A year of Gastronomy

Classical French: Instant Immersion

Tuesday was day one of Classical French.  Chef Jan was introduced as our tour director through not only Classical, but later Nouvelle, Asian and then Asian fusion.
I had met Jan once or twice and we had all watched her French class last semester through the window cooking and tasting and occasionally we 'the Freshmen' would grumble as the 'Seniors' would come in and take pans and platters and serving utensils out of our kitchen and into Jan's.  Who were these people and more importantly who the *hell* did they think they were taking our booty?
Chef laid down the rules on day one.  This ladies and gentlemen was classical French.  It would be work, it would be exacting.  Hot food would be served on hot plates, cold food on cold plates.  You will arrive early for lecture as there is a great amount of ground to cover, when I say brunoise dice, I mean Brunoise, when I say mire poix mean mire poix.  Most importantly, we are here to learn and to have fun.  Everyones fears were squashed immediately.  We loved her.

If it's September we must be in France

*tap*

*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

Yes, I know I have really been neglecting you over here.  I could offer up excuses like spending the summer redoing my house or fishing at our camp in Maine with my Mom and S.D. but I know that you really don't want to hear about that do you?  You dear reader are here for the food so shall we get back to it?

School started again this week on Monday.  We slowly drifted in to class around 8:00 all bright and shiny and ready to go. There were hugs and stories and lots of things to catch up on.  Everyone went down to see the unbelievable remodel in kitchen 'C'.  The room we formerly called the dungeon is pretty F'in amazing now!  Beautiful all new and shiny reach in fridge, freezer, double stack convection ovens, 10 burner range, deep fryer and on and on.  Damn it's beautiful.  Sadly though the newbies in baking get to play in the new sandbox.  We just get to gloat about being seniors and work up in the fishbowl of 'B' kitchen. I don't mind so much, it really is my favourite kitchen.

Every Monday this semester will be Provincial French with Chef Deb S. and Tuesday will be Classical French with Chef Jan.

Today we'll chat about Provincial.  So grab your cider and a seat and we'll head off to Brittany and Normandy.

She lives, she breathes, she take a summer break

For the few of you who do check in here occasionally to follow my culinary adventures , I do apologize.
You see the last few weeks of school, the move from Out of the Frying Pan to here, the house remodeling, working on my portfolio, and sigh, THE HEAT, have all conspired to keep me from my appointed duties.  I know, dear readers, that I owe you all a tour through Italy, details of my six week teaching assistant experiences and oh so much more, but damned if I can't light the forth fire under my butt to get to it.
Do have patience, I promise to start back up over here soon.  For now, I shall endeavor to get the remainder of the back links posted from the 'Pan'.

How's your summer?

OH le mie mani facenti male

Which roughly translates to 'Oh my aching hands'.

This week we covered two regions in Italian, Apulia(Puglia) and Tuscany.
Chef Roberta is really quite an interesting and amazing woman.  She lived in Italy for many years as child and then returned back to sit Political Science in Tuscany studying in Italian, since her early days there she has returned back to each of the regions, some many times.  Each of morning lectures is also accompanied by many off side stories and tales of her travels, it is always interesting but makes for a long lecture before we even hit the kitchen.

My new house

Be careful! 
That box has glass!
Just step over that pile of newspaper.
Here, *cleans couch off*, sit down.  I'm still unpacking.

Some of you may already know that Brian has decided to leave the culinary adventure we started in January.  This means he also has decided to change the content of Out of the Frying Pan to be more a food blog of his own and I will now stake my claim over here.
It will take me some time to upload all the old entries and photos, fix all the links, spiff things up, dust and polish and make it a worthy repository for my thoughts on culinary school.
I promise to start catching you up on cooking with Roberta the owner of the school and our recent slog through Italy region by yummy region and the results of our midyear practicum and test.
In the meantime, have patience, like slow food and the best wines, all good things take time.
I hope you'll come back for more.

jo

PFP II

As Brian is furiously baking and whipping up a storm at Big Red House, I am over here at little rainsoaked house baking and whipping up my own storm.  It's a damn good thing it rained all weekend because if it hadn't I'd have been out in the garden  and digging my patio and not in here cooking like I should be.  Sadly, making mud pies doesn't count.
Let's review my practice items.

No Anchovies Please

A hat tip to anyone who knows where that lyric comes from without googling it.
I started out the week with commercial baking.  Big quantities, the big hobart mixer and repetition, repetition, repetition.  When we started vollying for the recipes I stuck my hand up for the scones. I'm married to a Brit, how could I not?  Besides I have never made them and I would like to know with certainty that if called upon to make a high tea, I would be ready.

Shhhh, don't mention hollandaise to Brian

This week was our last week in basics, for me a bittersweet ending, for others, just bitter.
I had hoped we would see Chef Stephan again for our last class but a medical issue with a family member has seen us being taught by Chef Tony on and off over the last several weeks.  The differences between Stephan and Tony are vast in both their teaching styles as well as how they run the class.  Tony is a world weary, in the weeds hardened kind of guy.  A madman who is a below the knee amputee who broke his femur in a skiing accident this winter during a handicapped ski race, hobbles around the three story school on his crutches clutching a plastic container of iced coffee in his teeth to open the doors, is never seen without a baseball hat and still can't wait to get on his motorcycle again. 
Chef Stephan on the other hand is quiet, reserved, exacting, always seen with his chef hat on and an impeccable white coat and best of all for me he has a fabulously dry and wry sense of humour.

Gamegirl

What do you think of when you hear the word Game (related to food of course)?
My immediate thought is Venison or Rabbit or maybe Grouse and Pheasant but the list of game is quite long.  It includes: Elk, Moose, Caribou, Reindeer, Bear, Armadillo, Squirrel, Muscrat, Porcupine (?) and even Racoon.  Basically Chef Tony said any road kill qualifies as Game.  A charming visual isn't it?

Bunni Bunni

First: Consider this your obligatory warning that this entry contains formerly cute and furry creatures.
Second: I had a pet rabbit and his name was George.
Third: Rabbit tastes just like chicken.  No.  Really.

Now let us get on with it, shall we?