After Week 16 Blog

School is done, and what a different feeling it is to be completely finished, rather than just completing part one of a sequel.  I admit, the past few weeks were so intense and demanding, my frustrations got the better of me – I was snapping at people, grumpy…miserable.  I think what kept me sane enough to function was talking with friends that were alumni…they just kept reminding me “Enjoy it while your in it, you’ll never get it back” and “When your finished, it will take a bit, but it’ll all start to sink in and you’ll be amazed when you look back at everything you’ve learned.”  I pfffed it all…but you know, they were right.  

Most of my grumpy disposition can now be attributed to my catching a bad flu bug that was going around – yep, sick as a dog just in time for the last week of school, when ALL the big projects and assignments are due, not to mention my last lab!  But still less than a week out, and reflecting what I was exposed to and absorbed over the last two years…it’s all pretty incredible and just sinking in.

Beyond cooking, there’s this secondary set of skills you just happen to develop (is it by chance, or was it masterminded?) that are actually crucial in an intense and fast paced kitchen environment.  Sometimes I think these secondary skills are just as important as learning to wield a chef’s knife.  Time management, multi-tasking, efficiency, perseverance, organisation…there’s a myriad of skills that every course requires you to develop some proficiency at, or you will not succeed.  Some of us already had these skills and they just needed some honing and others had to develop them from scratch.  But the point is, if you’ve made it through the Stratford Chefs School, you have developed the skill set required to make it out there, not just as a cook in the kitchen, but as a budding Chef. 

The enthusiasm of our graduating year is something even Chef Steele commented on, in a positive way at our farewell luncheon.  Our year had enthusiasm and focus (those were his words!).  This was such a compliment, and not unwarranted.  Less than a week out, and already a couple of students have flown out to Denmark to stage at Noma, the #1 restaurant in the world.  Another student is getting geared up for a five-week stage at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California.  Several more are staging at Michelin starred restaurants in Amsterdam, Italy, France…and for those that aren’t travelling or staging, most already have jobs lined up.  Enthusiasm?  Most definitely! 

Even though the school year is over, we still have graduation in June as our last chance to come together as the graduating class of 2011 to say our farewells to each other.  It’s really difficult to come to terms with the knowledge that some people I’ve seen every single day, in school over the last two years, I may never cross paths with again.

 But I suppose that’s what social networking is for…what ever did we do before Facebook and Twitter?

You know, when I started this blog, I didn’t think I’d have any issues keeping up with it.  A once a week, couple of hours commitment at the most – of COURSE I’d do it! 

But the reality of it is, school has gone into overdrive for the past few weeks, beyond what I thought it possibly would (November and December have nothing on January and February) and the whirlwind has quite honestly left me breathless. 

I’m finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel – as some of the classes wind down, breathings getting a bit easier again, the final assignments are being handed in, people are completing their last lab rotations…we’re finally in the home stretch. 

Pastry finals are over, so we met last week for Chef Bex’s sugar demonstration – lilies, roses, orchids – all pulled from hot sugar into ethereal objects, and sugar blown into uncanny likenesses of apples and pears.  I took a peek at the final “fruit and flower”  basket today as I left Rundles, and it was pretty spectacular.“ 

  The next class we’re doing laminated doughs – these are your danishes and croissants – the only problem is there never seems to be enough, as faculty tend to appear from nowhere when they catch the first wafts of croissants coming from the ovens (I can’t blame them one bit).

We’re moving into our Ethnic and Larder black box exams – it’s one of those things that I’m trying not to think about until they’re both upon me (mine are in weeks 15 and 16).  It’s a bit overwhelming for someone like me, who can’t make a decision to save her life when there’s too many choices.  I’m hoping I’ll have a couple of cuisine ideas in mind for Ethnic by the time of my exam, and Larder I’m pretty much leaving up to the Gods and whatever our instructors decided to pack in the box for the day…

 We have our final Gastronomy class tomorrow, which will consist of drinking hot chocolate, and have a discussion of how this year has gone for us and what improvements the instructor wants to make to the curriculum for next year.  And it’s our last wine class this week before our final exam, which if we pass, will give us our first level certificate in the International Sommelier Guild. 

We have the 21^st Annual Gala Dinner and Auction happening this coming weekend at Nota Bene in Toronto, which is a major fundraiser of the Stratford Chefs school.  It’s a huge deal for the school every year, and takes a lot of hours of a lot of dedicated people to pull off.  This will be the first time in two years I’ll actually be wearing my service jacket (shhh, I don’t know how I haven’t had to before now – but luckily it still fits). 

