Pipe Dreams

Hi Again!
Last night was the last night I had to act as sous chef. Now, I thought that my partner and I had done a fine job at it, not exemplary, but nothing cringe worthy. HOWEVER, the sous chef from last week leans over at the beginning of the demo (after a delayed fetching of a spatula) and says loudly “Chef, I think you miss me.” No comment (though you should all feel free to leave one or two at the end of the post).
Now that that’s off my chest, I will continue describing the culinary delights of lesson 9. We continued into our Egg Epic with meringues, Italian butter cream and chocolate mousse.
Meringues (made from meringue-see previous class) can be spread over stencils, piped or dropped. Let me clarify what I mean by meringues. The meringues that I had grown up with were sawdusty and had the mouth feel of chalk (though they did come in lovely pastel colors). The ones we made had a thin hard shell, and chewy/pillowy center-like marshmallow center. They looked fantastic.
We learned different methods of piping them-using a pastry bag and a large star tip. I was a natural, could’ve taught the class. My ego and confidence were swelling , as I demonstrated to my classmates the correct way to form a rosette. Alas, this buoyancy lasted mere moments as we continued on to making the Italian buttercream.
The base for an Italian buttercream (and the reason we were making it in last night’s class) is Italian meringue. Again, Italian meringue is made by beating egg whites and sugar over a hot double boiler. This takes vigilance and a keen awareness of how hot your egg/sugar mixture is getting. While daydreaming about the smiley face sticker worthy rossets I had just piped, I curdled my egg whites (basically making the beginnings of some very sweet scrambled eggs). Scrambled eggs are NOT a good base for a buttercream, and are irreparable. After apologizing to my team, I started over, this time taking the temperature of the eggs every half minute or so. But guess what? Hyper vigilance pays off! The base was whipped in to very stable beautiful meringue (sans curdled eggs), and then the butter was added.
Buttercream has a very high ratio of butter to sugar, 1.5 to 2 times the amount of sugar, to be exact. We added 1 pound of sugar, so that meant a MINIMUM of 1.5 pounds of butter. We added closer to two. So much butter, but So delicious. Once incorporated, you have a flavorful, creamy, sweet concoction that can be used to ice and fill cakes, or eat by the spoonful as my classmates were doing. It tastes nothing like the store-bought-manufactured-idontknowwhatsinthere-buttercream that I am used to (particularly the parve dairy free ones that are made with margarine). Between the meringues in the oven and the buttercream, the kitchen smelled fantastic.
And now for the chocolate mousse. Looked fantastic, smelled fantastic, tasted fantastic. And I didn’t mess up. It’s basically the same base as the zabaglione, with melted chocolate, butter and whipped cream folded in. Folding was a skill many of us needed to practice. You need to take care when incorporating the ingredients, otherwise the beautiful air that you whipped into the egg yolks and whipped cream are lost into a muddy, flat muck. Chef demonstrated how it was done, and we all poorly imitated him (though to be fair, it was particularly hard for the lefties to imitate the visual demo.
To decorate the mousse, we sliced fruits (I gorged on the fruit, as always) and then Chef showed us all up by using a blowtorch to caramelize some bananas. This wasn’t part of the lesson, but obviously I asked Chef to try it out for myself- who would pass up the opportunity to blowtorch bananas? It was AMAZINGLY fun to do, and I highly recommend it. My classmates were all too busy eating their mousse to notice the fun blowtorch, so I had it to myself for a while. Naturally, I found a blowtorch on the bedbath website and promptly added it to my registry.
The best part of class, however, was when Chef thanked me for being his partner (read “awful but enthusiastic sous chef”) BY NAME. He knows my name!!!!
-Pyro Baer (but Chef just calls me Sarah)

