Don't Fall Behind!

Okay I didn't get a post out yesterday because I was too busy practicing turning mushrooms, so tonight I'll try and bang out a couple of lessons.

Wednesday was really rough.. For whatever reason, I was really tired, and it was a double practical day.  The first thing in the morning, we had to make a Souffle Glace a L'Orange.  It was taught by Chef Gilles.  Basically, it's a mixture of three different parts: Meringue Italienne (egg whites with a simple syrup), Sabayon (orange juice and egg yolks) and whipped cream (cream that is well.. whipped).  Unfortunately, we had to mix these all by hands, and it was a huge pain in the ass and really tiring.  I thought my arm was gonna fall off.  Anyway you fold all these ingredients, and then put them in a ramequin, put it in the freezer for 6 hours and serve with a candied orange which should be translucent when cooled.  Oh, cool note about the Meringue.. when it's ready, you can literally hold the bowl above your head and none of it will drop on your head.  I was sure if it was ready, and didn't really have the guts to do it, so Chef Gilles came over and did it... (over my head).

Lesson 9 saw the return of Chef Benoit, and was all about French salads.

Some terminology:
Oeuf Cuit Dur - hard boiled egg
Ecaller - remove the shell of an egg once cooled
Riz Creole - Rice cooked in boiled salted water
Degorger - to let fluids render, soak in water or salt
Robe des Champs - cooking potatoes with skin on, preserves
Mariniere - method for cooking mussels, put them in a pot with shallots and white wine, bring to a boil, and cook for a couple mins.
Emulsion comes in two types, stable and unstable.  An unstable one will separate after some time, for example salad dressing that needs to be shook.  A stable one has an emulsifier (ingredients that have the ability to bind two ingredients into stable form).
Ebarber - remove black thing from mussels

Chef Benoit went into this long discussion on how to properly cook a hard boiled egg:

Boiling water, from Fridge 12 mins, from room temp 10 mins.
Cold water, from fridge 15 mins, from room temp 12-13 mins.

The egg white is also known as albumen, and the egg yolk is known as lecithin.  The method Chef Benoit suggested is to add a splash of vinegar to the water in case it cracks and to put it in boiling water straight from the fridge.

My method, which works every single time, is to put the egg in cold water, with a cover, and bring it to a boil.  Remove it from the heat, and let it cool .. perfect hard boiled egg every time.

Potatoes should always be boiled from cold water.  If you use hot water, it will cook the outside too fast, and the centre will take longer to cook.  In fact, even longer than from cold water.

Chef Benoit also discussed the finger method for checking meat.  Have your hand loose and feel the meaty part of your thumb with:
Rare = Index + Thumb
Medium-Rare = Middle + Thumb
Medium = 4th + Thumb
Mendium-Well = Pinky + Thumb

Dishes demonstrated were Salade Francillon (Potato Mussles salad), Frisee Aux Lardon (Chicory and Lardons), Salade Des Nonnes (Rice & Chicken salad - gross), and the classic French Salade Nicoise (which is the practical we have to do).

The afternoon Practical #9 went off fairly smoothly.  I had to redo my boiled egg once due to trying the vinegar and boiling water method (it ended up slightly under cooked), but other than that it was fairly straightforward.  My final presentation, should have had a bit more salt in the vinagrette and I should have put more on the potatoes and the leaves, but it was acceptable.  My souffle glace from the morning was ready, and it turned out quite well.  Chef Benoit said I had the nicest candied orange in the class.  It was a bit unnerving though, because he had everyone's souffle lined up, and he picked the best 4 overall.  Mine wasn't one of them, for some reason, mine turned out quite sweet.  I think I might have used orange concentrate instead of Orange Juice.  Ooopsies...  It rose quite well though.

Today was demonstration #10 and Chef Benoit is quite passionate about Fonds (foundation / stocks).  There are two major Fonds.  Fond blanc (white stock) can be made from Volaille (poultry), Legumes (vegetables) and veau (veal).  Fond brun (brown stock) can be clair  (non-thickened) or lie (thickened).  They are usually made from Veal in French cooking or Beouf (beef).

From the 5 great "Sauces Meres" / Mother Sauces, you build all the other sauces.  They are:  Sauce Tomate, Sauce Espagnole (Brown sauce), Sauce Bechamel (White sauce with dairy), Veloute (White sauce, no dairy), Sauce Hollandaise (butter sauce).  You must use GOOD stocks to do these properly.

