Americas Day 3 and 4

Americas is the next kitchen class we take after skills 3. It is a larger scale kitchen that puts out alot more dishes than skills 3. In skills 3 we did about 40 covers a day. In Americas daily we would do up to 70-80 covers, that is a significant change. Also in skills we would as a class split in half and each group do one full entree so it was a lot easier, where as in Americas we were split into groups of two or three and there would be 5 different entree choices and a soup and salad. Americas seemed overwhelming at first but I liked the adrenaline rush from it all. In Americas we would be learning about all the different cultures in the Americas such as American Midwest, American Southwest, Mexico, South America, and the American South and Louisiana Cuisine. Not only would we cook native dishes to those places but we would also learn all about there culture and how certain ingredients were brought from different countries and the influence that those countries had on the cuisines. So day three and four I was on the soup and salad station. On day three I made the Senate Bean Soup, it was fun to make and it was intersting having to make soup for 70 instead of the usual 40. I was also incharge of making the salads on both days. I made wedges of iceberg lettuce, with Thousand Island dressing. For garnish I had to slice tomatoes in half, make croutons, hard boil eggs, then cut them into tiny pieces and last but not least I had cut radishes very thin for the salad. On day four I switched soups with my partner and he made the Senate Bean soup and I made the Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese and Beer Soup. This soup is delicious, it is nice and creamy and it has beer in it what could be better! I made croutons as a garnish for the soup. This soup is probably one of the most popular ones made in Americas, and we sold out in about 15 minutes of opening, it was pretty cool. In Americas we would do each menu two days in a row so the first day you could work on one part of the dish but then the next day you could do a different part, so by the end of it all you knew how to make the entire dish. Overall day 3 and 4 went well and we survived!

Americas Day 1 and 2

Americas day 1 and 2 were exciting and scary. I was tournant which is like the sous chef, the sous chef and I prepared things for the next day that had to be done ahead of time. We were in a new kitchen with a new chef and apparently this chef did not play around one bit. We were all a little scared but figured we just had to be prepared with our time lines complete and we had to get our mise en place figured out. Mise en place meaning everything is in place. Day 1 the sous chef and I had to do 5 different jobs by the end of class. We had to # 1. simmer the hen for the Amish Corn and Chicken soup, complete step one of the method. Cool and refrigerate. # 2. prepare 2 gallons of Espagnole sauce. # 3. soak salt cod for the salt cod cakes. # 4. cook off clams for the clam chowder, remove the shells, reserve the broth. Cool and refrigerate. # 5. Fabricate and trim excess fat from one fresh beef brisket. It was a tough day that's for sure, it was especially difficult because we were in a brand new kitchen and had no idea where anything was. The sous chef and tournant also have to get there at 6 in the morning in order to pick up the meat, seafood and produce orders. Class does not start till 7 am so you are getting there quite a while earlier. Day 2 came around and chef said that we could work on our speed but we already knew that, we just had to do it. For day 2 we had another list of jobs that included # 1. Marinate the braised red cabbage as per the recipe. # 2. Make the sweet pickle chips for day 7 and 8. # 3. Trim and sear off the short ribs as per recipe. Cool and refrigerate. # 4. Trim and brine the top round of beef for the Brazilian carne seca. Refrigerate for days 13 and 14. # 5. Make one gallon mayonnaise. # 6. Roast pork bones and mirepoix for day 3 pork sauce. Also add apple cider and apple jack and then reduce & cool. So that was the work we had laid out for us. We completed it all on time, which was a good thing. There was a few negatives to day 2 though, one thing that happened was that I had made 2 gallons of Espagnole sauce for the next days recipe and when we got to class on day 2 it was gone, all we can figure is that the PM class used it and the group that was using it had to go find some espagnole sauce from another kitchen. That was frustrating because I had worked hard making that the day before. Also the girl I was working with made the sweet pickle chips and chef tried it and threw them all away because it didn't taste exactly how he wanted it, once again frustrating. Otherwise we made it through our first 2 days of Americas!

