropriate.

Back in the kitchen, Norm informed me that Steven, who normally worked the vegetable station, had the day off and that I’d be working the station that night. This was a pleasant, if a bit unnerving, surprise as I’d expected to be doing prep work at the beginning. He said it was a good night to get my feet wet, as we would be slow—"only" 155 guests on the books, including a party of 40 in the penthouse. We went about setting up the station, which primarily consists of making sauces and blanching vegetables. When service began I watched him work, then gradually took over more and more responsibilities. About halfway through service, I realized he had left me entirely, that I was running the station myself. "Running" is probably an overstatement—"holding down" is more accurate, as it was far from smooth sailing. Still, at the end of the night I was proud of myself for surviving my first shift at what is, by far, the most upscale establishment I’ve ever worked.

With Steven back on the line after that first day, the rest of my first week was split evenly between setting up and working the vegetable station and doing other prep work. Highlights include preparing staff meal, as well as working with pork cheeks for the first time, on my second day. I worked the vegetable station again on Wednesday and Friday, only to have the station taken over by Chef Aaron when things got really busy. Although I was disappointed to be taken off the line, seeing him work the station was a tremendous learning experience and I improved a great deal just by watching him for an hour. Saturday I helped plate a party for 50, as well as cleaning 30 more pounds of pork cheeks.

The orientation process consisted of my tour of the restaurant, and then going through standard new-hire paperwork with Chef Aaron on my third day at Canlis. The usual topics—uniforms, professionalism, parking, harassment, clocking in and out, and so on—were covered.

Monday, my sixth day at Canlis, was once again Steven’s day off, meaning the vegetable station was all mine. I had the station set for service a full half-hour before we opened, and while I’m still far from having it mastered, service itself went fairly well—I really only felt the pressure during the very busiest push. If I can improve each week just half as much as I did in my first week, Externship will be an incredible success.

Shut it down

2005-12-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

Garde Manger, Grand Buffet, and 2nd semester are over.

Carrie and Luke fly to Seattle tonight; I'm leaving by car tomorrow. We'll see you in Seattle.

Extern, here I come!

CIA declares: Jason can cook

2005-12-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

Thursday's cooking practical came and went without much difficulty. The five of us (there were supposed to be six; nobody knows what happened to the other guy) showed up at 2pm, got a quick tour of the kitchen and Chef Coyac gave us a rundown of his expectations. He then assigned start times -- he prefers to start students 20 minutes apart rather than 30 -- and told us to come back ten minutes prior to our time for the oral examination.

After killing an hour, I reported to K-12 at 3:20, 10 minutes before my 3:30 start time. From where the first three students were working, I knew I'd draw either Saute, Stew, or Deep Poach. With my nemesis -- Shallow Poach -- out of the way, I relaxed a great deal. The questions were no problem... What's the difference between a stew and a braise? What type of cuts do we pan fry? What is the fond? What should be done to white meats before they're sauteed? What is resting? What is carryover cooking?... and a few others I don't remember. Ten for ten. And then the moment of truth. Chef Coyac placed the three menu cards on the table, face down, shuffled them around, and then motioned for me to pick. The winner? Deep Poach.

Deep Poach Salmon with Hollandaise Sauce, Jardineire Vegetables, Steamed Spinach, Tourneed Potatoes, and Beef Consomme.

Most of the ingredients were already on my station in a small, undercounter fridge ("low boy"), and the rest were easily located in the kitchen's larger fridge. After gathering everything I'd need, I grabbed an assortment of pots, pans, containers and bowls which turned out to be not nearly enough, but no matter. The kitchen is pretty small and it wasn't a big deal to go get more.

First, I put on the court boullion ("short broth"), in which I'd poach the salmon. Court boullion is like a quick vegetable stock -- onions, carrots, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme sprigs -- with the addition of acid, generally white wine vinegar. Once this was going, I set about making my consomme. Whip up some egg whites (save the yolks for that hollandaise!), mince some mirepoix, mix it all together with tomato paste and ground beef, and presto, you've got your clarification. This mess goes into a pot, cold, with beef stock. As it comes up to a simmer and you stir, the proteins in the beef and egg whites coagulate and form a raft on top of the stock. As the liquid simmers, the coagulated proteins act as a sort of net, grabbing on to the little impurities in the stock. After about an hour, you've got a crystal clear soup.

As the court boullion and consomme were cooking, I prepped the rest of my vegetables -- battonets (1/4 x 1/4 x 2)of carrot, celery, and turnip for the jardineire veg, and brunoise (1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8) of carrot, celery, and parsnip to garnish the consomme. Each item was then cooked quickly in boiling, salted water, and shocked in an ice bath to be held for later.

At this point, despite feeling like I hadn't done very much, I was well past the halfway point of my practical. In particular, the last 30 minutes were extremely hectic as I tried to finish things up. The soup was strained and holding, the court boullion had been strained and was waiting for the salmon, the hollandaise was made and being held in a bowl over a pot on the stove in hopes that it wouldn't break, and the potatoes were in a bowl with butter and parsley over a double boiler.

At 5:55pm, five minutes before I was to present, Chef said, "Jason, you can bring up that soup any time now." "Yes chef" was the reply (when isn't it?). I lowered the salmon into the poaching liquid, tossed the vegetables into a saute pan, added the spinach to a second saute pan, and went about serving the soup. After bringing two cups of consomme up to the chef's table, I returned to plate my entree.

I gave my hollandaise a final whisk, finished the vegetables, and gave the fish a poke to check for doneness, then set about plating. Perhaps sensing he could catch me in an error, I noticed Chef Coyac standing over my shoulder just as I was about to transfer fish to plate, watching to see if I'd touch the fish with a bare hand (it's illegal to have bare hand contact with a ready-to-eat food, you see). Fortunately I was ready, and slid the fish on top of the pile of spinach with a pair of tongs.

Long story short, I scored a 92 on the practical. I lost points for little things -- a touch of seasoning here, could have cooked the fish a minute longer, celery a bit too crunchy. Nothing major, and I'll take that score any day of the week.

Cooking Practical

2005-12-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well, tomorrow's the big day. Based on a randomly drawn menu and two-and-a-half hours in which to prepare it, the CIA will tell me once and for all whether or not I know how to cook. OK, so it's not quite like that. Not far off, though. You have to pass this practical to be allowed to go on Extern, and you must pass a similar practical at the end of 5th term in order to graduate.

Tomorrow, after a regular day of Garde Manger, I report to the Practical Kitchen at 2pm along with five other students. The kitchen consists of six work areas, with a tall wall between each so you can't see what your neighbor is doing. Everything we could possibly need -- food, pots, pans, etc. -- is provided. The first person begins at 2:30 (presentation time: 5pm), and then subsequent students start each half hour. I already know I'm going 5th, with a 4:30 start time.

Now begins the task of prepping for all six menus. Note cards with recipes, food lists, timelines, equipment lists... you have to be organized, or else (I suppose there are probably people who try to wing it, but why?).

Here are the six menus. Each menu has a protein, two vegetables, a starch and a soup. In most cases there's a sauce as well. You'll notice they cover six different basic cooking techniques.

ROAST: Chicken with Pan Gravy, Green Beans, Glazed Beets, Gratin Potatoes, Beef Consomme

SAUTE: Chicken Breast with Sauce Fines Herb, Sauteed Zucchini, Braised Red Cabbage, Fresh Pasta, Puree of Lentil Soup

GRILL: Mahi Mahi with Pineapple Salsa, Green Beens, Glazed Carrots, Rice Pilaf, Cream of Mushroom Soup

SHALLOW POACH: Sole with Sauce Vin Blanc, Broccoli, Duxelle Stuffed Tomato, Tourne Potatoes, Cream of Cauliflower

STEW: Beef Stew, Carrots/Turnips, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, Chicken Consomme

DEEP POACH: Salmon with Hollandaise Sauce, Jardiniere Vegetables, Steamed Spinach, Tourne Potatoes, Beef Consomme

Until I typed those out just now, I was only sure which menu I didn't want, but not which one I did... it's now obvious to me which is clearly the best option. I won't mention either one, for fear of jinxing the whole thing.

Finally, here's a cool article about Canlis, my externship site.

Protect that Food!

2005-12-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

Having finished seven days each of Breakfast Cookery and Lunch Cookery, where the goal is to turn out as much food as possible in a short period of time, tomorrow we take a giant step back from a production standpoint but a giant step forward from a food standpoint -- Garde Manger, the "Cold Kitchen," or literally, the "Protector of the Food." In a modern restaurant, this is the salad and sandwich station, with perhaps some fancier preparations such as patés.

Back in the day, however, Garde Manger was a big deal. Without modern refridgeration and preservation techniques, chefs had to be creative in the way they preserved their foods. They were also very frugal, taking care to turn any scraps or trim into a new presentation. Garde Manger also encompassed butchering and charcuterie (making sausages, bacon, and other cured/smoked meats).

