Day 5, The End

I woke up this morning at the appropriate time, and was not late like yesterday.  I got ready and lugged my suitcase and bags out to my car.  It was very cold and dark, and these was frost on my car windshield just like on Monday.  I didn't need to scrape it, though.  Once I got the car started and the defroster on, it came off.

I made my last drive up to the campus, parked, and walked to breakfast.  There was a new item on the menu that interested me: Cannoli stuffed French Toast.  I ordered that, and it was really great.  A nice last breakfast at the CIA.

When I got into our lecture room, it was set up for our morning activity: Culinary Jeopardy!  Each team had a buzzer that lit up when we buzzed in, and it was really cool.  Chef Bruno ran the Jeopardy game as the host, and they brought in a student to keep score.

I was the main answerer on our team.  We started out fairly good with the game, but when I knew the answer to the questions, I was usually a split second slow and another team had buzzed in.  In the first Jeopardy round, I answered a bunch of questions right, but I guessed at a question and got it wrong, and it put us in the negative category.  In the Double Jeopardy round, I redeemed myself in the category called 'French Culinary Terms'.  I ran the category and got all the answers right:

• This is a thickener made from butter and raw flour.  What is beurre manie?
• The cooking liquid in shallow poaching that is used for the sauce.  What is cuisson?
• A knife cut that is 1/4 x 1/4 x 2 inches.  What is batonnet?
• This cut is used with herbs to produce fine strands.  What is chiffonnade?
• When an onion is charred and browned to add color to a stock it is known as this.  What is Oignon brule?

Our team was also able to answer a few other questions, and we were in second place when it came to Final Jeopardy.  Our team bet it all.  The category was Culinary Myths.  Here was the answer:  "Searing beef does not seal in juices or moisture as is commonly thought.  But searing does accomplish 4 things.  Name 3 out of 4.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Doop, doo doop doop doop, doop. doop.

The question was:  What is Color, Flavor, Texture, and Fond development.  RIGHT!  We doubled our score.  Unfortunately, the team in first place wagered enough to win by 1 point!  So our team came in second.  BOO HOO!!!  As their prize, they won CIA measuring spoons.  Oh well, it was fun to play.

After the game we took a 30 minute break, and then it was into the kitchen for our Market Basket challenge.  Here is the menu that we came up with:

• Mesclun salad with feta cheese, olives, red onion and anchovy dijon vinaigrette, and crostini garnish.
• Grilled marinated lamb chops with romesco sauce
• Grilled vegetable kebabs
• Lentil Couscous 

We started with the marinade, and I crushed some garlic, and we ground up some herbs.  After a demonstration by the Chef, I helped fabricate the rack of lamb into chops.  We put them in a hotel pan and put the marinade on, and then put it in the fridge.  I worked on the anchovy dijon vinaigrette, and it came out great.  You couldn't even really taste the anchovies.  We needed an anchovy paste, so I did that myself just by chopping the anchovies, and then using the tip of the knife to make the paste.

Next, I roasted some red peppers on the stove to char them, and then I put them in a plastic bag to steam a little.  After some time, I was able to get the skins off very easily.  I assembled the mis en place for the the romesco sauce, which was made with blanched almonds and hazelnuts, sauted bread in olive oil, roasted garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.  I never made this before, and I never tasted it before, but it turned out really nice.  I did it all in the food processor.  The Chef tasted it, and he said it had good flavor, but it was a little thin, romesco sauce is supposed to be thicker.  Well, for a first try I was pleased with it.

The other team members prepared the salad, crostini, vegetable kebabs, and the lentil couscous.  I helped do the kebabs, and then it was time to do the grilling.  I did the grilling with one other team member and the help of a student assistant.  We learned the proper technique to do beautiful cross hatch grill marks.  It didn't take long to do the grilling of the kebabs or the lamb.  I put them in the oven to keep warm.

Before long, it was time to do the plating, and the other team members deferred to me to get our presentation plates done, with was great.  I had the chance to plate and style our food, and I think we did the most professional job of plating compared to the other teams.  We had a lot of colors and textures on our plate.  I made sure there was a focal point, the main course lamb was closest to the guest, and all the food was inter-related on the plate.  We also achieved height with the lamb bones.  For a small garnish, we added a thin slice of tomato on the lentil couscous.

We did the large serving platter for the salad and the platter for the entree and sides.  It looked great and I thought presentation-wise, ours looked the best.  Taste-wise, it was good too, but the other dishes from the other teams tasted very good.

We made up our lunch plates, and we all sat down to eat in the dining room.  I don't think any of us were very hungry since we have been force-feeding ourselves the last few days.  But I sampled as much as I could.  Also, there were some more amazing desserts that were set out from the pastry students.  And actually, in the morning before the cooking started, I was watching a class of students working on piping melted chocolate into swirl patterns, which looked so beautiful.  Well, the chocolate swirls were there as the garnish for one of the pastries.  I thought that was so great -- I saw them making it in the morning, and now here was the finished product!  It was delicious, too.

After eating, we gathered in the kitchen for our final critique on the food for the day.  Very good comments and good feedback for the most part.  As for my team, we were busy the whole morning, and we finished right on time, and I don't think we could've done any better than that.

And with that, the Culinary Boot Camp was over.  I shook hands with Chef Bruno, and the other Boot Campers as we gathered our stuff and started to go our separate ways.  I stopped off at the Apple Pie Bakery to buy some presents for people, and I stopped at the Bookstore and bought a few things there too, like a refrigerator magnet, and a keychain, t-shirt, and some post cards too.  I went to the car, got my street clothes, and changed in the restroom near the Escoffier Restaurant.  The campus was busy today -- they are having a graduation this weekend.  There was a lot of activity, and I was ready to leave so that all the graduates and students could have their special time together.

I drove down to the Newark Airport.  Traffic was bad, and I made a wrong turn right before the exit to the airport, so I had to take a convoluted route back to the airport.  Ugh, it was so stupid of me.  But I had enough time to return the rental car, get checked in and check my bag, and go through security without being rushed.  The flight was pretty much on time, nothing major to report on that.

I got home to the Pittsburgh airport.  Home sweet home.  It was lightly snowing, and beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  I am so inspired and happy that I did this experience at the CIA.  It affirmed so many things for me, and I hope that this is just the start of something, and not the end.  I hope this new path that I started this week helps me to keep seeking out these kinds of culinary experiences.  Thank you CIA!  I loved every second of this week.
 