Get Crackin'...and beating

Hello!
Last night (lesson 8) was really exhausting and very labor intensive. And I badly cut my thumb about a minute into class (no, we weren’t working on knife skills). We were introduced to eggs. Chef taught us their physical properties, how best to store them and how to use them in our baking. Quiz: How can you tell a fresh egg from an old egg? The Albumen (white) of a fresh egg with has more thick, gelatinous parts than runny. Old eggs are liquidy-er. Also, the yolk of a fresh egg is firmer and hold up higher than an old egg’s yolk. I guess old eggs look altogether older and more tired. They slump.
Then we practiced separating eggs (sorry, no fancy one handed cracking eggs here) and began to beat the yolks with sugar until their properties changed. They went from liquid and golden to thick and pale yellow. I began by saying how tiring and labor intensive this lesson was, and this was just the first time of many that we had to beat eggs into submission using only whisks. No mixers allowed. My partner was thankfully A LOT stronger than I am and was able to do most of the beating. I feel bad about how much I made her beat, but every time I would start my face would get all red with exertion and she would make fun of me, then take the whisk away. Plus, my thumb injury was still fresh so I was at a disadvantage, albeit a slight one. Yes, beating eggs is the most physical activity I have done in a long while and I guess it shows. I truly need to begin lifting weights to develop my upper arm strength. That, or practice some more. After the yolks, we beat up whites, then folded the two together, then folded in flour. Voila! Lady Fingers batter!
Once these were piped out and placed in the oven, we made mayonnaise- an emulsification of yolk and oil with mustard lemon juice and salt/pepper. It’s really easy to make, and the lemon juice “cooks” the yolk. But for the squeamish among us use the Hellman’s version. In my non-expert opinion, mayo is mayo. Unless it’s Aioli.
By the time the mayo was done, it was time to remove the lady fingers-only for some of us it was a bit too late. Industrial ovens should come with timers. Moving on, we made Zabaglione (Zah-Bahg-Leey-Oh-Nay) which is basically yolks, sugar and Marsala wine whipped and beaten and hammered at over a double boiler until…they thicken and lighten in color. You could fold in whipped cream to it if you like or eat it plain, with berries and lady fingers if you happen to have them lying around the kitchen! This was a delicious treat for all those who tried it.
Finally, we learned about whipping egg whites into a meringue. There are three types of meringues, French, Swiss and Italian. French uses no heat, just plain old whites and sugar. Swiss uses a luke warm double boiler and Italian uses a boiling double boiler (the more heat, the more stable your meringue). We did the French version and just whipped our hearts out. Chef did a demo before we began and predictably, held the beaten meringue upside down over my head (I love being sous chef!) to demonstrate their thickness and stability. Classic practical joke of a pastry kitchen.
A word about our equipment. We used COPPER bowls to beat our eggs. Legend (and chemistry) has it, that the metal alloy has special ions in it that allow for a creamier, firmer meringue. Unfortunately, copper bowl easily form a patina that has toxins in it, so you need to rub it with vinegar/salt mixture (or lemon juice) before you use it. This restores its beautiful pink shine (great for use on pennies, too!). We also used a balloon whisk- long handle, huge/wide wire head-which was much easier than a small or standard size whisk. Note: when whisking, grab the whisk from above, not below-it’s much easier. Also, don’t add the sugar too early. Wait for them to foam and become white, otherwise it takes forever to whip up. And, unless you want to look like a fancy pastry chef and show off a bit, USE A MIXER. IT IS SO MUCH EASIER. Even Ina Garten does it.
- The Incredible, (in)Edible Sarah Baer