In a high-end restaurant, this sort of thing is still done. And in a good restaurant, you're certainly worried about saving and utilizing those scraps. Besides that, some of this stuff is just really cool. And after three weeks of cranking out food, I'm looking forward to doing something a bit more classic, delicate, and refined.

Garde Manger culminates with Grand Buffet, a presentation of a variety of dishes, held the day before graduation (in this case, Wednesday December 21st). I've talked about Grand Buffet before; it'll be strange to be on the other side.

When days off are bad

2005-11-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

I don't know about anyone else in my class, but I'm feeling like crap today. After six days of getting to school at 2:30am for Breakfast Cookery, I was finally get used to a schedule involving going to bed around 8pm and waking up around 1am. Last night I stayed up until a normal time, 11pm, and got up this morning around 9:30. Of course, that's about eight hours later than I'm used to getting my coffee these days, so I've had a pounding headache all day which coffee couldn't fix. I'm also tired, but figure I shouldn't nap because I won't be able to get to sleep tonight. So instead, I did my homework and am now blogging. Really, this whole thing would have been easier if we'd be able to do seven straight days of breakfast.

Tomorrow is the last day of breakfast. We have a final exam, which should be no problem, and I'm on the baking station. Yesterday I made dough for doughnuts, which I've never done before, so I'll let you know how they turn out. Tuesday we start the second half of this block, Lunch Cookery, for which I won't have to be at school until 8am (we also don't get out until 3:30, so it's a tradeoff), and we have our lecture before service instead of after.

One of the benefits of being a student is that we're allowed to order food from the storeroom at very good prices. With a few days of notice, you can get the same quality ingredients we use in our kitchens with all the benefit of the CIA's buying power. The one catch is that you have to order rare or hard-to-find items and spend a minimum of $20 -- so no putting in a order for a pound of onions, for example. Yesterday I placed my order: two ducks, one beef tenderloin, one bottle of white truffle oil, and one bottle of yuzu juice. To give you an idea how much we can save, the tenderloin runs $9.24 a pound. If you buy tenderloin steaks at the grocery store, they'll probably run you at least twice that. I'll pick these things up on Tuesday.

Yuzu tastes like a very tart cross between orange and lime, and I think it will go very well in a gin and tonic.

In other news, it looks like I'll be able to get Thomas Keller's autograph after all. In anticipation of his visit, I bought The French Laundry Cookbook on the off chance I'd be able to slip away from class and attend his book signing. When I went to return the book last week (we're poor, remember), the woman at the bookstore said she had five other books to send to him to be signed and asked if I'd like to add mine to the shipment. You bet!

Chicken Stock

2005-11-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I'm going to need chicken stock. I know you thought I'd never run out after making five gallons back in May, but sure enough, I used the last of it a few weeks ago. This time around I'm using chicken bones I've been saving in the freezer instead of another 40-pound case of bones, as well as some chicken necks, feet, and a stewing hen (a.k.a, an old chicken that's too tough to eat but has lots of flavor) I picked up at Adams yesterday. Chicken feet are a great addition to stock if you can find them -- they're almost pure collagen, which converts to gelatin during the cooking process and gives your stock good body. All told I've got around 16 pounds of bones going, so I should wind up with somewhere in the neighborhood of two gallons of stock.

As for Thanksgiving, I'm going to toss tradition aside and roast a duck instead of a turkey. Even a small turkey is way more than we can eat, and besides, duck tastes better. Also on the tentative menu are more traditional items such as stuffing, mashed potatoes (though these might also be tossed aside in favor of risotto), and cranberry sauce (not from a can), as well glazed beets and of course, pumpkin pie.

Odds and Ends

2005-11-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

I finished Cuisines of Asia today, which was the most demanding (and most rewarding) class I've had so far. Three days each of China and India, and two days each of Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and Korea make up the 14-day block. The kitchen, K-1, is different from most other kitchens in that is has two wok stations with space for a total of five woks, as well as such other unusual equipment as a Chinese roasting oven, Tandoori oven (India), and a large steamer used primarily for rice. There's also the standard equipment, like a grill, deep fryer, ovens, and so on.

With Asia out of the way, I'm now in the home stretch before Extern. Next block is a split block, much the same way Meat and Fish classes shared a 14-day block; I start seven days of Breakfast Cookery on Monday, followed by seven days of Lunch Cookery. For day one of Breakfast on Monday, we're required to arrive in the kitchen at 1:30am. That's right, 1:30 am. We open for service at 6am, and as it'll be our first time in a new kitchen, we'll need extra time to get the tour and hear Chef Johnson's expectations for the class, etc. Subsequent days will have more reasonable start times, which in this case means 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. But hey, at least I'll be out of class around 10.

In other news, Thomas Keller -- yes, THE Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame -- was on campus today as this block's graduation speaker. Unfortunately, the only chance to see him was at a book signing this morning while I was in class, so I missed out. Since I arrived here in May, I've never heard campus so abuzz over a graduation speaker; most of the time people would be hard-pressed to name the speaker, but people have been talking about Keller for weeks.

What this made me realize, though, is that I don't want to have a boring, run-of-the-mill speaker when my gradutions roll around in January 2007 and August 2008. Why settle for the regional manager of Red Lobster when you can have Thomas Keller or Eric Ripert with a little effort? A few of us decided today that when we get back from Extern in May, we need to get involved with this effort in order to ensure a memorable speaker. Names tossed about today included Ripert, Alton Brown, Anthony Bourdain, and Michael Ruhlman. Names suggested jokingly included reality TV stars Rocco DiSpirito and Gordon Ramsay.

Worth 1,000 words?

2005-11-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

One of the most common questions we -- and by "we," I refer of course to the dedicated team of trained monkeys who sift through all our correspondence -- get here at the Cooking with Jason offices is, "So, how do we know you're really in school? Perhaps this is all an elaborate ruse." To which the monkeys are conditioned to reply, "That's none of your business, and I'll thank you to stay out of my personal affairs. Good day."

In all seriousness, I took some pictures around campus the other day and present them here for your enjoyment.

The newly-completed Anton Plaza, overlooking the Hudson River. That's one thing about the CIA, by the way -- if you give enough money, they'll name almost anything after you. And if you don't like what's available, just give a bit more and they'll build it first, then let you name it.

Ristorante Caterina de' Medici ("Caterina" for short) one of the four student-run restaurants on campus. I'll spend time here working in both as a cook and a waiter late next year -- working in the restaurants is your last stop before graduating from the associate's program.

The Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine (there we go again with our corporate sponsorships, and no, we're not done yet), home of the aforementioned Caterina. The restaurant occupies the upper floor, and there are kitchens and classrooms downstairs.

The herb garden behind Caterina yields fresh herbs (as well as peppers and fennel) for use in the restaurant when the seasons permit. Unfortunately, by the time I'm working there the entire Hudson Valley will be covered in snow.

A close up of some of those peppers.

Roth Hall, the main building on campus and home to the majority of classrooms, kitchens, and administrative offices, as well as American Bounty Restaurant, Escoffier Restaurant, and the Apple Pie Bakery & Cafe (sponsored by the Rich Products corporation!). This shot was taken from the herb garden; for reference, Anton Plaza sits directly in front of Roth Hall.

This covered walkway, convenient for Hudson Valley winters, connects Roth Hall (on the left) with the building which houses the baking and continuing education programs. My recent Cuisines of the Americas class was in that building, which was pretty cool because as the only culinary kitchen there, we were generally nice and busy for lunch. The kitchen used for the Certified Master Chef exam is also in the baking building.

It's Official!

2005-11-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

As of an hour ago, I'll be doing my Externship at Canlis Restaurant in Seattle. Carrie, Luke, and I will escape what everyone says is going to be a terrible winter, and we'll get to see friends and family for five months or so while we're home. I'll also be home for Seattle Mariners Opening Day in April, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Externship is a 21-week chunk of time between freshman and sophomore year during which we're required to work 18 weeks in an approved restaurant. The goal is both to put into practice what you've learned in the first year, but also to pick up new skills and practical knowledge. Externships often turn into jobs after graduation, and believe you me, I wouldn't turn down a job at Canlis. But that's getting ahead of the game a bit.

In any event, during these 18 weeks (exact start date still to be determined), I'll move through various stations of the restaurant, meet regularly with the chef to monitor my progress, and complete weekly journals which will be compiled in a notebook to be handed in when I get back to school. 50% of my grade comes from the chef himself, and the other half comes from a faculty member and is based on my completed notebook.

With Extern a mere two months away, this is a huge weight off my shoulders. In a word, 'woo'.

Quick takes

2005-10-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

A few quick notes as I study frantically for the first day of Asia tomorrow:

I installed a new thermostat for our townhouse this weekend. This is easily the most handyman sort of thing I've ever done and I'm quite proud of myself. Better yet, the thing actually works. There was wiring and drilling involved, so yeah, I practically built a new house from scratch.

