Days 112, 113 and 114: Jaegerschnitzel, spaetzle, and the restaurant heats up

I'm bummed I didn't take pictures, as the process of making spaetzle was really cool, if not a bit difficult for a first-timer.  Chef Udo said he would help us make a couple of German dishes for our class family meal on Wednesday.  So, he had Tomas make jaegerschnitzel and the dough for the spaetzle. …

Continue reading Days 112, 113 and 114: Jaegerschnitzel, spaetzle, and the restaurant heats up

Day 110: 2 weeks left of school and the importance of breakfast

I'm back on desserts for 2 days. Everything went just fine with my dessert today, save my ice cream wasn't quite as frozen as I would have liked it to be for service.  That's not what irritated me.  I'm not going to rant on why I'm irritated as I already "caused a commotion" (as my grandmother …

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Day 109: No school today; lots of fresh ginger tea, oj/cranberry juice mix and chicken broth

Yesterday, I was feeling achey and I had a sniffy nose, but I was hoping it would pass.  Not so, and it got worse overnight so I stayed home from school today.  Unfortunately, our class seems to be passing around some sort of "cold."  It's that time of year, I know. But, I'm bummed as …

Continue reading Day 109: No school today; lots of fresh ginger tea, oj/cranberry juice mix and chicken broth

Days 107 and 108: Monkfish (ummm, on the Monterey Bay seafood watch list!) and Wild Mushroom pasta (yeah, a vegetarian dish other than salad)!

Yesterday, I was on monkfish.  I'm not sure why that's on our menu.  Is it cheap?  Seems awfully silly to put monkfish on the menu in California when, 1) it's on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List, which means do not buy or eat!, and 2) it's from the Atlantic.  We can't get any …

Continue reading Days 107 and 108: Monkfish (ummm, on the Monterey Bay seafood watch list!) and Wild Mushroom pasta (yeah, a vegetarian dish other than salad)!

Day 106: poissonnier, arctic char, and some more practical advice on fish

Today, I moved to poissonnier and made the arctic char dish, for 7 customers to be exact. Arctic char is such a beautiful looking fish.  Unfortunately, our recipe pairs it with a chickpea cake that tastes like complete ____ and a radicchio that's just not tasty.  Granted, it was my first day making the dish …

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Days 103, 104 and 105, plus a trip home to Hawaii and Thanksgiving on the beach

The last two days prior to Thanksgiving break, I was on saucier, which meant doing short ribs and racks of lamb.  I don't know what happened to me on Wednesday but I could not cook a rack of lamb to save my life.  What makes that ridiculous is that, generally, the one meat I've had …

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Day 102: More dessert and bumbling through a new menu

There's no argument that I'm not the most patient person in the world.  But, I was losing my patience today and I think it could have been avoided.   I appreciate that the-powers-that-be at FCI decided to have our class try a new menu and apparently a more complicated one (I appreciate the confidence in …

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