Reaching Maturity

Hi!
Week three started off with a twist- My partner and I became Chef's Sous Chefs for the week. This "honor" is bestowed on a different pair of students every week at random, so naturally I took it as a sign that Chef now loves me. We have some added responsibilities- making sure Chef has all tools, and ingredients raring to go before his model lesson- setting up his “Mis En Place” or MEP. This means a whole lot of scrambling and a whole lot less of paying attention. Also, Chef isn’t all that clear with his directions-he changes his mind as to what he wants and how much of it he wants (probably to keep us on our toes, I’m sure). His accent DOESN’T help. Example. He told Partner to get something from the “pool”- She looked at me quizzically. Now, I had no idea what the “pool” was, BUT we do have something in class called the “pull”, which are the specialty ingredients we get from the store room every day. Obviously (though it want obvious at that moment) Chef was talking about the “pull”. This week should be interesting.
Last night’s lesson was devoted to fruit and five ways you can “cook” them. We roasted/baked, poached, macerated, dehydrated/dried and candied (in case “macerated” is a foreign term, it means to soften by breaking down the fruit-usually berries- in a slurry, I believe. In our case, sugar, herbs and balsamic vinegar). None of this is terribly exciting (unless you really like Apple Chips) but getting all five dishes done and your station cleaned up in a short period of time was challenging. It was also important to learn time management. The candied orange peel and dehydrated apples had to be done first, because they took longest, followed by the poached pears, roasted pears and figs and then finally the macerated strawberries. Our poached pears smelled excellent, and I’m told the syrupy poaching liquid (wine, sugar, vanilla, lemon) tasted great. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sample the poached fruit, as they will be used in a later class to make tarts. Any time the word “tart” or “pie” is used in class I cheer a bit, so I’m not complaining that we couldn’t sample the pears (that and the fact that I couldn’t eat them anyway…)
It is important to note a level of maturity that I reached last night. As I was getting lemons out of the fridge, I dropped one and it rolled under an industrial sized freezer. No one saw me do this. I could have gotten away scot free, and then in two weeks when someone noticed rotting lemon smells, I could have SO easily played dumb. And for a while I was content with this plan. It took me two hours to tell chef about the lemon, but no matter, I told him! And he got the lemon out and only gave me a marginally annoyed look! I feel so grown up, admitting my clumsy mistakes instead of sweeping them under the freezer. Of course, it wasn’t ten minutes later that I couldn’t open the lock of a cabinet with Chef’s key, but by then the lemon ordeal was forgotten. Whatever, I knew how to chiffonade mint (a way of chopping herbs by rolling them up into themselves and thinly slicing, creating ribbons).
An interesting and awkward thing I noticed: After class, when waiting for a subway, it is not uncommon to spot a classmate. We aren’t yet at the point when we talk much outside of school (I’m shy) but there is some sort of head bob acknowledgment. Also, without our uniforms, and hair out of our hats, it’s harder to recognize people and be SURE that they were the ones sampling your poaching liquid. Finally, even if we do recognize each other, without the crutch of our monogrammed jackets, remembering names is a lot harder. All of this creates very awkward situations when you unwittingly get on the same packed subway car with a class mate, only to semi-ignore her for the ride. Doesnt this make you want to ride the subway with me?
-The sometimes unfriendly Sarah Baer

Knowing Your Knife and Minding Your Manicure

Hi again,

Last night completed my second week of culinary school. Chef began the lesson by making a crème anglaise- the base of ice creams, a vanilla sauce made with cream, sugar and eggs. This wasn't part of the lesson plan but Chef saw a vanilla pod lying around so he wanted to show us how to use one-splitting it in half length wise and scraping the beans out, using the emptied pod to make vanilla sugar. Obviously, Ina Garten and taught me this long ago, but I humored Chef.
We then finished up our fruit gels (the French term is Pate de Fruit- now you can Google image it!), cutting them into squares and coating them with even more sugar. As we were doing this, a couple came in nosing around the kitchen. Apparently they had come from an expensive dinner and wanted some dessert. This is a good tip for anyone looking for some dessert and are on a budget- stop in at a culinary school and mooch of the students (kind of like getting a haircut at a beauty school- cheap, but does the job). Anyway, the couple stopped at our station and had a piece of my partner and my Pate de Fruit and LOVED it. Weird, because my partner didn't-she said she would give them all away and make her husband eat some. Chef could barely contain himself as he went around sampling all of ours. He is a Pate de Fruit fanatic (I think it reminds him of his childhood. He said French mothers give it to their babies because they are so soft and gummy. I think I'll stick to Flinstone vitamins).
Then we did MORE piping. Are you all tired of hearing about the cornets and chocolate? I'm getting kind of tired of doing it...but definitely improving. Chef calls them Chocolate Drills, and there will be plenty more- I think that writing happy birthday and piping are the lowly jobs many of us will start off with in kitchens, so we need to be really good at it. Don't fret, I wont bore you with more cornet details (unless I have some hilarious anecdote pertaining to them, I wouldn't deny you that).
It should be noted that my uniform is sufficiently dirty and chocolate covered to warrant a washing. Our uniforms must be completely clean or we are scolded- or worse, docked points from our grade. Mine was dirty yesterday, but a creatively placed apron and strategically rolled sleeve covered up the problem areas are quite nicely.
After the chocolate drill we moved onto cutting fruit. First Chef taught us how to hold a knife. Predictably, I had been doing this incorrectly. I got the correct hand (thank goodness) but the placement of fingers were off. The back three fingers (pinkie to middle finger) should be on the handle, The thumb should be on the base of the steel, as should the pointer-albeit on opposite sides of the blade. Also, when slicing, fingers need to be tucked under, exposing the knuckle but not the nail. I know this to be true, but I still question the wisdom. If I were to cut any part of my finger, I would rather it be the nail, not the knuckle, but who am I to argue with Chef? Once these skills were "mastered" (more like mimicked for the moment and forgotten once we actually started chopping) Chef disassembled a pineapple, sliced an apple paper thin and supremed oranges. Supreming is when you remove the segments of the orange without any of the pith (white outer stuff). Its pure orange wedges. This is time consuming but worth it, believe me.
Then we each peeled, cut a sliced our own apple, pear, orange, kiwi and mango trying (and mainly failing) to keep our new knife techniques in mind. I cut myself within seconds of beginning- the first in today's class! and helped myself yet again to the band aids. I can't say this enough, new Wuhstoff knives are very sharp. This whole exercise was so exciting because I was able to eat the fruit along with my classmates. As we were cutting, Chef came around with other fruits for us to sample (much like the first tasting I described, with the butters and milks) and note. Blackberries, passion fruit, papaya, melons...He also came around with dried, candied and canned fruit. Now, I still don’t think Chef knows my name (I’m fairly certain of this, for when he does role call and calls my name, he still needs to rely on my hand shooting up and me saying "here") BUT he does know me as the kosher one, so when he came around with the candied/canned fruit, he asked if it was okay. Improvement!
I finally brought my book home and will attempt to begin some serious reading this weekend, index cards included.