The students are divided into kitchen and floor staff to serve and work at the event, and it’s pretty much Riccardo Camanini’s last time in the kitchen with the second year students.  He heads back to Italy a few days before the end of the school year, and he’s been such an important figure at the school for the students, it’s going to be hard to see him leave. 

Oh, and in between the flurry of constant activity, I managed to make bread this weekend.  Did I say I finally killed my starter a couple of weeks ago?  Well I did.  I’ll lament over it a couple of weeks from now when school’s over, I’m sure.  But when I scooped it out into the garbage it was like a big responsibility lifted from my shoulders – no more guilty late night, sporadic feeds…anyways, the bread I made was from Max and Vicki Lass’s son Owen (of Church Hill Farms), and the method of using a dutch oven for cooking the bread was like an epiphany.  It holds in the humidity, no steaming required, and the bread comes out beautifully risen – I’m dying to try the method using other bread recipes and see where it gets me…

The work’s piling up, and that’s my excuse for this short update!  We had a super busy week cooking Oaxacan cuisine with Pilar, and every night the dinner labs were packed!  The floor had an awesome energetic vibe about it that we don’t get too often.  People were relaxed, having fun, and enjoying the elegantly presented renditions of authentic Mexican food.  And mole nero?  Blew my mind.

 This week we welcome Alexandre Gauthier, from La Grenouillere.  He is super keen to use as many local ingredients as possible in his menus this week, so he waited until he could visit the food markets in Toronto on Saturday before planning the courses!  It’s a little nerve racking in a way because we have no recipes or any inkling of what we’ll be into this week, but exciting all the same.  We all met his team today (himself, his Sous Chef and Business partner) and watched a couple of stunning short videos that showcased both his restaurant and food style.  Food porn?  Most definitely!  He explained a bit of what he’s decided with regards to the menus, and each day he’s purposefully planned a slightly more complex menu.  Figures my group has the Wednesday/Friday lab rotation!  It looks like there’s some sugar blowing involved in the Friday night dessert (shhh..).

 I’m looking forward to being back in the kitchen after a week and a half working on the floor in the labs.  It’s funny how much better you get at working the floor each time, even though we only do it every 6 weeks or so.

 This week we have two theory and one practical exam that sort of crept up on us, but I guess that’s what happens week 12.  It’s the last week of core curriculum and I guess our last milestone before the end of the school year!

Our Ethnic Cookery class is now moving into its guest chef demo weeks.  Up until now, a particular cuisine (Italian, Thai, Mexican, etc) has been the focus each week, and we’d prepare classic recipes from those regions and spend the last hour of class devouring a spread of what everyone had made. 

This past Monday we had our first guests, Japanese Kaiseki Chef Hashimoto and his son Kai, come to demonstrate the art of Kaiseki cuisine.  Kaiseki is essentially Japan’s version of haute cuisine.  It’s extremely artful in its presentation, it’s a balance of delicate tastes and textures, and it relies on using only the freshest ingredients available.  Umami?  Oh yes!  And for $300 a person ($400 including paired sake) and a one to two week advanced reservation, you can enjoy a nine-course dinner at Chef Hashimoto’s, six seat restaurant in Toronto.  I think it was after I learned just how much a Kaiseki meal costs, that I really got excited about all of this – there has to be some insane talent and skill we’re talking about to be able to charge that kind of coin for a meal. 

Humble and soft spoken, Chef Hashimoto quietly demonstrated several components of traditional dishes while his son spoke about the skill and technique, and explained the cuisine in more detail.  We use peelers where they skilfully use their knives.  Peelers are thought to damage the cells of the ingredient, the pressure exerted bruising the vegetable rather than just peeling.  Chef Hashimoto used his knife to peel a red carrot, by first cutting it in several shorter pieces, than holding the carrot and his knife vertically, he skilfully removed the thin layer of skin as he rotated the carrot.  Do a google search on “daikon crane” and look at images.  You see that crane?  That’s a Chef Hashimoto speciality, and he made two for us as plate garnish. 

Mackerel prepared and simmered in a pot of sake, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce was awesome, and it sparked in my memory a similar dish I enjoyed in a Japanese restaurant in Taiwan.  White turnip soup with a little starchy rice ball as garnish, sashimi on a bed of daikon strands garnished with gold leaf.  Fresh wasabi (I’ve only known the powder and paste up until now!) grated on a traditional sharkskin grater.  An oblong smoked and dried bonito and the Japanese box grater used to flake it  (having tasted this, makes the stuff you get already flaked in the store taste like a shadow of what it should be).  Yellow miso paste like none any of us had ever before had – more sweet than salty if you can believe it. 