As mentioned above, Cuisines of Asia starts tomorrow. We begin with three days of China, then move on through Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and India. If you've read Making of a Chef, you'll be pleased to hear that my chef for this block is none other than Chef Pardus. My class met with him last week, and to say he was quite intense would be an understatement.

I've got a pot roast in the oven right now. With fall here and winter just around the corner, let the weather tell you what to cook -- 'tis the season for braising and stewing! The nearly five-pound hunk of meat, which I first seared in a smoking hot pan, has been in a 325* oven for five hours now, slowly cooking in a mix of red wine and chicken stock. Potatoes are already peeled and sitting in a pot of water; I'll crank those up in about 45 minutes or so for mashed potatoes.

We must be getting some sort of fallout from Hurricane Wilma, because we're in the middle of a huge rainy system that's moving its way up the coast; right now, the rain pretty much stretches all the way from Washington DC to Boston.

Skills II

2005-10-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Skills II is much like Skills I, except that there's no knife tray and the food takes a big step up in complexity (much to my dismay, we still made stock every day). Not that the food was all that difficult, but compared to what we did in Skills I it was a big change. Instead of making a soup or a sauce, we'd make a full plate: protein, sauce, starch, veg (or two). For example, Sauteed Chicken Breast with Sauce Finnes Herbes, Whipped Potatoes, Green Beans, and Glazed Carrots. Real cooking, in other words.

Timing became a much bigger issue in Skills II. In order for everything to come out well, you had to ask yourself some questions and make some decisions. What is going to take the longest? What has to be done at the last minute? What can I do ahead of time, then either hold hot or reheat at the last minute? Are those herbs going to make it if I cut them early? Do I have a warm place to hold that Hollandaise so it won't break?

Sitting here well after the fact, with the benefit of both hindsight and more experience, I can see these issues incredibly clearly. At the time, however, this was a challenge. Chef Vanoli, for all his great instruction, was still a new teacher and didn't drill into us the importance of planning in the form of prep lists and timelines. Most of these questions were asked, if they were asked at all, in the kitchen as I got to work. The decisions were made on the fly and weren't always correct. Yes, this is how you learn, so all in all it was a good experience.

For the three weeks of Skills I, I had worked with the same two people on a station. We each cooked and presented our own food, of coure, but after awhile you fall into certain habits. One person always gets the produce. One person puts on a pot of water and gets an ice bath for tomato concasse. The other person grabs pots and pans. This way you make way fewer trips in the kitchen and can work more efficiently. You also look out for each other, "Matt, watch your sauce, it's boiling." "Can you pull it off for me?" "Yeah, no problem." That sort of thing.

In any event, we changed teams for Skills II. One of my teammates remained the same, while the other joined a new team and we picked up a replacement. It was nice to have that little bit of continuity, and we quickly fell into our old habits... except the new guy, who had a hard time fitting in. He'd frequently gather ingredients we'd already gotten for him, or pick up something for himself without checking to see if we needed it as well.

What's worse, he was careless. On the day we made glazed beets and braised red cabbage (those are two seperate dishes), he dumped his beet cooking water -- stained a deep red, of course -- into my pot of cabbage. He had already presented his food, was trying to clean up his part of the station, and thought it was his pot of cabbage. Without naming names, I told chef what happened when I presented my plate, and he gave me a pass on the cabbage.

On egg day, the featured item is Eggs Benedict, which not only requires you to make the tricky Hollandaise sauce and keep it hot (but not too hot, or it'll break), but to perfectly poach eggs and have everything happen at the same time. As you might know, I've cooked a ton of breakfast in my brief time in the industry, so I was rolling right along. Hollandaise done, sitting over a pot of simmering water. Eggs in the poach water. Muffin toasting, sliced ham sizzling, plate warm and ready to go. Down goes the muffin, topped by the ham. Eggs are done, quick blot dry and on to the ham. I turn to grab my hollandaise -- gone. WHAT?! Same deal as with the cabbage: he thought my bowl was his, and he'd already presented. Fortunately, he had only poured the contents of my bowl into the food waste bin and there was some stuck to the sides. I frantically scraped down the bowl, grabbed his hollandaise and whisked some of it in to what was left of mine, quick taste and season, and it was on the plate.

In a miraculous turn of events, Chef loved it. "You've cooked breakfast before," he said. "Yes chef, that's almost all I did for a year before coming to school," I replied. To which he said, "I can really tell by this dish." In a word, "woo".

Fortunately, the vast majority of Skills II went much better than egg day. I continuted to cement my reputation as "the smart kid," and was often the only one in class to raise a hand when Chef asked a question. At one point, I raised my hand to answer, he looked over with a big grin, waved me off, and said, "I know you know, I need to hear from someone else."

Here's the menu from each day:

Day 1: Glazed Beets, Braised Red cabbage, Duchesse Potatoes, Chateau Potatoes

Day 2: Rice Pilaf, Risotto, Jardiniere Vegetables

Day 3: Fresh Pasta, Tomato Sauce

Day 4: Eggs! Hard Cooked, Soft Cooked, Fried, Scrambled, Omelet, Benedict

Day 5: Poached Salmon, Bernaise Sauce, Parslied Potatoes, Green Beans, Julienned Vegetables

Day 6: Shallow Poached Trout, Sauce Vin Blanc, Rice Pilaf, Glazed Carrots, Sauteed Spinach

Day 7: Roasted Chicken, Pan Gravy, Ratatouille, Roasted Potatoes, Broccolini

Day 8: Braised Short Ribs, Soft Polenta, Roasted Root Vegetables

Day 9: Chicken Fricasee, Whipped Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli

Day 10: Sauteed Chicken Breast, Sauce Fines Herbes, Spinach Pasta, Root Vegetables

Day 11: Sauteed Trout Meuniere, Wild Rice Pilaf, Brussels Sprouts, Tourneed Carrots

Day 12: Pan Fried Pork Cutlet, Spaetzle, Coleslaw, Braised Collard Greens

Day 13: Grilled Strip Steak, French Fries, Grilled Mixed Vegetables

Day 14: Seared Beef Tenderloin Steak, Sauce Chasseur, Potato Gratin, Broccoli Rabe, Onion Rings

A few notes on these...

Day 2, when we did risotto, was an eye-opener to me. This was the one day Chef refused to teach the CIA method, and who can blame him? He's Italian, I think he knows how to make risotto. I had only ever made risotto by using three additions of stock, everything carefully measured, with lots of stirring and a long cooking time. Imagine my shock, then, when Chef Vanoli added almost all the stock at the beginning, hardly stirred at all, and only cooked the rice for 16 minutes. All his reasoning made sense, and of course it came out wonderfully. I made risotto at home that weeked using Chef Vanoli's method, and Carrie said it was the best I'd ever made. Needless to say, I'm not going back to the old way. Along similar lines, we got better instruction on pasta than we could have gotten from almost any other chef at school, and Chef also showed me a new way to make polenta that, of course, came out better.

What else... the steaks we received on Day 13 weren't very good. We also have to approximate grilling at school, placing grill pans over the burners. They don't get as hot as you might like and are no substitute for outdoor grilling. The steaks on Day 14, however, were darned good. Seared in a smoking hot pan, finished in the oven to just about medium and served with Sauce Chasseur ("Hunter Sauce") -- yum.

We also had a knife practical on the last day of class. It was basically the same test we took to finish Skills I, except that he added eight potato tournees to the list and we had the same amount of time to complete it all. If you're unfamiliar with tourne, it's a ridiculous knife cut invented by some horrible French chef in order to torture his cooks. OK, so that's only half correct. Basically, it's a seven-sided football sort of cut, usually for potatoes. This picture gives a pretty good indication. I had really struggled with my tournees throughout Skills II, though I did improve pretty dramatically from week one to week three. Then, when the chips were down and the pressure was on, I somehow managed to produce near-perfect tournees for the knife practical. It's as if my paring knife was moving itself... I've never tourneed that well in my life, and I probably never will again (nor will I ever have to, most likely). I finished the tray on time, and Chef gave me a 9.8 out of 10 for my efforts.

To wrap this all up, I did even better in Skills II than in Skills I. My daily performance grades never dipped below a 90%, averaging a 94% over the 14-day block. Throw in academics -- homework, quizzes, a coasting project and the final, where I always pad my grades -- and the knife tray, and I walked away with a 96%, "real" A. The streak lives on!

In other news, I fear Fall may have lasted all of about three weeks here in the Hudson Valley. After a sweltering summer, we had a month of very pleasant weather. As I type this at approximately 10pm, however, the temperature outside has already dropped to 39 degrees, which was supposed to be the overnight low. Brr!

Skills I in Review

2005-09-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Skills I and II are over, I haven't posted in a month... I guess you could say it's time for an update.