-Sarah, your Cutco Representative

A Not-So-Rookie Mistake

Good Morning Everyone!

Last night kicked off with a video called "Sanitation...Not an Option." It was one of those awful, boring video cassettes made in the late 80s about the germs that spread in the kitchen because of bad personal hygiene, bad time and temperature practices with "danger" foods and infestations of vermin. Basically, it’s a miracle that any of us are alive. A very boring 45 minutes.
A woman from the offices came in and told us about a workshop coming us with one of the Ghirardelli founders! No joke, Ghirardelli chocolate! Something I KNOW is kosher! The class is Wednesday July 14th, from 1:30 to 3, smack in the middle of a work day. I will not be attending, though if there was ever a reason to play hooky, this would be it.
After the video and the workshop announcement, we moved straight into making fruit gels. There is a fancy French word for these, but it escapes me at the moment-it sounds a lot more appealing than fruit gels though. You know fruit gels- those gross things that are shaped like pieces of oranges served primarily on Pesach. Or upscale French restaurants. The theme of today's class was gelatin and pectin, hence the fruit gels. Luckily, my partner was back (she was sick yesterday) and so we began gellin. [My partner asked me about my "kosher only diet” and how annoying and sad it is. I told her she would have to sample our fruit gels and could have them all. She is ruing the fact that I am her partner for the fruit gels assignment, and not the chocolate bonbons.]
There isn’t so much to note about the process. You add loads (1000 grams) of sugar to fruit puree (we used apricot) and heat. Then add pectin, glucose (the STICKIEST thing in the world. picture melted lollipops) and citric acid. Boil. Pour into pans. I thought I would be a helpful partner and took my partner and my own tools to the sink and began washing. We had used my partner's candy thermometer. We can no longer use my partner’s candy thermometer as I submerged it in water for a number of minutes, breaking it. My own thermometer is now my partner's thermometer.
Moving on, the gels have to set up for HOURS, so we will be finishing them with sugar and cutting them tonight. You use pectin in these, not gelatin, to get a chewier, gummier product as opposed to a wigglier less dense product (Jello). There is also Xanthium (a gum) and agar agar (derived from seaweed I think) which are used for similar, though not identical purposes. Fun Fact: Chef said that basically all of the gelatins used in pastries are derived from fish, not beef bones.
We then had more piping with cornets practice. I discovered something about my cornets skills last night. I had been piping lefty. I don’t know why, and I don’t know why it took me two hours to figure it out, but I had been placing the cornet in my left hand and steadying it with my right. That isn’t even a rookie mistake, that's just weird and kind of dumb. But once I figured it out, Eureka! By simply switching hands, I improved tremendously. Thankfully, no one saw that I had been using my left hand (unless they did and had assumed that I was a lefty).
Another discovery of the night: I need to brush up on my study skills. Everyone on my class has been keeping up with reading our textbook. I only realized last night that we had reading assignments at all. I asked jovially in the locker room if anyone had actually began reading, and I got blank looks, lots of "of course" and people chiming "oh yes, I’ve been making index cards and have started memorizing them." Shoot. Where are all the slackers?