Day 4, Part 2

Dinner tonight was at the American Bounty Restaurant on the campus.  This restaurant features more traditional American fine dining type dishes, with local seasonal ingredients.  I got there a little early because they were having a huge banquet in the main dining room of Roth Hall.  I was able to walk through and look at everything.  The Garde Manger classes (hot/cold appetizers, sausages, pates, terrines, etc) and the Pastry classes had this grand buffet set up with station after station of food.  There was a Latin American station, a Tex Mex station, an Asian Station, a French station, a German station.  I mean, you name it, they had a station for it.

They also had an amazing array of desserts in the pastry section, with mini cakes, bombes, tartlets, chocolate candies, sugar work, and even ice cream.  The entire array of the art of pastry was on display.  It was outstanding, and so inspiring.  I wish I knew how to do that!  I want to learn it so bad!

After looking through the grand buffet, I stopped in the bookstore, and I think I will pick up a few things tomorrow after our boot camp is over.

After the bookstore, I walked to the restaurant and everyone was in the bar/lounge area for a small reception.  The American Bounty restaurant's color scheme revolved around the color red, and felt very much like I was at an exclusive country club.  Large leather chairs that enveloped you was my choice of a seat in the lounge.  The other boot campers were standing and chit-chatting, but I had to sit down -- after all, I was on my feet all darn day. 

We were led to our tables, and they started us off with salad, and steamed mussels.  The salad was served on a long narrow plate "family style", which was a fun idea for presenting a salad.  The mussels were in a separate bowl.  We passed these around and started off on our eating for the evening.

I sat with a nice group of boot campers (everyone is nice, though), and we had good conversations, and talked a lot about food and cooking.  The service was a bit slow at this restaurant, but I suppose at fine dining restaurants, the pace is much slower for you as a diner.  They aren't trying to rush you.  And I keep forgetting that these are all students doing the serving, and making the food.  This is actually a class for them.  You easily forget this, it is just like a five star restaurant to me.

For my dinner, I felt like having beef, and they had aged New York strip steak on the menu, so that's what I selected.  It did not disappoint.  It was done PERFECTLY.  I ordered it medium, and it came out medium.  I compared the doneness to the person sitting next to me who got the same thing.  She ordered hers medium rare, and you could see the difference very clearly.  The steak was served with a risotto cake, and spinach.  I didn't think I could eat the whole steak, but I did, it was that good.

After a long wait while we talked some more, we ordered and were served our desserts.  This time I chose the apple tart, and it also exceeded my expectations.  It was a shortbread crust, much like a cookie, and the apples were arranged on the tart in a circle.  It had a caramel bourbon sauce, and vanilla ice cream on top.  Wow.  It was delicious, and I was so glad that I chose it.

Around 9:00 pm I was ready to get going, so this is when I left to drive back to the hotel.  I need to pack up and get ready to check out tomorrow since it is my last day.  I am starting to get a little sentimental about the boot cam being over tomorrow.  However, when I get that feel, I just think about the prospect of having to keep up this eating.  And then I guess I am ready to re-enter my old life.  However, a life in the food world is something I could do full-time, I think.

Well, that is enough for now.  See you tomorrow for the conclusion.   

Day 4, Part 1

I slept in by accident today!!! I was sleeping, and dreaming, and then I opened my eyes and looked at the clock.  It was 6:50 am!  I was late, class started in 10 minutes.  I jumped up, got in the shower, got ready, dressed, ran to the car, and drove up to the campus.  I got to class at 7:20 am, and I don't think I could've done it any faster!  Later in the day I was talking to someone about what I missed in the morning, and he said a lot of the others were late too and class started late, so I really didn't miss much.

Today was all about moist-heat cooking, and combination cooking.  So we talked about poaching (both shallow and deep), steaming (including En Papillote), boiling/simmering, braising, and stewing.  I have always had trouble poaching things, and now I know why.  The key to poaching is to use a flavorful poaching liquid (which is called a cuisson), and DO NOT LET THE WATER BOIL.  You only want the water at 140 - 165 degrees.  Remember that boiling water is 212 degrees, and that's too high for the delicate things you will be poaching (like fish for instance).  It will take longer to cook, but the protein will cook slower and stay more tender and retain more of this own juices and moisture.

Another good trick for poaching is to put a circle of parchment paper on top of the item you are poaching, if you are shallow poaching something.  This will retain the moisture and recirculate it through the food, and you could even start it off on top of the stove, and then end in the oven.  Do not use foil to cover, however, the acid in the water will react chemically with the foil and produce off-flavors.

Braising and stewing are liquid cooking techniques for heartier dishes (compared to poaching).  The difference is that you braise large portions of meat, and you stew smaller bite-sized portions.  You start both on top of the stove, and end in the oven.  I have done stewing and braising in the past, so everything I learned here reinforced things that I already knew.

After the lecture, we went over our production for the day.  Here is my team's menu for the day:

• Wild mushroom and goat cheese strudel
• Peppery beef stew with butternut squash
• Saffron risotto
• Braised Swiss chard

Before I went to the kitchen, I dashed up to the main dining room where they were still having a breakfast service.  I grabbed a banana and cranberry macadamia nut muffin, and some skim milk.  The muffin was great, I think it was just baked, it was still warm.  It is such a luxury to be at a culinary school when it comes to baked goods - they are all so fresh! 

I made it back to the kitchen, and we started the work.  I ended up prepping the mushrooms and working on the wild mushroom strudel.  I cleaned and cut up the mushrooms.  We also had some dried porcini mushrooms that I reconstituted in hot water.  I chopped these up finely for the beef stew, and we used some in the strudel filling as well.  I made the mushroom filling on the stove, and then set it aside to cool. 

While I was working, the others in my team worked on the beef stew, risotto, and the swiss chard.  I didn't mind this too much because I have made beef stew before, so I know how that goes.  I've also done risotto, and so I was ok to yield those particular assignments.

During the morning, the Chef did a fresh pasta demonstration.  He showed us how to make the dough in a food processor, which was easy.  Then he rolled it out in a pasta machine, and he was so impressive the way he did it.  Very inspiring, I want to make fresh pasta now, of course!  When I eventually tasted the finished product of the pasta, it tasted great, loved it.