Skills 3 Day 13





My groups plates up at the grading table



Today was the final day of skills 3, we had to take our final written exam and our practical exam. For the practical we would be split into new groups that we would find out the day before our actual exam. Also at that time we would figure out what our menu would be. At the end of day 12 we found out our new groups and I was quite content with mine, also I was happy with the menu I got. I had made the same menu before for class, so I was feeling pretty confident about the exam. For the practical we had from 6:45 am till 10:25 to prepare our dish and if we didn't do it in time we would loose major points. Our dish was sauteed chicken fines herbs, with carrots and sugar snap peas, with freshly made saffron pasta. I was in charge of all the vegetables and cooking of the chicken for the dish. We started off the day pretty well and our prep went just as planned, we were right on track with everything. It was now 10:20 and plating was going perfectly. One thing that we had to make sure of when we took our plates up to chef was that our food was hot. He was big on making sure our food was hot, one of his favorite sayings was "make sure your food is HTH, aka hotter than hell." When we took our food up there he would shoot it with this laser gun and make sure the food was at 145 degrees. He asked me if I had made sure my vegetables were and I told him that they indeed were. He put one in his mouth and almost spit it right back out because it was so hot. He was like I think I just burned my tongue, I could not help but laugh and tell him "I told you it was hotter than hell!" He laughed a little after that one and just kind of shook his head at me. It was a good day, my group ended up getting a 92 on the soup and a 90 on the entree! It was pretty awesome final grade for the class!

Skill 3 Day 11 & 12

Salmon in Poaching Liquid

Day 11 was an exciting day for me because it brought me back to about a year and a half ago when I came to The Culinary Institute of America. At that time I was still trying to decide whether or not I wanted to do Culinary Arts or Baking and Pastry. I came to the CIA to participate in a program they have where you can shadow a culinary or baking class. I shadowed both but the significance to this story is that when I shadowed the culinary class, it happened to be skills 3 and on day 11. When I went into that class to shadow for the day I was put on the soup and salad station and ironically for my actual skills 3 class I was put on the soup and salad station for that day too. I would actual get to make what I helped with a couple years ago, it was actually kind of bittersweet. Also on this same day a man came into our class to shadow it for the day to get a feel for the curriculum and the school itself. For day 11 I made Spinach, Arugula, and Radicchio with Honey-Poppy seed Citrus dressing, and the soup was a cream of cauliflower. That day was successful and fulfilling! Day 12 I made Deep Poached Salmon with Sauce Béarnaise, Tournéed Potatoes, French Cut Green Beans and Squash Noodles. It all went smoothly we got our deep poach done on time along with all the other components of the dish and chef was happy with the final product.

Skills 3 Day 9 & 10

Beef stew

Chicken Fricassee

Day 9 and 10 we would be learning all about braising and stewing. On day 9 I made beef stew, whipped potatoes, battonett vegetables, and for the garnish we made these little things that look like a potato chip. Then right before service we had to top it all with parsley that was chopped up. Day 10 we made chicken fricassee, chicken fricassee is a white stew. I really enjoy this dish because the chicken is so moist and all the components together make for a nice filling lunch or dinner. Accompanying the chicken fricassee was rice pilaf and battonett squash, beans and peppers. For the rice pilaf we mixed wild rice and jasmine rice to give the rice some more appeal. Both days went well and chef was happy with the groups!

Skills 3 Day 7 & 8

On day 7 I was on grilled steak with sauce Marchand de Vin sauce, french fries, and stuffed tomatoes. The tomatoes were stuffed with a mushroom duxelle which is mushrooms chopped up very fine and then they are cooked. I grilled the steaks for family meal and was in charge of plating for service. When I am in charge of plating I have to add whatever the garnish may be, such as chives, parsley, or compound butter to the top of an item. Then I must wipe the outside edge of the plate and make sure it is clean and presentable, then I cover it and and take it to the line for service. I enjoy that job because I get to see a really cool final product every time. On day 8 I was on grilled Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa, jasmine rice pilaf, grilled vegetables and green beans. I was in charge of making the pineapple salsa, cutting up the veg for the day, and I grilled the fish for family meal. I love the salsa that accompanies the fish, so I was very excited to be making it! The grilling of the fish was a success I had never really grilled fish before so this was an exciting but scary task, because I did not want to mess it up. Luckily when we went and ate family meal nobody had a overcooked or undercooked piece of Mahi Mahi on their plates! It was a good day.

