Chef Pro III: Week 8: International--Southwest

I'm a big fan of southwestern cooking. I have all of Bobby Flay's books after all, and a freezer full of Hatch green chiles I bought back in August, and many spices from the Santa Fe School of cooking in my pantry, along with bags of red chile powder, dried posole, and masa in the freezer. You'd think I was a freaking expert in southwestern cooking if you looked around my house. So why is it then that when Chef Loy tells us to create 5 southwestern dishes in the next 2 hours and 45 minutes I have such a hard time? Is it because mid life hormones have destroyed my memory? Is it pressure? What the heck is it? I did manage to make some pretty decent...

Read more »

Capstone Project Progress: Chef Julia Personal Chef Services

I'm getting excited about launching my real culinary business, Chef Julia Personal Chef Services. I have created several menus, recipes, and price lists, have business cards and am researching websites. I will have brochures made soon. The big project for our final semester has been to write up our business plan in a very detailed format. I am almost finished with the project and ready to move on to actually having a client one day, or teaching a class. I believe I will be more than ready when the time comes. Look for details on this blog and a link to the Chef Julia webpage once I construct ...

Read more »

Chef Pro III: Week 7: Advanced Nutrition

I felt pretty comfortable with the subject matter of this class. I am very interested in nutrition and read a lot about it, particularly eating for health. I am also very aware of special diets for people with health concerns after being around my mother, who was diabetic and then later on a renal diet. Then there's my son with the nut allergy who has made me cautious about using cashews in anything. He never had a reaction until he ate a cashew blondie, then started swelling and itching like crazy. He had to go to the Emergency Room for treatment!We studied various diets for celiac disease, heart disease, gastric bypass, diabetic and others and then were given our assignment. We were given a role on the line and then Chef Kurima would give us a ticket. The ticket would specify the...

Read more »

Chef Pro III: Week 6: Food Trends

Food fads come and go but a trend has the potential to become a long term influence on the market. A few years ago I thought the whole "tapas" trend was silly but I've come to accept it and actually like the idea of sampling small plates instead of one large entree. Some current trends include:Snack Attack--bar snacks, meze platesBarbeque--wood smoked everythingBeer--steamed mussels with Belgian beerFarm freshFrench cuisine--making a comebackAmerican Cheese--not the yucky orange stuff, but cheese made in AmericaNoodle mania--kobe short rib teriyaki lo-mein or chap-chae Korean noodlesFruit--used with savory dishesDolce!--Ricotta polenta pie, ricotta...

Read more »

Chef Pro III: Week 5: Timed Cooking

Chef Waier showing us how to clean squidDread, dread--timed cooking. Have you ever seen the show Chopped? Well this class is similar.Chef Waier gives us an assignment and we have 20 minutes to execute it. We had 45 minutes to set up mise en place, then we were told to prepare an amuse bouche in 20 minutes. Of course my mind is blank--no notes, no recipes, no instructions--just use anything we had available.The amuse bouche is a small bite, one bite, intended to wake up the taste buds and given at the beginning of the meal. I took a won ton wrapper, cut out a small circle, fried it, then topped it with a very thin cucumber slice, crumbled feta...

Read more »

Chef Pro III: Week 4: Classic Recipes

Chef Waier delivered a fascinating lecture on classic recipes including some history of haute cuisine, epicurian, Escoffier, Nouvelle cuisine, and fusion. We studied this in CP I so it was more of a review. The class tonight was intended to test our skills in actually preparing the classic dishes. Our recipe packet consisted of:Pork PiccataChicken KievVeal Cordon BleuCarpaccioGratin DauphinoiseDuck a l'OrangeQuiche LorraineBeef ConsommeRisotto MilaneseMulligatawny SoupBananas FosterI was assigned to prepare consomme and Bananas Foster with homemade vanilla ice cream, presented table side. I have never made either dish before and read all about...

Read more »

Chef Pro III: Week 3: Organization & Admin

Capstone project information was the focus of this class with no actual cooking, just lecture and discussion. We learned about menu development, food costs and cost controls, equipment issues, public health concerns, food purchasing, labor costs, and a lot of discussion on menu develpment. It's important to understand the technical details because the idea of having of food related business for many of us is just a fantasy and based on some general information we've read about or been told about by someone in the business, but not based on the reality of today's food prices and client behaviors. If you haven't already noticed, people are having...

Read more »