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Adventures in Culinary School - L'Academie
I started in Oct 2002 at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. These are my stories.
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L'Academie
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Monday, March 17, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 1, Day 1. Back in the kitchen. We had three hours of lecture. Our chef is Chef Bryan Elliot. His Associate Chef is SCI alum Chef Andre Abelkis. Chef Elliot was born into the industry and has tons of experience. He's been around the world three times and has seen almost every cuisine. We are his last class because he is opening up a restaurant in mid-April. He'll have a pool of student among the people who want to work for him. He mentioned that he will setup an externship for SCI students. He is very energetic and shows his enthusiasm well. He told us that when he went to the CIA, he would spend two hours after classes typing up his notes, writing down recipes and techniques he learned that day. He told us that if we really apply ourselves this year of culinary school, it will pay off the rest of our careers.
The kitchen is split into seven stations. Manny, Richie, and I start on Station 5. Our responsibilities for Tuesday and Wednesday are Mussels Meuniere and the Fish of the Day. After lecture, we prepped for tomorrow's service. Other groups chopped garlic, shallots, and onions. We made the roasted tomato-garlic coulis for tomorrow's fish.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 1, Day 2. We have lecture before service for about an hour. During this time, Chef Elliot describes the fish of the day and the lesson of the day. Today the fish of the day was Grilled Salmon with herbed orzo, asparagus tips, and roasted tomato-garlic coulis. The lesson was panfried veal cutlet with roasted fingerling potatoes, eggplant caponata, and wild mushroom sauce.
After lecture, we prep our stations for service. Richie butchered the salmon, Manny prepped the asparagus, and I made the herbed orzo. The line is visible to the diners with the chef ordering and firing dishes as the tickets come in. There is also a back kitchen where the prep goes on and the dishwashing area is. The school hires dishwashers so that the students can focus on the kitchen operations. We are still responsible for washing our own equipment.
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 1, Day 3. The fish of the day was sauteed lemon sole with vegetable ratatouille, potato mousseline, and basil pesto sauce. Manny butcher the sole, Richie made the ratatouille, and I tackled the potato mousseline and the basil pesto sauce. I lost my Chef's knife yesterday when I left my stuff in the kitchen to go out to the front area to cook on the line. I think it's a blessing in disguise. I've been wanting to buy a new knife for some time.
I worked in the back for prep while Manny and Richie were out on the line. I chopped a lot of shallots.
Thursday, March 20, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 1, Day 4. We had to come in half an hour early to take a review exam of all the things we have learned in school up until this point. I would say it was pretty comprehensive. We didn't have lecture due to the exam, so Chef Elliot just handed us the recipe for the lesson of the day: Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Figs, Spinach, and Pancetta with fried polenta and drunken fig sauce. We rotated to the lesson station just in time for the weekend rush. It turned out to be a slow Thrusday though. Maybe the war is keeping people glued to the TV.
James showed us how to make the Chicken Provencal. It's a little involved, but it's manageable. There is a lot prep for this dish. The chicken is braised and fully cooked ahead of time. The broccoli rabe needs to be blanched and shocked. We also quarter, blanch and shock red bliss potatoes. For service, when the chef calls for an order of Chicken Provencal, we heat one ladle of brasing liquid, one ladle of chicken stock, some piece of chopped leg meat, and a chicken breast in a saute pan and cover. In another pan, we saute the broccoli rabe with butter and lemon juice. We also deep-fry five red bliss potatoes. To finish the dish, we saute the potatoes in butter and parsley and plate up the dish.
The pork loin is a bit easier. We don't have to do anything on order. All the work is done a la minute when the chef calls to fire the dish. Typically for entrees, chef orders an item and then fires the item. When he orders an item certain steps are done and when he fires the entree is finished. When the chef fires the pork loin, we fry two polenta patties, slice two pieces of pork loin, and plate the dish.
Friday, March 21, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 1, Day 5. The fish of the day was stuffed squid, clams casino, and shellfish nage. The lesson of the day was braised lamb shank with wild mushroom rissoto, swiss chard, and natural jus. Richie and I handled the orders on this Friday night, while Manny prepped in the back. We were pretty organized today and a lot of prep was done for us by the morning class. They have more time to prep than we do so they do some for us as well. We did our demo plate on time. So I had time to make some red pepper diamonds for our garnish. The natural jus reduced down to an amazing sauce. Even though Manny slightly overcooked the rissoto, it went well. Being a Friday night, we were extremely busy. At station 6, we are responsible for the lesson of the day and Chicken Provencal. I think we plated fourteen plates of each.
