Totally Forked...Again!

So if you haven’t already noticed, I’ve only entered three posts since the creation of this blog. Oh, and by the way, I’m deep into level 2!!! In other words, I’m totally blowing it! To cut myself some slack, it was pretty ambitious to assume I could write an entry for every class. With 80+ hour weeks, I barely have time to do my laundry, let alone a superfluous blog. So here I am, at a fork in the road again. I don’t want to give up on the blog, but the original plan can’t be sustained.

Enter: Donald. Donald is a classmate of mine who suggested I change up the format and have my fellow classmates submit their stories. Brilliant! Now you’ll have the advantage of multiple perspectives; a truer picture of what it’s like to be a culinary student. What is one person’s experience, is certainly not another’s. Besides, who really wants to read all about me? (Well, I do). Stay tuned for the first entry…

Day 3: Veeta-vita-vegetables

I am most definitely a self-proclaimed food nerd. I’d rather go to the farmer’s market or TJ’s or Whole Foods then Barney’s or L&T any day (but don’t get me wrong: I love shopping!). There’s nothing quite like meandering through the produce; admiring all the colors, and aromas. Fantasizing about the delicious preparation for that perfect, robust artichoke…So naturally, on vegetable day I was in utter bliss.

(To practice what we learned in class, I made pan seared cod, over ratatouille, and goat cheese polenta pictured above)

The first two hours, Chef Nic presented all different kinds of vegetables. Greens, onions, tubers, fruits guising as vegetables. (Did you know that sweet potatoes are not even potatoes, they’re not even in the same family!) It didn’t hurt that he pronounces every syllable of vegetables with a Ukrainian accent: ve-ji-ta-bles. And that he ends most statements and questions with “Eehh, guys!”

What was most amazing about vegetable day was the importance of salt. Until this day, I had no idea of its magical powers. Mystical, really. The best way to understand this is to do exactly what we did:
1. cut a cooked potato and a raw tomato into bite sizes.
2. Sprinkle the tiniest amount of salt on a bite size piece you are about to taste.
3. Savor…
Isn’t it amazing?! The tomato tastes so divinely tomato-y, the potato so creamy. The essence of the vegetable really comes out. Salt makes each food taste more like itself, and that is why salt is so important in cooking. What a revelation!

The rest of class was spent making our first two dishes: beet salad timbale with herbed goat cheese, apples, frisee, and vinaigrette. Also, a traditional ratatouille. First chef demos the correct way to create the dishes, then we all go back to our stations and recreate them with our partner. Simple enough, I supposed. However, in an hour and a half, it is amazing how difficult this can actually be. The cutting, the different cooking times, the different cooking pans! Not to mention gathering all the ingredients, battling other students for the last of the squash or zucchini. And heaven forbid you forget the bouquet garni! After all the scurrying, and furious chopping, it turns out chef liked our dish when we presented it to him; good texture in the ratatouille, although a little watery, and tasty beat salad that could use a little more acid in the vinaigrette. Either way my partner and I were rather pleased and practicing more taillage for homework didn’t seem all that bad anymore.

Day 2: Don’t eat at Patsy’s on 23rd between 8th and 9th

Day 1 homework was pretty straight forward: chop carrots in to ¼ inch cubes, and julienne some turnips. The execution was not so much. It’s proving to be quite an obstacle. One end of my carrot sticks are rectangular, the other a square, and I can’t seem to figure out how to make them the same. However, my julienned and brunoise turnips aren’t too bad. Being so focused on getting the technique right, I didn’t pause to take some pictures. Next time.

As for actual class, we started our ServSafe section, which is necessary to get your license for food handling. It’s basically about sanitation and hygiene, preventing bacterial growth. For the most part, we listened to Chef Tim tell tales of nasty food poisoning. My personal favorite, about Patsy’s on 23rd between 8th and 9th where he ate some bad meat from an antipasti platter and was so sick that he missed his plane for Rome the next morning. The cause? Staph. How did he get it? Someone probably scratched their face, or itched their eye and touched the meat without washing their hands and as the day went on and it sat at room temperature, the bacteria multiplied so much that by the time Chef Tim ate it, puked it all up, there was still enough Staph in his body that the doctors were able to positively identify it as the culprit. Gnarly, right?

The second half of class was spent cooking vegetables, pretty much uneventfully, and frankly not worth writing about. Hopefully class will get a lot more exciting! (Gulp, I may eat those words)

FYI for those interested in culinary school, be prepared to stand on your feet the entire time, that’s 5 hours straight for night classes.

Day 1: Holy wake-up call

(These are pictures of the different cuts we learn and use regularly)

Before I begin on my reflections of the first class, let me just say that I think I’m a pretty good cook. I know I’m tooting my own horn, but people actually want to eat the food I make, more than once! Ergo, I went in with the mindset that this course would basically be a reiteration of the techniques I already know. WRONG! I know nothing.

