Well, we waited and we wondered. We talked with the other classes and got their opinions. Now, after a week in the kitchen with our new Chef Instructor, the truth has come out: Chef Shane is pretty cool. And not just cool like all of us with names that end in -ANE are cool. He's a calm, soft-spoken man with an impressive bank of knowledge and many years of experience in the food service industry. A Hawaii native, he started in restaurants at the tender age of 16, attended culinary school in Portland, Oregon, and in addition to our classes at Gros Bonnet, he runs the kitchen at a popular restaurant in town. I guess the most pleasant aspect of his cooking style to me is the Pacific Rim influence that he brings to most of our dishes. Lots of fresh herbs (some of which we harvest right outside the door) and bright flavors. Citrus, ginger, lemongrass, and rosemary have gotten a lot of attention this week with some really delicious results.
Chef Shane's teaching style is just what the doctor ordered for our little trio (yes, three...more on that later). He puts our daily production recipes on a large board so we have all the specifics without having to spend 30 minutes trying to copy it from verbal instructions. Some of the sauce recipes in particular are pretty complex and it would be tough to get the sequence and process right without a reference. We are free to copy down the recipes at the end of the day (and I do), which works out perfectly for that little sit and relax time after a good meal...which they have all been so far. Let's see, what else? He was apparently a pretty impressive Little League baseball player back in the day and he drives one of those little low-down cars that have a wing on the back and a muffler that sounds like a lawn mower. All in all, we are pretty pleased.
Our thoughts have gone from wondering to mild concern to full on worry about our good friend Enju. We haven't seen her since the first week of Chef Chad's Bake Shop, which makes three weeks now that she has been out of school. Despite repeated attempts to reach her, she has thus far been incommunicado, so we'll just have to hope she's alright and able to make up the lost school time in the future. It's a shame that after toughing it out for 10 months her completion of this course will likely be delayed. And not just a shame for her, but for all of us because she's a good classmate and friend and we like her and it'll suck if we can't all graduate together.
Our dishes this week have centered around braising and the incorporation of our seasoned braising liquid into sauces to augment the dish. The sauces have been pretty incredible, using various methods involving steeping, infusing, de-glazing and reductions that keep the flavors drawn from the meats and vegetables being cooked in the sauce. We've also used a few very local items such as taro and long rice noodles to interesting and tasty effect. I have to grade this week an "A".
So we were briefed (briefly) about the events of our Graduation Night. Thursday, December 15th at 6:00 P.M. the Gros Bonnet class 12-2011 will hold our ceremony. This will take place at our main school building which will be transformed via the magic of the moment, drapes covering the ugly stuff, and rearranged furniture into a commencement hall that should be able to accomodate the estimated 12 people that will be attending. And in that 12 I included the three students that are graduating. And the faculty.
Actually, there will be the some family there, friends that have suffered with us, and the odd boyfriend or two, so I suppose it will be a pretty well-attended event. We'll also be joined by a couple of Advanced Patisserie students finishing school that same week.
A common topic for discussion is the amount of actual learning we have been doing over the course of this course. I usually have a pretty fair idea of what I do or don't know, but as all the lessons, examples, demonstrations, and practice have started to blend together into what sometimes seems like a ten-month haze, it is difficult to say "I learned THIS..." or "I learned THAT..."
I have learned a lot and I know this because I tested myself. Our textbook, which is ridiculously overpriced and far inferior to other text available (specifically, the CIA-published text "The Professional Chef") comes with a DVD that provides videos of almost every procedure we've worked on and an area for testing your knowlege through numerous quizzes, matching excercises, and product identification tests. The first day that I had this video in hand I ran through the first level (there are 3 total) of testing just to see where I stood. I did...OK, getting the right answer to roughly 1/2 of the first level questions. This last week I found that the DVD is still in my computer drive (guess I don't use that drive much) so I sat down and worked my way through the entire testing portion.
And I did great.
Kitchen equipment, ingredients, history of cuisines, food origins, cuts of meat, spices and herbs, cooking science, identification of vegetables, fruits, seafood, and herbs, and about a dozen other subjects are covered and I can say with all the modesty that my substantial ego allows that I pretty much knocked them out of the park at all levels of the testing. I don't tell you this to show how awesome I am (you should know that by now), but to say that while the course can at times be mind-numbing and the materials and facilities (far) below expectations, the learning is very real and barring some cosmic meltdown in the next ten days I will come away having learned what I came here hoping to learn. Next week we'll discuss some things this school could easily do to improve, stay tuned.
Interesting Quotes I Found:
I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed. ~Matthew Henry
For the human mind is seldom at stay: If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse. ~Samuel Richardson
YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT
"I beg to differ, I say to the world right now - I will lose weight!" - This is quoted from my very first post of
The Innocent, and I was RIGHT - I now weigh 11 pounds less than the day the course started!
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