Week 3, Day 1 part 2

My day began, as you may have read, later than usual, classes beginning at 1:30. I had writing class, which is becoming very frustrating, however I'm doing pretty well. I got 2 assignments back, 80% on each of them, and on one I was given the opportunity to re-write, so I'm going for 100% on it! I also got a 90% on my SPEC in that class, so I'm keeping up to my own standards of at least 80% on everything so far. The math class that followed writing class explained everything I had a little trouble with last night; it was so simple I was overlooking it, but then we added a whole new portion of food costing that will take a bit of studying to understand thoroughly. After food costing, myself and one of my classmates made a poolish for pastry class tomorrow morning. It is basically a pre-ferment that will be added to the bread in the morning when we make it. This allows it to ferment all night and add a lot to the bread when we bake it. Practical cookery followed, and it was the most awesome practical cookery class so far! Pan frying is the method of the week, and my dish was "Tournedos Vert-Pre"  Basically, take one of the most awesome cuts of meat from a beef tenderloin, pan fry it to medium rare perfection, serve it with some deep fried potatoes cut julienne, almost like little potato chip strips, and garnish with watercress. Not just a steak though, that would only be mostly awesome. Instead, you then take "Beurre Maitre d'hotel" and place a block of this amazing butter mustard lemon sauce that has been frozen on top of the steak, and throw the steak under a broiler for about 30 seconds to melt the creamy awesomeness all over it. Then you can eat it! This dish was only one of the awesome dishes made in my class this evening. We also made a version of Pork Schnitzel with Mushroom Gravy, Scalloped potatoes of sorts with a veal sausage, and this amazing chicken dish. I can write down the actual names if anyone wants, just leave a comment on facebook or underneath if you can and I'll get back to you. Pictures are included below as well, questions or comments will be answered. Sleep time now, I have to be up early to start a puff pastry for pastry class tomorrow morning so I'll write again in the evening.

Week 3, Day 1

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! This weekend has been busy, and full of studying and spending time with my amazing fiance. I told everyone I'd add picture of the lamb tongue, so they should appear below this blog if it works out right. I'll be taking pictures every day as long as I can and I remember to take my camera with me. Studying for food costing is not as bad as I thought it would be, it is math, however i'm able to do half of it in my head without even using a calculator. I can't figure out the practical questions and problems though... so I guess I'll be learning that later today. I have a writing class at 1:30 today, followed by food costing, and then my practical cookery class is taking place this evening. The schedule is way different than every other week, hence my post being so early on a Monday for once! (this meant I got a well needed sleep in day) The method of cooking for the week is pan frying and sauteing! I'm really excited, the dishes I will be putting together are looking pretty awesome, and I'll talk about them in future posts.
The cold weather is coming on Thursday up here, but until then it remains around 10 to 12 degrees celsius. I'm hoping the cold front gets pushed away by something else, as it doesn't need to snow until I'm on christmas break! I'd rather not walk half 45 minutes to body moves in a couple feet of snow! I have to finish studying for culinary management now though, so I'll post tomorrow with the pictures from todays practical cookery class and tell you how everything goes.