-Sarah, the not-so-ambidextrous Chef

Measure, Sift, Repeat

And we are back with week two of Culinary School!
Last night we jumped right into practicing our chocolate piping skills. We were supposed to do this using the Cornets (Cor-Nays) we made last week. I say "supposed to" because I didn’t complete that homework assignment and showed up with twelve unformed pieces of parchment paper. A classmate saw that I had none and gave me two of her own. Sharing is Caring!
Five minutes into class I nick my finger with a knife. Wusthoff knives are VERY sharp. I try to ignore it, but I’m getting blood all over, and as we are about to play with chocolate, I decide to help myself to the first aid kit's band aids. There are some crazy first aid gadgets in there. Burn gel, bandages of all sizes, cauterizers. This makes me pause and wonder how badly maimed we will get over the course of the next months. But no time to daydream, there are chocolate fans to make! We practiced for about an hour, tracing patterns onto parchment paper with melted chocolate, learning how to make, fill, hold and wield the cornets. When done incorrectly, this is a very messy and frustrating assignment. Make no mistake; this was done incorrectly by nearly everyone in class, including myself. Twice I cut the tip of my cornet too wide (rookie mistake) and so my lines of chocolate were not delicate. Chef did complement me on my coordination however and noted how my hand barely shook. Take that Cornets!
We then sat down to learn about cookies. There are three methods for making cookies- creaming (cream the butter and sugar, mechanical leavening), sponge (lights batter, chemical leavening) and 2 stage (alternate dry and wet ingredients) There are many types of cookies - rolled, ice box, spread, drop, bar and so on. We learned about different leaveners and when you would use each. For example, Baking soda reacts with acids to make things rise, baking powder reacts with moisture and heat. Cocoa powder is considered an acid, as is buttermilk, citrus juice and something else that is escaping me at the moment. For some reason, Chef breezed over these important chemical tidbits and instead spent a half hour explaining how one would make a checkerboard cookie. But I guess in culinary school cookie trumps science.
After that exercise, we split up into our groups to bake for the very first time in class! My fashionista partner was absent so I had to join another group of two (for someone such as myself who doesnt enjoy sharing kitchen space or responsibilities, this was tough). Though the recipe didn’t call for it, one of my partners asked Chef about sifting the dry ingredients and then made us do it TWICE. I told her "wow, I very rarely sift" She said "I guess that’s why you're here". I said "no, I’m here because I rarely measure ingredients or use recipes." That shut her up.
We made a Gingersnap Cookie Recipe, a basic "creamed" cookie. Some groups used all butter, other groups used all Crisco, and my group used a combination of both. While there was no discerning taste difference (or so I was told), the butter cookies spread more than the Crisco cookies. At the end of class, as everyone was sampling and hording cookies to take home, Chef asked me why I didn’t want any. With tears in my eyes I woefully told him that I couldn’t eat any because I kept kosher (my third time reminding him). He told me to take some for friends...but there really weren’t any left after my classmates had taken their share.
I hope my partner is back for tonight's class, although then the likelihood of taking home any leftovers are even lower...