Monday, March 31, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 3, Day 1. Another day at the pasta station. I stayed in the back in the kitchen while Richie and Manny were on the line. I don't recall the prep I did in the kitchen. It was one of those days.
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 3, Day 2. New day at the soup station. Manny manned the line. It's only a one person operation mostly making French onion soup. He also made some minestrone soup. The rare items are the roast turkey sandwich and the pan bagnat(tuna sandwich). Richie and I spent the entire prep time coming up with a special. Chef Elliot gave us some smoked salmon to work with. We came up with a smoked salmon salad: haricot verts, roasted bell peppers, butter lettuce, and cream cheese wrapped inside two slices of smoked salmon and a bed of mixed greens with a roasted bell pepper vinaigrette. Manny the master of the salad du jour made the vinaigrette and the mixed green salad. We actually sold some. It's a gratifying feeling to sell something that you helped to create.
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 3, Day 3. Second day at the soup and sandwiches. It tool me a soup or two to perfect the french onion soup. It's all a matter of figuring out the hot spots in the salamander(broiler). The soups are made during prep. Ours are taken care of by the AM class. For our prep, we heat up two gallons of it and hold it at 140 F. To plate up french onion, we fill a crock with french onion, top it with a crouton, sprinkle on some gruyere, layer two slices of provolone and place it under the salamander in a small saute pan. We need to turn it halfway to get even browning of the cheese. Minestrone is lot simpler. We spoon two ladles of soup into a bowl, add 2-3 tasting spoons of acini di pepe(peppercorn shaped pasta) and a heaping teaspoon of parmesan. We are also responsible for the roast turkey sandwich and the pan bagnat, but it's very rare that someone orders those.
Thursday, April 03, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 3, Day 4. I took a break from the restaurant to volunteer for a function in the demo kitchen. There was a rehearsal dinner for a party of 47. The menu was:
Baby Blue salad - mixed baby greens, blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, and candied walnuts
Chicken Provencale - this is an item on the L'Academie menu, chicken brest with tomatoes, capers, garlic, and olives served with fingerling potatoes and broccoli rabe
Crepes Suzette - two thin crepes flavored with a sauce of melted butter, sugar, orange and lemon zest served with fresh berries
I helped with prepping the broccoli rabe, fingerling potatoes. I also help to plate all the dishes. Not a bad experience. Chef Elliot did the flaming liqueur with the Crepes Suzette demo. It's a nice visual in a darkened room.
Friday, April 04, 2003
L'Academie - Back of the House Week 3, Day 5. Last day at the back of the house. We got a lot of help with our prep because other teams were done with their prep. Being on salad and dessert, our prep wasn't to hard. I got a little crazy and started making sugar cages for the desserts. It's simple to make and is a great crowd pleaser. Richie and Manny handled most of the salad orders because they made them the night before. Manny has a reverence for salads that is admirable. I wish I had his passion for the craft. Plating the desserts was pretty fun. We had a model to copy, but we did our own presentations. There was an Asian woman who had a birthday, so decorated the plate by writing happy birthday in Chinese with mango sauce and topping her dessert with a sugar cage. I'm happy to report that she was very impressed. A great last night for all.
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Bonus coverage - Titanium Chef Round II. On Saturday, I competed in a cooking competition at our school. Our team consisted of Lara, Jen, Eve, and myself. The mystery protein was buffalo. They provided us with a market basket of items: purple potatoes, salsify, baby leeks, baby red onions, pecans, walnuts, red lentils, couscous, golden raisins, dried forest mushrooms, and a purple artichoke. We had an hour and a half to create as many dishes featuring buffalo as we could from the ingredients we had. We also had access to staples in the kitchen such as oils, liquors, butter, cream, veal stock, chicken stock, spices, etc. This was the second of three rounds of competition. The top six point totals from the three rounds advance to the finals.We are judged on proper sanitation, presentation, and flavor by a panel of chef instructors. We made three dishes: roulade of buffalo stuffed with baby leeks, forest mushrooms, raisins, and walnuts served with raisin couscous and a natural jus. I made the sauce by browning scraps of buffalo and the scraps of the vegetables combined with veal stock. It turned out pretty well. We also made a buffalo stew with purple potatoes and baby vegetables with a pastry crust. The flavor was great but the presentation might have been lacking. Our thrid dish was a dessert. We made vanilla thyme ice cream topped with candided buffalo and pecans. It was inspired by a dessert made by Chef Exley using ostrich. It tasted quite good. We finished second on the day. I think we are fifth overall. We may choose to compete in the third round if there are any spots open. The only mishap was slicing my hand open on my mandoline, but the day was fun.
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