Some other terminology:

Fumet - quick stock.  Important to make a small amount, no freezing, short cooking time. 

Fumet de poisson - made from white mirepoix and fish bones 

Marmite - aside from a pot, it can also be the mix of two stocks
Bechamel - milk, roux + flavour
Veloute - roux + white fond
Ecumer - remove impurities w/ spoon.  never cover the stock pot.
Pincer - to push veg to one side, leaving an open area in the pot to cook tomato paste, until a little brighter and concentrated colour.  Moderate heat.
Singer - add a uniform film of flour, stir to cook flavour.
Mouiller a hauteur - to add a liquid to the top of what you are cooking

Cooking Modes
Saisir - lock in moisture, concentration
Expansion - to get rid of moisture
Mixte - S + E, ie. roasting bones, and then simmering them

Chef Benoit demonstrated Fond blanc de volailles (White stock made with chicken parts), Fond brun clair de veau (unthicked veal brown stock), sauce tomates (a tomato sauce made with mirepoix and pork belly), Fumet de poisson (quick fish stock) and Filet de sole de Douvres Dieppoise (The pratical).

Practical 10 was at noon, and I was the Sous-Chef for the first time.  This was our first "real" dish, and I messed up because we had to make the Fumet de poisson from scratch as well, so I had to go back to the production kitchen to get leeks, celery and extra shallots.  Oh well.. Overall the dish turned out quite well, even though I didn't have enough time to properly prepare my notes.  Anyway, my dish turned out too salty, my mushrooms were a bit under cooked, but I got the fish and mussels done properly and presentation was okay.

Lesson 11 was about Sauces Meres + Derives (derivatives).  It was taught by Chef Benoit.

Sauce Espagnole becomes Sauce Demi-Glace when it is reduced.

Sauce Bechamel is:  140g Roux Blanc, 1L Milk, 1 onion, nutmeg, salt/pepper.

Veloute de Volaille is Fond Blanc + Roux Blanc.
Sauce Supreme is Veloute de Volaille + cream.

Liasons are yolks, blood (careful, if boiled will turn grey), starch, by reduction, fat (cream / butter), coral (unfertilized eggs, ex. lobster roe)

Riz Pilaff  - DO NOT MESS WITH THIS RECIPE!!
Time: 17-19 Mins at 400F
Quantitiy = Liquid = 1.5X amount of Rice
DO NOT STIR
Cover with 2 lids (parchment paper and regular)
Bouqet Garni

Terminology
Glace de Viande - reduced veal stock
Depouiller - to remove sin from a sauce
Habiller - to dress a chicken
Tamponner - to gently melt butter over the surface of a sauce to prevent a skin from forming.  The "film" protects the sauce.

Chef Benoit showed us how to prep a chicken for the Poulet Poche sauce supreme (next practical), demi-glace (made by reducing the veal stock from the morning), Sauce Espagnole, Sauce Bechamel and derivates of Bechamel: Creme (with reduced cream), Mornay (with egg yolk and cheese) and Soubise (finelly chopped onion that is cooked, and then pushed through a strainer).

Taste wise, I really didn't care for the chicken.  It reminds me very much of the Salade Des Nonnes actually.  White sauce and chicken.. ugh.  It's cool to cook some meat finally though.

Friday is going to be double demonstration day... can't wait for the weekend!

Week Two begins..

Pictures from Lesson 7 and 8 are online.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

Today was a double demo day.  We started the day off with a new instructor, Chef Gilles.  He's an older gentleman, and has a quirky sense of humour.  He has a fairly strong accent, but he speaks well.  We focused on Entrements, or things that are eaten between main dishes to clear/change your palette.

Some terminology
Bain Marie - Cooking something immersed in water.
Sabayon - Foam done with yolks as a base, originally from Italy.  Done by whisking in a metal bowl that is sitting on a pot of boiling water
Chemiser - to coat something (ie. flour on a pan, or bread around a mold)
Compoter - the act of making compote
Blanchir - 3 meanings, today we blanchir by mixing eggs with sugar vigorously to whiten
"A la Nappe" - thickness where you can coat a spoon with sauce and run your finger through it
Caramel - sugar mixed with water until dark
Decuisson - stop cooking (sometimes with ice bath)
Appareil - Mixture that is ready to cook
Macerer - to soak in alcohol
Vanner - to stir or whisk a mixture until it is cooled

Icing sugar has starch in it (up to 10%) to keep it fine, and to draw humidity.