My chef for both Skills I and II was Alberto Vanoli, who was, as we had thought, teaching for the very first time. This had its advantages and disadvantages, but overall, I thought he did a great job for his first time out. Today, our last day with him, he took pictures of us working and then a group photo at the end. Chef Vanoli is from Bergamo, a provence in the northermost part of Italy. I've been really interested in Italian cooking lately, so he was a great chef to have for these six weeks, and he didn't disappoint when it came to topics like risotto, pasta, pasta sauces, and polenta.

Skills I, a typical 14-day block, moves pretty slowly and is built on a great deal of repitition. Every day, the first thing we did was prepare 30 pounds of mirepoix (in best instructor voice, "an aromatic vegetable mixture, usually consisting of 50% onions, 25% carrots, and 25% celery") to flavor the chicken or veal stock we'd be making. Every morning, we (and by "we," I mean that day's stock team) loaded the giant steam kettles with the roughly 120 pounds of bones needed to yield 15 gallons of stock each. If we were doing chicken that day, the bones were loaded first thing, the mirepoix added just before lunch, and then the stocks were strained, bagged, labeled and cooled before we left between 1:30 and 2pm. If it was a veal day, the bones would first be roasted in the oven until just before lunch, we'd start the stock after lunch, and leave it for the evening class to finish, as veal stock cooks quite a bit longer than chicken stock.

After getting the day's stock work finished, it was time for the most nerve-wracking task of them all--the knife tray. Each day, we honed our knife skills with a timed knife assignment. This generally consisted of the following:

2 onions, sliced 1/8" thick

2 onions, small dice (1/4"x 1/4"x 1/4")

1 potato, batonnet (1/4"x 1/4"x 2")

1 potato, medium dice (1/2"x 1/2"x 1/2")

3 tomatoes, concasse (blanched, shocked, peeled, and seeded)

3 shallots, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 bunch parsley, minced

Sometimes, Chef would change the potato cuts slightly, giving us julienne (1/8"x 1/8"x 1") instead of battonet, large dice (3/4"x 3/4"x 3/4") instead of medium dice, or adding a paysanne (1/2"x 1/2"x 1/8" tile) or brunoise (1/8"x 1/8"x 1/8") cut to the mix. To finish this knife work, we were given 40 minutes. I know that sounds like an eternity to cut up some vegetables, but when you're going for precision--and precision is everything--it's not nearly long enough.

Eventually, you develop a system. Or at least I did. Onions are easy, get those out of the way first. Next, potatoes, a bit tougher but not bad. Then, run through the minces, where it's easier to skimp if you have to in order to make the deadline. Shallot first, then parsley, then garlic. Garlic can be kind of sticky and make a big mess of your board and knife, so always leave that for last. And parsley of course gets everywhere, so that's next-to-last.

The first couple of days, I don't think anyone in the class finished on time. But it was cool, as he didn't take any points off for speed in the first week. On day one, I was about ten minutes over, but Chef was very impressed by the accuracy of my cuts. I didn't mention that I had done this same thing nearly every day during my apprenticeship. In general, the less he said the better. It got to the point that I'd walk up there with my tray, he'd pick through the cuts, and say, "It's pretty good, Jason," and I would know I'd done a good job. As far as the knife tray went, "Pretty good" was about the best compliment you could hope to receive from Chef Vanoli.

By the second week, I cut my time down to only being five minutes over. It was at this point that he started getting on us a bit more, particularly about time. On Friday of week two, I was three minutes over. When we took the final knife practical on day 13, I was less than a minute over and the cuts were rockin'; I scored a 9/10 and went home happy.

Oh, and we cooked food too! Besides knife skills, the focus of Skills I is soups-stocks-sauces. As it should be, since stocks and sauces are at the base of pretty much all classic Western cuisine. Here's a quick rundown. Remember, this whole thing moves pretty slowly. We're talking one soup per person per day at the beginning.

Day 1: Intro

Day 2: All about stock

Day 3: Vegetable Beef Soup

Day 4: French Onion Soup

Day 5: Consomme

Day 6: Potato-Leek Soup and Whipped Potatoes!

Day 7: Puree of Lentil Soup

Day 8: New England Fish Chowder

Day 9: Cream of Broccoli Soup

Day 10: Creamed Spinach (sauce Bechamel), Cauliflower Gratin (sauce Mornay)

Day 11: Mayonnaise, Steamed Broccoli with Hollandaise

Day 12: Brown Sauce (sauce Espagnole) and Jus de Veau Lie

Day 13: Tomato sauce, dried pasta, vinaigrette

Day 14: Test day (Consomme, Hollandaise, Written Test)

Now, the good news is that I had done pretty much all of this before, which is a huge help. Some of it I hadn't done in two years, but it was still nice to have some sort of idea going in rather than having never even seen it or tasted it, as was the case with many of my classmates. Of course, Chef did an extensive demo each day, preparing each item from start to finish while we watched, so it's not as if you were going based on the book and nothing else. Still, though, this is where my apprenticeship really paid off (and it's about time, given that it was an unpaid apprenticeship).

Overall, I did very well in Skills I. My high point was Day 5, when he tasted my consomme, observed my perfectly julienned garnishes and that they were cooked correctly, and said, "It's perfect. This is the best soup I've seen today." Much like when Chef Clark shook my hand and said "good job," I was so stunned I could only manage a "thank you Chef" in response. My worst day was Day 10, when I just couldn't get organized or focused and wound up presenting pretty poor representations of both dishes; it was the only day I scored below a 92 for daily performance. Sufficiently shaken, I rattled off 95, 93, 100 and 100 to close out Skills I. Another A-, and my non-B streak lives to see another block.

A quick aside--I really haven't done Skills I justice here, unfortunately. If you really want to know what it's like, check out Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef, in which he attends the CIA and devotes an entire book to it. Because Skills I is so fundamental, so important, and the first time you really get into a kitchen here at school, he spends more time on it than any other class. I cannot reccommend this book highly enough, and his descriptions of Skills I are right on the money.

Three-day weekend this weekend before the start of Skills III; I'll have the Skills II recap up before Tuesday. Have a good weekend!

Comment verification

2005-09-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick housekeeping note: In order to help prevent spam (unwanted comments), I've turned on Blogger's "word verification" feature. What this means to you is that in order to leave a comment, you'll have to go through the extra step of entering a unique word that Blogger gives you (this prevents automated programs from leaving comments, since it requires an actual person to read and enter the word). This shouldn't be a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

No small miracle

2005-08-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

I got an A- in fish. Not just an A-, but a very solid 93%, at the upper end of the A- range.

As you might recall from this post, there's a widespread belief that Chef Clark does not give out A's... I'm sure that's a bit of an exaggeration, just as he told us he wouldn't post our grades until Christmas. Still, though, I'm more prouder of this grade than any of my first five.

My performance on Day 7, during which I scored a cumulative 99% on the tests which comprised 50% of my grade, was what really pulled me through -- on daily performance, I scored an 86%, good on its own for a B. Of course, I stand by my belief that the daily grades are incredibly subjective and only marginally rooted in reality. But that's enough on that subject, and I'll take the A- with no complaints.

Like what are my skills?

2005-08-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

I owe you a post about my dinner last Thursday at Megu, but with school starting up tomorrow it's going to have to wait. My full knife kit is ready to go, the uniform is in order, and my bag is packed. There's so much stuff to print off for Skills I that I ran out of paper tonight. Not to worry; I got to the most important stuff and will pick up some more paper tomorrow after class.

In anticipation of my first day of Skill Development I, I leave you with the following:

Napoleon Dynamite: Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills...

Brilliant movie.

Luke's Birthday Dinner

2005-07-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

As you may be aware, Luke's first birthday was Saturday the 23rd. I made spaghetti (sauce from scratch, pasta from a box), whipped up a quick balsamic vinaigrette, and baked a cake.

The cake recipe was very simple on purpose -- we were already giving Luke tomatoes for the first time, so we didn't want any crazy ingredients in the cake (chocolate, for example). Sadly, this plan backfired horribly, but more on that later. Anyway, the cake is from a cookbook I highly recommend, American Classics, by the America's Test Kitchen people. What's interesting about the recipe is that rather than creaming together the butter and the sugar, as you'd normally do for a cake, they have you mix the dry ingredients and then add the butter a little bit at a time, more like the method you'd follow for making biscuits. Finally, you add the milk and eggs in a steady stream.

In any event, the cake came out very nicely both in terms of flavor and texture. I stacked the two rounds on top of each other, put a layer of homemade raspberry jam in the middle, and then frosted with a buttercream icing from the same book. Finally, the cake was decorated with red lines to look like the stitching and seams on a baseball (you're surprised, I can tell). For pictures, I suggest this link over at Luke's blog.

