Imagine my surprise this last Monday to find myself having to get acquainted with yet another new Chef Instructor! It seems Chef Otto has extended his vacation time to attend to the opening of his cooking school in Thailand and won't be returning for at least a couple weeks, and if the rumors hold true he might not be returning at all. Our class has agreed that we all really like Chef Otto and hope he comes back. Meanwhile, in his stead we have Chef Masahurito (I reserve the right to correct the spelling later), whom we address as Chef Masa. He is an accomplished chef from the Mt Fuji area of Japan and he will guide us through this rotation in the Garde Manger. Chef Masa is the same age as me (and even looks 10 years younger, JUST LIKE ME!), is very nice, polite, and enjoys a good laugh. A little of Chef Otto must have rubbed off on him, as he recently bought a home and property in Thailand and married a Thai woman 28 years younger than he. He gives us almost total autonomy to prepare our dishes and manage our own mistakes and/or successes. I think we will survive our three week stint in the Garde in fine fashion as long as we can learn to better deal with his self-admittedly poor English. He must get very frustrated when he gives a simple direction and we all stare blankly and say "what was that?" For example: Today we made a chicken galantine, which is a rolled boneless half chicken filled with a variety of ground meats. It differed, he said, from the rolled stuffed salmon we made yesterday because we had to "roll it in the foyer". As I thought about what the importance of rolling chicken in the foyer instead of in the kitchen could possibly be, he pulled out the aluminum foil for us to roll the chicken in...
Does my course sound like all fun and games and delicious food to eat every day? Yeah? Well this week we are dealing with liver from beef and chicken. Yucko. Come and get it! And keep it. And don't ever bring it back. Sorry Mom, I know you love the stuff.
Today we made a chicken liver parfait and the nicest thing that I can say about it is that it was soft. We've also been utilizing a gelatin material called "aspic" that is used to add shine, color, or decorative qualities to cold-served foods. We pan-fried some nice salmon fillets and they looked great, then we covered them with a mixture of aspic, mayonnaise, and sour cream for a shiny white coating that we used as a backdrop for our carved colored vegetable designs. Although I am in no way artistically inclined they ended up looking pretty good, but then we ate them they tasted almost OK, but the jelly texture on salmon just doesn't work for me. We also spent a fun day making a wide variety of canapes that were mostly delicious and demanded some more detailed cutting work.
Small class this week. Sandy is in Michigan for the week attending her sister's wedding (all the best to them), and Chantel has been out with sick kids for two weeks. We are beginning to wonder if she will be coming back and if so how will her grades/progress be effected. It would be a shame to lose her from the class.
This week's thoughts:
A reality TV show about building sand castles? Really?
Maybe Will Ferrell CAN act.
Chicken liver parfait = WHY?!?!
It's great fun when friends and relatives come to visit. So who's coming?
Many, if not most, people living on Oahu are bad drivers. My honest professional opinion.
The sound of my motorcycle makes it start raining.
If I'm living your dream, did you dream of chicken liver parfait?
Like the t-shirt says, Life is Good.
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