Anyway, once the mushrooms were cool, I crumbled the goat cheese, and incorporated it in the mushrooms.  We tasted, and seasoned the mushrooms.  We got out the phyllo dough, and made 2 strudels.  I didn't have a very difficult time working with the phyllo, we kept it in the fridge until we needed it, and I made sure we kept it covered while it was out so it didn't dry up.  I took a phyllo sheet, painted it with melted butter, and then put another sheet on, painted it, and then another, and painted it.  I put the mushroom filling in, and then rolled it tightly.  Last, I brushed the strudel with butter.  We put these in the fridge for baking later.

We were really ahead of schedule today, and so I assembled the mis en place for the strudel sauce.  We need Demi glace for the sauce, and guess what.  There wasn't any.  So I had to make it.  Chef told me what to do -- I took a quart of veal stock and reduced it by half.  Then I used a lie (thickener) of cornstarch and wine to thicken the reduction.  I got it to the nappe consistency (coats the back of a spoon), and then it was ready.  It took a while to reduce, but the aroma was so good.  I got a few compliments as I was making this sauce.  I finished the sauce by melting butter, sauteing in garlic and shallots, deglazing with white wine and reducing it until almost dry (au sec).  Then I added the demi and simmered for 5 minutes.  I strained it, added herbs, salt, pepper.  We tasted it, and it was good, but we felt it could use something else, like acid.  Chef suggested some wine or madeira, but I kind of hate that raw alcohol flavor, I am sensitive to it.  He suggested lemon juice, and that was a good thought.  We added it, and it brightened up the sauce considerably.

When the strudels were baked to golden brown, I sliced them on the diagonal and arranged them on the plate.  The others worked on the other items, and fairly soon, we had everything done.  The risotto was good, but could have been creamier -- I think it was started too soon, and not enough liquid was used.  The beef stew tasted great, nothing at all wrong with it.  The swiss chard was fine, but swiss chard is bitter, and I am not a big fan of bitter greens.  But it was braised swiss chard, and this was the theme for the day, so that's why it was on our menu. 

We plated everything up, put the presentation plate on the counter, and then put the rest on a big platter.  Lunch was ready on time again.  The food was overall really good.  I think I liked the selections better from yesterday, but I had a good lunch sampling everything.  The strudel was the thing I made from start to finish, and I thought it was quite good.

There were some great desserts set out for us at lunch.  I had a great Boston cream donut, and a chocolate mousse served in a cookie tuile.  The mousse was fantastic.  Loved it.

After the lunch, we went back in the kitchen to critique the food, talked about how things went during the morning, what went right and wrong, and just debrief on everything.  It again was a good discussion and I liked the critique.  If something was not very good, or burned, or something like that, I really liked the way Chef Bruno went about talking it over.  He never made you feel bad, and the comments were never personal.  Very professional.  When you watch tv shows with food tastings, the judges or the tasting panel sometimes get really nasty and mean -- this isn't what happens in real life in a kitchen.  People have a lot more sense and are way more mature in a professional kitchen.  I love that.  If something went wrong, you of course acknowledge it, and the feedback is constructive so you can get better at it next time.  It is a great life lesson that I learned this week, just about food criticism.

In the afternoon, each team got a list of "mystery ingredients" in a "Market Basket".  On Friday we have to use the ingredients to make a first course, an entree, a starch, a veg, a sauce, and a garnish.  No recipes are given, so we have to do it all ourselves.

We got together in groups, and started to think it through.  Here is our list.  (What would YOU make?)

• Rack of Lamb
• Anchovies
• White Turnip
• French Lentils
• Plum Tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Zucchini
• Yellow Squash
• Mesclun Mix
• Thyme
• Nicoise Olives
• Dijon Mustard

We came up with our menu, but I am keeping it a secret until I write my blog on Friday.  I am happy with the menu we decided on.  The Chef made the following suggestions, if you are ever faced with something like this:

1. Let the ingredients speak to you, and point you in a direction of how to go with your meal planning.
2. Try to come up with a theme for the menu.  Sticking to a sensible theme will be easier on the guest, rather than going from one type of food to a drastic different type of food.
3. Shape your courses with the theme in mind.
4. Remember that the main course needs to have a sauce accompaniment, and a garnish that is edible and functional.  The garnish has to make sense.
5. The first course is a smaller plate, and can be meat, or veg, or starch, or combination.  It also needs a sauce or a dressing, and a garnish, but on a smaller scale.

I was worried about this Market Basket challenge, but I think we will be able to pull it off.  I am not stressing over it, it isn't Iron Chef after all.  Some of the other teammates were taking this challenge really seriously.  There are some strong personalities in the group, and I could sense some tension (even in my group a little).  I am just not going there.  If someone is "worried" about something in my group, I am letting them worry -- there is no point in stressing.  I am not taking the SAT's for crying out loud.  I will do my best, and we'll do a great job I am sure.  I have high standards, but I am not sure if this will be the time to insist on my standards, you know?  It is also supposed to be fun, right? 

Anyway, I am set for tomorrow, I understand the big picture of what we'll be doing, and I'll be fine.

Tonight's dinner is at the American Bounty Restaurant on campus.  I am so NOT HUNGRY AT ALL.  Nothin'.  Maybe by the time we eat I will have an appetite.  It has just been non-stop food, and I love it of course, but I can only eat at this pace for maybe like one more day!  I think this is the most surprising thing of the week for me, the lack of appetite.  But when you are cooking all day, and your adrenaline is up, you really don't feel like eating.

By the way, I love the atmosphere of the kitchens at the CIA.  I love being in it with all the people working on their food.  I never experienced this before, but it is so great.  Also, all the students I have had contact with are so eager and earnest, and want to help.  There are no slackers at all.  They are all like little puppies who want to please, and they are always asking, "What can I do? What do you need?"  These young chefs are great!  I am so inspired by them.   The expectations are so high here.  In every classroom there is a sign that says "Sense of Urgency".  In other words, you need to have a sense of urgency in what you are doing, work deliberately with purpose to get that thing done that you are doing because someone out there is waiting for their food, and you want to please that person and satisfy them.  I think this is an outstanding motto.  You can apply this to your life in so many ways, not just with cooking.

