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!