Chef Gilles demonstrated Pruneaux au Vin Blanc (prunes which are rehydrated with white wine), Poires au Vin Rouge (Pears cooked in red wine sauce), Creme Renversee au caramel (upside down caramel cream dessert), Charlotte Aux Pommes with Creme Anglaise(apple tart that uses white bread as a crust), Sabayon aux fruits (foamy cream around mixed fruits, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry)

Practical #7 didn't go exactly smoothly.  I had some trouble cutting the bread to fit the mold, and didn't press them firmly enough onto the mold.  My compote of apples could have been cooked slightly longer, but came out quite well taste wise.  I could have cooked the crust a bit longer, but overall it worked out okay.  My creme anglaise turned out very nice, and Chef Gilles said my allumettes au fromage came out perfect.  I had doubts about my puff pastry dough, since I only folded 5 times (as per Chef Herve's instructions - dont bother with the 6th turn if it wasn't done on Friday), but it turned out great.  I also switched workstations today because you don't know which workstation you will be assigned to for the final exam, so it's good to move around.

Demonstration #8 was also taught by Chef Gilles.  I had to drink a coke to get through the class, I was so freakin' tired.  We dealt mostly with frozen / cold Entretemps.

Terminology:
Degres Baume - measure of the density of a liquid
Densimeter - looks like a thermometer, used to measure degres baume
Meringue (eggs, sugar, air)
* Italienne - Heat sugar first, pour on eggs
* Suisse - cook in bain marie
* Francaise - cook in oven
Confire - to cook in syrup or alcohol
Turbiner - sideways cylinder mixer
Sangler - To mix
Sorbetiere - machine to mix
Beurre Pommade - room temperature butter that is easy to handle
Tuiles - Tiles (ie. roofing tiles)
Souffle - means expansion
Quenelle - football shape with 3 sides (ice cream was spooned like this)

Ice cream - cheap ice cream has lots of air in it, often artificially "fixed" into it.  ie. 1L pain when melted might reduce to 200ml!  Good ice cream might be 800ml.

Sorbet - fruit / puree or juice + sugar / syrup

Simple syrup is 1:1 water and sugar and should be 28 baume.

Chef Gilles made simple syrup, sorbet au citron vert (lime sorbet - very refreshing), creme galcee vanille (vanilla ice cream.. incredible!!), glace au cafe (coffee flavour ice - surprising they use instant for taste), granite au calvados (ice shavings of liquor), souffle glace a l'orange (will be making this tomorrow), cigarette aux amandes (almond pastry).

Tomorrow is a double practical day.  Yikes.  I've already written out my recipe for Souffle Glace a L'Orange for 1st practical, and have reviewed Lesson 9 recipes.  Good thing it's only a four day week.  Although week 3 is a 6 day week.  Ugggh.  Also I just realized, we are more than 25% done the course.  Yikes!

Finally, some pictures!

I've uploaded pictures from the first 6 lessons:

http://picasaweb.google.com/harvardcook

Hope you enjoy them,
-THC

Day 5 - Finally, week one done...

The day started off with Demonstration #6, with Chef Herve Chabert, who is probably one of the nicest instructors at the school.  He always has a grin on his face and has an endearing accent... you genuinely get the feeling that he wants everyone to succeed, and I can see why the Pastry students love him.  This is in stark contrast to Chef Benoit, who I do believe wants to give the opportunity and information to those who want to learn, but could care less about those people who are there just for the ride.  Hard to say which is better for my personality...

Chef Herve started with a discussion on pastry terminology:

Detrempe - Dough w/o butter

Paton - detrempe with butter

beurrage - the act of  adding butter

tourage - layering

tour simple - a single turn

dorure - egg wash

fleurer (from yesterday) - throwing flower across the table

Mille feuille - 1000 layers

Panade - the batter for gnocchi, made with water, salt, flour, butter and eggs

Puff pastry has three major types:

Classic - the butter is inside the detrempe - lightest, flakiest

Reverse - the detrempe is folded inside the butter - less flaky, but shrinks less

Blitz - short crust, "emergency" mix together

Crepes are NOT pancakes.  Much thinner - from Latin, Crispus; curly or wavy

Miscellaneous information: Use cool water when mixing dough and add a bit at a time.. never add more flour than the recipe requires, this can throw off the other ratios, such as salt / sugar / yeast.  For doughs without a yeast, do not mix too much.  Store doughs at the bottom of the fridge to rest.. it's cooler there.  That's why vegetable bins are always on the bottom of a fridge.

