Four months

So if you ask me in person what I've been doing the past four months, I'd probably give you the most negative and depressing answers, coming from that dark corner in the back of my head that constantly nags at me at the fact that after months of receiving rejection letters or just not getting called back from places I've contemplated starting my career at after graduation, I just sat down with my manager, told her I was going absolutely insane, and learned to mix bread as a baker's apprentice in the early mornings. In short, I gave up.

Despite this and the many times in the past two years I wish I would've just went to CIA and got a much much much better return on the 40+ grand I'll need to pay off, I don't regret going to culinary school at all.

Two years ago, I ran head-on into this venture and I had no idea what I was doing. I doubt I'd even held a sharp knife before, much less know how to use it correctly.

I wrote recipes down, forgetting them almost immediately, then scrutinizing every syllable during class. I remember taking one and a half hours preparing the mise the first time I ever made a bechamel.

But somewhere in there between the panic of rushing to the requisition in the beginning of a packed Asian cuisine class full of third-quarters and the measuring out of every ounce of onion I put into a dish to European cuisine and A la Carte, something just clicked. And cooking just makes sense to me now.

When I was in my early years of high school, I watched shows like Iron Chef in awe, thinking I could never be as clever or creative as that. I'd never eaten real salsa before. I'd never thought I'd even like beef, pork, or chicken and now I love cooking it. If I had to cook a 6-course meal using a secret ingredient in one hour, I'd probably end up crying ten minutes into it but now it's starting to look more plausible to me. The idea of getting to any level of creativity seems much more attainable now than ever before.

I graduate June 15th. And maybe I won't get a job then or get to move out of this town to do so. Maybe I'll end up in business school for two more years so I can figure out what I want to do.

But for sure, I don't regret this experience. Never in my life have I met so many good and talented people who have such passion for what they do. I don't know when or if I'll ever make it or even get into this industry, but I sure as hell love it.

Art Culinaire week 2: Jean-Louis Palladin

Oh, Jean-Louis Palladin. What a guy.

So this French dude grows up on a farm and at the age of 12 gets a job at a farm. 16 years and a restaurant later, he becomes the youngest person in the world to receive a Michelin star.

And what does he do?

He moves to America because he believes that he can do the same thing here. So he comes over, opens a job at the Watergate in Washington D.C.. He realizes that there's a lot of things here that we don't have that they have in France.

So what does he do then?

He makes friends with farmers, vendors--anybody, really--and after a while he gets people cultivating crops, growing livestock, going out of their way to catch certain animals, etc. just for him and exactly to his liking. Not only that, but he's been known to travel far and wide to find exactly what he needs for a recipe.

Dude is pretty awesome.

I mean, I not only want to be him, I hope one day I'll look as joyful naked holding a vitamix.

Anyway, to the menu of the week.

I suppose since this is the last class most people have to take before they graduate, the drop-out rate is relatively low if not completely nonexistent by this point, so unfortunately, I'm still stuck in a class with a bajillion people.

But this week's menu was pretty fun.

 

 Potato ravioli appetizer

I liked the filling but this was way too small even for a tasting portion. It was a lot like eating one potato chip. (i.e. incredibly depressing)

 Chilled melon sauterne consomme

For some reason, our consomme turned out a little too dark and the liquid was cloudy. If I'd done it, I think I would've clarified it again because Chef looked at it once and made the snootiest face.

True story, though--during lecture, when he was writing recipe notes on the board, he wrote "Child consomme" as this dish and no one else noticed! Or maybe no one else thought it was as funny as I thought it was.

At least it was really, really good.

Chartreuse of asparagus

My teammate accidentally overcooked the custard, but it was so good I think I'm going to have to remake this one day and I don't even like asparagus all that much.

 Stuffed prime rib au jus with caramelized pearl onions, sauteed green beans, potato pancake, and roasted root vegetables

I can't believe I've never had prime rib before! God, this was crazy delicious. It was at the right doneness and the vegetables went with it so well. Chef had a problem with the jus not being jus-y (juicy?) enough but if I wasn't plating next, I would've licked the plate. 

 

 Peach Charlotte with raspberry sauce

I can't believe I spent most of two days of class making this one dish. I really need to step my game up a little. When Chef uploaded the recipes, I read this one over a couple of times and tried to figure out how this was supposed to look like but I think it turned out pretty well. Chef said the French way is to serve it this dark. It pretty much tasted like caramel with peach cobbler. It was a little sacrilegious to not serve it with vanilla bean ice cream and I regret not doing so, but ironically enough, this last kitchen class of the curriculum is the one you're not really supposed to get that creative about. At least I got to plate the way I wanted to.

Next week is Alice Waters mystery basket style. Can't wait!

Art Culinaire week 1 - Charlie Palmer

So it's been a whole quarter. Sorry about that.