Unfortunately, Luke had a horrible allergic reaction after digging in to his first birthday cake. Given the timing, we're pretty sure it was the cake and not the spaghetti, though it didn't help matters that he was tired and rubbing spaghetti sauce in his right eye. What's there to be allergic to in cake? It was his first time to have egg whites, which our doctor suggested we not feed him during his first year of life. You can see how badly he swelled up here; it took two doses of Benadryl to get him back to normal. In any event, we're going to hold off on eggs for the time being, and will try out tomato sauce again to rule that out as the cause of his reaction.

Finally, I had my first great food moment with Luke last Friday. We were eating at Max's Memphis Barbeque in Red Hook, about 25 minutes north of here, and along with my ribs I ordered a side of collard greens. And wouldn't you know it, Luke loved the greens. Outside the South, how many one year olds are chowing down on collards? I was so proud of him. Next time we eat there, we'll order him his own side.

NYC Dinner #1: Otto

2005-07-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

Two Fridays ago, the 22nd, I took the train down to the city for the primary reason of meeting Carrie's parents at the airport Saturday morning. It was also an opportunity to hang out with my friend Shane, who happens to be living in the city as a summer associate at a law firm. After debating where we should go for dinner, he decided we make the short walk from his apartment to Otto, Mario Batali's pizzeria.

We started with a cheese plate. There were ten cheeses on the list, and we took the "5 for $14" option, selecting: Fiore di Maremma (sheep), Pecorino di Fossa (sheep), Aged Peppercorn (goat), Taleggio (cow), and Gorgonzola Dolce (cow). The cheeses were served with black truffle-infused honey, sour cherries in a thick syrup, and some preserved apricots. The cherries and apricots were great on their own but didn't add a whole lot to the cheese; the honey was wonderful and went well with most of the cheeses.

We were a bit disappointed by the gorgonzola, as it wasn't quite as funky (in that good, blue cheese sort of way) as we might have liked. This is not to say it wasn't a good cheese, however. My surprise favorite was the pecorino, which was nothing like the dry, hard pecorino-romano I was expecting. The texture was more like a dry feta, with a wonderful earthy, grassy flavor. The aged peppercorn was a close second. A week after the fact I don't remember much about the Fiore or the Taleggio, other than that I really liked one and the other not so much.

Next up, pizza. We ordered four (there were four of us, and the pizzas are definitely meant to serve one or two people):

Otto Lardo (Lardo is cured and smoked pork fatback)

Pane Frattau (Tomato, Pecorino, Egg)

Asparagus & Goat Cheese

Quattro Stagioni (Tomato, Mozzarella, Asparagus, Mushrooms, Cotto, Peppers)

By mistake they also brought us a Pizza Bianca, which has only olive oil and sea salt, which was much better than it sounds and made for a nice break between pizzas.

I know, the Lardo probably sounds weird. But boy, is it tasty. It's a bit hard to describe, though, as it doesn't really taste like pork... it just tastes... rich, but at the same time, lighter in flavor than you might imagine. Like I said, hard to describe. But highly recommended. The Pane Frattau was my choice, as I've been wanting to do a breakfast pizza with a whole egg on it, then baked in the oven. My only complaint is that it's hard to split one egg between six slices of pizza. I'm definitely on board with the concept, though. The other two pizzas were certainly good, but not mind-blowingly so. I'd like to try a mushroom pizza next time (we unfortunately had a non-mushroom eater in our party).

This would be a good time to discuss Otto's wine list, which contains over 700 bottles -- every single one of them from Italy. We had a terrific Sangiovese (for I believe $42) with some of my favorite red wine characteristics, tobacco and leather. I know, that probably sounds crazy to some of you, but I also know there are a few of you out there who know exactly what I mean. All around a wonderful bottle of wine.

For dessert, I went with Affogato -- vanilla gelato over which a shot of espresso was poured at the table. Very simple, but a great way to end a meal. Otto's gelato list includes the following flavors: vanilla, caramel, black mint, olive oil, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, lemon lavendar, black raspberry, chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut, and goat's milk ricotta, as well as lemon and canteloupe sorbetti. Yes, you read that correctly. They have olive oil gelato.

All in all, a very good meal. Otto has a pretty hip, casual atmosphere, isn't stuffy at all, and the staff were very good. If you're in the neighborhood I suggest you check it out.

Tune in tomorrow, when I'll have the recap of Luke's birthday dinner.

Playing Ketchup

2005-07-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ouch, bad pun there. I don't even like ketchup. But I do recognize the need to catch up on what's been going on with me, culinarily, especially given that school starts up again on Tuesday.

First: A big shout out to my friend Deb, who recently took the plunge into blogging. Deb started at school the same time I did, but after the first six weeks she went off to do her baking and pastry thing. With any luck, we'll be reunited for the bachelor's program down the road in 2007. Man, that sounds like a long time off.

Second, I have three things to post about: A very good dinner in New York City, Luke's birthday, and an incredible meal in New York City. I'm going to give each one its own post, moving in chronological order. So stay tuned.

A post for Emily

2005-07-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hi Emily!

Bob tells me you don't think I'm posting often enough during break, so here goes -- a post just for you.

Nothing much is happening right now. Luke's birthday is Saturday, so I'm in preliminary planning for the big day. So far we'll be having spaghetti, green beans, and some sort of salad. I'll also be making a cake, just a very simple vanilla with buttercream frosting, most likely decorated like a baseball (don't worry, there'll be pictures). I decided a few months ago that I'd make Luke a cake from scratch for his birthday every year. It's my hope that one day he'll be able to say, "No, Dad, I don't want the dacquoise layers with mocha buttercream again this year, I want a saccher torte."

Hey, a guy can dream.

Sleeping with the fishes

2005-07-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Fish ID & Fab is over, done, all gone, etc. Hugh sigh of relief. And it turns out I'm an even bigger fish stud than I am a meat stud. Today's three tests -- yield, written, ID -- were worth 50% of our final grade. Out of those 50, I pulled off a 49.6. Yes, a 49.6. I was the only person to get a perfect score on the written test... when we got back from lunch, Chef Clark was grading the papers. We all sat down and waited. Randomly, he barked out "Jason!" and of course I tensed up. He motioned for me to approach his desk. When I got there, he extended his hand and said, "Good job." Didn't mention the test, just said good job. Confused, I returned to my seat. But hey, I'm the only person he called up.

Despite my performance today, there's no guarantee what sort of grade I'll get in the class. There's a very popular opinion that Chef Clark simply does not give out A's, or at least does so very, very rarely. Of course, the points I earned today are concrete, black-and-white, indisputable. The tricky part is that the other 50% of my grade is made up of daily performance and fabrication competency -- completely subjective on his part. If he really felt like never giving out an A, he could simply look at your 50 "concrete" points and then adjust the performance points down accordingly until you had a B. In any event, I'm going to expect a B and will be pleasantly surprised if things come out better.

As I mentioned yesterday, today was caviar day. Today we tasted five caviars -- Beluga, Sevruga, Iranian Osetra, Russian Osetra, and a US caviar from (of all places) Kentucky -- as well as herring roe, three tobikos (flying fish roe, the stuff you see on your sushi), and salmon roe. I still don't like the stuff and don't understand the hype. It's incredibly salty with a not-subtle-in-the-least fishy taste and slimy texture. It was mildly interesting to taste the differences between the five caviars, and forced to choose I'd say the Russian Osetra was my favorite, but it's still not something I'm seeking out. I also don't care for vodka, particularly not straight, so all in all this was not my favorite tasting session.

So now, joy of joys, three full weeks off. I'll try to post once a week during break.

Six down, one to go

2005-07-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Last day of fish tomorrow, and boy, is the entire class ready for it to be over. Testing tomorrow is just like we had in meat: ID test, written test, yield test. Except that instead of winding down by making sausage, we'll be having a caviar and vodka tasting. No, seriously. Other culinary schools don't taste caviar. Other culinary schools don't taste turbot, either, but vodka and caviar? I've eaten caviar once, any my reaction was, "What's all the fuss about?" I'll let you know how it goes this time around.

After tomorrow I'm off for three full weeks. Upon our return, we'll be in Skill Development I with chef Alberto Vanoli, a relatively young Italian. As far as we can tell, we'll be his very first class. I have no idea what this will mean as far as class goes, but it goes without saying that he'll be quite a bit different than Chef Clark... but who wouldn't?

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

2005-07-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Chef Clark, after riding us really hard for the first day and a half of class, has mellowed considerably. Given that nobody would describe his demeanor as mellow, I can only assume that our group performed well enough to keep him moderately happy. We did do a nice job with fabrication and cleaning on Thursday and carried that over into today.

Meat class didn't make me want to stop eating meat, but fish class has me thinking about fish. I think it was the gutting on Wednesday that did it. The look, the smell, the texture... not good times. In meat you can wash your hands and nobody knows what class you're taking. With fish, you could shower and the smell would still be on you two days later. Yesterday I was on the ice team, the small group in charge of making sure the bins are correct in the morning, setting out all the fish for the day, and then checking in all the new fish that arrives in the afternoon. Whatever you do, don't ask Karen (the TA) what time the truck is coming. She'll let you know. Being on ice team is generally a miserable experience, because you're handling ice-cold fish, not to mention ice, and your hands hurt because of it.

