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.
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