Chef Herve made allumettes au fromage (flake pastry coated with egg wash and cheese, and then baked - DELICIOUS), Gnocchi a la Parisienne (flour based Gnocchi that is baked in a mornay sauce), Crepes au Sucre (standard crepes rolled in white sugar) and Fettucini Alfredo (hand made pasta in a whole peppercorn sauce).

After every demo we get to try out the dishes (or the next day if it requires cooling) so this was quite the heavy cream and butter tasting.  I actually felt heavy after sampling but what can you do?  It's French cuisine.

One thing I really liked about Chef Herve is he went over exactly what we needed to do in the Practical during the last 10 minutes.   Since we were only doing the puff pastry dough for the Allumettes au Fromage, it wasn't too complicated, but we needed to carefully do each step.

After a short break, it was back to the lab again for Practical #6.  I'll briefly describe how you make puff pastry to give you an idea of the complexity of it:

Puff pastry has no yeast in it.  The puffiness is caused by the butter being layered between the dough and "lifting" it.  Thus, it must be folded a ideally six times in order to be "fluffy" enough.  First of all you sift the flour onto a table, make a well with the salt in the middle.  Adding cold water, a bit at a time, in a circular motion you draw in the flour, and make a dough.  MIX GENTLY and DO NOT OVER MIX.  The dough will not be smooth, but the less you mix it, the better it will rise.  You score a cross on the top and wrap it up, and let it rest for about 30 minutes in the fridge, covered of course with saran wrap.  Now pound out butter into a square, about 1/2 inch thick and about a scraper and 2 fingers wide.  Wrap in parchment paper and store in fridge as well to keep cool.  Once the 30 minutes are up, dust the table with flour, and remove the dough first.  Since you score a cross in it, you can now roll it out as a "four leaf clover" shape, with a large square in the middle.  Now take out the butter and put it in the middle.of the dough and fold over the four "leaves".  This is now called a Paton.  Gently roll out the dough to triple length (roughly 1.5 rolling pins) and then fold over the dough so that it has a right seam that you open like a book or magazine.  This is ONE turn.  Store the paton in the fridge for another 30 minutes to let it rest.  When you remove it from the fridge the second time, it may be possible to do two turns based on the elasticity of the dough.  DO NOT FIGHT THE DOUGH!  If you really have to work at it, no good.  You are not the boss, the dough is.  Anyway, once you do 6 of these turns, you are done.  Doing more turns doesn't really make a difference.

Since this lab had no actual cooking in it, we didn't turn on the stoves or the burners, so it wasn't too hot in there, which is good because we were working with butter.  I'm not sure, but I think in a later class we have to do it in a warm environment.  That'd suck.  Side comment / observation.  In the real world, just go out and buy commercial puff pastry.. it's going to be either the same or better than what most people can make on their own.

During the 30 minute periods where the puff pastry dough was resting, we turned vegetables.  I also asked Chef Herve to teach me again how to sharpen my knives.  It'll take some practice, but at least now I understand the concept and the feel of it.  Sharp knives are critical to turning vegetables and doing proper french cuts.

NOTE:  Sharpen knives this weekend.

The final session was a seminar on safe food handling standards: HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). If you're really interested go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_Analysis_and_Critical_Control_Points

It was taught by Chef Benoit, so as usual there were some interesting points and funny anecdotes:

Top 3 reasons why food is returned:

1. loose change in food

2. cigarette butts

3. plastic / tinfoil / dust / chips of paint (from ceiling)

4-60C is the range for bacteria to grow

Leave meats in the fridge as long as possible and only take out when needed.

Hand washing is the #1 prevention.

Two years ago, a student brought a puppy for a visit early in the morning, and every student went over to play with the dog. Afterwards, they went to a practical class and Chef Benoit noticed they did not wash their hands.  He did not say anything for 1.5 hours, and then told everyone to stop.  He said that they had handled a dog, had not washed their hands, so everyone dump what they had, go back to production kitchen, get the goods and start completely over.  The dog never came back to the school again.  

NOTE:  Make sure Chef sees me washing my hands at the start of every class.

The HACCP seminar ended early, around 6pm, so some of us headed to the pub after class and had a bite to eat and a couple drinks.  I didn't have anything since I was driving and also had a soccer game at 8pm.  There's definitely teamwork building in the team, and I think most of us realize we aren't going to get through this if we don't work together.  Awwww....