Anyway, at lunch I grabbed a cheese plate from the Italian kitchen. And you know what the cheeses tasted like? Fish. So did the salami. Mmm... fish salami. This after extensive handwashing before leaving for lunch, too.

Today I filleted an Atlantic Salmon. I hadn't done any fish fabrication in probably a year, so I was pleased when my cuts were right along the backbone and didn't leave much flesh on the bones. It really does help to have a sharp, flexible fillet knife when working with fish, Ron. We also tasted some fish I'd never had before: Haddock, Pollock, Cusk, Brook Trout, and Steelhead Trout. Yesterday I had Skate, Turbot, and Dover Sole for the first time. Chef Clark steams them with no salt or pepper, so you can really get a sense of what the fish tastes like. We discuss the appearance, aroma, texture, mouthfeel, and flavor of the fish. He asks that when tasting, you try not to like or dislike the fish, only describe its characteristics.

It has been a long, hard week, and I'm really looking forward to these three days off. Happy Fourth.

So we meat again

2005-06-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

I finished up with meat on Tuesday. Had you asked me Monday afternoon how I felt about the final -- the ID portion in particular -- I would have said, "not good." We had a practice ID session at the end of class that left me quite disheartened. You're looking at these big cuts of meat in vac-packs, and they all look the same. Not all the same, but close enough. I was honestly thinking that if I could get 10 out of 20, I'd take it, and having gotten all the other points, I'd settle for a solid B+.

I studied meat for four and a half hours Monday night. Went to bed at 1:30, got up after a mere three and a half hours of sleep. Too much, you say? Not so. I got either 18 or 19 (there's one I'm not clear on) out of 20 on the ID portion of the final, aced the yield test and maybe missed one on the multiple choice section. So yeah... I'm a regular meat stud.

We wrapped up meat class by making 60# of sausage, 30 pounds each of sweet Italian and breakfast sausage. Start with cubed pork butt (that's the shoulder, remember, a great cut for sausage because of its lean to fat ratio), add spices, chill everything really well, run it through the meat grinder, then through the extruder and into casings. It was an easy, relaxing way to finish up a very intense seven days... the only bad part of all this is that we didn't get a weekend to recover.

And why was there no time off? Because we were expected in our next class, Seafood Fabrication and ID, at 6:05am the next day. The kitchen from which I normally get breakfast doesn't even open until 6, so I had to eat upstairs, not that there's a huge difference. After a quick kitchen run-through, we hit the classroom for lecture.

Chef Clark is pretty much the exact opposite of Chef Sebald. To use a phrase Chef Clark himself uses quite often, the two are "Night and day, black and white, Pinto Cadillac, Honda Harley" (he rides a Harley and doesn't consider any other brand a motorcycle). Chef Sebald is like a kindly grandfather, telling stories and sharing all he knows about meat. Chef Clark is a yeller. If you screw up, he'll let you (and the rest of the class) know. He even sets traps for the class, trying to get us to give incorrect answers in order to have an opportunity to point out our shortcomings.

This is not to say I won't learn a great deal in his class. I already know a great deal more about fish than I did two days ago, and yesterday I gutted and scaled a fish for the first time. He's also very serious about establishing and maintaining the chef-cook relationship, and by that I mean that he's always right, knows everything, and should do all the talking, while we are always wrong, know nothing, and should do all the listening.

There's a tremendous amount of stress in the kitchen, because nobody wants to screw up and get called on it. Stay busy, stay out of the way, and, when in doubt, look for something to clean. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it's not -- basically, this class is walking a fine line between "learning" and "surviving" for me.

I'm probably not going to talk much about fish. Don't take it personally. I'm just trying to make sure I don't say something I shouldn't.

"L-i-i-i-i-i-sa, how can you e-a-a-a-a-a-a-t me?"

2005-06-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

a.k.a. The Meat Post, by popular demand.

Lisa: No I can't! I can't eat any of them!
Homer: Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. Lisa honey, are you saying you're *never* going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [Chuckles] Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

-- Lisa the Vegetarian

I apologize for going a week between posts, but meat is tough. Well, some of it's tender, but you know what I'm saying. Here's the basic breakdown:

Days 1 & 2: Beef
Day 3: Veal
Day 4: Pork
Day 5: Lamb
Day 6: Poultry (tomorrow)
Day 7: Sausages, Test Day

If that sounds short, it's because it is short. I'm not the only one who thinks the meat and fish classes should run a full three-week block each instead of sharing a block. I mean, we spend six weeks in gastronomy, but only seven days learning about meat and fish? What's more practical, getting hands-on experience with meat fabrication or learning about Escoffier and Careme? That's not to say gastronomy wasn't interesting, because it was. But I think those six weeks of B-Block could have been put to better use.

Moving on. Chef Sebald isn't really what I expected. He certainly has a wealth of knowledge and experience, but he's not as tough as I had imagined. He's firm when he has to be, sure, but I wouldn't describe him as a yeller. His entire approach is rather grandfatherly, and he's very patient in trying to make sure you understand the material. He also likes to tell jokes, relay stories from his apprenticeship days in Germany, and pretend to cut himself when doing demos in the butchering room. Overall, he's a great teacher, a close second to Mr. Virgili (Food Safety) in my book.

Our days are about as follows: Arrive at 6:45am. Chef is still eating breakfast at this point, but he builds in these 15 minutes to make sure he's not waiting for anyone. He wants to walk in the room at 7 and have everyone ready to go, and so far we have been each day (this is quite a feat for my group, believe me). We then have about two hours of lecture on the meat of the day, including what he calls an "oral quiz" in which he asks questions about the previous day's topic, readings and videos. He generally calls on half the students each day, but it's random enough that you'd better be prepared in case he calls you. These quizzes are part of our daily grade.

Around 9am we take a ten minute break, during which people either run outside to smoke, run upstairs to get coffee, or both. I've been getting a double espresso during these breaks. Next up is more lecture, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation featuring tons of pictures so we have some idea what we're talking about. Sometimes there'll be something like a slide with three carcasses of the day's animal, and he'll ask which one we'd buy going on appearance only. We also go over the animal's skeletal structure, different cuts, and cooking applications.

Somewhere between 11 and 11:30 he lets us go for lunch. We generally have in the neighborhood of 35 minutes, depending on how long he lectured. My class is eating at the Cuisine of the Mediterranean kitchen right now -- yum. Thursday and Friday featured a Spanish menu that was really good; I had oxtail Thursday and a lamb chop Friday. They even have a cheese plate and some light tapas (Spanish appetizers). I'm going to miss this kitchen.

After lunch we grab our knives, don safety aprons (almost like wearing armor) and regular aprons, and find our stations. Chef will do a demo or two, the first one being on a larger cut (or "primal," such as a round of beef) that we won't get to do. Next up he'll do something smaller, like a beef hind shank, and then we each get a beef hind shank to work on. He does a couple of steps, then sends us off to do the same. When he calls "Demo time!" you walk back to his station to see the next steps. We weigh everything (edible portion, bones, fat, usable trim) in order to perform a yield test at home that night which is due the next day.

We finish up around 2pm, and then it's a mad dash to clean the room. Boards get cleaned, rinsed, dried and sanitized, floors get swept and mopped, dishes are done, product vaccuum packed and labeled, boxes broken down and the trash taken out. With 17 people this goes pretty quickly, and everyone has been good about staying on task this week. Finally we're back in the classroom for a few minutes, where Chef gives an assessment of the day, goes over any homework, and reminds us of the next day's topic. Physically and mentally exhaused, and perhaps covered with animal blood, we then leave the cool comfort of the meat room and step outside into the 90-degree heat of the afternoon.

Despite being in his 60's, you get the impression Chef Sebald could handle himself pretty well in a fight. For starters, he carries his knives around in a sort of hip holster, so they're always at the ready. He employs a standard 6-inch boning knife (thin, stiff blade; despite the name, it's not for cutting bones but rather cutting meat away from bones) and a 12-inch cimeter (curved blade, a bit more suited for large cuts of meat than a chef's knife). He also wears a hardhat, a practice leftover from his days as a commercial butcher. Finally, he has incredible hand-eye coordination and all his cutting movements are incredibly fluid. There's no wasted motion, no stopping and starting.

Here's a quick look at what I've done each day.

Monday: Truss (tied) a roast. Bone out beef hind shank (back leg), cut meat into 1" cubes for stew.
Tuesday: Peel and denude (remove all fat, connective tissue) beef tenderloin. Fabricate beef strip loin into oven-ready roast.
Wednesday: Trim subprimals of leg of veal, cut into scallopine (thin cutlets).
Thursday: Bone out a pork shoulder, tie into a roast, make 1" cubes for sausage.
Friday: Bone out a leg of lamb, split into appropriate roasts and truss, cut 1" cubes

Yes, we love our 1" cubes here at the CIA.

