Fish! Fish! Fish before the sun comes up!

My alarm has gone off every day this week at 3:55 am. Rise and shine for fish class! With my chef whites on, hair in a toque, apron and sharp knives, I have cut fish every morning this week with class from 4:50 to 11 am. We do everything from cleaning and packing fish on ice, to scaling, cutting, filleting, and butterflying. In our lecture we have discussions about sustainability, farmed vs. wild fish, and about as many of the 542 species of fish as we can. I have a fabulous chef instructor who is incredibly smart. It makes waking up in the dark a little bit easier (but I don't think cleaning out a bin of 100 whole raw fish will ever get easier-did that this week too).

After our practical work from 5-8:30 am we get to sample 8 different types of fish (that is each day!) We taste them baked with little or no salt so we can understand the flavor of the meat and learn how to work with it in a kitchen. Nothing like a bland piece of wolf fish, yellow snapper, or pacific king salmon to wake you up in the morning! As sarcastic as that was meant to be I have come to really enjoy the class. I butterflied 5 rainbow trout this morning and am getting better with my knives each day.

Have you ever wondered what you smell like after being in a fish kitchen for 6 hours? Just come take a whiff of my chef coat and you'll get the idea. I have never appreciated showers so much in my life as this week. It was a smelly one but quite a good one!

B Block Exam Week

So in between my 2 quizzes this week and my 4 finals (all between today and tomorrow) I decided to take a minute to breath tonight and not study for 20 min to update everyone on my week.

Because the classes are so short (this semester or "block" for me is only 6 weeks long) we are constantly having tests, papers, and exams. This week I have been in the library early every day before classes and left when they kicked me out at 11. My mom says I sound just like I did when I was at Michigan. Stressed, frazzled and strung out. Funny how our school habits never change.

I had my final exam in food safety (mmmm bacteria and illnesses) as well as my final in gastronomy today and turned right back around to the library to study for my math and product knowledge finals tomorrow. (If anyone needs to know the quality and condition factors for picking/ receiving bunched baby candy strip beets or kabocha squash let me know and I'll help you out).

Yesterday I spent an hour in the large store room cooler just smelling herbs. Smelling marjoram, tasting marjoram, smelling oregano, tasting oregano, smelling chervil tasting chervil, you get the point......In the citrus cooler I studied amazing wild mushrooms including hedgehogs, black trumpets, enoki, and so many more. Who knew there were so many wild mushrooms we have yet to figure out how to grow and still have to be foraged?!

In my actual product knowledge class yesterday we had a tasting of 24 different types of cheeses. Just a sampling of the 70+ cheeses standard in the cooler here at school. Everything from fresh cheese including goat and feta, to semi soft cheeses, hard cheeses, grating cheeses, and the, oh so delicious, blue cheeses. A toasted baguette, fabulous cheese, good classroom conversation about different types and uses. We were in business! (I skipped lunch because I knew I had to save room for class- where else can you say that?!)

Back to the studying I go, but I have to say I am loving every minute of it. I can't think of anything better than studying produce for hours on end and freezing in the cooler (massive walk in refrigerator) as I study and review the produce. I know that sounds sarcastic, but I am dead serious.

Even on days I have exams, I am thrilled to be here. I think that pretty much says it all!

Mmmmm Cuisines of Asia!

In between classes, library study sessions, and tests, I had 20 minutes to grab dinner last week before my 6:30 Gastronomy test. I was contemplating eating cereal and not bothering to get a meal but I am so glad I didn't do that! Kashi heart to heart would been so sad compared to this fabulous dinner! Unfortunately I had to inhale it in about 10 minutes after waiting in line but it was well worth it.

I started (very quickly) with the summer rolls filled with shrimp, ginger, scallion, and the wonderfly bright spicy chilled dipping sauce you see on the plate. I then moved on to the yellow asian slaw. I couldn't tell you what it was or what vegetable was used, but it was pickeled with sesame seeds and great. The lettuce on the left side had mint and various herbs wraped within the cucumber and I used it to "mop up" (as my dad would say) the rest of the spicy sauce from under the summer rolls. MMMMM.