Week 2, day 4

Happy Thursday everyone!  It has been a relatively relaxing day as far as classes go but stressful as my first test is tomorrow afternoon. Practical cookery began my day as usual. I had the opportunity to cook lamb's tongue, and serve it. I actually brought my camera to class, and I will be doing so in the future whenever I can remember. This will allow me to share my cooking creations and experiences visually with all of you so you can have an idea of what I am actually cooking, and what it looks like. French words explaining food doesn't seem to always cut it, as I can barely tell by the descriptions what I am cooking sometimes even until it pulls together in the end. I will begin adding pictures tomorrow as my camera is downstairs and it would take a lot of effort for me to get it at this moment. I am quite tired, and the stress is slowly adding up, but everything will be completed this weekend homework wise; just in time for another week to follow with more projects. The lamb tongue was interesting, as it had to be poached in a stock for two and a half hours before it was tender enough to consume. The other interesting thing about this dish is that it is served cold. There was not very much to prepare for it, and so I practiced turning vegetables, shaping them like a football with a paring knife. My paring knife is extremely sharp, because nothing is more frustrating and useless in a kitchen than a dull knife. I did however feel very uncomfortable peeling towards myself, holding the blade to use the tip of the knife to shape potatoes. I managed, but then out of curiosity, boredom, and in hope to expand my knowledge and improve my knife skills, I tried doing the same to a turnip. (The other group needed the turnip as well to be shaped and cut like this, so it was for a reason.) A turnip however, is much harder than a potato, and requires a little bit of slicing back and forth to get it started. When it slips off the turnip and the slicing motion hasn't stopped, an extremely sharp paring knife tends to slice your thumb open apparently. Luckily it was a very small cut, however I do believe I will buy a cheap knife, and purposely dull it to a point where I can't slice my finger open just for this use.
Back to the tongue,  it has been poached for two and a half hours, and is very tender at this point. Note for anyone that wants to cook lamb tongue in the future, peel the skin BEFORE the tongue dries out and cools down, and if you don't have time, leave it in the broth until you have time to peel it. The skin is VERY difficult to peel when the tongue has dried out and cooled.
The flavour is very good and similar to pork, and if sliced, doesn't look anything like a tongue and won't discourage unknowing guests from tasting it, and telling you how tasty it is. They will most likely however develop a horrified expression, and may never trust your cooking again once you tell them what it is, but it may be worth it.
Wine class followed, and we got to taste a terrible 6 dollar bottle of wine, for which I can't remember the brand. This wine was aged in a pine barrel, and so it has a distinct pine taste in it, which is not very pleasant. Commodities followed the wine class, and we are now learning about rice. Pasta was last week, and tomorrow there is a test on our knowledge of both rice and pasta. I, in the past few hours, have learned more about rice and pasta than I ever thought possible in a lifetime, and I'm not certain I have even begun to touch the surface about these two commodities. There is a fantastic history and background, as well as uses and facts about these commodities that is very interesting, and very practical in many ways I couldn't really begin to describe. Every week, I will be learning a new commodity, as well as expanding my knowledge on the everything I have learned previously.
After class, I was convinced to go out for sushi, and had, for my first time, a guide through my sushi experience. The local sushi restaurant in my hometown of Chatham Ontario is pretty good, however I didn't realize how amazing a higher quality restaurant would be. The salmon and tuna was pretty awesome, as well as many other dishes that I couldn't name to save my life, made up my dinner this evening, and I was very satisfied with the quality of all the food I ate. One of my fellow classmates assisted me with my choices, as well as explained chinese and japanese cultures and a short bit about their brutal history. As you have probably figured out, I have been immersed in a never ending sea of knowledge it seems for the past two weeks, and it is only getting bigger and bigger, and my mind will probably explode if I don't get some sleep now. I will tell you tomorrow how I did on my SPEC,... and I hope not to disappoint any of you with the mark I get, but I will be just as surprised as you will no matter what it is. If it's poor, I'll learn from it and do way better on my next one, and if it's good I'll strive to do better still on the next one due Monday morning.

Week 2, day 3

Sorry about the post I missed yesterday, crazy days and a lot going on.