I'm looking forward to poultry tomorrow -- breaking down a chicken is the one thing we'll do in class that I've done many, many times and can already do well. There's also a portioning test tomorrow. Tuesday is the big test day, with a written test, a yield test, and a 20-item ID test (identifying vaccuum packed cuts of meat is not easy, at least for me).

Next up is fish! The time really is flying by.

Next chapter

2005-06-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Friday went pretty well. Really, all four finals were easier than anticipated. And it wasn't just me; most people I talked to felt the same way. I managed a little bit of down time this weekend after a long finals week, but now it's back to the grind (bad joke: But we don't make sausages until the end of meats class!). Sorry, you were warned.

Time to get moving on this reading for tomorrow. I also have a pair of videos to watch, which fortunately: 1. Are available online, and 2. Are only 35 minutes in length combined. I should also run through my uniform for tomorrow, and if there's time, sharpen my chef's, boning, and slicing knives.

Meat begins promptly at 6:45 in the morning!

What do you know about meat?

2005-06-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Style vs. Substance

2005-06-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today we wrapped up the presentations in Intro to Gastronomy. My group's presentation on M.F.K. Fisher seems like ages ago. Anyway, today's subjects were Thomas Keller and Ferran Adria.

Unless you know something about them, it's difficult for me to explain just how different these two chefs are. I'll start with my own biases -- Keller, to me, is just about the pinnacle of everything you could hope to achieve culinarily. I've waffled sometimes on whether or not he might be overrated, and I often don't care for the way he writes his menus (PDF link), but there's no denying the care, craftmanship and perfection (he'd say he's still striving for perfection and will never reach it) he sends out with every dish. I have no doubt that even with all the build up, eating at The French Laundry during my "California Experience" between my junior and senior years will be perhaps the greatest meal I'll ever eat. As our professor said today, "it's difficult to eat at The French Laundry and not have an aesthetic experience."

Then you have Adria, the so-called "mad scientist" of the kitchen. I really tried to go into today's presentation with an open mind, but everything I've read about him turns me off. Adria is the guy who started the "foam" crazy of the 1980s when he started putting everything and anything into those CO2 whipped cream canisters and foaming the contents right onto the plate. I think there's a place for this, but c'mon, sea water foam? When everyone else started copying him, Adria stopped doing foams and moved to making "airs" out of ingredients. He serves a vial of split pea soup in a balloon. He makes pasta out of agar agar (seaweed gelatin). He makes crepes out of the skin that forms when you heat milk. His tables have no silverware, no plates, no glasses, just a white linen tablecloth. The dishes often come with instructions, like "drink very slowly," "eat in one bite," or "alternate the two items." Adria closes his restaurant, El Bulli, for six months out of the year and takes his entire crew to a laboratory in Barcelona to work on the next season's dishes.

I'm sure he's brilliant. I'm sure the food even tastes good, and I'm not so stubborn about this that I would turn down a chance to eat at his restaurant. But this sort of thing is way beyond what I'm interested in doing in my career, and he has -- as is human nature, I guess -- spawned a group of people trying to do the same thing, or at least capitalize on the craze. If I hear one more time about how Grant Achatz is the greatest thing ever because he atomized shrimp cocktail and serves it to you in a spritz bottle, I'm going to scream. In his article "Aboard Spaceship Adria," Anthony Bourdain quotes Eric Ripert (Ripert's right up there with Keller in my book), "He's [Adria] a phenomenon. But we need one Ferran Adria, not five. I don't see anyone succeeding in emulating him."

I will say this for Adria, though. While his food doesn't interest me, I can respect him for pushing the envelope and sticking to his mantra, "Don't copy anyone." And when others copy him, he decides it's to move on to something new. That said, I'm in complete agreement with Ripert, and I hope he's right.

Better luck next time

2005-06-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

I struck out in my attempt to be group 138's group leader. Well, perhaps struck out is a bit too strong -- I did finish second in the voting among four candidates. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, as we had a really hard time getting people to show up or care about the process. We tried to meet between classes, but didn't get full turnout despite numerous reminders. We then tried to meet after lunch, but wound up with even lower turnout. In the end we lost some people (including one of the few who seemed to actually care) and even counted the votes of two people who didn't bother to show up (I'm still mad about that last one, but what can you do?). One person I was more or less counting on to vote for me went home before lunch. Oh well.

I will say that I think Dan, who came out on top, will do a great job given the project management experience he has from his previous career. He's who I would have voted, myself excepted. I also wish him good luck, because leading this apathetic group is going to be quite a challenge.

In a bit of good news, I think mustard greens were on the product knowledge quiz today. If you recall from this post, I misidentified collards as mustards last time out. At this point I figure if I keep writing "mustard greens" they'll have to be correct at some point, right?

And so, onward with the final week of B-Block. Food Safety quiz tomorrow. I also only have two more days of eating "on stage," where we're served a sit-down, three-course lunch by the Banquet & Catering class -- after this it's more cafeteria-style, picking up food at one of the kitchens and then finding a place to sit in the dining hall. Not everyone likes stage, but it's never bothered me. I think those who dislike it now may change their tune in another week when we're forced to stand in line and eat food prepared by less-experienced cooks.

Oh, and don't forget Hell's Kitchen tonight at 9pm on FOX. And speaking of hell, the Weather Channel informs me that the current conditions in Pleasant Valley are, "91 degrees (feels like 98) with 52% humidity." That's actually far less humidity than we had this weekend, but still unpleasant to say the least.

Group Leader Election

2005-06-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

My group -- #138 -- will be voting Monday immediately following Product Knowledge. There will be one-minute speeches and a chance for Q&A. Today I discovered four people (total, including myself) who'll be running for group leader, and there are probably others. I also got a better handle on who's actually in my group, and... I'm not feeling that good about my chances. I'm still going to give it a go, and perhaps I can give the best impression in my one minute of time.

Nothing much happened today... next week's the biggie. Monday a product knowledge quiz and the election. Tuesday, a food safety quiz. Thursday, finals in gastronomy and food safety (the latter being a national certification exam). Friday, finals in product knowledge and math.

Let's do it!

Friday!

2005-06-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

Yay. I will mention, however, that it's currently 73 degrees outside with 82% humidity. It's a quarter to seven in the morning. Geesh.

New links, and Vote Jason!

2005-06-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

The CIA changed their website recently, which rendered the links to my current classes worthless. I've updated them so they should work now if you want to read about, say, Introduction to Gastronomy.

Did I mention it's hot here? It's been upper 80's and quite humid all week. If you know me, you know I'm miserable. Monday we had a very impressive thunderstorm which cooled things off and wiped out the humidity, but whaddya know, it was back the next day. We had some rain this afternoon, but no thunderstorm.

Things are winding down at school. Two more days this week, then the last week of B-Block. Finals are looming but thankfully no projects. At some point before C-Block, my group (a sub-set of my block) has to elect a group leader. So far I've been trying to determine who's in my group (I only know a few for sure -- group 138, stand proud!) and then feel out who's thinking about running for the position (found one person today). I'd like to go for it in an attempt to get more involved with things on campus, but who knows if I can win what might just be a popularity contest. For what it's worth, I think the other potential candidate would do a good job, so there'll be no complaints from me if he gets it.

Don't forget: Hell's Kitchen

2005-06-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Just a friendly reminder -- Hell's Kitchen, episode 2, will air tonight at 9pm on FOX. And, I just noticed, if you missed last week's episode you can catch it tonight at 8pm before the new episode. Make it a double!

Panzanella

2005-06-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

I made my first Panzanella of the season today; I won't make it any earlier in the year because you can't get good tomatoes. Panzanella, a.k.a. Tuscan Bread Salad, is a nice summer dish (it hit 88 degrees today) consisting of tomatoes, basil, and chunks of bread tossed with red wine vinegar and olive oil. I made a few additions today and I think they worked well: caramelized onions and roasted red and yellow peppers. The onions and peppers brought good balance to the dish -- you have the sweet of the onions playing against the sour vinegar, and both add a different texture (the tomatoes and basil are pretty crisp, where as the bread is crunchy/chewy, depending on how much let it get stale). Then you've also got the onions and peppers playing "cooked" to the "fresh" of the other ingredients, and it all comes together nicely.

You'll see recipes for panzanella calling for celery, cucumber, anchovies, capers... if those float your boat, go for it. Honestly, if you don't want to go to the trouble of caramelizing the onions or roasting the peppers, either use 'em raw or just omit them entirely. There's nothing wrong with simply tossing cubed bread with basil, tomatoes, red wine vinegar and olive oil, plus salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Yum. Use good ingredients (it's all about the tomatoes!) and you'll make a good panzanella. Of course, that holds true for more than just panzanella.