Skills 3 Day 5 & 6

I want to apologize to everyone who is reading my blog for the delay of a new post, I could not remember my user name or password to save my life! I finally figured it out today and will be putting a couple of new posts up at a time, enjoy! Day 5 and 6 were fun, I made sauteed beef medallions with potatoes au gratin, cauliflower, green beans and sauce chasseur to go on the beef medallions. Day 5 was successful and chef was happy with our production. Day 6 I was on the soup and salad station and all we had to do was make Caesar salad. It was an easy but fun day, I got to help out other groups if there was prep that still needed to be done.

Skills 3 Day 3 & 4



Sauteed Trout



Sauteed Chicken

Day three and four was all about sauteed white meats and seafood. On day three I was on the sauteed chicken entree with sauce fines herbs, fresh saffron pasta and broccoli rabe. Day three was fun because I sauteed the chickens for family meal and made the sauce that went to go on top of it.  In my opinion it was absolutley delicious, probably one of my favorite meals we have made so far.  Day four I made sauteed trout amandine, which is a brown butter sauce. With the trout there was tourne potatoes and seasonal vegetables, we also made burdock root chips to go on top of the dish. On this day I was assigned to doing all of the tournes for the class because I was the best at making tournes in skills 2, so I ended up making about 60 tournes! I was so glad to be done with all of those little potatoes. Days 3 and 4 were very successful and fun!

Skills 3 Day 1 and 2

We were moving up in the culinary world little by little. Skills 3 would be the first kitchen where we actually served our classmates and the entire school if they choose to come and eat at our kitchen. The most covers we would do daily would be about 60. There were 20 for family meal, and the other 40 for the other students eating. Family meal in case you were wondering is when you pretty much have the entire meal ready and you make just enough for the class and we all go eat together before service begins. It normally lasts for about 30 minutes. We have to get to class at 6:15 and we have till 10:45 am to make the meal, then we take our break for family meal at 10:45 am till 11:15 am, then we are back to class and ready to open the doors for service by 11:45am. Normally we sell out by 12:15 and that is when we close for the day. Then chef gives us about 30 minutes to totally clean up the kitchen and do our wrap up lecture for the day and we are out of the kitchen by 1:30 pm. It seems like a long day but it goes by so fast because its fun and because it is just fast moving the whole time. The first day I was on the soup and salad station and we made french onion soup and a salad with a lemon vinaigrette. It was nice to start out on that station because it is definitely the easiest one. So the first day was definitely a success for our first production kitchen! Day 2 I was on the roast chicken station. We would be in charge of making pan gravy, steamed broccoli, glazed carrots and whipped potatoes. I am in a group with 4 people, there are 20 in the glass and we are all in groups of 4. We split up the different tasks between the group members and everything went really smoothly! Another day of production and service gone well!

Skills 2 Day 12

Chef and I

The Class!

It was the Final day of skills 2! This was a very exciting day because it was our last day in a small scale kitchen, we would no longer be making portions for 2, it would be portions for 15 or 20. Today we had to make steak, grilled vegetables which included eggplant, squash, zucchini, red onion and a portobella mushroom. We would also have to make french fries as a side! To go with the steak we made a sauce called Bernaise. It is like a hollandaise but it uses herbs in it and goes really well with steak. It was all absolutley delicious eventhough my steak was a little underdone which chef said was fine because I could take it back and fix it, it was better than it being over cooked. So that was a positive way to look at it!