Also the concept of mis en place is reinforced here all the time.  It doesn't just mean have all your ingredients ready.  It means, have your ingredients prepped, have all your pots and pans and trays ready, keep your station clean, have everything ready and in its place, help people who need it, etc.  And not just in the kitchen - keep your life organized too!  You need to have your mis en place for your LIFE!  Ok, as you can tell, I am totally buying into this philosophy of cooking, and life.  I think I already do this in my life, but it is reinforcing it for me a lot.

I guess those are the major insights for the day for me.  But they are fairly heavy insights, eh?  Ok -- I'll be seeing you after dinner!

Day 3, Part 2

I drove up to the campus for our dinner at the Escoffier Restaurant.  In case you don't know who Escoffier is, his full name is Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846 - 1935), and he was the leading figure in modern French cuisine.  Escoffier's technique is taught at the CIA, and forms the foundation of a formal culinary education.  If you are a trained chef, you probably were taught these standard French cooking techniques. 

As a quick aside, though, the thing about cooking is if you can learn these techniques, you can do any kind of cooking.  The ingredients change, but the cooking techniques are the same. 

Anyway... back to the restaurant.  The restaurant is a classic/contemporary French restaurant.  The decor was very French, with pastel colors, big curtains and draperies on the windows, antique wooden side tables, white table cloths, waitstaff wearing black vests, white shirts, ties, black pants and long white aprons, and I think real silverware.

We had a group of 15, and we were split up into 3 tables.  I sat with 2 women who were from northern California, a guy from Indianapolis who was a urologist, and an guy who worked as an IT consultant from Albany, NY.  I have not eaten a meal with this group yet, and we had a really great time together getting to know each other better.

We started the meal with an amuse bouche which was a crispy phyllo pastry with a filling of lobster.  It was really good, I liked it a lot.  Only 1 bite, but very nice.

For the first course, it was pre-selected by the chef.  It was escargots in a garlic sauce, surrounded by a ring of mashed potatoes.  It was quite good too.  I have had escargots before only once, so this was my second time to eat them.  Basically, you are eating the sauce with this kind of dish, and the sauce is usually delicious, buttery and garlic.

For my entree, I looked at the menu, and the thing that jumped out at me was the lobster.  It was also the most expensive thing and since I didn't have to pay for it, I thought, why not?  The dish was 2 small lobster tails and the claws on a ragout of mushrooms.  There was a sauce on the plate, and the coolest thing was a "gobule" of horseradish sauce.  This horseradish sauce looked like a marble-sized sphere of white liquid.  I thought it was an egg at first.  Then I cut it open and the sauce just burst out.  How did they do this??? I need to find out!  It was like a bubble of sauce.  Very impressive.

Next we had a cheese course, which I could've gone without.  Sorry I am not a cheese person.  I know there are so many varieties of cheese, and people love them, and blah blah blah, but... I just can't get excited for cheese.  I had a few nibbles of cheese, at best.

For dessert I selected a Gateau au Chocolat, also known as a chocolate cake.  It had the molten chocolate center, and IT WAS THE BEST THING I HAVE EATEN HERE ALL WEEK (capitalization intended).  It was served with a light chocolate ice cream on the side, and it was just simply delicious; heaven-on-a-plate.  Who needs heaven when you have that dessert to eat?  I am a chocoholic for sure, this dessert proves it.  

The meal lasted 3 hours, from 6 pm - 9 pm.  Although it was long, the time went by very fast.  The service at the Escoffier was very good, all the students did a wonderful job.  They were also very knowledgable when we asked them questions.  I would rank this restaurant a little higher than Caterina de Medici last night for overall experience. 

I was ready to get back to the hotel after this meal.  Two more days of FOOD, I hope I can keep up this pace and level of eating.  Wow, so much food, the CIA goes through so much food volume, and a lot of this food is going into me.  I am not going to get on the scale until I can have a week to eat more normally.  But for the time being, this is incredibly fun to indulge like this. 

Ok, that is it for tonight.  See you later. 

Day 3, Part 1

I went to bed last night at a "normal" time, around 10:30 pm, compared to the first two nights.  I slept fairly well I would say, although getting up at 5:30 am again was TOUGH, I must admit.

I got dressed in my chef outfit, as usual, and drove to the campus.  Very dark outside, and very rainy.  It rained practically all day, as a matter of fact.  I parked and walked to Roth Hall and to the main dining room.  I seriously was not hungry at all, but I knew I needed to eat something for some energy that I would really need the rest of the morning, so I had some rice chex cereal and banana again.  Nothing fancy.

Our original Chef Instructor Dave Bruno was back.  He was sick with a fever yesterday, but he seemed better today.  I was glad to know he was feeling better, and although I liked our substitute chef yesterday I am glad Chef Bruno returned.

We had our morning lecture on Dry-Heat Cooking without fats and oils, such as grilling, broiling, roasting, and baking.  I could see how these methods were different than yesterday's techniques (saute, stir fry, pan fry, etc).  One thing I learned on the subject of roasting is that there is carryover cooking when you roast something and take it out of the oven.  The item continues to cook once you take it out, and the temperature inside continues to rise.  So let's say you have a roast that you want cooked to 130 degrees.  Take it out of the oven at 128 degrees.  It'll continue to heat up to 130 outside the oven, and this way you will prevent the item from drying out, or overcooking.  I never thought of this, and I liked this a lot.

Do you happen to know what the scientific term is for when meat browns?  It is called the Maillard Reaction.  Interesting to know this, it has to do with how the protein molecules are changing and reacting to the heat.

Another technique I learned was for grilling.  You know those pretty grill marks that you see on meat that is grilled?  To achieve this, put your meat on the grill at a 45 degree angle, and only cook it 25% of the way done.  Pick up the meat and turn it so it is 45 degrees in the other direction, and cook it 25% more.  Flip the item and repeat on the other side for the nice grill marks.  Also, you want "medium" grill marks, not too black, and not too light.  Go for medium.

During the lecture we also talked about soups, and the different kinds and style of soups, from clear soups (Consommes, broth) to thick soups (cream, puree, bique, and chowder).  So what's the difference between a broth and a stock?  Stocks are made with bones only.  Broths are made with both bones and meat, and are served "as is".  Stocks are used in other applications and aren't served as is. 