Last quarter, I had A la Carte. It's the kitchen class that kinda teaches you how to run/work in a restaurant. It was honestly the best class I've taken at Art Institutes and I'm both so glad it was such a good experience but also a little upset that it's over.

I would've posted pictures for you but I swear we had fried chicken and ice cream for family meal every day.

But anyway, this quarter (my last quarter!) I have Art Culinaire, which means I have pictures again, yay!

In Art Culinaire, every week we learn about a famous chef and their cuisine, background, how they got to be as famous as they were, and their cooking style. Week 1 was Charlie Palmer.

This menu was pretty easy, really. It's just a little frustrating trying to get it all out in a class of 26 designed for a class of 12-15.

20 grand a year and I'm so glad that's going towards a quality education. Let's not even go there.

Alright so Charlie Palmer.

 Appetizer: Roasted beets with goat cheese gateau

 Mushroom minestrone with ricotta dumplings

 Roasted cod with braised cabbage

 Sea scallop "sandwich" with citrus sauce

Lemon custard with caramel

Overall hectic but tasty week.

Thanksgiving!

I swear I totally owe Classical European backlogs but first, Thanksgiving!

Possibly one of the most stressful things I've ever gone through in the past year and a half of culinary school and it wasn't even school-related. I had 20-25 people to cook for and no time, but somehow I pulled through. It took three all-nighters of prep work and a pre-cooked (...) smoked turkey, but it made the actual Thanksgiving day a breeze.

I had no idea what I was cooking until about four days before the event but I did have some rules:
1) Simple dishes
2) Serve nothing that has to be served immediately after cooking
3) Food must hold well without a heat source

Frankly, a lot of people were surprised when I told them about my menu and how simple it was but I don't think a lot of people think about how realistic it would be to serve a menu to that many people with one person in the kitchen. (Especially if Thanksgiving was that one person's only day off in three weeks and they just want to spend it relaxing...)

So I served:
- Green bean casserole with homemade mushroom soup
- Eggplant and bell peppers in homemade tomato sauce
- Butternut squash soup
- Browned butter chocolate chip vanilla bean cookies
- Apricot-glazed fresh fruit tart
- Smoked turkey with chicken bacon gravy
- Fresh fruit and cheese platter with crackers and prosciutto

And my mom made:
- Lasagna
- Pancit
- Mashed potatoes
- Ham

And a few families brought dishes too.

 Our spread.

Oddly enough, my favorite dish was the green bean casserole. I'd only had it once before at a potluck with a couple of friends and remembered really enjoying it so I decided to try it with mushroom soup that I made from scratch rather than the canned kind. I couldn't stop eating it.

I really didn't want to have to worry about brining, seasoning, and cooking a turkey for five hours when I could use the oven space for other things, so per a coworker's suggestion, I bought a precooked 10lb turkey from Bubbaque's. My family's always cooked the raw turkey every year so I was worried this would taste dry and reheated, but it was actually really good! We barely had any left over but I had plenty to use for broth.

The downside to not having a raw turkey is having to find something to make the gravy with. Luckily, I found some chicken in the freezer and a little bit of bacon left so I rendered those, removed the meats, sauteed some onions in the grease to translucent, deglazed the pan with some white wine, reduced it by half, added some chicken stock and reduced it by half again, then added a tiny bit of milk and then reduced it to sauce consistency. I thought I'd made a whole lot, but it was the first thing to get finished in the entire table!

I really wished I could've put a lot more cheese and Italian cured meats on there, but I forgot how expensive it all was. The fruit alone cost over $40. I tried to get all my produce local from the fruit stand I usually frequent, but a lot of the stuff I wanted was out of season (which probably explains why it cost so much at the grocery store). It looked really good, though! And I couldn't stop eyeing the camembert the entire day.

I've probably made this pie about ten times in the past year but I think I'm most delighted about the presentation of this one. I have no idea where I even got this idea from. I just started slicing away and then ended up with a kiwi rose... I hadn't made pie crust in months and I completely forgot to weigh the crust down when I baked them off, so a small piece of one of the pies ended up caving in, but I don't think anyone noticed. It was really tasty!

All in all I was really happy with everything. There wasn't a single dish we made that I didn't enjoy, and that was a big relief.

I passed out right before everyone started leaving, but luckily, Tigger took care of the dishes.

Soobak!

Although I used to work right across the street from this place, I never went there until I came across their website on facebook and saw a review on Dena Loves Food. Anyway, after a few after-work cravings for sushi and Korean I ended up at Soobak a few times in the past month and haven't been disappointed yet. (Note: I've noticed that a good deal of times, I get better food when I come into a restaurant in chef pants. Maybe I'm just imagining it.)

So this week they came out with Korean tacos in honey garlic, bulgogi, galbi, and fish varieties. I could marry a fish taco--I love them so much--so I decided to play it safe.