So in the end, I made it through the first week, and aside from some cuts to my hands, relatively unscathed...  I can't remember how hard University was, but this seems (at least at the moment) to be much more difficult, because it's a combination of physical (standing on your feet, cutting, chopping, kneading, boiling, carrying heavy pots and pans) and mental (learning all the theory and terminology).  Obviously, this is the intensive program, so it's to be expected, but it's still a lot to digest, especially since I haven't been in school for awhile... and I can't remember the last time I stood for up to 7 hours in a day.

Luckily, with the long weekend coming, I'll have a chance to review my notes this weekend and practice turning some veg.  And maybe even put up some pictures!

Day four - No blood!

Today I managed to get through the day without cutting myself.  Mostly because we didn't do a lot of cutting, and have started doing some pastry.  Small win!

Practical #4 was preparing the Quiche Lorraine and was taught by Chef Benoit again.  He ended up correcting me on a large number of things: my Lardons were cut too big "They look like they are on steroids!", and telling me that I was folding over the crust improperly.  Unfortunately, I didn't pre-cook the crust quite long enough (my oven isn't hot, so I found out I should set it 20 higher) so the Quiche didn't turn out perfect, but the filling was great according to him.  Since a quiche doesn't take the entire, I managed to turn 5 vegetables (two turnips and 3 carrots), but unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to evuter them long enough to get the proper glaze on them.  I was quite happy when Chef Benoit said that he can tell I could be a good turner someday and I asked him if that was a compliment and he said take it as you will.

I showed up 5 mins before class for Lesson #5, and chatted with Chef Benoit en francais for a bit.  I think he was impressed that I could speak French, so maybe that will help in the future.  I'm not above greasing the wheels.  I need all the help I can get!

Lesson #5 was again taught by Chef Benoit, and was on Pates Levees (or Poussees).  The common ingredients are flour, water or milk, eggs, sugar, salt, fat (butter, oil, saindoux) and YEAST!

Yeast comes in two types, dry and fresh (levure de boulanger).  Boulanger is french for bread maker.

NB: Salt should never be in direct contact with yeast, it will kill it.

Too much heat, sugar, salt will kill your yeast.  Ideal temperature for water is lukewarm, 40C or so.

New terminology

Petrir - knead a dough

Faconner - shape a dough

rompre - rupture / break

pousser - rise or proof

Beurre Monte - a family butter sauce (up to 75% butter)

Lustre - to shine a crust with fat

Chef Benoit prepared Saucisson en Brioche, or sausage baked in a brioche (heavy butter bread), Pissaladiere (basically a French pizza, with compote of onions, anchovies and black olives) and tarte au sucre (french style).

Various notes:  Kneading the dough should take 10-15 minutes at least as you really have to pound it to break the bonds so it becoms soft.  As well, you need to let the dough pousse or proof in a warm place until it's 2-3 times in size.  Cover with saran wrap or a wet towel.  When cooking a sausage, put bamboo skewers in it to keep the shape.

I have a hard time paying attention to anything for extended periods of time, and since the demo had three different doughs, there was 30-45 minutes of kneading, which is repetitive.  You are supposed to throw the dough against the table at the beginning, but after awhile even that's not that amusing.  Anyway, I was sitting front row, and at one point it looked like I was about to nod off so Chef Benoit pretended to throw the dough at me and I just moved my head slightly to the side.  He commented (to the class) that I barely moved out of the way, and I was about to argue about economy of motion when defending and figured that argument would surely be lost.

Pratical #5 was making the Pissaladiere, and I was actually quite worried about my dough.  As instructed, I measured everything EXACTLY using my scale, and did my best not to add too much flour to my dough, but it wasn't coming along right away.  I was one of the last people to allow my dough to pousser/proof/rise and before I put my saran wrap on, I had Chef Benoit look at it, and he said it was ok.  Onto my compote of onions, which didn't turn out well.  You have to cook the onions in some oil, then cover them to let them fully cook, then remove the cover and cook the rest of the liquid out, until it's a nice brown colour.  I didn't cook mine long enough...  I also chopped up some anchovies (disgusting) and pitted and sliced up some olives.  At this point, my dough had risen, and it was time to add the fat (olive oil in this case) and then work the dough into a round shape.  At this point, I added the toppings (including onions) and let it rise a second time.  This was nerve racking, because I was definitely the last person to put my pissaladiere in the oven, so I wasn't positive I would have enough time to cook it.  Fortunately, I had rolled out my dough properly, so it cooked evenly and quickly so I wasn't the last person to finish.