While the first half of class was pretty basic: proper uniforms, hygiene, the structure of a kitchen, and basic cooking utensils, the second half was a whole other ball game. I had never before heard of taillage the French term for proper vegetable cuts, but I would soon learn it is my nemesis. After a quick demonstration by the Chef on how to cut a carrot into a jardinière (5 cm long, 5 mm thick sticks), and émincer (thinly slice) an onion it was the students’ turn to dive into taillage. After 15 minutes of fumbling over oblong carrots, and crying over hacked onions, it was time to get a sign-off from the Chef.

Drawing all the courage I had, I held my breath as the Chef fondled my onion slices, and eyed my carrot sticks. Finally he spoke, “Bery inconsistent.” Instantly I deflated like a popped balloon. Sigh. Only 595 more hours to go…

Totally Forked

What’s a girl to do when she reaches a fork in the road? Use it to take a bite of something delicious!
As a 25-year old communications consultant with a serious cooking habit, I needed somewhere to channel my culinary energy. The solution: A rehab program in the form of nine months at the French Culinary Institute (FCI). Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays from 5.45-10.45, I’ll be attending night classes to gain the skills and contacts necessary to open the doors to my wildest foodie fantasies. It’s still unclear where this journey will take me. I really don’t know exactly what I plan to do once I have completed my time at the FCI, but with fingers (and knives) crossed, I’ll find the answer along the way.

Restaurant hunting: Navigating review sites

I'm a big food nerd. I love food. Eating it, making it, talking, reading, and writing about it. So when it's date night, or even that not-so-random Tuesday evening when I'm just not feeling the kitchen, I choose my dining experience carefully. I've been known to plan a date night around a restaurant I've been researching for weeks. I take it very seriously.

Usually I hear of a place in a magazine. I read the New York Times style section, Gourmet, and Bon Apetit on the reg and try and look in to the places mentioned from time to time. Often I'll just be walking past a place and check out their menu. Then comes the real question: How do I know if it's going to be good?

I usually have two approaches: the New York Times reviews or review websites like Yelp! Both have their upsides and downsides. Here are some useful tips from my trials of restaurant research:

1. When reading the New York Times reviews take it with a grain of salt. The food critics are often pretentious, trite, and eat better than most of us could possibly dream. Use it as a starting point. Just because Mr. Fancypants did not like the newest steakhouse in town, does not mean you will dislike it.
2. Check out more than one review website. Three is a good amount. My personal favorites include Yelp!, Citysearch, and New York Magazine for all restaurants New York. The more you research the truer review you will find.
3. On each website read more than two reviews. Some times people write reviews out of spite and trash a restaurant just because the one time they went it was bad. (There is a such thing as a second chance). Or sometimes it is a fake a review and there' is someone out there who wants a restaurant to go down. Sad, but it happens.
4. Note the helpful things people have to say. Restaurants do not always have websites so you can find out in advance through someone's review that the restaurant is cash only, or that it is a good place to have a birthday party, or they are not family friendly. While food and service is important, eating out is a whole package. Showing up with 2-yr old triplets to a NO STROLLERS sign could put a damper on your evening.

Everyone has their own method of finding that next great dinner out on the town, hopefully these tips will help you pick your next one. And do not forget to pay it forward. Next time you have a top notch meal take a minute to write about why it was so great and hopefully you will make someone elses meal.

Do it yourself: Meal

If you were to think of you top ten favorite memories, in all of your lifetime, how many of them invovle a meal shared with friends and family? I can think of at least three, all of which involve some delicious fair, free flowing wine (or not) and lots of laughter.

In fast-food, fast-pace modern day America it is no surprise that most Americans do not take the time to cook a meal for themselves. It should also come as no surprise then that "only one state, Colorado had a prevelance of obesity less than 20%," according to the CDC. That means at least a quarter of Americans are considered obese. And as we are learning more and more, obesity is a precursor to Western diseases like Type 2 diabetes, and increases one's chances of having a stroke. I could continue to throw statistics at you and preach about the ills of fast food, but I do not really feel like doing that.

Instead I want to write about the positives of cooking your own meal. First and foremost, it is rewarding to know you created someting that can sustain you. It can be a challenge, no doubt (I have cringed at having to toss out $25 of burnt salmon) but setting reasonable goals in the beginning will result in edible benefits.

Cooking your own meal, and I mean from scratch here not Kraft Macaroni and cheese, usually means you know what you are eating. Even if you make your own burger you know where you bought the ground beef; whether it is grass-fed or not, whether the buns are from your grocery store or your tomatoes are from a local farm. Just making that simple decision means you know what you are putting in your body. You may be thinking, "I know I bought a Big Mac," but you might not know that, that a Big Mac is primarily made up of derivatives of processed corn that has had almost every single nutrient stripped out of it.

Of course, making a meal from scratch does not have to be a loner process. In fact, it is much better for you and your social life to involve others. Cooking and eating with others is an ancient act that has gone one, well, since we have. It is only natural. It is part of our culture as humans to learn cuisines from one another and rather tasty, I might add.

I am quite aware that we all have busy lives, but when you take a step back and look at the overall picture shouldn't we pay more attention to what we put in our mouths? Yes it takes time and effort to make a meal from scratch, but the reward is so much better than fast-food guilt. Cooking can and should be fun, especially with others. No, you will not get it right every time you try to make filet mignon or even a grilled cheese, but at the very least you will make a memory.