-Sarah "I don’t need a recipe to make sense of the world" Baer

Left Loosy Right Tighty

Hi Everyone!
Last night was night three (of a million) and the end of the week's culinary school adventures. It began as promised, with a visit from the internship director. Internships are VERY important, and one cannot get certified without working 210 hours, at a minimum of 12 hours a week and a maximum of 35. The actual process of securing an internship is daunting. We need to "stodge" (test out random restaurants for a day and see if we like it) and "trail" (trail). After a lengthy rant about internships, the director asked us each to introduce ourselves and give a quick one or two liner about ourselves. I only mention this because Chef never had us do this, and what we were really doing was introducing ourselves to one another (thankfully Chef was out of the room, so he still doesn't really know who we are). Names, current jobs, where we see ourselves in the industry, favorite dessert, that sort of thing. When it was my turn, I decided to drop the "K" bomb and let my classmates know that I kept Kosher, wasn't going to be able to eat most of what we produced, and basically handicapped myself. I was going for pity, and if the whole "you are going to miss your own wedding" thing didn't do it, surely this would. In my rather homogeneous class, I have business managers, psychologists, physical therapists, advertising people and failed fashion designers to name a few. The majority of us have full times jobs, so I will stop complaining about how hard it is to juggle (they didn't pity me for that, so why should you all?). Basically, we are all unfulfilled at our jobs and really really really love baking.
Once the hour and a half internship portion concluded something REALLY exciting happened- Chef came in and took out a pot. We were going to make caramel! Now, there are two types of caramel- one "wet" and one "dry". Wet caramel is usually thicker and used to make angel hair-those really thin strands if caramel you see on Croquembouche (Google image it) and thinner sauces. Dry caramel, which we all made once Chef concluded his demo, is thicker. Now, as Chef was doing his demo, I was supposed to be filling the large sinks so that we could wash dishes. Needless to say, I made a fool out of myself by not understanding how to close the valve to the drain (otherwise the sink couldn't fill).
Chef was busy doing the demo, and I was behind him at the sink, frantically trying to close the drain. Finally, after five minutes and a still empty sink, I cough and say "Chef? I can’t close the sink drain." No worries! Chef closed it in seconds (note to self, there is a lever-type-thing you need to flip to the right) and continues with the caramel. After this snafu, I know I need to redeem myself, which I did my being a know-it-all and explaining to the class and Chef why one needed a bowl of ice water at your side while making caramel- not in case of burns but in order to test the stages of the melted sugar- string, soft ball, hard ball, cracked. As Chef demonstrated, one dips his/her hand from the ice bath into the pot of boiling sugar, grabs a bit out of the pot and submerges it into the water bath, squeezing the sugar between the thumb and pointer finger and testing its consistency. The longer the caramel is on the stove, the harder the ball until one can’t make a ball anymore and the sugar simply cracks upon reaching the cold water.
We each made the caramel in teams. My teammate was one of the two ex-fashion designers. Then the really fun part began, and we were instructed to take a spoon, dip it into the hot caramel and make shapes and designs with the trailing threads of caramel. This is harder than it sounds, as the consistency of the caramel must be exact and you need to be very quick while working with it. Chef made fancy little delicate things, and I made clunky, rudimentary hearts and stars. I even did my name (though to be honest, the "h" was really more a blob than anything else). Fun though!
After clean up, Chef showed us how to make Cornets (imagine small piping bags made of parchment paper). It was origami for pastry chefs. They will be used (next week) to practice piping chocolate. Excited? Me too.

-Sarah, the Plumbing Queen

Spotted: Lard

Hi everyone.
Day two of culinary school was my first work/school double header. Its kind of exhausting running from one to the next, especially when the "next" is four hours on your feet. No worries, though, im a trooper (except when I whine to my sister or fiance on the phone. Then im just annoying)
Class itself went as follows: We are drilled with conversions and measurements- I (still) have not mastered this- I had trouble in fifth grade and im having trouble with it now. We were each given three items to measure using our scales (six ounces of corn meal, three cups two ounces molasses). I had measured my four pounds two ounces of flour flawlessly, not a tenth of an ounce over, when Chef ambles up and says "how many ounces?" "Four pounds two ounces" I reply hastily. "No No, what if the scale was broken and it only gave you ounces. How many?" Because I had a BLANK look on my face, he gave me a hint- 16 ounces in a pound. Now, I can multiply 16 by four and then add two. Really, I can. But for some reason, I just stood there (maybe I was tired after work, maybe i really cant multiply 16 and 4 in my head. either way, I wasnt exactly prompt with my answer.) He waited, then explained how to do the simple arithmetic by multiplying 16 by two (32) then multiplying 32 by 2 ("64!" I blurted out , relieved i could do SOMETHING) then just adding two. 66, of course. Im really going to have to study for this test/qiuz I have coming up.
After our measuring exercises, we were taught how to clean- wash, rinse, sanitize. Warning- the sanitizing liquid you dunk the pot/bowl/measuring cup in is HOT (I am telling you this; Chef forgot to mention it).
Then, we were each assigned a fruit and a chocolate and were told to come prepared today with two complimentary flavors. I was given Strawberry (Puh-lease) and white chocolate (more challenging than milk or dark, but not terrible). If any of you have any suggestions, please submit them by four thirty today!
After discussing famous pastry chefs for a bit, and an eight minute break, Chef proceeded to tell us how grueling it was to be a pastry chef. 12 hour days that are spent on your feel, being bossed around by a Chef-in-Chief getting paid NOTHING. Glamorous.
The most exciting part of yesterday's class was the tasting portion.
Chef laid out around 20 little cups of ingredients (salt, baking soda, ricotta, whipped butter, vanilla, sweetened condensed milk, mozzarella, Devonshire cream, meringue powder...) and we tasted, looking for smell, taste, texture and appearance. I say We, but I was only able to taste about a quarter of the ingredients- most were prob kosher, but i wasnt sure. Thankfully, Chef didnt take out the lard- this is not a joke- he had it in the fridge but "forgot". I suspect he didint take it out in deference to me, but im not sure. How does one describe the taste of salt other than saying "salty?' in any case, "We" had a lot of fun with the tasting exercise :)
Tonight we are going to be visited by the internship coordinator. I need to decide where I want to do my internship- a restaurant, hotel, bakery or maybe a food media outlet. I think we might be cooking something as well- i'll be keeping my fingers crossed!
These updates will hopefully get more interesting as i begin to actually cook/bake.