 

I can't even begin to tell you how good it was! Most definitely the best fish taco I've ever had (and yes, I've been known to have said that if I ever find myself in a comatose state, I would like Taco Bus to cater my IV drip). The fish tasted crisp and clean and the batter was nice and light. Even if it was a little heavily battered, it wasn't greasy at all. All the ingredients were fresh and I don't usually do a lot of sauce when I eat tacos, but that red sauce was so good and complemented the flavors in the tacos so well, I almost drank it. Portion-wise, they were just right.

With that being said, the hungry irrational side of me still thought it'd be a good idea to order a bulgogi rice bowl.

It came with a salad with ginger dressing but I spilled it all over my car (...) however even if I didn't have the tacos, I would've been completely satisfied with just the bulgogi and the rice. The meat was very tender and it had the perfect balance of sweet and saltiness.

I'm definitely going back next week!

Soobak

218 E. Davis Blvd

Tampa, FL 33606

Classical European Cuisine Week 5 - Italy (backlog)

The sad part about having a curriculum set up in quarters is that when you really do enjoy a class, you get to week five and realize it's already half-over and you still don't even know everyone's names in the class.

This week in Classical European Cuisine, we covered an Italian menu. For some reason, I always end up with first dibs on which recipe I wanted to choose so I picked the bread soup and the gnocchi.

I figured gnocchi would be pretty easy since I'd made it a couple times before without any huge problems and that it would taste good and look good and during critique everyone will tell me how wonderful I am for making such a wonderful dish and my personality's so great, I should have my own cooking show.

Admit it--if you were in culinary school too, the ability to affect star quality would be a deciding factor on what recipes you choose to do in class also.

Unfortunately, gnocchi was a bad choice. As soon as we finished discussion and started gathering our ingredients, the guy from the other group that was doing the same dish wanted to roast his potatoes with mine. I can see how one would interpret this as a nicety and that the dude just didn't want to go through the effort of cleaning another dish or preheating another oven and it would be most likely be more beneficial to have two sets of eyes watching over one tray of potatoes rather two sets of eyes watching over two trays of potatoes but judging from how the night went, I'd sleep better telling myself he was just out to one up me and that it was his fault I had so much trouble making the dish.

The dough was too soft (possibly from being overcooked) so it was hard to work with and I cooked a small batch to see if the gnocchi got to be a better hardness when cooked but the result was still too soft so in the frustration of getting flour all over the place and taking way too long to do a simple recipe, I just said screw it, boiled the whole batch, drained it, and sauteed some up in browned butter.

I am strangely exceptional at soups and sauces, so my sauce turned out pretty good. The other guy had the same problem with his pasta being too soft but my gnocchi totally kicked the other team's gnocchi's ass.

My other dish was bread, egg, and cheese soup. Basically, you just make garlic toast, pop it in a bowl, crack a raw egg on top of it, then drown it all in boiling chicken stock. I was in such a rush from trying to plate up on time, I forgot to season the chicken stock. It was incredibly bland and the egg didn't cook all the way because it kept slipping off the toast...

Although, the rest of my group did wonderfully.

Osso Bucco (veal shank), saffron risotto, and sauteed chicory. Ho-ly cannoli. I swear, if I only had a day to live, this dish would be my make-a-wish. The meat was insanely tender and the sauce went so well with it. Unfortunately, three of us in the group wanted the marrow and I somehow ended up losing that fight.

Saffron risotto. Perfect amount of saffron. Nicely al dente.

 

Chilled veal in tuna sauce. I thought I would hate this because of the "chilled red meat," "gherkins," and the "fishy tuna sauce" parts, but it was actually pretty good. It's horrendous how much I enjoy veal.

Vanilla bean panna cotta. It didn't set enough (I don't think it was a time factor--the recipe just seems to have the wrong gelatin : liquid ratio) but it tasted like vanilla bean ice cream!

Fun week, overall. Just a whole lot to do and wasted a lot of time struggling with that gnocchi recipe.

runningjokes pt 2

I think it was a couple of months ago.

I was in a hot kitchen buried in the Davis Islands business district chopping cases whole chicken wings in half for the weekend. I was running on no sleep and creeping up on fifty five hours of work that week and it was still only Thursday morning. In retrospect, I suppose it was the exhaustion that fueled my sudden yearning to add my newest life goal to the list but I could've sworn it was just a moment of pure brilliance.

Elbow deep in half-frozen chicken wings, I told myself, "The week I get out of this, I am definitely starting my own cooking show."

Approximately four months later, here I am. Culinary student, deli clerk, newly hired kitchen intern. Still no cooking show, but a long retired work out blog I kept when I was 19 and thought it was time to teach myself how to run, a camera, an obsession with food, the same irritating desire to share it with the world, but no time.

So I decided I'd settle.

Welcome to my food blog.