Week 8: Wednesday, big hunk of veal

The main focus of the day was to do a food cost analysis on a leg of veal. Chef Dale took apart a whole leg of veal and had the students clean the silver skin and weigh each muscle before and after cleaning. Meanwhile I worked on putting together the Panzanella, tomato [...]

Historical timeline of food

Chef Matt, head instructor in the night time recreational programs at Cook Street turned me onto this cool site which chronologically follows the progression of different food products throughout history
Check it out and learn.

Week 8: Tuesday, rustic beef buffet

Today we lectured on ice cream and sorbet and then I covered the Veneto region of Italy and quickly talked about the Lombardy and Emilia Romagna regions.After a shot of home made Limoncello. The Garde Manger cabana boys came up with a rice and celery soup
On Hot Line we put out cauliflower gratin, fresh [...]

Week 8: Monday, Birdy num num

So, big mistake I did not bring my camera to school today. One of my students let me use her camera so we should have some pictures to match the description of the food. Chef Lexie was up first with a cookie lecture and then I came up with a lecture on Piedmont [...]

Slow cooked eggs

Eggs and cooking eggs evoke a lot of fear.  Too high cholesterol,  unsanitary eggs  contaminated with salmonella,  industrial produced eggs, type of feed etc.
Scientist and chefs have been playing with eggs for some time now and I have dabbled with them too.  When I was working at CSR we had purchased a Thermo recirculator and [...]

Week 7: Friday, a leasurely boat ride down the Loire

Today, I walked into the classroom and found two students from GM polishing the silverware for the day’s table setting. No big deal except that they had presented them in such an anal fashion that I felt compelled to take a picture. Why because I love this level of detail. [...]

Week 7: Thursday, I ETA Basque cuisine

Today we finished up rolling out laminated doughs, so tomorrow is going to be a danish/croissant extravaganza. Can’t wait. I was up next with a lecture about the South West of France.  An area that I have a kinship with from the month I spent there working at Michel Guerard’s in Eugenie les Bains in [...]

Week 7: Wednesday, Mon petit choux d’Alsace

This was a day focused on laminated doughs i.e. Puff Pastry, Danish and Croissant dough. Meanwhile behind the scenes, Chef Dale and myself were working on the mise en place for Flammekuchen, Choucroute Garni and we put up a washed rind cheese from Lorraine called a Gèrome (like a Munster) on beautifully braided two [...]

Week 7: Tuesday, The French invasion and lamb scraps

Hard not to get excited for this day. Introduction to my favorite country and featuring the cuisine of my favorite region: Provence. I gave a lecture on the geographical aspect of France and key cities, followed by an explanation of the normal French menu progression, as well as what one might expect from a [...]

Weekend of friendship and good food

Wow! What a weekend. I picked up my friend chef Robert Brunel and his daughter at the airport on Friday night after their flight had been delayed about an hour and a half. They had roughly a 24 hour day in transit. I got home and we chatted a bit before they [...]