Saucier Week 3, Day 3. Final Exam. Rodney and I made Sweet corn fritters in class. They turned out very well. We plated at 5pm instead of the usual 715pm so that we could clean up for the exam. We were paid a visit by the Meat Fab chefs to get ready for Monday. There will be no production, but there will be videos and lecture. I'd feel a lot better if I didn't know about all the questions I got wrong. I messed up the cost card on the test. I knew something was fishy in the numbers, but I just couldn't put my finger on it until I got home. There were two soup questions that had me dumbfounded. I'm hoping for the best, but the perfectionist in me is disappointed. Another class in the books.

Saucier Week 3, Day 2. Practicals. The sautes for the practical were Chicken Marsala and Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Beurre Nantais. Yesterday, Chef Holtermann introduced a new Associate Chef to the class. Mark graduated from SCI five years ago and has cooked in Alaska and Colorado. Today Mark was grading our sautes. They threw him right into the fire. Our knife cuts were julienne of parsnips and brunoise of bell pepper. The Blue team went last so I felt pretty good after getting advice from fellow classmates. I got a point deducted for my inconsistent bell pepper brunoise and another deduction for the slight overdoneness of my salmon. I got a perfect score on the Chicken Marsala though I felt that Chef Mark wanted to take a point off somewhere. It felt anticlimatic, maybe it was the wait to present to the Chef. There was a long line after the time limit to get graded. I spent the extra time cleaning my plate. It's good to have that out of the way. It makes up for the practical in Basics.

Before the practicals, it was class as usual. Shelby and I made Shrimp Puffs and small suaces from Chicken Veloute: Allemande and Supreme. Shelby spent about an hour spooning the shrimp puff mixture into quenelles for deep-frying until someone told us we had to wrap them in gyoza wrappers. It was a mad dash to the finish but we got it done in time for family meal. The meal today was quite large for some reason. There were steaks to taste the small Espagnole sauces, gratin potatoes, enchiladas, General Tso's chicken, and our shrimp puffs, as well as all the soups. I was worried that I'd be too stuffed to cook for the practical, but going last helped. Tomorrow is more production and then a final exam.

Saucier Week 3, Day 1. On Saturday, I volunteered to help Chef Holtermann with Foods from Provence Class. The menu was:
Pate de Fromage de Chevre aux Herbs Fraiches (Goat Cheese and Herb Dip)
Poulet Saute aux Herbes de Provence - Chicken sauted in butter with herbs
Saucisson en Croute - sausages wrapped in puff pastry
Bouillabaisse Marseillais
Daube de Boeuf - beef stew
Gratins Daupinois - yummy potato dish made with cream and Gruyere
Ratatouille
Tarte aux Pommes et Fenouil Caramelise - Apple tart with caramelized fennel
Tarte au Citron - lemon tart

When I first arrived in the kitchen at 8am, Chef Holtermann had me go outside and pick some fresh rosemary for the marinade in the Daube de Boeuf. While picking it I was questioning why I paid 2-3 dollars for this stuff in supermarkets. The stuff was growing like weeds in the patch I picked from. Later on I helped Jen, the baker extraordinaire, by squeezing two cups of lemon juice, peeling a lot of apples, and caramelizing the fennel. Chef Holtermann also had me brown the chicken. The students in the class basically learn about the region and do knife cuts. The Chef and the volunteers do most of the cooking. At the end of the class after all the students took their fill, I grabbed the rest of the sausage, the goat cheese, and the remaining bouillabaisse. Volunteering does have its benefits. By the way, long story short, I ran out of gas for the gingerbread house competition. I'm not as young as I used to be. Maybe Fallingwater was a bit ambitious, but I am a dreamer.

We're pretty much coming into the home stretch. The Blue team has rotated into Sauces. I made three small sauces derived from Bechamel: Cheddar Cheese, Mornay, and Soubise. Shelby made a Smoked Mariara sauce that Chef Holtermann praised highly. The soup team made soups and the stock team made stocks. I guess I now know why this class is only three weeks long. But I sometimes think that we're not being prepared for reality; that is, the repetition of cooking the same foods day after day in a restaurant. Maybe when we work in the a la carte kitchen, L'Academie, or the fine dining restaurant, L'Ecole, reality will set in.

