Thanks to my new friend, Anne, I have a few photos of taillage techniques. For those who don’t know French, taillage is the practice of cutting vegetables into uniform sizes and shapes. We learned how to ciseler, emincer, and make macedoine and brunoise cuts from vegetables. No student cut themselves, although Chef Tomm (cheftomm.com) predicted that 3 of us would cut ourselves by the end of the day.
We did actually “cook” some vegetables using 2 techniques – l’anglaise and l’etuvee. The latter uses a parchment paper “lid” with a steam hole in it to cover the vegetables in a pan with a little water, butter and salt. The purpose of the lid is to slow the rate of evaporation and the theory is that the vegetables will cook at the same speed of evaporation, and when the water is gone your vegetables are perfectly done. Let’s just say I ended up dumping off some of my water, as I put too much in the pan to begin with for 6 pearl onions. And, Chef Tomm thought my food was undersalted, which I’m predicting to be an issue throughout the course. All in all it was a fun day and I learned a lot of French.
Thanks, Carnet, for posting the photo, below, and for the encouragement! And, thank you to all of my wonderful friends for commenting and making me laugh. You guys are a riot.
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Ok.. Rachel is going to be a bit pissed, but I couldn’t help putting up a quick post during her first day at FCI. It is 11 a.m. PDT and she’s about 3.5 hours into her first class. I am so excited for her to finally be realizing a personal dream to test her hands at this cooking thing. I know that I will benefit forever from this adventure she is on, but even cooler is that she is finally getting to take not a slight turn in life, but a radical lane change. Go girl! I’m your biggest supporter and can’t wait to follow your new creative path. Always have fun and laugh at yourself when you cook something gross (just don’t feed it to me!). I love you more than you can ever know.
Rachel's FCI outfit. Sexy!
Salty Apron 
I think I see Rachel somewhere inside that outfit. Pretty roomy, eh? Maybe you can sneak truffles back to Carnet in your sleeves.
she looks like a psycho killer in a mental ward looking for a cleaver and a chainsaw….
when do we eat?
What are you wearing under there?
Grrrr…. sexxy!
Woohoooooo Rachel for making your dreams come true! You go girl! Thanks for sharing and I can’t wait to try your new creations! You were already an amazing cook..but now we get to experience the ham goddess in all her glory! Can’t wait..I expect to you to help make me fat and happy over the holidays! xx & aloha, C-lou
Speaking of ‘Go Girl’….maren and al agree wholeheartedly on your new endeavor. Guts, positive attitude, and dreams always pay off in the long run. We are sooooooo proud of you.. We can’t wait for you to try out some of those delicacies on us or even the stuff that turns out crappy. We will be more than honest with out lip smacking or gacking up some stuff. dad and marv
so proud of you! ❤
Congrats and so happy that you get to follow your dream!!! 🙂
Can’t wait to hear all the stories.
How cool is that! Clearly you’re a model for the new Barbie Chef Doll… :o)
So happy for you Rachel. You have always been amazing in the kitchen so I can only imagine how this experience is going to enhance those skills. Love the blog idea and can’t wait to see where the adventure takes you. Congrats and best wishes!!
Sorry- incase you were wondering “who the hell is Austin Girl Friday?”…It’s Lisa Leary 🙂
Congrats Rachel! I’m so happy for you! So awesome to see you chase after your dream!
P.S. Reading your blog = super hungry