When I presented my pissaladiere to Chef Benoit, he immediately noticed my onions weren't quite done.. however my crust was perfect, in fact the best of the day!  So take the good with the bad...  Unfortunate because with another 2-3 minutes coulda had the best overall...

Tomorrow is only 1 demo, 1 pratical, and then a seminar with both the cuisine and patisserie classes.

Day 3 - Liquid Skin

Sleep patterns are messed up.  Too much on my mind, so I'm waking up around 4AM and wasting 2 hours of much needed sleep...

Got to school around 7:40AM.  Surprised how many students show up 5-10 minutes early.

Demo #3 was by Chef Jean-Marc again.  It was basically garnish and vegetable cut lesson and consisted of:

- Tomates Concassees:  Do not overcook, 5-20 secs depending on ripeness of tomato.. should be firm. Cut stem (pedoncule) and cross on bottom (monder), remove the seeds (epepiner) and finally the chopping of tomato (concassees)

- Portugaise: Stewed tomates concassess with butter, shallots, garlic and bouqet garni in a pot (sugar, salt, pepper to taste)

- Duxelle Seche de Champignons: finely chopped mushrooms (ciseler) which need to be cooked as quickly as possible due to oxidation.  with shallots, butter and finely chopped parsley.  Cook to pasty consistency.

- Grand-Mere

NB: ETUVER is a method of cooking with butter, salt, sugar and water to the level of the top of the vegatables, a paper lid made of parchment paper on top, and then a steel lid.  Remove the steel lid to evaporate water as quickly as possible.  If you cook it but leave it white, Glacer a Blanc.. if there is slight coloration, it is Glacer a Brun.

Etuver pearl onions.  Cut up pork belly into lardon (5mm x 5mm x 3 fingers) and fry in pan.  Remove lardon, cut mushrooms into quarters and fry in lardon fat and then add more butter, put return lardon to pan and reserve.  When the pearl onions are glacer a brun, add them to the pan.  In seperate pot, boil from cold water some turned potatoes.  For the presentation, dip one edge of turned potato in edge of parsely.

- Blanc de Cuisson

- Bouquetiere (Glacer a Blanc, Etuver)
Practice of various cuts.

- Jardiniere et Macedoine de Legumes
Two major cuts to practice here, batonnet (cut them a big bigger, line up and cut them to even out) and macedoine (cubes cut from batonnet)..  Turnips should be in water after cutting.

- Pomme de terre pour Frire

 * different cuts: Chips (use grater) Cheveux (cut up chips), Paille (straw, fine julienne), Mignonette (criss-cross using special grater), Pont Neuf (French fries cute, Frites), Gauffrettes (mae cylinder then flatten one side and grate)

Miscellaneous notes.  NEVER season on the serving plate.  In pot, pan, prep bowl.  Removing of the middle of the garlic is only necessary if garlic is old(er).

Practical #3 started at noon, and once again I didn't do particularly well.  I thought I did a decent job with the batonnet and macedoine, and I tried to turn a couple vegetables and did cook the veggies using etuver, but they didn't turn out remarkably well.  Chef Jean-Marc was quite nice though and was encouraging and showed me how to turn a couple carrots and turnips.   I suffered a second cut on the tip of my left thumb today, so no success in avoiding a cut today...

Demo #4 was run by Chef Benoit.  He started with a rant on how Pastry Chefs are a special breed, since they can be quite finicky, and unless you own a very large restaurant (over $1M gross) you would have a hard time justifying a full time pastry Chef at $70K/year.  He did however say that there were evil rumours being spread by some students that he is a "closet Pastry Chef", but he denies it.  The reason why it is important for all Chefs to understand some basic pastry is that in most kitchens, you will be responsible for at least some simple pastry, so you MUST know the concepts.

Some important notes:
You MUST respect recipes and measurements.. especially for flour and liquid.
Always REST your dough before using to loosen elasticity.

Les Pates
Pates a Foncer -> Pate brise, Pate Sucree
Pates Levee
Austres (others)

Farce Simple MUST contain at least 30% fat.

When rolling dough.. "Move the dough around you, you don't move.", ie. do a 90 degree turn OF THE DOUGH, don't contort your body.

Some terminology
Sabler - sand, to make the pastry a coarse sand texture.. you can do it by rubbing your hands together, Karate Kid style, like Mr. Miyagi.

Chemiser - means to line a mold.