The lecture was good, and then we went over the menus for the day.  Team Two's menu was the following:

• Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy
• Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
• Grilled Zucchini
• Sweet Cornbread with Honey Butter
• French Onion Soup

I was feeling a little bit daunted at the start of the time where we were in the kitchen.  I asked my team members if I could do the cornbread, since it was in my comfort zone (I like to bake).  They were okay with it, so I got to work on the cornbread.  I had to use a GIANT cast iron skillet as the pan for it, and man it was the HUGEST cast iron skillet I ever saw.  And the batter that I made was also the largest volume baked good I ever made by myself.  It had 5 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, and 9 eggs in it!  That's a lot of cornbread!  I sprayed the skillet with cooking spray, assembled my mis en place for the ingredients, combined the wet ingredients, combined the dry, then mixed the dry into the wet (in 2 additions).  I pre-heated the skillet in the oven per the Chef's instructions, and then put the batter into the pan, and into the oven it went.  There was no cooking time on the recipe, so I had to be aware and watch for it to be done.  Luckily I checked it about 1/2 hour after I put it in the oven, because it was done!  I tested with a wooden skewer in the middle and it came out clean.  The edges were a little dark, so I was a little worried, but also relieved I check it when I did.  I think I got it at exactly the right time, so I think my baking instincts just sensed it was done. 

While the cornbread was baking, I worked on the honey butter.  This was really easy to do, take a cup of butter (8 oz) and add 1/4 cup of honey.  Whip it in the mixer with a paddle attachment until it is fully incorporated.  It came together really nicely.  Chef demonstrated how to roll a compound butter in parchment paper to form a tube.  He put the butter on parchment paper, and covered it with the parchment.  Then he used a cookie sheet tray to push parchment and the butter together to form the roll.  I tried it, and it worked great!  I had a really professional looking roll of compound butter.  I put it in the fridge to chill.

After I finished these tasks, I helped the team with the other things were were making.  I helped prepare the chickens for roasting, and learned a fantastic way to truss the bird.  This trussing really worked wonders because our chickens were so juicy and moist!  I helped with the potatoes, we put them through a food mill again to mash them.  I watched and assisted a little with the pan gravy - it was excellent gravy.  The things I did not do were the French Onion Soup (which I already know how to do, and I like my recipe better), and the grilled zucchini.  Unfortunately half of the zucchini got burned to a crisp, so we had to throw those out, but who cares.

We did our plating for the presentation plate, and the large platter, we sliced up the butter and put it on a plate for the cornbread, and then we put our food with the other food from the other teams.  SO MUCH FOOD.  There were 4 different kinds of soups, 4 entrees with multiple side dishes, as well as desserts like Baklava, fruit crisp, and vanilla ice cream.  We did all this in 3 hours (including cleaning up, although we don't have to do the dishes, we just pile them up on a moveable tray carrier, and they take them to the dish room).  It is amazing what 15 people, a well-stocked professional kitchen, and a trained Chef can do, eh?

We ate, and I got so many compliments on the cornbread, including from Chef Bruno, so I was feeling really good.  I must admit I did knock that one out of the park.  People went back for more cornbread, it was really really good.  It's a good recipe, but it didn't make itself, right?  So kudos to me, pat myself on the back.

After lunch, we debriefed on all the dishes and soups, and we critiqued the plating.  This was a good discussion, very constructive.

For the afternoon, we had a wine-tasting class.  I have never done something like this before, and it was very enlightening to me to help me understand wine better.  I am not a big wine person, though, since it can bother my stomach due to the acidity, but I still like to learn about wines.  Our teacher was the school's main instructor on wine, and wow, he was so impressive.  He knew so much, and I tried to take as many notes as I could.

We tasted 6 wines - 3 whites (Sauvignon Blanc, Reisling, Chardonnay), and 3 reds (Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Port).  I tasted the wines, but spit them out into a cup.  The instructor did this too.  The other boot campers were drinking theirs, but not me.  1. I didn't want to get drunk since I had to drive to the hotel.  2. I didn't want to get heartburn.  Luckily with the tasting, I didn't get drunk, and no heartburn.

After the wine tasting and discussion, we were done until dinner, which is at the Escoffier Restaurant (French) on the campus.  I drove back to the hotel to shower and freshen up and get some down time.  I was pleased with how today went, especially considering how daunted I was feeling in the morning.  I was wondering how in the heck we were going to get all the food made, and have it still be hot, and on and on... But we did it, so I am proud of that.

I'll be back for more writing tonight after dinner.  See you then.    

Day 2, part 2

Ok, now for the continuation of Day 2.  I drove back up to the campus for dinner in the restaurant Caterina De Medici, which is the Italian Fine Dining restaurant at the CIA.  It is a beautiful restaurant, and looks very Tuscan-inspired, with soft yellow paint on the walls (like creamy butter) and black wrought iron.  They had a large table for all of us Boot Campers set up and ready. 

We were served an amuse bouche (this is a single bite-sized hors d'oevre) and 3 different platters of italian meats like prosciutto, ham, salami, etc, for starters.  I really liked the salami the best.  They also served us bread, but I didn't eat very much of the bread, to save room for the main course.

We all chose our main course, and I chose Quail with polenta.  I have never have quail before, so I thought this would be a good time to try something totally different.  The quails are really small, and I was served 2.  They were butterflied and secured with skewers, and grilled.  The polenta was creamy and rich, and plain tasting, which is actually what I was hoping for. 

The servers and the cooks in the back were all students at this restuarant, and they did a good job.  The other boot campers were asking lots of questions of the waiter, and what he lacked in knowledge he made up for in earnestness!  He did his best, I give him that.  I forget that the servers are just students in their 20's with very little life experience to be able to answer the questions, but it is all a learning experience.  The restaurant ran like a real restaurant, it didn't feel like a school at all.

Lastly, we had dessert and I got Zuppa Emiliana, which was a layer cake with chocolate and vanilla cream.  The cake was soaked in some kind of lemon liqueur.  I didn't care for the liqueur in the cake, so I ate the creams.  (On a side note, lots of the desserts I have eaten here that have cake in them are soaked in a liqueur, and I am learning I don't care for that alcohol taste.  I know lots of people do like that, but for me it is too much.  I'd prefer a sugar syrup I think.  It is good to know that I am finding this out about my tastes.)

Our dinner started at 6 pm, and I finished up at 8:30 pm, and I excused myself to come back to the hotel.  I think I was the first one to leave, but I was ready to go.  It was a long day, but good of course.  I guess I will find out how late everyone stayed there when we start up at class tomorrow.