We had our practice practical today. We have to do a double saute and some knife cuts in twenty minutes. The practice sautes today were Pork Medallion Marsala and Sole Amandine. The knife cuts were brunoise and julienne of celery. Hopefully things will be different tomorrow. Celery takes a little more time to square off than carrots. The pork was a piece of cake, but the sole was another story. I burned some almonds, I burned the sauce a bit, and I didn't cut enough brunoise of celery. It was a good learning experience. I think the most important thing is to cook the food until it is done. I learned my lesson from Basics. The time limit is only a portion of the total score, so I can definitely sacrifice that for doneness.

Saucier Week 2, Day 2. My first carpool with Rodney went well. I rushed a bit because I've been staying up way too late. But that will change. Maybe not. We went to Chef Karen to get more info about the trip to Tuscany and Paris. It's a ten day, nine night tour tweaked by the dean at Western Culinary Institute so that it's more geared towards culinary students. He also worked it out so that we stay in three and four star hotels. We have breakfast and dinner everyday, and we are on our own for lunch. Three cities are involved: Bologna, another Italian city, and Paris. We end at the mother school Le Cordon Blue. Chef Karen said that six people have already signed up. I hope to add to that, but I need to secure asource of income first. I plan to tackle that tomorrow with an interview with Bill Davis the owner of Anozira, a staffing company for hotels, resort, and catering events. They were at the job fair during orientation.

In class, we did the cost card for French Onion soup. It costs 0.99 to make a bowl of French Onion soup with our recipe that yields three gallons. The soups team did all the same soups that we did on Week 1, Day 3. Casey was assigned the one I did, Veloute Andalouse (Tomato Soup). I think she did a better job garnishing because she had more rice and had whole parsley leaves in between the roasted pepper strips. The sauce team made tomato sauces and veloutes. Shelby and I tackled the chicken stock today. Not too bad, we only had to cut 16 pounds of mirepoix today and there was no roasting of bones. We did blanch the chicken bones, but I found out later from Kenny that it was unnecessary. There is a debate whether to blanch or not to blanch. Blanching rids the bones of impurities, but it also takes a lot of flavor with it. I'm in favor of not blanching.

Kenny made a paella for family meal. We also had the potato tournees from yesterday's knife cuts. I opted not to eat until the sautes. Today we made Sole Amandine. Anything Amandine means its made with almonds, usually slivered and toasted. I mistakely thawed too many pieces of sole, so I ended up making five pieces. The key to this dish is to get the carmelization of the fish, the color of the toasted almonds, and the sauce all the same color. All the fish haters gave me their sautes. It was just Rodney, Eve, and Manny, but with my three extra pieces of fish, it seemed like a mountain of sole. I ended up taking it home along with some paella because we had to clean up.

Saucier Week 2, Day 1. The Saturday class was pretty interesting. Chef Holtermann taught 15 students about creating a Thanksgiving feast. He made two turkeys, Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings, Cranberry Orange Relish, Sweet Potatoes, Glazed Shallots and Garlic Cloves, Cornbread Andouille Sausage Stuffing, Wild Rice Stuffing, Pumpkin Custard Pie, and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. I drove with Rodney to class at 730am. It took me a little while to wake up, but the day went by pretty quickly. I think I'm going to voluteer this weekend as well. Chef Holtermann is teaching a class about the foods of the Provence region in France.

Before class today I met Rodney at the AM catering banquet before going to the other campus to attend a meeting about a Gingerbread House Competition. The Pastry Chefs are building twenty "Gingerbread contrustions" themselves for a charity auction. It's nice because the chefs are providing the gingerbread and the royal icing, which is the primary icing used to hold gingerbread together. I will only say that I plan to enter the competition which must be finished by this Sunday. More will be revealed as I reach completion.

Today the Blue team moved to stocks. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but a vital component in the kitchen nonetheless. Shelby and I spent most of the time cutting ten pounds of onions, five pounds of carrots, and five pounds of celery, and roasting eighty pounds of veal bones. I also spent a great deal of time inside the walkin freezer trying to find calves feet. Who knew they were buried in the corner? At least I know where everything is now. So we didn't actually make stock; we made a veal kit which is everything but the water. It will be used eventually for stock.

The Gold team moved on to soups. They made the same soups that we did on our first day with the addition of Pumpkin Cider Soup and She Crab Soup. Chef also had Molly and Chaz plate a bowl with four soups: Potage Crecy, Black Bean Soup, Potage St Germaine, and White Cheddar Soup. The Green team made Bechamel and Espagnole, two mother sauces. Kenny, the extern assisting Chef Holtermann, made roast pork. Someone made two hotel pans of chicken enchiladas and a bowl of salad. Susan made some mashed potatoes and Kenny made a gravy using the pan juices from the pork.

