Day 25 - After a day of offal, some math was a welcome change. We spent a large part of Day 25 talking about the calculations used to figure out edible portion costs and the "Q" factor that one must include when doing accurate food costing. Although some of our eyes were glazing over after …
Category: Cooking School Diary
Day 24 – Disgusting, I mean organ meats
I think I was so disgusted I forgot to take any pictures of our finished dishes today. So, above is the only picture I have: Chef Peter and Heather are taking the outside connective tissue off a calf's liver. We started off by cleaning kidneys and lamb tongue. The kidneys had a bit of a …
Day 23 – More lamb and rabbit, along with some fab dinners at home
Okay, okay, we didn't make this at school. I made it for dinner tonight and Carnet loved it. I made 2 whole branzinis (gutted and heads cut off) stuffed with thinly sliced lemons, fresh dill, and sauteed leeks, topped with really good olive oil and a bit of ghee, and steamed in an incredible semillon/sauvignon …
Continue reading Day 23 – More lamb and rabbit, along with some fab dinners at home
Days 21 and 22 – More Poultry, Game meat and Veal
I'm late on the posts from last week. In fact, that's the story of my life lately. Late to the party. I wish I had more time to spend on school, practicing butchery, and cooking. But, life isn't that neat. It's messy - like many kitchens. No matter. I'm bound and determined to be a …
Continue reading Days 21 and 22 – More Poultry, Game meat and Veal
Day 20 – Practical Exam and more recipes!
I don't have any pictures from today, as it was test day. Thanks to everyone for their encouragement and for their faith in my test taking abilities. The written part was too easy (Chef - you need to make them harder to separate the girls from the boys - go girls!). The first practical, "time …
Day 19 – Lamb and Yummmmm
Today was my favorite day so far because it involved my favorite protein - lamb. Ian and I were partners and, as usual, it was a lot of fun! Chef Peter demo'd a stuffed lamb leg, featured below. Delicious. Then, we started on our lamb stew with cocottes of turnips, carrots and potatoes, along …
Day 18 – Pork
MMMMM, baby back ribs. Chef Peter made a great spice rub on these and I chowed. I can't believe I'm such a meat eater these days. The spice rub: lots of paprika as a good foundation, black pepper, cayenne, white pepper, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and ?. I forgot the last ingredient …
Day 17 (and Saturday) – Beef, Peaches and Tango, and Richard Blais
My awesome husband bought us tickets to "Peaches and Tango" at Farmer Al's Frog Hollow Farm on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Carnet had to go out of town, so Bobbie was the lucky recipient of Carnet's ticket. Peaches and Tango was a fundraiser for Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard, a project of the Chez Panisse Foundation in …
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Days 15 and 16 – Poultry and more poultry
Day 15 - We made two chicken dishes. The one pictured above is essentially a poached chicken with a Mediterranean-style sauce made from the poaching liquid. The next picture is of "Sauteed chicken, hunter style". This one had a base of brown veal stock, which is really rich, and to that we added mushrooms, shallots, …
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 …
Salty Apron 