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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
There are 10 students in my class, but only 7 hats showing in this pic. Today's class was more nuts and bolts. The first half we learned about safeserv regulations and how not to poison people. We also learned some of the realities of food costing and waste, and that each chef who runs her …
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 …
Hello family and friends! This is my first foray into food blogging. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my cooking experiences over the next 6 months at The French Culinary Institute. Then, who knows what will happen. Hopefully, one day you'll visit my restaurant in Hawaii, where I'll be wearing a salty apron.
Salty Apron 