Saute for today was Pan Seared Salmon with Beurre Nantais. Beurre Nantais is a Beurre Blanc with heavy cream. One fear from Basics was conquered when I was assigned the Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom) last week. Today another one was vanquished as I produced a consistent Beurre Nantais. My salmon was a bit overcooked, but I was too stuffed to eat it anyway. Shelby and Eve also offered me their sautes because they are not fish eaters. Maybe I should bring tupperware to school to bring all this stuff home.

Sauicer Week 1, Day 5. I am both happy and sad that we only have thirteen days in saucier. Happy that my stomach won't burst, but sad because there is much more to learn from Chef Holtermann. Another math lecture today. We did a cost card for veal stock. There was a small crisis when Tara lost her diamond earrings. I believe she found all of them though. The one gripe I have about our uniforms is that the pants packets don't hold small things well. Tara spied a sign on the bulletin board in the back about a trip to France during our summer break next year. There are arranged visits to top restaurants and hotels. It sounds really exciting but cost about $3400 and is limited to the first 30 students. I hope to save up for it. I guess I could always sign up and force myself to save up for it.

Today's production:
Eve - Lobster Bisque
Shelby - Corn Chicken Chowder
Me - Tortilla Soup
Rodney - Seafood Gumbo
Susan - Roasted Garlic Cream Soup - Chef Holtermann's Recipe and Provencal Garlic Soup - Julia Child's Recipe
Kalei Brazillian Black Bean Soup
Blair - Creole Tomato Soup
Jen - Cock-a-Leekie, Scotch Broth, Beef Barley

Eve's Lobster Bisque was super rich and yummy. She said that it was due to reducing heavy cream. I spent a lot of time learning how to grill chicken. Once again I had lots of help: Shelby helped me chop the chicken and garnish, Joe concassed my tomatoes, Deborah deep fried tortilla strips for my garnish, Nelson and Manny deep-fried tortilla chips, Richie roasted two poblanos and one anaheim chile, and James help me deep fry some tortilla strips. I love having all this help. I hope to help out my fellow classmates when I'm on stocks and have little to do. Rodney's Gumbo went real quickly. I lucked out because no one touched the presentation bowl.

The stock team, now consomme masters, lobster consommes along with their stocks. The sauce team had fun with Bearnaise and Hollandaise and all the small sauces derived from them. They made shrimp to try each of the sauces. Family meal also included hushpuppies, and some awesome polenta that I used with my saute. The saute for today was Tournedo Marsala. I really like the fact that we're getting experience using different liqueurs. Thank goodness the filet was only 1.5 ounces, I don't think I could've eaten any more. I'm getting more confident with my sautes. I don't burn things, I actually get a deeper flavor with the reduced sauces I make. Chef said that we're going to start doing double sautes on Wednesday.

Saucier Week 1 Day 4. I highly recommend training for a marathon while going through culinary school. Even if you don't run a marathon eventually, you'll still be able to see your toes. I think we are being spoiled rotten. Rotten to the core. We still have to cook and execute, but the food is getting a bit insane. But before the food orgy started, we had the first of six math lessons on filling out food cost sheets. I like the fact that Chef Holtermann sets a standard by carrying out all decimals to four places without rounding. It makes more sense than just two demical places where a lot of pennies could be lost or gained. Chef showed us that it cost .0197 cents per ounce when making 16 gallons of chicken stock.

Here are the Potages du Jour:
JB - Garbure
Eve - Thai Shrimp Soup
Shelby - Vichyssoise
Me - Potage aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom Soup)
Rodney - Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
Susan - Soup aux gros Morceaux de Tomates (Chunky Style Cream of Tomato Soup)
Kalei -Roasted Fennel Soup
Blair - Muligatawny
Jen - Green Chile and Turkey Sausage Soup with Roasted Corn Dumplings

JB's Garbure is made with duck confit. Chef said that it was a soup that kept the doctor away. You first drank the broth, then ate the solids, and then sopped up the rest with bread soaked with red wine. Shelby's Vichyssoise came out well, but Chef said that he cooked the potatoes too long which led to a pasty consistency. I was peeling and chopping mushrooms forever. I think I may be finally at peace wx.net/globglob/archive/2003_07_01_archive.html">July 2003

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