Wednesday, I can't believe it is already half way through the poaching week here in Stratford. The day was gorgeous, no hint of winter yet, which is a very good thing! Practical cookery started off the day. I really have to focus on my knife skills, as my lack of paying attention to detail would have cause my dish to fail if it had been an exam. Lots of chopping is in store for the next few weeks here after school hours before my exams in week four. On a more positive note, the "beurre blanc" that I made in class turned out very well, and the chef even said I did a good job on it, which is quite a compliment, as chef Steele is a very particular man who tells you exactly what he thinks of your dish. Along with the Beurre Blanc, my group cooked a Poached Supreme of Salmon with Turned Potatoes, and Provencal Vegetables. It tasted very good, however the presentation was poor due to the vegetables being chopped imperfectly.
Nutrition class followed, very uneventfully, and then Culinary Management followed nutrition. Culinary management is a very fast paced class, as we were learning about the structure of a french full course meal just last week, and now we are on to sauces, and their importance in french cookery. Sauces are one of the most important things in nearly all french dishes, which was unknown to myself until this afternoon. The french words that we had to memorize are turning out to be a fair amount easier than I imagined, but still a bit of a challenge, as I have so much other work that needs to be done, it feels lower on my priority list than it maybe should be. There is a lot of knowledge and theory behind this class however, and I am learning about the importance behind the way dishes are served, what they must be served with, in what order, and how to compliment a whole meal with sauces, and other dishes.
Tomorrow I will be having another wine class, which again adds another aspect on food and complimenting drinks with meals as well as a newly found high appreciation for wines. I am looking forward very much to the wine tour that I will be taking in the Niagara region near the end of the month.
After class, I got my exam meal handed out on a piece of paper. Two meals for two days to be exact. The first being Fettuccine, Hollandaise, 1 cup of julienne vegetables, 2 soft boiled eggs, Sauce Andalouse, and a French folded omelette. I have made none of these in the practical cookery class yet, so hopefully I can at least learn the french folded omelette and make it in class in the next week. The others I will be practicing at home whenever I can, providing I can attain all the commodities required. This exam will take place on Monday in week 4 here, which is only a week and a half away. I will be the second person presenting on top of this, at 10:30 in the morning which leaves very little time for error or mistakes. On Thursday of that week, I will be performing my second practical exam. The recipe I have been given is Escalope of de veau aux champignon  and Asparagus and Oyster Mushroom Ragout.
After receiving our exam recipes today, I had a meeting with the gastronomic food writer in residence, Clotilde Dusoulier. She is a food writer, and has a very popular blog called "chocolate and zucchini" and she is assisting the chef school students this year on our writing project that we had to hand in a few weeks ago. She went through them, and made grammatical corrections, as well as figured out how we could write them better. Today I had my meeting with her, and my piece of writing turned out a lot better than I thought it would. My description of my favourite food, haggis, was very good however I did not talk about how my experiences have lead me to enjoy this meal. This was the only big problem with it, so I have 2 weeks to add that, but I should be able to get a very high mark on this assignment. It was very nice talking with someone that makes a living writing about food, and that has such an esteemed blog. I have learned a lot, and hopefully this will reflect on my future blogs, and on all my writing in the future.
Tomorrow proves to be an exciting day, the afternoon will be a visit to Bradshaws, the local kitchenware store here in stratford, where I just may get some free cookware, and where there will be free food! It is the open house, so I will be there tomorrow afternoon, and I am really looking forward to receiving my very own amazing set of amazing saucepans as a door prize! (I'm really hoping)
I'll tell you how awesome they are if I win them, or anything at all in tomorrows blog.

Week 2, day 1

Happy monday everyone! I wish it was a happy monday, but all mondays are terrible. I got a ride to the school this morning from Scott, which was very nice, so we were there pretty early to hand in our SPEC assignments finally. Practical cookery was pretty good as we made some pretty awesome food, poached some eggs, made hollandaise sauce, (which is fantastic) and learned quite a bit. I'm feeling a lot more confident in the kitchen as the days go on, however I did not eat enough breakfast and nearly passed out in the beginning of class. Lesson learned, eat breakfast! Anyhow, after that, a friend and I went to the amazing burger place down the street where I had the bison burger, the special of the day. It was pretty amazing. Caramelized onions and the house mayo over the bison burger, pretty awesome. Food costing class came next, and I finally understand a bit of math. For once, I was the second one done the practical questions out of the whole class! by a long shot too! Anyhow, we then used the math and put it into an even more practical application, as we made cookies and hot chocolate..  in math class.
When we got home, Lydia and I cooked a cornish hen, and after trick or treaters showed up, we ran around trying to find candy... forgetting the oil on the stove was heating still... found candy canes,... gave them to a couple very disappointed looking kids, (I felt pretty bad, but there was no other candy) Got back to the kitchen to realize the oil was smoking, turned it off right away only to have the alarm start going off. The industrial fire alarm. Scott wasn't here, so we had no idea how to turn it off. After about 5 minutes or so, a very long 5 minutes, we found the codes, punched them in and things slowly went back to normal.  Re-started the oil, cooked the cornish hens, and they turned out unbelievably amazing. Perfectly moist, with a perfect sauce to go with them, all made from leftovers in the kitchen. Conveniently the recipe called for pretty much everything we had leftovers of. New stove came in, so we helped move it in, and the old one out, and then studied all the french terms. Well, not all of them yet, but it's a work in progress. Just finished studying the recipes for tomorrow evening. Pastry tomorrow morning, and a long day ahead of me. It's sleep time now, I'll post again tomorrow about the day, hopefully it will be a good day. It's going to be long, but I'll learn a lot.