G'night.

Stumped by leafy greens

2005-06-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

I was right about yesterday's tests -- math was no problem, product knowledge was much tougher. We first had some multiple choice questions, then some product identification questions where you're looking at produce on a table and have to write down what it is. Most of these were no problem, but then I got to a large, leafy green that stumped me. I tasted it -- yes, that's legal on these things -- and tasted horseradish, volatile mustard oils. I went with mustard greens. In retrospect it was almost certainly collard greens, and I feel pretty dumb about that. Of course, in the "real world" you'd order collard greens from your produce purveyor and they'd give you collard greens, no problem. Ah well.

Getting serious now

2005-06-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

Two mid-terms tomorrow: Math (easy) and Product Knowledge (scary). Two more next Tuesday: Food Safety (not worried) and Gastronomy (after last time, you never know). At least we got that Gastronomy project out of the way last week, eh? Good call on my part. I'd hate to be worrying about that as well as these four mid-terms.

OK, I have to go study up on my lettuces, salad greens, cooking greens, cabbages, stalks, mushrooms, tubers, and onions for tomorrow. Ack, and re-submit my product specification sheet. Nearly forgot about that one.

After tomorrow there are only two more weeks of B-block, and then it's on to meat and fish fabrication. Out of the classroom and into the kitchen!

Food Writing

2005-06-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

If you're at all interested in reading about food and are looking for something easy to digest (ew... bad pun), check out Best Food Writing (Holly Hughes, ed.). The 2004 edition is the book for my Gastronomy class, and I see that the 2005 book will be out in October. The book is full of articles, book excerpts, thing like that, usually in the 3-5 page range on a wide variety of topics. Some are written by bigger names like Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl, others are written by food writers from small city newspapers, and all with a good mix of chefs and journalists.

But like the name says, it's the best food writing of the year. Whenever I'm doing the assigned reading, I always find myself reading two or three articles more that weren't assigned just because the titles are interesting or the author's name catches my eye. There's an entire essay, an ode, if you will, to meatloaf. There's a piece about a guy who made his own chef's knife. There are articles about life-changing meals and others about downright gluttony. Amazon's got it for less than $11, or of course you could hit your local library.

In any event, I'm giving it my full endorsement.

Hell's Kitchen

2005-05-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Did anybody catch the debut of Hell's Kitchen last night? If you missed it, I'll fill you in: It's basically The Apprentice meets Simon from American Idol set in a kitchen, with the premise being that chef Gordon Ramsay is a complete jackass and nobody can do anything to please him. I'll preface this by saying I'm by no means a reality TV fan -- I pretty much hate the genre, in fact. But set something in a kitchen and I'll be hard-pressed to turn away (I never did get into The Restaurant, mostly because of a work schedule conflict). I really enjoyed Jamie's Kitchen on Food Network, for example.

I don't know what he possibly expected, opening a restaurant with only hours to prepare and featuring a staff who was, largely, without kitchen experience. I know, I know, it wouldn't have been a show otherwise.

Anyway, check it out next week if you've got nothing going: 9pm Monday on FOX. Maybe I'll open up a thread for comments and we'll see if there's any interest out there.

Best day yet

2005-05-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

But first, I have to admit that I didn't attend either event last Tuesday. Instead I went to bed at 10pm in anticipation of a big week at school. And the sleep was much needed.

Thursday was my best day so far as a CIA student. In my first class, I aced a food safety quiz. Second class, 29 out of 30 on a gastronomy quiz. Now, that's a good score and all, but... it was the first point I'd missed at school. Yeah, I know, I wasn't expecting to go four years and not miss a single point. It was still a minor letdown, though. Anyway, after the quiz my group of four gave a presentation on M.F.K. Fisher. I was concerned we didn't have enough material to fill 20 minutes, so I guess I over-prepared -- I only got through about half my prepared notes before my group told me to wrap it up or we'd go over our time. In any event, I feel really good about my part.

The next, and perhaps coolest, part of the day was picking up my uniforms. Ten hats (toques), five jackets with "Jason Barker B.P.S" on 'em, five pairs of checked pants, three dress shirts, two pairs of black pants, a tie and vest for table service, four aprons (two four-ply for the kitchen, two long for service) and two side towels. In a way they're teasing us, though, giving us these uniforms but making us wait three more weeks before we're in the kitchen. We're allowed to wear our uniforms to class now instead of dressing up, but I'm going to wait. The classroom is the classroom, the kitchen is the kitchen, and never the twain shall meet.

After all that, I was rewarded with four days off (Friday being a day between blocks, Monday being Memorial Day). Friday I went to Cooperstown; there's a post about this on the USS Mariner if you're curious.

Today I made five gallons of chicken stock, and I must say, it's darned tasty. I went to Adams earlier in the week to ask if they might sell me 40# of bones and they said no problem, so I went back Saturday to pick 'em up. Imagine my surprise when he said the bones were free of charge -- I guess they don't have much use for them. Oh well, my gain. The stock's cooling now (I used nearly every container in the house) and I've got a remi going so I can make some pseudo glace, as described in the comments of this post.

I'm picking Carrie and Luke up at the airport (woohoo!) in six and a half hours, so I suppose I should get some sleep.

Decisions, decisions

2005-05-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

There's a wine tasting at school tonight: local winery (Long Island), six wines, free. What's not to like, right? That's what I thought until I got an email about a veal demo--full carcass breakdown! discussion! tasting!--happening at exactly the same time. Man, what's a culinary student to do? I think wine's going to win out, but it's a close call. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks, Sonics

2005-05-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

I stayed up too late last night watching the Sonics, who rewarded me by losing to the Spurs. It was a good game for the most part, particularly the second quarter, but staying up for a sporting event here is a big investment and this time it didn't work out. The game started at 9:30pm, and by the time you factor in national TV coverage, I didn't get to bed until nearly 12:30am. No, I didn't put in the extra half hour or so it would have taken to see the M's lose yet again.

Did I mention my two quizzes today? I was so focused on studying for math last night that I completely missed the fact that I had a quiz in Product Knowledge as well. Ah well. They both went pretty well from what I can tell after the fact.

Things are definitely cranking up, school-wise. Two quizzes today, a project due Friday for Product Knowledge, and two for Gastronomy next week. Carrie and Luke leave for Seatte/Hawaii Saturday, so I'll have a week or so to focus on school and hopefully get ahead on things. I'm also planning my first trip to Cooperstown while they're gone.

Quick hit

2005-05-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've got a few spare minutes while I wait for two videos to free up in the video library upstairs...

My plan with this blog is to post some sort of update each week. Ideally I'd like to post a shorter bit daily, after I get home from class and everything is fresh in my mind (as opposed to a big "week in review" sort of post), but I can't guarantee anything. I get home and there's Luke to watch, and even once he's down for a nap there's homework, so we may just be looking at weekend updates.

OK, gotta go check on those videos.

He's alive!

2005-05-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

...and blogging! Three days into school and things are going well. I've been taking notes (not class notes, mind you, though I've been doing that too) and will have a full report soon. Unfortunately, we won't have Internet access at home until Friday (long story finally coming to an end), at which point I'll be on here regularly.

Real quick, though, this is an amazing place for more reasons than I can get into right now... needless to say, I'm sure I'm in the right place. No doubt about it. I anticipate learning tons, working hard, getting my ass kicked almost daily, but having a wonderful time as well.

OK, homework time. More soon, most likely this weekend.

Oh, and for you "Making of a Chef" fans, I've already seen Corky Clark (fish kitchen), Michael Pardus (was Skills I in the book, now teaches Cuisine of Asia) and the legedary Chef Cheng, who reportely can break down a chicken with a cleaver in 16 seconds. President Tim Ryan seems like a great guy, too. Harold McGee, he of "On Food and Cooking," was on campus last week for a talk so I just missed him. Bummer. I'm sure he'll be back, though.

Leavin'

2005-04-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

We leave tomorrow (OK, today, since we're up late packing).

New York, here we come!

-- Jason

Some news

2005-04-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

OK, here's the update. We got confirmation on our townhouse, a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath in Pleasant Valley (just east of Hyde Park and less than 10 minutes from school). We'll be leaving Seattle on April 12th, stopping in Idaho to visit Carrie's grandparents, then making up the rest of the route as we go. The moving company says our stuff should arrive in New York between the 19th and 24th (a big window, unfortunately), so we'll call from the road to check on the truck's progress and see if we should speed up or slow down along the way (ideally we'll get there the day before our stuff does).

That's all for now... there's quite a bit of packing to get done in the next ten days, not to mention setting up things like phone, internet, mail, cable, utilities, etc.

Oh, does anyone want to buy my car? I love it, but we're only taking one car to NY. It's posted on craigslist if you're interested.

Coming Soon!

2005-03-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Look for the trimphant return of Cooking with Jason around the first week of May (school starts May 9th). Until then, hang tight!