Fleurer - Throw flour across the table
Abaisser - to roll using palms of hand
Fraiser - with palm of hand push a small chunk of dough forward to ensure mixing (of butter)
Compote(r) - a reduction of something (apples, onions)
Chiqueter - to use little pinchers to shape top of the pastry crust
Reposer - to allow something to rest
Cuire a Blanc - pre-cook a pastry shell, often by putting parchment paper in the crust to keep the shape, and filling with beads
Appareil a Creme Prise
Fontaine - make a well in the middle of a pile of flour to keep in the liquid

We mostly use all purpose flour in North America, which is about 50% humidity.  In Europe, they have 30-65 and cake flour times, which is the amount of water left after evaporation.  When you add water, it binds the protein in wheat (called gluten) and must be left to rest.

The word farce is used as soon as meat is used.  Farce simple is coarce, rough texture.  TOO DRY without (at least) 30% fat.

Wine and cognac in the kitchen is often pre-salted to avoid boozing.  Most restaurants use really cheap wine/cognac anyway so I don't know who'd be alcoholic enough to want to drink.  Wait, I often feel like it during class...

Chef Benoit proceeded to make Pate Pantin, Quiche Lorraine, Flammiche au Maroilles et aux poireaux, and a Tarte aux pommes.

Extremely tired, I went home, did some laundry and stopped by Shoppers Drug Mart to buy some liquid skin for my fingers.  Works amazing.  Two bloodied thumbs up to the inventor.

To end this blog post, I'll quote Chef Benoit's view on using butter for certain recipes: "It's like an Angel crying on your tongue."

Day two - First blood...

Since lessons are divided into demonstration and practical, with three lessons per day (3 hours each) I end up being at the school from 8am to 7pm every day, with about 1.5 hours of downtown in between, depending on how quickly the kitchen is cleaned up after practical.

Today was the first practical lesson, which was to practice the various cuts julienne, brunoise, paysanne, concasse, hache, ciseler, etc.  This did took a lot longer than was expected, so we did not even get to the Potage Cultivateur.  Oh well, I had my hands full trying to julienne carrots into 1-2mm sticks, 3.5 fingers long.  We also worked with onion, parsley, potatoes.  3 hours goes by remarkably fast, and when it's over it feels like you got beat up by a gang of thugs.  Clarification on Mirepoix (40% onions, 40% celery, 20% carrots) is a Garniture Aromatique, something that is to add flavour.  It's not a cut specifically.  Just an aside, TWO people showed up late for the first lab.  A Russian guy for no apparent reason was 5 minutes late, and a Greek guy who was 10 minutes late who tried to explain in broken english why, and Chef Benoit really didn't care.  He said "First time, I don't care, we get to 3 I don't let you into class and it's an absence."  It was annoying since he had to start over again, over how to light an oven etc.  The gas, etc.  Oh, and I drew blood by stabbing my hand.  I am proud to say I was the second one, not the first, to get cut.  I'm fine, it was more embarrassing than anything.

Some notes on the people in my class.  I think there are 25-30 odd students attending the intensive courses, almost evenly split between Cusine and Pattisserie.  In cuisine, there are only 2 local Ottawa people, the rest come from all over Canada, the US, Russia, Greece, Australia, etc.  After the first practical class, one of the girls  (who is from Mexico) transferred to the Patisserie program which is a lot less intensive (20 lessons vs 30 lessons).   It's funny because of the 12 people in Cuisine, I think only 3 or so are interested in becoming Chefs.  The rest are there purely for the experience.  There's a Doctor named Jennifer from the US, and she told me she's a Psychiatrist, and I asked her to explain what possesses people to pay to go through this pain and she said if she knew she'd try to cure us all.

In between classes, I got my government French results.. C in Oral interaction!  Wooohooooo!  I guess a lot of it has to do with the French training program at work, where for the past 6 months, I've been spending about 8-9 hours per week on average learning french.  So anyway I have a C-B-C profile now and am quite pleased that the hard work paid off.

Demonstration for class #2 was taught again by Chef Benoit.  This guy is really, really funny.  The class was on various cooking methods, and the most hated of portion of French cooking, "Turning of vegetables" and a recipe for Greek Vegetables or Legumes a la Grecque.  Strange thing.  I've been to Greece (and a very pretty friend of mine just got back.. Heeeyyyyy :D ) and to me, Greek veggies are tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, some good olive oil.  Chopped haphazardly.  French-style not so much.