After the first plate I moved on to a cup of tom yum soup with fragrant lemongrass, chili flakes, shrimp, and a sour hint of lime.

On to the main dish in the second photo. Barbeque baby back ribs that fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. With the spicy hoisin and big pieces of peanuts in the sauce I was in heaven. Ate with my hands and loved every minute of it. (The dish was called "street food" after all so aren't you supposed to use your hands?)

The ribs were followed by a chicken meatball, grilled on a ginger skewer with scallions and finally small beef fried won tons with another spicy dipping sauce. Oh my!

All in all, a fab meal!

Four Course Dinner on a Wednesday!

I finally decided to break out the camera phone to show everyone what one of my standard four course meals looks like. During this block (which ends next week) I will receive  a participation grade for attending the catering and banquet dinner (will count towards my product knowledge class). Almost every night I am in line at 5 p.m. (no longer 4:30 as we figured out you can make reservations!) and seated at a round table with six place settings. The meal is different each night and there have been some fabulous and some not so fabulous meals. Tonight's meal was good so I decided to capture it in pictures and post for everyone to see. Take a look at the slideshow on the right side of the blog to see the other courses besides the main entree posted with this text. 

 

In honor of St. Patrick's day we started off with a cooked shrimp with cabbage and a potato, leek sauce, with a parsley sauce (that is the parsley sauce shaped like a shamrock). The amuse was ok and the cabbage had a nice caraway flavor to it to start off with.

 

The second course included a crostini with black olive tampenade, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, hand made salami, micro greens, prosciutto, and balsamic vinegar along with olive oil drizzled on the plate. I felt like I was back in Tuscany! The salty olives with the tomatoes, sweet balsamic and salty salami...mmmmm delicious! 

The entree included a perfectly roasted Cornish game hen (a fancy chicken). I must say it was cooked perfectly and was moist and delicious served along side roasted brussels sprouts, pearl onions, and a muffin shaped serving of mac and cheese. All with a pan sauce from the chicken along the side of the plate. The chicken was excellent and if I wasn't in a dining room with a white table cloth in front of classmates, I would have picked up the bones and finished it like Fred Flintstone.....but I refrained. 

I finished off the meal with a few bites of the dark chocolate cream pot (fancy chocolate pudding) and a cappuccino. All in all a pretty good 4 course meal for your average Wednesday night! 

Birthday Dinner!

After not writing for over a week, I have so much to share! Classes have been going really well and I have been studying my tail off. The tests are constant because this "block" (class schedule) is only a total of 6 weeks long. During the last week and a half I have had at least half a dozen tests (all cumulative) and a large presentation in my Gastronomy class on Craig Claiborne (NY Times food columnist who essentially invented food journalism and the restaurant review as we know it today!) In between tests last week I was lucky enough to get to visit NYC to see my Michigan gals and celebrate my dear friend Amanda's return to the city! 

This past Saturday Ben took me out to Wolfgang Puck's The Source for my birthday dinner and it was absolutely amazing. I usually over use that word quite a bit but I have to say this was one of the best meals I have ever eaten! It was tremendous!  Ben was even able to keep the dinner location a secret until we walked up to the Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave downtown in D.C. 

As we walked in my eyes lit up. I had wanted to eat there for months and was thrilled! Our meal started with Szechuan green beans with candied walnuts brought to our table compliments of the chef. I could taste the peanut oil, chili sauce, and sesame seeds and they clashed wonderfully with the sweet candied walnuts. Delicious! The adventure started when we used chop sticks for string beans. I may have made a mess on the table. Just maybe.....

After looking at the menu for way too long, we finally ordered and our feast of Asian inspired dishes began :) We started with the warm calamari salad and the spicy tuna tartare cones. The warm calamari was lightly friend and served with a salad of beet tendrils, honey mustard vinaigrette, and thinly sliced cucumbers. Calamari was so light and sweet. Like nothing I have ever eaten before. It was shipped direct from Alaska and had never been frozen. What a difference! The tuna tartare was served in small cones made of sugar and different colored sesame seeds. The fish was inside the cone with a spicy sauce, ginger, and scallion. Again that contrast of sweet and spicy chili hit the spot! Delicious we both agreed! The tuna was like butter in your mouth. 