Skills 2 Day 10 & 11

Trout A La Meuniere

Chicken Fines Herbs

Today we made chicken fines herbs, fresh pasta, and vegetables that included snow peas, carrots, yellow and white turnips, and celery. We had to break down the chickens ourselves, which was exciting and scary at the same time. We had learned how to do it in meat ID and fabrication but that was a few months ago, in the end breaking down the chicken was not that big of a deal, I just had to do it. For the vegetables we had to cut them into battonetts which are little sticks that are a 1/4 by a 1/4 and 2 to 2 and a half inches long. They are an annoyance to say the least, you just have to do it. This day all and all was a success, I provided a picture of it we had to plate it like you see it. I don't know if I would have plated it like that I think the presentation looks a little messy that way but it is the way chef wanted it and that is the way it goes. On day 11 we made sauteed Trout a la meuniere. A la meuniere means that it has a sauce that includes browned butter, parsley and lemon juice. The dish included boiled wild rice, veg medley which had mushrooms, golden beets, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and carrots. Also a side of sauteed mushrooms. It was all very delicious! We also had to make a cup of mayonnaise for the next days meal, we had to do it ahead of time.

Skills 2 Day 9

Today we made chicken fricasse. For production we had to debone a chicken, make chicken veloute, cut up leek and carrot for sauce. Then we had to make a vegetable medley that went on top of the overall meal which included fresh peas, mushrooms, broccoli, and pearl onions. Chicken fricasse is known as a white stew. I enjoyed making it and also eating it!

Skills 2 Day 8

Today in skills we made braised short ribs. Then we prepared polenta to go with the short ribs, braised endive, and roasted root vegetables. The root vegetables included carrot, parsnip, turnip and rutabaga. Last but not least we had to blanch brussel sprouts to go with the roasted vegetables. We learned about braising and stewing in lecture. We must know the differences between the two and also their similarities. Also we have to know the sauce options for braises. The day went really well and the short ribs were delicious and I was a huge fan of the polenta!

Skills 2 Day 7

   

Today we would be making roasted chicken with pan gravy. We had to season the chicken with parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil. To go with the chicken as sides we made roasted potatoes with the same seasonings as the chicken, broccoli rabe sauteed with garlic, and ratatouille. In case you have never had broccoli rabe it looks similar to broccoli but it is bitter tasting. My group and I were so prepared for today because we met the day before and planned so we would finish on time and make sure our entree was perfect. Things went very smooth during preparation, plating and clean up. When we all took our plates up chef was surprised to see us all up there so early and with clean work stations. We told him that we planned the day before and worked more as a team instead of totally individual. He was impressed and happy we had planned as a group. He said that everything on my plate was perfect and was very happy with everything. This was a great improvement from the day before it was like a 50 pound weight was lifted off my shoulders, literally. It was awesome! We had our lunch break after our presentation of the entree and when we came back we would have to do our normal 8 tournes in 30 minutes. After lunch before we started to tourne we were waiting for a couple of our classmates to finish cleaning up, so while that was happening I decided to draw on every ones potatoes. I put smiley faces on every ones potatoes, and created a family of real life potato heads on my 4 potatoes. It was pretty funny and I wrote on my potatoes as you can see in the picture that they were my potatoes and not to touch them. I walk away from my potatoes for just a minute and there is my pairing knife stabbed into my baby potato. I was shocked but it was also funny especially when I found out chef had come over and stuck the knife in my potato. I did not expect that but the entire class including chef got a great laugh out of it. His laugh almost sounded like an evil villain which made sense because he just killed one of my potatoes. All and all today was a major turn around from the day before and we had a lot of fun!