- Sarah, the Measuring Wonder

So You're a Chef

Welcome to the first day of Culinary School! There is a lot to share, so I’m going to jump right in.

Let me begin by describing my classmates. There are 16 students in the class, all women, all between the ages of 19 and 35. Granted we are racially diverse, there is still a surprisingly homogeneous feel to the class. I was really looking forward to having some middle aged ex-cons in my class, but I suppose the "free-er spirits" and "unconventional" students are in the culinary program. As our instructor informed us, Pastry and Baking arts is primarily comprised of Type-A personalities (so I guess Im the one who will diversify the class, with my apathy for measuring and indifference for recipes).

The first class was spent going over the many rules and regulations I need to follow while at school. The one rule that was drilled in more than any other was that you may NOT miss class. There is NO such thing as an excused absence. I happen to be very lucky that all Jewish Holidays fall out on Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday this year, but I’m not exactly in the clear. I quote "Weddings are not excused absences. Even your own." Obviously, I had informed some classmates of my engagement during some locker-room chatting, and so I drew many a pitying gaze at this point. But there is no use in worrying about it until I have to I guess. In a final push to dissuade us from missing class, we were told that every class we miss is worth about $325. Little did they know that I am used to Yeshiva tuition, where every day that I missed coasted about that much :)

Eventually, the rules are explained and our text books are given out. TEXT BOOKS. My favorite is titled "So You're a Chef" but we have two others, with the history of baking and info about the industry. Another has close to a thousand recipes, all yielding fifty servings. The text books are to be studied in preparation for our quizzes, tests, research assignments and practical exams. They aren’t joking around with this stuff.

About half-way through class, our instructor comes in and introduces himself. He tells us his name, but we are to call him Chef. I already knew this from watching "Dinner Impossible" and other Food Network shows. He has a very odd accent. - He is French (was an apprentice baker since the age of 14) then moved to England where he learned English. Except, I think he learned cockney accented English, and has a speech impediment/lisp. This could be a problem farther down the road when I need to really pay attention to what he is saying. He speaks painfully slow but seems very nice. We have him as our instructor for the first quarter of the course.
Chef begins by explaining the Metric System and measuring to us Americans. How many ounces in a liter. How many quarts in a gallon. How many cups in a liter. How likely am I to remember this stuff? He goes over the many different types of flour (fun fact: Flours weight different amounts based on how much protein they contain. Bread flour is about 13% protein while cake flour is only 6%. Quiz. Which is heavier, bread flour or cake flour?)

When class ends I walk up to Chef and explain how I won’t be able to taste everything because I keep kosher, how I know this puts me at a disadvantage but I plan on cooking/baking everything anyway. He seems chill about it, but there is no telling yet how handicap this will actually make me.

This just about sums up my first day. I hope to update you some more after my next couple of classes!

-Chef Baer