Anyway, it was a good day.  Stay tuned for more entries.

Day 2, part 1

Last night I was SO TIRED, and I had the worst headache ever, and my nose was getting stuffy.  I don't know what it was, allergies, or just the effects of a hectic day without a full night's sleep.  I went to bed at 9:30 pm, which for me is unheard of.  I woke up at 1:30 am, but luckily I was able to get back to sleep, and I was up again at 5:30 am.

I got dressed in my chef outfit, and drove up to the school.  No frost on the car this morning, thank goodness, the temperature was above freezing.  Weatherwise, the area got a lot of rain today, so the temps were higher, which also might explain my allergy situation last night as the front moved in.

I went to Roth Hall, K16 for breakfast.  I was hungry, but I decided to go kind of light, so I just had some rice chex cereal and banana with milk.  Nothing fancy.  I know I should've taken advantage of the hot breakfast, but I just needed something light.  Maybe tomorrow morning.

We all met in our lecture room, and we had a new chef instructor today, Chef John DeShetler.  We spent the morning in the lecture getting briefed on the methods of dry-heat cooking with fats and oils, thickening agents, and classic and comtemporary sauces.  The first technique we talked about was Saute.  We also talked about Stir Fry, Pan Fry, and Deep Fry.  We talked about this because all the food we were making today used the variety of dry-heat cooking methods.

We talked about thickeners for sauces, such as reducing the sauce, using a beurre manie, roux, starches, and a few other ways.  We also talked about how there are a lot of classic sauces in French cooking that literally take days to make, compared to more modern sauces that are no where near that lengthy in time to make, although I think they still involve a high level of skill to do them well.  One thing I learned with contemporary sauces is that relishes, chutneys, salsas, flavored butters are considered sauces.  Very cool.  I did not know that.

For the rest of the morning, we were divided into teams, and we had an assignment of the food we were to make.  We started around 9:30 am, and we were to finish at 12:30 pm.  I am on Team Two.  Our menu was the following:

• Frisee with Almonds, Apples, Grapes, and Goat Cheese
• Sauteed Berkshire Pork Cutlets with Wild Mushroom Ragout
• Potato Gnocchi
• Sauteed Spinach

We got into the kitchen and I have to say, being in a different kitchen, and working on a team of 4 people who I don't know, with no clear leader was... a little hectic and chaotic, but luckily the chef was there to direct us on what to do next. 

For the pork, they gave us a full piece of pork loin with the bones and fat still attached, so we had to break that down.  The chef helped to show me how to slice the meat into cutlets which I did, and then another team member pounded them out.  We also had a lot of chopping to do for all the components of all the dishes.  I assisted with preparing the spinach, which was dirty, sandy, and felt like it had just come up out of the ground.  We had to wash it 3 times to get all the grit off.

When we first got to the kitchen, we put the potatoes in the oven to bake for the gnocchi.  We peeled them and put them through a food mill to get them mashed.  We added butter, an egg, egg yolk, and then flour to create a "dough".  We rolled out the dough piece by piece to form a snake, and then cut the snake into about an inch and a half pieces.  Then the chef showed us how to make indentations on them with a fork -- this helps to hold the sauce.  We boiled them and then put on melted butter and parsley.  I had never made gnocchi before, and they were really easy to make, and they tasted good, like a light and airy potato.  We should have put more salt in them, though.  They needed some seasoning.  Also, we did over-cook them, but they still tasted good, they just were kind of falling apart.

We pan fried the cutlets, and I got to do the mushroom ragout, which turned out good -- although I should have added more salt too.  I think we under-seasoned all our food, I should have tasted it as it went along, just like they say.  But it was so hectic that you forget to do these things. 

The thing that got finished last as the spinach.  With all our dishes done, we created our presentation plates for the meal and the salad on separate plates.  Then we put everything else on large platters for the lunch service.

The other teams were making completely different menus at the same time as my team, so when all this was done, the table with all the food looked really great!  All the teams did a really good job on their food.  We finished exactly on time, amazingly, and then we made up our plates and ate the food.  I tried to take a little bit of everything so that I could try all the dishes.  I think my favorite thing was the gnocchi, but again, it needed salt!  I also really liked the frisee salad, the combination of the frisee, with the vinaigrette, and the almonds, apples, grapes, and goat cheese was fantastic.  So, althought there were minor flaws in all the food we produced, it was all very edible and as good as anything I have eaten on other buffet lines, such as at conferences I have attended, or hotel buffets.

After lunch, we got our group picture taken in the kitchen.  (I hope that it looks good!)  We had an afternoon lecture on food presentation guidelines, basically, how to plate your food, either on a plate or on a platter.  Obviously there is a science and an art to this kind of thing, but I liked going over the science part of it.  Some of the concepts were balance, unity, focal point, and flow.  You try to create a focal point on the plate, such as the meat on top, with the side dishes somewhat under the meat.  This also creates the untiy and shows how the food goes together.  Using a variety of colors and textures is also an important thing to do here.

Another thing I learned with plating, is to use the edge of the plate like a frame.  Don't put food on the edges of the plate.  Make sure you keep your frame. 

We talked about garnishes next.  The biggest thing here that I learned was: avoid non-functional garnishes.  All the garnishes on the plate should be edible and be in harmony with the item.  If something is non-functional, like a rosemary stem or a tomato rosette, what is the point?  You spend all your time creating a rosette, and it just gets thrown away.  You can't eat a rosemary stem -- so why is it there?  Better to spend your time on a garnish that can be eaten and enjoyed.  Also, I think it is confusing to a person eating the plate if they don't know what to do with the garnish.  All this made a lot of sense to me.

After the afternoon session, we were done around 3:30 pm.  Luckily I did not have the headache of yesterday, so this was a big improvement.  I needed to go back to the hotel and get some alone-time and recharge.  We have a dinner tonight together at the restaurant on the campus, Caterina de Medici.  Also, it felt good to get a shower and feel refreshed.

So that's all for now.  I will let you know how dinner was in another posting.    Later!

Day 1

I went to sleep very early last night, and woke up on my own around 2:30 am.  I needed to wake up at 5 am, and I never really got back into a sound sleep between those hours.  This will come into play later, so I just wanted to mention it.