Skills 2 Day 6

Flounder



Taking the fillets off the Flounder



Flounder Entree

Today we would have to fillet a whole flounder before we could start cooking. After filleting the flounder we put the bones and skin in a little stock pot and made our own fish stock. Then to go with the fish we had to make sauce Vin Blanc with the addition of tomatoes and chives. To prepare the fish we would be shallow poaching them. We would also be making glazed carrots, sauteed spinach and jasmine rice pilaf with saffron. It sounded all really good to me. We started out the day and for some reason everyone seemed very unorganized. We came to the conclusion that we think this was because the day before we had a substitute chef and she did not really explain what we would be doing for the next days production, so we were all just very confused. It finally came time to serve and I thought everything had gone really well. As I was plating my food I put the sauce over my fish and a little dripped on my spinach, I thought to myself that I did not want to leave that there and I was not going to wipe it off with my finger so I took my rubber spatula picked up one leaf of spinach and placed it on top of the little drop of sauce. I take it up to chef and the first thing he says to me is "Tallulah what is the difference between a spoon and a spatula?" I was confused and just kind of looked at him, he then goes on to say, "a spatula is not a serving utensil...minus 20 points!" I was shocked and really upset about that because I picked up one little leaf with my spatula and I ended up getting 20 points off so I was automatically down to an 80 for the day. To add to that horrible moment, I had totally forgotten to check and make sure my carrots were done and of course they were a little undercooked and as aways there could be just a pinch more salt on my rice. It was a horrible day for me I was not happy with the end result. The only positive was my sauce was right on the money and my fish was cooked perfectly, which I think is probably one of the most important things, ohh well. The day was finally over and my team decided that we should meet so we could perform better the next day, because nobody did well for shallow poach day. During our meeting we found out that school would be closed the next day for the big snow storm that was coming. We were so excited words can't even explain! We would get a day break from the horrible day we had all just had. This would be the first time AM classes would be cancelled at the CIA in 22 years. The CIA closes for seriously nothing, so this was pretty darn exciting!! I heard one time that the only reason they close the school is if all the pilot lights were off and had stopped working and that has happened in previous years apparently. The only down fall to this good news was the fact that we would no longer have a three day weekend, they took our original Monday holiday from us. It's ok with me though because I did not even realize we had it off!

Skills 2 Day 5

Today would be the first day that we were introduced to submerged poaching also the first day we would be making a full entree! Both exciting and scary at the same time. We would be making deep poached salmon in court bouillion which is simple vegetable stock  with the addition of an acid used for poaching high activity fish, aka salmon. We would then finish the salmon with Beurre Blanc sauce which is a sauce made up of white wine, sauteed shallots, heavy cream, whole butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice....it is amazing! Also kind of a cholesterol attack in a bowl but its great. Paired on the plate with the salmon would be butter parslied tourned potatoes. Also julienned zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and leeks, then buttered green beans. It was quite the load of responsibility for the day, but it was exciting! All the production went really well for the day and the chef said my fish was cooked perfectly and the sauce was great. The only problem I had was that I had over cooked my vegetables a little bit, it was amazing I walked away to get a serving spoon and next thing I know they were over done...that was frustrating but it tasted really good! Overall it was a decent day.

Skills 2 Day 4

It was finally egg day! Which is what some chefs say is the hardest day at the culinary. Cooking eggs is one of the hardest things to do. Turns out if you want to be a Chef Instructor here if you make it past the practical which is whatever they choose for you to cook, then you have to do an egg demo for a class and show them how to cook them perfectly. For class today we would have to be making a variety of different eggs, we were getting a flat of eggs which had 36 eggs on it. If we did all the eggs perfectly we should have had 12 left over, but lets be honest was that really going to happen. We definitely figured that there was no way when our chef was demoing the different eggs and messed up twice so he even had to throw away 4 eggs, we were all just thinking this is impossible because chef just messed up too. When we watch chef do the demo it is expected that we have pretty much memorized every step and then we are sent back to our stations to mimic what he just did and have it perfect. It is a lot of stress and pressure, it almost is like we have to do it perfectly when this is the first time we have ever done it and well you better do it perfectly because that is your grade for the day. For today's production we had to prepare eggs soft scrambled, poached, hard boiled, fried eggs, over easy, over medium, over hard, eggs Benedict, we also had to make custard and bread pudding. Yeah if your head wasn't spinning after reading all that imagine mine after hearing we had to do all of those. The day went pretty well it had it's frustrations but overall it was pretty successful. I had to do the over medium eggs twice but then I got the method. The only other thing I messed up on was the bread pudding at first. I poured the salt cup into my batter thinking it was the sugar. I had to dump it all out and start again but then luckily I made the batter again with sugar and the chef said it was cooked perfectly! After some frustration throughout the day it ended up to be a pretty successful day!