Firstly, we discussed the techniques for cooking vegetables.
Pocher - to poach, cook in a large amount of liquid (from cold or hot)
Cuire A L'Anglaise - use salty water (BORING, that's why we call it English according to Chef Benoit)
Court-Bouillon - liquid + acid + garnitude Aromatique (anything that brings flavour); takes about 20 mins minimum to bring out the flavour when making the court-bouillon
Glacer A Blanc/Brun - White glaze, coloration is through the caramelization of sugars
Oxidation (ugly brown colour) of vegetables is caused by light and air.

Family of vegetables
Root - Carrot, Beet, turnip, radishes, parsnips
Tuber - potato, yams, croene
Flower - artichoke, broccoli, cauliflower, capers
Fruit - tomato, peppers, eggplant, avocado, zucchini, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, olives
Seed - beans (various - wax, red lentils, soy) and peas
Leafy - Spinach, Cabbage, Lettuce
Stem - Green Celery, Asparagus, Leeks
Bulb - Onion, Garlic, Shallots
Fungus - Mushrooms, Oysters, Morels (Black and Blonde) which grow in sandy soil or old garbage dumps

Special notes on Trufles - depending on condition, black french trufles can go for $5000-$7000/kg.  Also Tuscany has nice trufles.  Are also grown in Oregon and Himalayas (which are *only* $500/kg but quality is not so high).. good trufle should be very firm, not spongy at all.  Trufles are hard to find.. Dogs and Pigs can be trained to find them.  They are a cancerous growth on Oak Tree.  Flying patterns of flies might indicate
them.  Whatever, just to go to Wikipedia or google.

Chlorophyll is a protein that is found in green to yellow veggies.
Carotene is protein that colors, blue to black, red orange, pink, etc.

Turning vegetables is for presentation purposes.  It doesn't change the taste, but it's a huge pain in the butt.  All turned veg should be the same size, equal cooking times.  Always make more ie. if you want 100, make 130, so you can taste to make sure it's cooked right.  Chef Benoit showed us how to do zucchini, carrots, mushrooms.  Wait till you see the pictures

To properly prepare a tomato without seeds, you:
-  Monder (remove skin by blanching in hot water after cutting a cross on the bottom and cutting off the stem side, and putting in ice water bath ... I did this in Mexico many times)
- Epepiner (get rid of the seeds by cutting in half and either squeezing them out which is not exact, or cutting it out)
- Concasser - cutting into tiny cubes.
Tomato seeds are bitter and cannot be used for anything and are hard to digest.  Get rid of them whenever possible.

I have a couple of pages on notes for turning veggies, but there's no point.  You just have to practice till you get it.  I'm gonna have to be able to do 70 turnips in a later class... so yeah.  That's greeeeeeaat.

Chef Benoit briefly demonstrated Knife sharpening.  The easiest way is to rest the tip of the sharpening tool against a table and cut away from you towards the table.  It looks simple enough... but it's not.

Paper lids for pots can be made with parchment paper by folding in half, quarters, then over and over in a triangle, then trimming the excess to measure from the middle of the pot.

Cuire a L'Anglaise, put green beans in rapidly boiling salt and water + coarse salt (always use coarse salt for boiling, it's cheaper), and then immerse in cold water when 90% done.  Always finish food by blanching right before serving, and put the green beans in a bowl with some butter and toss.  Add salt to taste.

That's about it for demo #2.

The practical #2 didn't go exactly smoothly.  Chef Jean-Marc was the instructor, and looks-wise, he's classical french looking guy and reminds me a bit of this guy who got punched out in soccer last week.  Except Chef Jean-Marc is really nice. To put it bluntly, I suck at turning vegetables.  I'm gonna have to practice this long weekend, but basically you are supposed to make 7 sided "footballs" which are 3.5-4 fingers long out of carrots (or zucchinis).  Mushrooms are even harder.

I spent so much time on turning that I didn't even get to the mushrooms and barely finished my dish.  My carrots were under cooked, and my sauce was watery.  If Chef Ramsey was there he woulda been yelling at me.  I think Chef Jean-Marc felt sorry for me, because I think I looked pretty sad (or pathetic.. hahaha) and I started off by saying "Sorry Chef, I didn't get around to the mushrooms, I promise I'll practice and do better". I had to remind myself that this is the second day of classes, and the first day in the kitchen.  Also, pretty much everybody struggled like crazy.  Two people didn't even finish on time, and the Chef let them continue cooking while the rest of us cleaned.  Oh and I cut my right thumb.  Just a knick this time but painful.

So day 2 down.. it's gonna be a loooooong month!  My goal for tomorrow is not to cut myself...