Okay, I've been lame over the past few days and have not been posting. I would recommend NOT working while you are doing the full time day program at FCI if you can help it. It doesn't leave much time for a lot of other things. At any rate, onto fish and shellfish! On Day …
Author: rachelogdie
Day 12 – Intro to fish
The finished dish above is the result of "Poisson en papillote" (Fish baked in parchment paper). It was delicious. Anne and I had the same problem - we added too much wine to ours, but I told Chef Peter that's natural considering how much I like wine 😉 I'm not sure that won me any …
Day 11 – Potatoes and a shout out from Rick Bayless
This is going to be a bit of a short post, as it's 8:30 p.m., I haven't eaten dinner yet and I haven't studied for our second test tomorrow. But, this weekend, I'll post a recipe I liked from today, and I'll be sure to post one from tomorrow's fish unit, as well! Today, …
Continue reading Day 11 – Potatoes and a shout out from Rick Bayless
Day 10 – Salads
I usually eat a salad everyday, so I was excited by the salad unit today. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by this unit. The only salad I thought was interesting and tasty was the cooked vegetable salad with a fondue de tomate. The thought of "cooked vegetables" in my salad was, at first, somewhat unappealing (although …
Day 9 – Food preservation: gravlax, duck confit and pickling/brining
Today we shook things up in terms of pace. It was a much slower pace than yesterday and, reflecting back on it, I appreciate it. We learned about the many methods of food preservation through the ages - salting, covering with fat to prevent any air from wreaking havoc on food (the confit part), smoking, …
Continue reading Day 9 – Food preservation: gravlax, duck confit and pickling/brining
Day 8 – Soups! (and a test)
So, I forgot to take pictures of our food today :(. We were moving pretty fast to finish all 4 soups after our first test. Ahh, the test. As I am not a mayonaisse lover, I bombed the question that asked what are three derivative sauces you can make from mayonaisse? Ummm, tarter sauce, of …
Days 6 and 7 – Sauces and More Sauces
Chef Tomm has been out for a few days, but we've been in awesome hands: Chef Pasqual from Brittany, France; Chef Jeremy, who loves chemistry and runs a great school; and Chef Bruno, also from France and an Alain Ducasse alum. I am even more impressed with the school. Here's Chef Pasqual: Chefs Jeremy and …
Day 5 – Stocks
Today was all about stocks - brown stock (veal), white stocks (fish, chicken, and white beef stock with blackened onions), and vegetable stock. We made/started 5 different stocks today. This was the first time I've seen veal bones. Check them out: I think we roasted around 100 lbs. of veal bones to make stock. Crazy. One …
Tournage – Day 4
Today's objectives included learning to cut vegetables into 7-sided, faceted-oval shapes using the tournage method. Tournage comes from the word "Tourner" which means "to turn". This is a very technical cut, and so far, I'm not very good at it. I'm at the apartment in San Francisco at 7:45 p.m. practicing tournage with a 5 …
Day 3 at FCI
So, we "partner up" on day 3 in anticipation of making 2 dishes from Lesson 3 - a stove-top style ratatouille and a goat cheese, roasted beet, and apple timbale with a white wine and herb vinaigrette. This is not my actual beet and goat cheese timbale dish because I forgot to take a picture …
Salty Apron 