For the main event (see bottom picture), I ordered lamb chops prepared rare and oh boy they were RARE! Beautifully plated, I received two of the double thick chops with a spicy green chili mint sauce. The plate came with a mix of greens (which I sat identifying on my plate as I ate them- I had taken a test of lettuces and greens the previous day!) and a side of Hunan style eggplant and snow peas. The eggplant and snow peas were served in a hot pot on the side which was very nice I must say.  The flavors were separated which I enjoyed.  The only thing I could say was "wow." I sat and raved about every bite I took  as I identified the various excotic produce items. (I think Ben may have gotten tired of it by the end of the meal:) 

Ben enjoyed steak "au poivre”  with wild mushrooms and a caramelized shallot and ginger sauce (see top picture). The waitress described it to us as meat you can cut with a spoon. It was so tender it melted in your mouth. Of course I had a bite or two of his meat and a mushroom or two (also sat identifying the wild mushrooms - they were on my test earlier that week as well). So like the big food geek I am, I was really excited when I could identify everything on the plate. 

At one point in the meal the uber attentive waitress came up and asked me if everything was okay. She said she saw me examining the food and was concerned. I exclaimed that everything was wonderful and I was a culinary student (she seemed to understand then- apparently there are others like me). 

Of course we had to finish off the meal with desert. Ben and I shared a warm blueberry crumble with creme angles, fresh blueberry sauce, and homemade ginger ice cream. The ginger ice cream was awesome! Spicy, yet sweet, and a unique compliment to the salted blueberry crumble. Wow.........

Along with a bottle of Merlot from Washington state, everything was magnificent! I could not have asked for a better meal. I even got to go back into the kitchen and introduce myself to the chef and give him my compliments on the meal. I was beaming to say the least :) Ben was so right on and could not have picked a better spot!

I was lucky enough to meet up with some good friends downtown to celebrate my 25th (where does the time go?!) later that night. But back to the food, if you don't feel my excitement about this meal from the description above- just ask me about it some time and I could give a ton more detail. Eating that dinner only reinforced why I want to be a chef. I love food because it always has the potential to be created into something new, exciting, or in this case thrilling!  It was all in all a great birthday weekend! 

It is official!

After much anticipation, I received my chef coat today! It is official! I think I may just be excited that I will never have to pick out clothes to wear to work again. 

Back to the books. With two tests tomorrow and a huge project next week I have a full load of work to do.  Looking forward to my weekend in NYC! 

Chocolate!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love a good piece of chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate fudge, nonpareils, or really anything with DARK chocolate! Today I got to indulge in tasting and learning all about the history of chocolate in my Gastronomy class. Take a look at the plate in the picture. Starting with the white chocolate at the top of the plate, we tasted each piece of chocolate 3 times. Each time holding our nose at first to taste with our senses and rate the level of sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and the level of umami flavor. Umami is a newly recognized sense of taste and measures savory flavor. Think of a meaty portabella mushroom - that intensifies the umami taste. After the initial taste with our noses closed, we let go of our noses to allow our mouths to taste the flavor of each piece of chocolate. Ever wonder why you can't taste when you have a cold? It is because you can't smell! Flavor can be tasted only when one can use the nose to smell. 

As a kid I used to brush my teeth and drink orange juice. I never seemed to learn and did it time and time again. Turns out there is actually a reason that the orange juice tastes so bad after you brush your teeth! The actual term is called "successive contrast." Because the tooth paste is so sweet, the orange juice that I drank (way too many times immediately after brushing my teeth as a kid) tastes extremely sour or bitter. The sweetness from the orange juice is gone because of the sugar tasted moments before in the toothpaste! Who knew?! 

Today was one of those days where I enjoyed everything (ok maybe not 100% true but pretty close!) With a great run under my belt this morning (still hoping to run a marathon this fall with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society) I had my food safety class along with my Gastronomy class as I talked about above. After learning about Staph infections and intoxicating bacteria, I was still hungry for lunch and continued to enjoy a piece of grilled salmon with roasted peppers and rice. 