Skills 2 Day 3

  

  

Today we would be making our own fresh pasta and from that pasta we made linguine and ravioli with a saute mushroom, shallot, and ricotta cheese filling, and a wild mushroom sauce for both pastas. I was really excited about todays class because I would finally learn how to make my own pasta dough! This morning things got rolling at 6:15 and we were all preping for the days recipes. We watched chefs demo on the sauce and both pastas and then we were sent to work, we had from 8:30 till 10:15 to complete everything. Might not sound to difficult but when you have to share 5 pasta rollers with 20 people things start to get a little bit complicated. Luckily I finished all of my production on time and turned it into chef. He was pleased with what I had made, so therefore I was pleased. After chef tried it we got to eat our pasta dishes, and let me tell you they were delicious! After cleaning up my station and helping clean up around the kitchen it was time for lecture where we learned all about the incredible edible egg, because tomorrow is the infamous egg day! Apparently it is pretty difficult, I will have to let you know how it goes Im getting nervous but I am up for the challenge!

Skills 2 day 1 & 2

Skills 2 started after we got back from our Christmas break, I have to say getting up at 5 am the Tuesday we got back was not so thrilling. It was really hard especially after sleeping till about 12 pm everyday over break, and finally catching up on my sleep. I was not ready for the lack of sleep yet. Going up to Roth Hall and seeing all my friends again was great but what we all seemed to have in common was that we just wanted to be back in bed and were not ready for it all yet. We finally got into class and things got rolling, it was not that bad we just had to get to class and get the day started. On day 1 we made glazed beets, braised red cabbage, cocotte potatoes, and duchess potatoes. The glazed beets were fun to make and they tasted really good. The cocotte potatoes are tourned potatoes that are cooked in clarified butter till light brown, with a crispy outside and soft inside like a tater tot. These took a while to cook for little one inch long seven sided football shape potatoes, well at least longer than I thought. I started it with 15 minutes left before we had to turn everything in for the day, I thought they would be done in time. It was getting down to the wire and it was crunch time, so when chef was not looking I put the potatoes into the oven and cooked them in there for a good 6 minutes. Chef checked it and they were the perfect color and texture. I realize it is not the way chef wanted it prepared, but sometimes you have to be creative in the kitchen and that is what mastering the kitchen is all about, being able to bounce back from a mistake or handling the curve ball that is thrown at you. Over all it was a great day in the kitchen and everything turned out well. Day 2 we had to make rice pilaf, risotto, sauce robert, sauce merchand devin and jardiniere vegetable. I was very excited about day 2 because risotto is one of my favorite things to eat and I was finally going to learn how to make it! The day went smoothly and the risotto was successful along with my rice pilaf. The others were a bit more challenging but I managed to pull them off. I did end up with a nice burn on my arm because my partner at my station asked me to grab something for him that was across the cook top. I reached for the spatula that he wanted because he had just pulled his rice pilaf out of the oven (so it was in a pot with a lid) and my arm hit the very end of the handle on the pot, it hurt but I had to keep going the clock was not going to stop for me. That night our homework was to write a 2 page paper on the history of rice... this would only be your homework at a culinary school! It was kind of funny and the class was not to thrilled about because we all thought what more do you need to know about rice other than it is delicious and filling, also how could you write 2 pages on it. At the end of lecture we finished last minute clean up like taking out the garbage and straighting up the kitchen for the next class.

Taking out the trash in the Snow!

Skills 1 Day 13

The final day of skills one! We would be making tomato sauce to put over pasta and a vinegrette for salad. One of the more simple days but that was nice considering it was the last day. Skills 2 would be more challenging and the chef made that known at the end of class. He said we wont be able to hide behind our stations anymore because he would actually be walking around the kitchen to see how we worked at our stations for example if we kept a clean work station. I was starting to get nervous but luckily we would have our week and a half christmas break to think about it and prepare. Day 13 as a whole was very successful and the pasta was very filling! The day and skills 1 ended on a good note!