Week 1, day 5

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! Just before I begin talking about my day, an issue has come up with comments. Unless you have a google account, you can't post comments on here, so in order to save you some trouble with this issue, I will be checking facebook every day for comments. As you may have noticed, I have been posting my blog on facebook each day after I finishing writing it. If you don't have facebook, or this doesn't work and you have questions or comments, feel free as well to message me at paul.r.arsenault@pcmessenger.ca  . However, please don't give this e-mail to a bunch of people that will send me spam, as this would be very inconvenient to myself as this is my school e-mail as well. Thank you again for the support, and for those that are reading, it really means a lot. And now on to today, the last day of boiling.

Today there was no practical cookery class, as I had the pastry class and a practical cookery class on Tuesday. I got to sleep in a little bit, which was nice for once, but then a long walk to Body Moves. It's about a thirty minute walk, and we left twenty eight minutes before class, thinking it was a bit shorter. Needless to say, we were quite tired after speed walking a good kilometre or two to get there just in time. Body moves is an interesting class, that you either hate, or you love. Basically, we began by doing drills in order to form correct posture in order to look very presentable while serving dishes. It was very similar to standing at attention, so this was no struggle for me, but then we got trays, and plates and such, and set up tables around the room. There was a lesson in there on how to walk correctly, and efficiently, and then walking with plates. how to hold multiple plates at once without dirtying the edges, how to remove plates from the table, how to place them on the table, how to set a table, and how to serve a guest and remove again and again until we could do it perfectly. It was a very interesting class, and I have learned a lot already after just the first day. We, as level 1 students, will be running tables in the near future, so this knowledge is very helpful. After this class, I was on dish duty for the level 2 students at Rundles Restaurant through the lunch service. Again, this could be a very unwanted position, however, I took what I could from it, as I watched the level 2 students perform one of their first lunch services. Lots of scallops, garnishes, salads, and some amazing looking pork that was cooked over the grill. It was interesting to see what I'll be learning next year, providing I make it through this year. Lots of motivation is arising in order that I will hopefully be the one next year that a new level 1 student is looking up to. After dishes were caught up and lunch was over, we still had 45 minutes until our next class. This allowed myself and the other dishwasher, a lady from Holland, to eat the leftover lunch. No scallops were left, however the salad on the plate was pretty tasty, I actually ate most of the green weeds. Amazingly fresh, and the dressing was subtle, and had a small amount of heat, much like a mild sauce. No idea what it actually was, and I didn't think to ask so I guess I'll have to wait and see if I get the opportunity to make it one of these days. Also for lunch, were dutch croquettes, which were FANTASTIC. I really enjoy dutch food, and for the lady from holland to have food from where she lives, for the first time in months made her very happy. A puff pastry with thyme ice cream was for desert, and it was pretty amazing as well. Last class of the day after lunch was Culinary Management. We learned all about the french hierarchy of cooking a full course dinner. From the soup, to the Remove, to Entree, Roast, First and second entremets, and finally the desert. We learned about the way it must be thought out from a menu standpoint, to what meats and fishes go together in what order, and the whole theory behind a french menu. We were then given an opportunity to see what we had retained about these ingredients, and where they fit on the menu. Match ABC... etc (the commodities, or meals, eg. Caviar frais, or Becassines Chasser Salade) with 123.. etc which are the courses of the meal. Only problem, as you may have noticed by the description above, is that the meal names are all, of course, in French. Anyone that knows me will be laughing histerically by now, especially Tricia I'm sure, as my basis of knowledge in the language of the french language is very mediocre, at an extreme best. I did however get 8 out of 14 correct, (this was just a quick quiz that is not marked, so I'm not failing yet!) however, there are now 175 french terms I must be studying in the next few weeks. 70 for next Wednesday.
After class, my housemates and I went to the grocery store and picked up a couple live lobsters for dinner. They turned out pretty well, so we may do them again in the future, but most excitingly, we will be making lobster stock relatively soon with the help of Jeff who has done it many times before. What we will use it for, I have no idea, but I'm sure it will be fantastic.
This has been my Friday. The weekend will be a homework filled one, so school isn't over for the weekend, it is just beginning! but I'm looking forward to finishing up my SPEC this evening, and then reading about the french menu, about food costing, and about bread. The information available is amazing, and I'm taking in everything I can as I won't have the opportunity again after school, well, the motivation won't be there at least. I may or may not post tomorrow, so if I don't, then you'll be able to read again on Monday for certain, and probably Sunday evening. Thank you again for those that are following and supporting me.

Nearly Forgot, JELLY FISH SANDWICH!!!!