6 weeks down!

I've have now completed six weeks at the Western Culinary Institute, and by far Skills II has been my favorite, of course I've only had two classes so far. Chef Winter has been amazing, to the point of I gave her a huge hug at the end of class yesterday. This is a Chef that will always be one that I look back upon fondly. She even prepared a 30+ minute video of everything we did in class - quite awesome really to look back on and something I'm sure I'll save for years and years.

Everyday of Skills II I looked forward to getting up at 4:00am, making the 45 minute drive to school and putting on my whites. I don't want to sound like I'm towing some company line here - but I can't wait to get into my "Whites" tie that apron around my waist and getting to cooking. I feel almost honored that I can put those whites on and do my 'thang' as it were. It's been a while since I've felt this kind of pride in anything I do. I used to have that feeling when I was in radio, but the luster wore off - this time around I don't think that's ever going to happen.

Currently we're on Christmas break and will return to school in January, the 5th to be exact. Where I'll start a new class, "Charcuterie" or if you look at my class schedule "Meat and Seafood Identification and Fabrication". We start out in the class room for half the day, and then up to the butcher shop. Should be an exciting time, though I've bonded with some of my classmates from Skills II and most of them move on to another class as they're in the Associates program, I'm in just the diploma program - so for me - new classmates every 3 weeks. Excpet for the four of us who are diploma, we rotate together.

We only had three days of class this week due to weather, and that was a bit dishearting. I wanted to be in class, I wanted to learn what Chef Winter had to pass on to us. But after the break, she will hold what we call "open lab" after school to learn and prepare stuff we didn't get to with the shortened week. Which is great, there were two sauces we didn't get to make - and I want to learn how. Not to mention, I'm joined the schools sauce club called "Les Sauciers Sevants". I've really become to love a great sauce - made with the right things like a good veal or beef stock it can enhance a dish like you couldn't imagine.

With it being Christmas Break, I should be posting a bit more often.

In the weeds

That's a term I've picked up quickly on in regards to a kitchen and well at least in class. Just Friday I found myself knee deep before I knew it, and it took a bit to get out of said weeds. If you're not sure what "in the weeds" means, think of it this way knee deep in crap, way behind. But I wasn't nearly in the weeds as much as the rest of my Group B partners. Let me back track, at the beginning of Skills II with so many students, we were split into groups. Of course being the oldest guy in class outside of Chef's Winter and Matt - everyone immediately looked to me for guidance.

I'm pretty anal retentive when it comes to lecture and demo notes, so much that when I'm doing home work I'll type out that days notes, print them out and put them in a binder with sheet protectors. So up until Friday I had been letting my group members take a look if needed. On Thursday Chef came up and quietly pulled me aside and asked me to not bring them, or at least let my group members fend for themselves.

Both Chef Winter and I watched in amazement as at least 3 members of our six person group were constantly in heavy weeds not to mention every time they turned around they were asking Chef what they needed to do next.

Here's an example.

On Friday we were to do the following:

1. Steamed Salmon with brown butter sauce
2. Poached Halibut with Lemon Buerre Blanc Sauce
3. Steamed Broccolini with melted butter
4. Par Boiled Green Beans which were to be used on Monday.

Pretty simple right?

I guess it wasn't for one person, who had not paid attention the day before in the demo and lecture. She plated her Halibut with not only the lemon buerre blanc but on a bed of green beans that were to be used on Monday. And then she had the audacity to be pissed about it. Hello, you didn't pay attention in the first place and now you're the one pissed at Chef? Holy crap woman, catch a friggin clue.

It was also due to this particular person and her roommate that our group White Bean soup project was an abject failure. Too gritty (beans weren't cooked enough), it sat in the walk in over night as we didn't get it plated in time. Though when I presented my plate, Chef gave me that knowing look. A couple days before 4 of our group was missing leaving two of us to do our work, and work that had been divided between group members the day before.

I've got to work on getting lest frustrated, and just plow forward. It was definatly a learning experience.

Getting to know you, and recommended reading

First off let me note that after twelve years in the broadcasting community, I said enough is a enough and decided it was time cut bait and move on. My move, to enroll at the Western Culinary Institute (a Le Cordon Bleu program). This wasn't the first time I had thought about it, but the first time that I moved forward and got out of my comfort zone - a zone I had been in for nearly half my life.

Also a free lance writer (of sorts). I've been blogging about baseball for several years now, my blog has been picked up (just recently) by a great sports blogging network and I write for another blog that just got purchased by a bigger company. So blogging about school, is easy (its just finding the time). Everyday last week I was in the Skills 2 kitchen by 6am class starts at 7a sharp with line-up where not only do we get checked out to make sure our whites are in order. But usually Chef Winter and her associate instructor Chef Matt grill us on the summary of cooking terms we should have learned the night before as part of our daily homework).

So here I am working on week 2 of a 3 week cycle, right now it's Skills 2. But I'll talk about that later, right now though I've come across many books lately and have started reading like a mad man. I mean, I love to read so why not? Here are some books that I've purchased in the last couple of weeks, though I'm going to list them I haven't read all of them yet.

1. "The Making Of a Chef" Michael Ruhlman
2. "The Soul of the Chef" Michael Ruhlman
3. "The Reach of the Chef" Michael Ruhlman
4. "Letters to a young Chef" Daniel Boulud
5. "On Food and Cooking" Harold McGee
6. "The Elements of Cooking" Michael Ruhlman
   

The McGee Book is a must have it was given to us when we recieved our text book bundles in Skills I.