It was such an awesome opportunity to be submerged in the Japanese Kaiseki culture even though it was just for a few hours.  They finished up the class with a knife-sharpening demo, and asked who would volunteer to have their knives sharpened by Chef Hashimoto.  Of course we would!!  It was sort of funny to see Chef Hashimoto review the current state of our knives, starting with Shu’s Global that hadn’t been properly sharpened in over three years.  Jeremy’s Victorinox that he basically gave up using months ago and has been borrowing my knives on a daily basis because it’s beyond dull.  Nick’s ridiculous razor sharp Suisin and my MAC (I THOUGHT it was sharp, but apparently not). 

He started with Shu’s Global, a gentle chuckle escaped him as he realised the poor condition of it. (oops).  It was pretty funny actually.  He had to start it on the lowest grit stone he had, the one most often used to create a new edge, or used for chipped or really damaged blades.  She laughed too (as did everyone) and despite our embarrassment for the condition of all our knives, he did manage to repair hers, and achieved a sharper edge than I’ve ever had on my knife.  They taught us the proper and best way to use a sharpening stone, which was invaluable.  I admit, I’ve been scared to sharpen my knives on a stone because if you do it at the wrong angle, you can completely wreck your knives, so every so often I’d bring mine to Bradshaws to have it done.  I can proudly say I sharpened two of mine last week at home, and was totally happy with the results.  Until Riccardo commented on how dull my knife was when we were butchering rabbits two days later, but I STILL think it was way sharper than it was originally!

 This week, I’m totally excited about dining at the dinner labs on both Wednesday and Friday evenings (it’s Pilar’s week!) and the very next week we have Alexandre Gauthier, a Michelin starred chef of La Grenouillere restaurant, located in Montreuil-sur-Mer, France!

After a two week break of us all eating too many waist-line expanding meals, sleeping in every morning (so glorious!), and hanging out with people that think about other things than just food, it’s back to school! 

I admit – I did NOT want to get out of bed Monday morning.  I cowered under the covers, thinking it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to stay up past midnight watching season 2 episodes of United States of Tara on dvd… 

I was one of the keeners that actually did some work over the holidays (yup, I’m one of those) but for those that know me well, they know I do this just so I can hit the pub after classes and still feel caught up on my work!  And since this is our last eight weeks together, (after the first two weeks in first year everyone feels like best friends, by week 9 of second year, you’re in some ways closer than family) I wanted to give myself plenty of opportunities to be with my classmates socially, before we all take off in different directions in the spring. 

We’re starting to move into our Celebrity Chef series at the dinner labs, which is incredibly exciting.  This year, our first international Chef coming to showcase her talents and cuisine at the school is Pilar Cabrera Arroyo, a critically acclaimed Mexican chef from the Oaxacan region, who has mentored such Chef’s as Rick Bayless,  a well known American Chef and ambassador for Mexican cuisine in his own right. 

Pilar Cabrera learned to cook from her mother and grandmother at a young age, and later attended University for a degree in Food Sciences and Nutrition.  She opened her restaurant La Olla in 1994, and her cooking school Casa de los Sabores in 1998.  The foundation of Pilar’s cuisine relies on obtaining quality ingredients from local farmers.  She believes in supporting local economies and advocates sustainable farming methods.  She essentially embodies everything Stratford Chefs School has been teaching us from day one. 

I read that when she takes her cooking school students to the local markets to shop for ingredients, she spreads out her purchases over many vendors to support as many growers as she can.  She also often deals with the elderly women who she knows walked quite far into town with their produce to sell. 

Oaxaca is considered to be Mexico’s culinary capital.  It’s where Mediterranean meets Mesoamerican.  It’s known as “the land of seven moles”, famous for its “chapulines colorados”, and of course, mezcal. 

Mole is an incredibly complex sauce that contains more than 32 ingredients that include a variety of spices, chilies and of course chocolate.  It’s traditionally served with chicken, and specifically prepared for the Day of the Dead, where it’s used to honor family members that have passed away.  The mole is placed upon the altar as an offering, in hopes the departed family member’s soul will visit.  Some of the popular mole varieties include negro (black), amarillo (yellow), coloradito (reddish), almendrado (with almonds), verde (green), rojo (red) and Manchamanteles (tablecloth stainer). 