When 5 am finally arrived, I was up, got a shower, got dressed and went down to my rental car, which was covered in frost.  The car didn't have an ice scraper in it, so I had to improvise with a credit card.  Luckily I had my gloves so my hands didn't freeze.  The frost did not come off easily at all, but I scraped it as best as I could.

I drove up to the campus, and parked in the parking garage that we were told to park in.  It was dark, quiet, and cold as I walked to the Continuing Education building, which also houses the Pastry and Baking classes.  There were some students walking around outside, so apparently they start really early at the CIA. 

I went to the East Dining Room in the building, and was one of the first Boot Campers there.  Eventually the others came in, and we got a really nice duffel bag which had our uniforms in it, as well as some other goodies like a pencil, pen, and a travel mug.  I was nervous about the uniform when I saw it -- how would I look?  How would it fit?  I was worried.

We were shown our lecture room, and dropped off our stuff, and then we were taken to breakfast.  All the food at the CIA is made by students, and they have a breakfast service from 6 am - 9 am in their main building.  The dining room where you eat was once the chapel in this building before the CIA was here.  Before the CIA, the campus was a Jesuit Seminary.  The main dining room had a high ceiling, with beautiful paintings, stained glass, and rich woodwork.  It was like a smaller version of the dining hall at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books.

Across from the dining room was Kitchen 16 (or K16).  They have a dry erase board with what is being offered that morning.  You place your order, then wait for it while the students prepare it.  And let me tell you, the offereings were very impressive: Eggs Benedict, Pancakes, Chorizo Sausage Breakfast burrito, egg white omelet, western omelet... the selections were great.  You could also get several side dishes like home fries, bacon, yogurt, fruit... So many selections.  I decided to get pancakes, and they were HUGE, and they gave me three of them!  The pancakes were the size of a dinner plate, and probably 3/4 inch thick!  I barely ate half of them.

After eating, you must bus your own table, and you take the dishes to the dish-washing center.  This is a standard operationg procedure that we had to do throughout the day.

At 7 am we started the lecture part of the day, and we met our Chef Instructor, Dave Bruno.  Everyone introduced themselves, and shared why they were here.  I would say most of us are here for the same reasons:  We love to cook, and we've wanted to do this for a long time.  For me, I wanted to get some formal education/training, and see if it is something I could do.  There are 15 boot campers in this program, 2/3 are men, 1/3 are women. 

The Chef gave a lecture about Mise En Place, Basic Culinary Preparations, Knife Skills, and Stocks.  The lecture was interactive and luckily I knew a lot of the answers to the questions he was asking us.  After we finished up the lecture, we had some time to put on our uniforms which consisted of checkered pants, a chef's coat, a toque (chef's hat), and an apron.  My uniform fit me fine, and I was so relieved!  I don't think I looked too nerdy in it, either!  :-)

We made our way to our kitchen, and we picked out a station.  We got a tour of the kitchen to learn where everything was.  The Chef did a demonstration of what we were going to be doing for the morning, which was knife skills.  First we worked on fruit.  We had to supreme an orange and a grapefruit, wedge a kiwi fruit, and slice up an apple.  This wasn't too difficult, but the thing with this, though, was working on neatness and precision.  After we were done, the fruit was made into a fruit salad that we ate for lunch.

After the fruit, we moved on to vegetables.  We had to slice onions (1/8 inch pole to pole), dice onions, dice carrots, batonnet carrots, oblique-cut carrots, dice celery, batonnet potatoes, mince garlic, chop parsley.  That was a lot of knife skill work, and it took up most of the morning.  While we were doing this work, there were other students in the kitchen who made our lunch.  They used our oblique-cut carrots for the lunch, and they made french fries out of the batonnet potatoes.

We cleaned up our stations, and then it was time for lunch.  I was glad too because I was starting to get a headache -- from the sleep last night, and also just from the "first day jitters".  You know how when you start a new job, the first day is always the hardest and makes you get a headache?  Well, I was getting one of those.  They put the food on platters for a buffet, and we all went through for some lunch.  We had a mesclun salad with balsamic vinagrette, roast chicken, glazed carrots, french fries, and mashed potatoes.  I took a little bit of everything. 

We ate in our lecture room, and they also set up some desserts from the pastry students.  Oh, that reminds me, when we were doing our knife skills, the bakery students had made Stollen, which is a sweet roll type of pastry.  They passed around some Stollen for all of us to try.  It was very good, of course!  Anyway, back to the lunch.  It was a huge lunch, and I sampled a dessert which was like a variation of Tiramisu.  It was very light and airy and delicious of course.

In the afternoon, we took a behind the scenes tour of the store room areas, where they have all the dry goods, produce, and other ingredients used in the cooking throughout the school.  It was fun to see all the variety of things that they had, and all the unusual foods too.  It is quite an operation here, and everything seemed to be running like clockwork.

We next went on a thorough tour of the school with the Director of the Food Enthusiast Programs.  She was a great tour guide, and was an alum of the CIA herself.  We toured the Baking and Pastry school, the main building which is called Roth Hall, and we were able to see the rooms where they "fabricate" (butcher) the fish and meat for the entire school.  A student gave us a fantastic tour of the meat locker where all the meat is.  He was a great speaker, and you could tell that he was "in his element".  He has a lot of passion for meat and butchering!  He said that beef tenderloin, which is the most expensive cut of meat, is also CRAP!  He said there are much better cuts of meat for your money, and don't buy into the myth that it is the best cut of beef.

After the tour, the day started to really hit me, and I was TIRED, and had a pounding headache, but the day was over around 4 pm.  Now I would call this a FULL DAY.  They do not call it a Boot Camp for nothing, I will tell you that.

We were dismissed, and dinner was on our own.  I wasn't hungry for something really big, so I went to a cafe on the campus called the Apple Pie Bakery and Cafe.  I got a turkey sandwich (on brioche) with a chipotle mayonnaise, and I couldn't resist getting 2 cookies: chocolate chip and a huge cookie called a "Not an Oreo Oreo".  I also perused their bookstore, which was filled with cookbooks, cooking supplies, utensils -- it was AWESOME!  I looked at their t-shirts and sweatshirts, but did not not purchase anything... yet.  I still have a few days to mull it over if I will get anything.  All the shirts were very expensive, not unlike any college bookstore.  So I have to think about this purchase decision.  I could easily have bought everything in that store though.

