Yeah, that says those high numbers, where has it all gone... I never let you know :'(
Anyways... (I will get around to it someday soon!)
(This post will mostly be about day 89, it went a bit long in that day and I don't want you to have to read a full novel about a week at once. More to come soon.)
We are now back in class from break, what a wonderful 3 week vacation! It also means we are starting a new block, Classical Cuisine, we only have 1 left!!!
As with every new block, we have a new Chef Instructor, Chef Bob Scherner. A man after my own dreams, Chef Bob spent around 20 years as a chef in the amazing ski-town of Telluride, Colorado (or To-hell-u-ride as my father used to say it! I'm so jealous, I would do anything to work as a chef in Steamboat for 20 years!!!!!!). He brings in a range of skills that he has learned in the industry and a taste for the simple things. That means he wants to taste the ingredients that make up the dish, no hiding by using a ridiculous amount of seasoning; broccoli should taste like broccoli, potatoes like potatoes.
This week in class (I'm behind still...) he told us something that I think is incredibly important, "at the end of the day, your food should taste what the guest wants it to taste like. Even if they want me to grill a steak on my truck engine, if they are paying money for what they want just do it, your own opinion is for you." I doubt that he has literally done that but the point set in, we don't need to get all crazy and creative on dishes that already have a flavor profile. Make the dish like it was meant to be made, that is what someone on the outside would expect it to taste. Anyways I'm getting carried away...
France part 1:
Chef Bob teaches us his way of forming baguettes, they turned out so beautiful.
The first day back in class we didn't cook anything. We spent the day learning about the basics of wine, French in particular. It was a good way to come back from a 3 week stint out of the kitchen, I definitely was not ready to prepare a full meal after being gone so long. Our class has gotten progressively smaller over the last 4 months (yikes! It's already been 4 months!), and we moved into a new kitchen, which might still be a bit too small for the 22 of us that remain...
I really enjoyed the first day, now I kind of want to run off and start a vineyard and winery, but maybe that should wait a few years until I get one of these projects complete... We didn't get to taste any wine yet, we are supposed to be doing that next week on the last day of France.
Day 89 Central France - Paris, Ile de France, Loire Valley, Pays de la Loire:
Mashke and Megan prep for the day.
Chef Bob Scherner prepares a demonstration for making caramel, it turned out really well, no rock candy!
Once the sugar begins to melt it starts a chain reaction and the whole thing melts very, very quickly.
To make a caramel sauce you whisk in scalded cream and re-melt the caramel on medium heat, ensuring you don't curdle the cream.
Today I made a cheese souffle, a delicious treat that I will absolutely have to make at home, it is quite unhealthy but totally worth it.
Cheese Souffle
This was a straight forward dish, however is a bit technical. Souffle's are basically puffs, whether it is a chocolate dessert or in this case a savory custard. To get the cloud into the dish you need a way to capture air and incorporate it, we used egg whites as a meringue to get the poof.
If you have ever made a meringue you would know that once you get it to your desired stiffness you need to bake it, serve it, or freeze it to maintain the bubbles and not let it deflate. Well Patrick and I were not thinking about that and ended up prepping that part way too early, like 1.5 hours before we needed it.
OOPS!
Not only did we do that once, but a second time too early.... It was a bit of a rough start for us being back. Finally we were ready for the meringue and folded it into the souffle to find out that service had been pushed back 15 minutes. Ugh. The proper baking time for these was around 6 minutes and they must be served IMMEDIATELY so they don't deflate. With quick thinking I put them in the freezer to maintain the bubbles as best as I could and in the end it worked quite well!
They puffed up much better than I hoped! This was a highlight of the meal, you can't go wrong with fluffy cheese eggs.
My P.I.C. Mitch (that's Partner In Crime) made the souffle for the other team (foreground). He used some extra seasonings to be a bit different, I just went with what the recipe said. Chef Bob prefers the "natural way" anyways so I was very pleased with the result.
A seared pork tenderloin was our entree for the day.
A tasty Parmesan crusted broccoli made by the Power from Down Under: Kurtis.
Our first go at baguettes, we are making them every day we are "in" France.
And the crown jewel of the day, Tarte Tatin.
Initially this post was going to be on multiple days but I really miss writing about a day as we go so you can keep up with all of it. I just kind of re-found a mini-laptop and am trying it out to be more mobile about writing.
This post definitely took me a bit longer to write and I absolutely went into much more detail than I initially planned for, last week was so fun and I really love France so these might just be individual posts again. For now I'm going to try and get a touch of sleep before I go into Eureka! and I plan on writing another post before I go to bed. I have gotten used to staying awake for the full day when I don't have to work and I am trying to get better about writing again instead of wasting time on TV or games or even just gazing into space.
As soon as I get used to the quirks of using this new technology you should hear from me a lot more! I want to get back to being active in writing, interviewing, and working on my projects like the beginning; I was much happier when I was running around doing amazing things, sitting at home helps no one! Anyways enjoy and I will be back soon!!!
You said your class is now 22, how many started 4 months ago?
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