Shortly after lunch I took a trip with a few classmates to the storeroom where all produce, cheeses, nuts, etc. are stored for the school. With deliveries every day, the CIA receives and uses the freshest ingredients possible. In our trip to the store room we looked at and tasted the lettuces and bitter salad greens we had learned about yesterday. With everything from Belgian endive to treviso (long skinny radicchio) and escarole to micro greens, we smelled, touched, and tasted it all. Who knew there were so many kinds of lettuce??!! I am intrigued I must say! 

My four course dinner this evening included an amuse of a chopped liver crostini with pomegranate and mache leaf (a new lettuce I learned about!), roasted chestnut and ginger soup, provolone and spinach stuffed flank steak with polenta and zucchini, followed by a warm dark chocolate cake with creme angles, raspberries, and a nice cappuccino. Not too shabby for your average Tuesday night!

I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend with Ben here in NY. I actually cooked for the first time in my new apartment and we were able to spend time together relaxing. A cute movie, a good meal and a wonderful weekend all around :) 

With two tests on Thursday and a large presentation next week, it is time for me to get back to the books. This coming weekend I will get to spend with my Michigan gals in NYC and I can't wait! 

Last note for the night: I get my chef whites tomorrow! Check back for a picture tomorrow but I can't wait to put on my coat. Something I have been waiting to do for a very long time. 

Back in School!

With a full week at school I finally feel settled in and have my feet on the ground (or just in the snow). My apartment is set up, I already found my gourmet market (Adams Fairacre Farms!), my new gym, and have gotten to know my unique (to say the least) neighbors. 

They don't mess around here at the CIA but it is truly one of the most amazing places I have ever been. Extremely strict dress/uniform code. I had to go out and buy "work" clothes to go to school. Never had to buy them to go to work (I did push that boundary just a bit...). 

So long to the days of going to class in sweatpants in Angell Hall in Ann Arbor. All absences (except Jewish holidays :) are unexcused. Yes, this includes if you are extremely ill and even rushed to the hospital. Did I mention that they never close even when it snows?! Like this morning when I dug my car out of 9 inches of snow in dress pants with a broom (see picture above). But I made it to class on time as it has been ingrained in my head that a chef always shows up!

Classes thus far are great. It is so good to be in a classroom where everyone is interested in the same thing I am. The library of 80 some thousand volumes is full of books that have to do with food and every aspect and angle of it. The meals are all cooked by the students and eaten by the students. Not too bad when I eat roasted salmon for lunch and sirloin for dinner. 

My classes for the first six weeks include Culinary Math, Introduction to Gastronomy (the science of nourishment including history of food movements, the cultural differences of how/why we eat what we do, and prominent individuals who changed the industry), product knowledge (literally identifying every piece of produce, seed, and nut that grows, being able to identify the growing season/ where it grows during the year, how to order the products, what to look for, etc.), and Food Safety (learning about all sorts of wonderful things including Salmonella, E-coli, Shigella, hepatitis A, and the parasites Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidia). Yummy! I have about 4 hours of class a day and spend the rest of the time studying and reading for classes. If your looking for me at 7 a.m. I'll be on the loading doc at school with the delivery trucks for the day.

For my first block (or 6 week schedule) I am required to eat in the banquet and catering dining room for dinner. In order to ensure we get a seat, we get in line at 4:30. I feel like I am in Boca. Three courses (sometimes four) every night with unlimited cappuccino, Pellegrino, and ice tea. Life is pretty good!  Tonight I had a divine dark chocolate cream pot for dessert. The warm dark chocolate custard melted in my mouth with just a touch of whip cream and a fresh raspberry. Best dessert I have eaten here thus far. 

The campus has a wonderful vibe. It is full of life and vigor. Everyone here is driven into this business for a reason. Because we love it and we can't get enough of it. I am going to soak up everything I can from this school and I can't wait to see what will come my way next. 

Check back every so often as I am going to do my best to update this blog to keep everyone in the loop!