I drove back to the hotel, and immediately took a long hot shower to soothe my headache, and wash off the smell of onions that I could sense.  I guess smelling like a kitchen is part of the bargain when you do something like this.  I ate the sandwich and the cookies, which were outstanding, of course.

The rest of this evening is going to be spent decompressing and re-energizing for tomorrow.  Before I end this for now, here is a list of some of the new things I learned today:

• Use a spoon to peel a kiwi fruit.  It works better than a knife!
• You can puree garlic by chopping it fine, then put salt on it.  Use the end of your knife to mince/crush the garlic into a paste.  It worked like a charm!  I was amazed I was able to do this!
• If you cut onions "pole to pole", the onions will not disintegrate during cooking since you are cutting them "with the grain".
• When prepping celery, if you will be eating the celery in the finished product, peel the outside of the celery with a vegetable peeler.  It just makes it a little bit more refined.  If you won't be eating the celery or straining it out, you don't have to bother with the peeling.
• To square off vegetables, just cut off 3 sides to start out, then do your cuts.  When you get to the end that isn't squared off, you will have less waste.
• Pick parsley off the stems first before you chop it.
• Remove the wishbone from a raw chicken before you roast it.  It makes carving the breast easier.
• To remove skins from a lot of garlic cloves, put the garlic in a bowl, and then put a matching sized bowl on top to make a sphere.  Shake the bowls vigorously and this loosens the skins!
• The on-campus restaurants here are staffed by students, and it is one of their classes.  Students rotate out of these restaurants every 14 days.  So, every 14 days, the restaurants have brand new staffs!
• A new class of students starts up every 3 weeks.
• The CIA has approximately 2,500 students.

Thanks for reading, and I will see you later!  I am TIRED!  But it is a GOOD kind of tired.

I arrive in Hyde Park, NY

I am writing this blog to keep a record of my Culinary vacation at the Culinary Insitute of America (the CIA).  I am attending a culinary Boot Camp that is held at the CIA through their Continuing Education Department.  You might be wondering how I even heard of such a thing.  Well, about 3 years ago, I read a book, "The Making of a Chef", by Michael Ruhlman.  In this book, the author attended the CIA, and wrote a book about his experience.  I loved this book, and it was great to live vicariously through the experience of the author.  I have always enjoyed cooking from the time I was very young, and it is a hobby that has also turned into a passion as of late.

For no reason one day after I finished reading the book, I went to the CIA's web site.  There is a section on the site "for food enthusiasts".  This is where I learned of the Boot Camps.  It took me a few years to finally follow-through on enrolling in the Boot Camp, and the week is finally here!  I start the Basic Skills course bright and early tomorrow on Monday -- at 6 am!

Today I travelled from my home of Pittsburgh, PA to Hyde Park, NY, which is the location of the CIA.  My flight was scheduled to leave Pittsburgh at 8:30 am.  I woke up around 5:30 am in order to make sure I got to the airport with enough time to allow for getting my bag checked, and going through security.  When I got to the airport I checked the flight schedule, and of course, my flight was listed as 'Delayed'!  Of course!  The weather was great for flying, clear, but apparently the airplane had scheduled maintenance and it was taking longer than expected.

I checked my bag with minimum waiting in line, and I got through security fine.  Luckily I did not get chosen to go through the full-body scanner this time (thank goodness), and I was able to go through the regular metal detector.

The flight was delayed 2 hours, and I didn't really feel like I was "on vacation" until the flight was in the air.  I flew to Newark, NJ, got my bag from baggage claim, and then I had to take the Airtrain to the Rental Car area.  I selected my vehicle (since I have membership in the National Emerald Aisle Club) and plugged the address of the hotel into my GPS, and started the drive up to the CIA.

I could see the entire island of Manhattan as I left the Newark Airport.  Luckily I was able to follow the directions on the GPS -- there were a few close calls where I think I could've easily turned by accident and gone through the Lincoln Tunnel, or over the George Washington Bridge.  Seeing NYC was tempting, and it made me want to try to take a trip there one of these years.

The drive up took about an hour and a half, and I found my hotel, the Courtyard Marriott in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Due to my work as a consultant, I am a Platinum Elite Marriott member, or something like that, because I stay at Courtyards all the time when I travel for work.  So when I got into my room, it was comfortable and familiar to me, like my "second home", which is kind of sad but oh well, it's true!

After unpacking my clothes, I drove about 15 minutes north to the CIA campus.  It is a beautiful campus, with large old buildings in the collegiate style, with the Hudson River in the background.  Since it is the end of the Thanksgiving holiday break, all the buildings were closed, and there weren't a lot of other people on the campus.  It was kind of fun to have the place virtually to myself, and I did a quick walk around the campus and took some pictures of the buildings.

There were some banners that were hung around the campus for the holidays, and I took pictures of them because they were food-themed and really clever.  The sayings were: "Happy Hollandaise", "Soy to the World", "Merry Crispness", and "Seasoned Greetings".  Funny.

I scouted out where I am supposed to park tomorrow, and where to go for the orientation and class.  With that done, I got back in my car, and slowly drove through the rest of the campus, passing the library, the many different dorms and residence halls.  There were some students unpacking their cars, so I assumed they were coming back for the rest of the semester after the Thanksgiving break.  It brought back memories for me of when I was in college and I would travel back after the break.  I admit I was jealous of these students since they get to study cooking and food service.  It's like Hogwarts for food people (instead of magic folk).

I left the campus, and drove to a supermarket (Price Chopper) in Poughkeepsie.  I just got some cereal, bananas, and milk.  I hadn't eaten anything since 7 am, and it was already 3:30 pm, so I was getting a hunger headache.  But I just wanted something simple and bland -- I think there is going to be enough opportunities to eat some great food this week, so I thought going simple is the best thing for now.

I am planning on going to sleep rather early tonight.  Besides the fact that I need to wake up super early tomorrow, I got up super early today, and I know I am going to be sleepy earlier than usual.

Well, wish me luck tomorrow!  I am hoping it will be a fun experience, and I hope I learn something.  Also, I hope the other Boot Campers are nice and we get along.  I am not expecting to make any new or life-long friends, but it will be really interesting to learn everyone's stories and see what brought them here for this Boot Camp experience.