Sunday, April 26, 2009

Week 14: Chef Pro II Final

After a quick written exam (25 questions) I was anxious to get into the kitchen and see what was in the "mystery basket", actually a mystery "tray". I drew the #1 and found the matching tray in the walk-in refrigerator. It had the following items: pork ribs, a beef steak, a chicken leg, shrimp, pork, fingerling potatoes, grits, cabbage, asparagus, snow peas, celery root, buckwheat honey and a mango I didn't feel too anxious about the items except for the celery root, something I've never cooked with. I decided on the following dishes (after looking around at what other things were available in the walk-in and pantry). Chicken spring roll with...

Friday, April 17, 2009

Week 13: Food Production and Service

From the lecture on Food Production and Service I was reminded of all the reasons I never wanted to be in the restaurant business--staffing, suppliers, and keeping track of profit/loss.My parents owned restaurants in California when I was a teen. Their first restaurant was Mr. Ed's Coffee Shop, a franchise. It was open 24 hours a day and served breakfast anytime. The menu consisted of breakfast dishes, sandwiches and burgers, and some "hot plates". The best item they had was the char grilled burgers. Char grilling was new in 1972 so their juicy, grilled burgers with special sauces were very popular. I never worked the grill but happily learned how to be a waitress for them. I wore a funky white zipped up nylon dress with an apron and the ugliest shoes you've ever seen, made a lot of...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Week 12: Seafood

I was really looking forward to the seafood class because I really like cooking with seafood for health reasons and taste. I thought I would prepare well for this class now that I know how the routine works. We were told we would have to make 5 or 6 dishes with the available seafood so I thought I would prepare by practicing some dishes at home and having a good idea of how to make them prior to class. I've wised up a bit over the 26 classes so I now can actually think on my feet without being recipe-dependent, although I still find it hard to remember all the ingredients in dishes without referring to a recipe, but I'm getting much better....

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Week 11: Healthy Cookiing

Now healthy cooking is a topic I can relate to. I have been trying to practice healthly cooking for many years, that is until I started Culinary School and started using butter and cream and frying things in a deep fryer! I have a huge collection of cookbooks from Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Super Natural Cooking to the Passionate Vegetarian. I even subscribe to The Vegetarian Times magazine. I would much rather make simple, good tasting dishes with small amounts of meat, fish, or poultry or substitute tofu or beans for the meat. My favorite convenience foods are Amy's Organic frozen dinners--all vegetarian with no preservatives...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Fredericksburg Culinary Arts: Thai Treasures

I guess I can't just relax on vacation. I looked for a cooking class in Fredericksburg for the weekend we would be there and found the Thai Treasures class taught by Carol Seminara and Joe Houde at the Fischer & Wieser's Das Peach Haus. The class was small, only six people, and a special guest who sat in--Mark Wieser. The Fischer & Wieser Raspberry Chipotle Sauce is one of the well known products that made them very famous ten years ago, however their story goes way back. Mark Wieser set up a small log cabin on their property in 1969 where he sold his family's jams and jellies on the roadside. His mother told him the log cabin was a...

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