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
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 …
Continue reading Day 110: 2 weeks left of school and the importance of breakfast
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 …
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 …
Continue reading Day 106: poissonnier, arctic char, and some more practical advice on fish
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 …
Continue reading Days 103, 104 and 105, plus a trip home to Hawaii and Thanksgiving on the beach
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 …
Continue reading Day 102: More dessert and bumbling through a new menu
Today was our last day of level 5. Since David was gone, I was officially sous chef as well as 1 of 2 on dessert. Thankfully, I had Ian's pork and mushroom ravioli in the fridge from the day before for the "scoobie snack", and all I had to do was make a mushroom broth …
Continue reading Day 100: Last day of Level 5, a new menu tomorrow, and stuffed pork leg for dinner
Tomorrow, I get to play sous chef again and start prepping for a new menu. I'll be glad to get away from the rabbit and osso buco. Tonight, it's another "all in" dinner night, in an attempt to use the last of last week's CSA box: romanesco (the green cauliflower looking thing in the picture …
Continue reading Day 99: Last day on rabbit and osso buco – yeah!
I can't believe there are less than 5 weeks left of school. Yikes! Where did this 6 months go? I knew it would go fast, but please. This flew. I'm not ready to be done. No doubt there's a big bad (good) world of chefs and restaurants I'm looking forward to learning from in 2012, …
Continue reading Days 97 and 98: The end of Level 5 and more good dining out
What a fun tour of Love Apple Farms on Thursday (see http://www.growbetterveggies.com/)! FCI put together a special tour for our class of 9 with the owner of the farm and Chef David Kinch, who is also a dean of FCI. We spent about an hour touring the gardens and picking and eating fresh vegetables. Then, …
Continue reading Days 95 and 96: More dessert and a trip to Love Apple Farms
Salty Apron 