Chapulines Colorados sounds better when you don’t know what it is!  When translated, it’s little grasshoppers that are traditionally served as appetizers.  They are only collected at certain times of the year, and are prepared by toasting on a heated clay cooking surface with garlic, lime juice, and an extract from an agave worm that contains salt.  Sometimes chili is added, resulting in a sour-spicy-sweet-salty combination.  I tried a fried insect from a street vendor in Thailand, and I thought I was turned off insects completely but after reading about Chapulines Colorados, I think I may give them another try!  For those faint of heart, don’t worry, I have not seen them incorporated in the week’s menus. 

Oaxaca is also known for its Mezcal, not a food, but well worth a mention.  Mezcal is essentially an unrefined tequila – I tried it for the first time this summer when some friends arrived back from a couple of months backpacking around Mexico, with a bottle in hand.  I recall a weird smokiness about it, and earthy depth and complexity that tequila just didn’t have.  It’s made from the Agave cactus, and like tequila, includes a worm in the bottle. 

I think a week of Mexican cooking and eating is just what we all need to chase away these snowy January days!

Week 6 blog

Okay, I admit I’d remember a whole lot more if I hadn’t have missed writing about week 6 at the time but there was so much going on…I think I’ll talk about the pastry exam and my weekend of sourdoughs!

So exam day was pretty hectic for my group, because not only did we have the exam in the afternoon, but both before and after it we were scheduled to do some intense pre-prep work for the Friday night lab.  Figures I would be slotted for pastry for the Alain Ducass lab, who’s restaurant serves something like 25 different breads.  Shu decided to take it easy on me and went with five breads but still…I was pretty relieved when it was all over…

The exam went well for my group – the desserts all looked and tasted great – I think my favourite was Luca’s.  Just for the plating.  I looked over and he was painting on some caramel or something along one side of the plate, and artfully plated his pear and brisee elements.  He looked down and was decidedly torn about garnishing with his cinnamon stick and a couple of star anise that had been used for flavouring during the pear poaching.  We’ve always been taught to only garnish with edible items, and those would clearly be non-edible items.  But Luca’s a rebel and even though he was risking plating marks, he went for it because that’s how he wanted his dish executed.  It was very Martha Stewart J

Collectively I think our weakest marks were for our bread rolls – most of us worked the dough a little too much and ended up with crazy blow outs .  Some of them didn’t quite resemble dinner rolls anymore but like they had big tumours growing out of their bottoms…and we all should have left them in for more colour .  Note to future students and 1^st years: Chef Bex and Chef Middleton are NOT afraid of dark breads…you really should use the photos in the Rundles pastry kitchen as reference!

Anyway, so on Friday I got the idea in my head that after making five breads for the dinner lab, I wanted to make some sourdough at home and finally use that starter that was now headed for complete dormancy (I really thought I killed it last weekend, I think I forgot about it for five whole days.  But it came back alive!!).  So I sat down with Chef Middleton and he helped me work out a recipe.  I spent most of Saturday morning collecting the various equipment I didn’t yet have (razors for scoring,  a baking stone, canvas fabric, etc.) and got home about 2pm ready to start.  I measured out the flours…and then I tried to measure out the water but Chef had forgotten to write down the water percentage.  I laughed at that – out of all the things to forget!  I sort of just added water and it came out pretty good!  Not the most perfect loaves but I’ll get there!

Blog Week 5

 Exams are upon us, and I feel like they’re coming out of nowhere.  In week 6 we have our first Practical Pastry exam.  The thing about practical exams 2^nd year, is you don’t have a lot of them, so it means each one’s worth a heck of a lot of your final grade.  I think our Ethnic exam is worth 50%, and I’m pretty sure this pastry one is as well, just to give you an idea.

 My group had our dry run of the exam on Friday afternoon, and Chef Bex began the run through by letting us know that every other 2^nd year class ran over by a good half hour in order to finish everything on time – no pressure or anything!  We started with running through the bread, which seems pretty straight forward as far as breads go (the trick there will be to NOT forget about it!), followed by the pate brisee.  Then we learned about the bit of “black box” component of the exam…

 Each person needs to poach half a pear, in an infused sugar water of their choice.  The second half of the pear could be roasted, poached and pureed, made into a compote – you get the idea.  Just a second element of “pear-ness” in the dish.  The pate brisee would need to be formed into a wafer thin cookie, to provide a crunchy element to the dish and finally, a quenelle of whipped cream (flavoured if you like) to top off the dessert.

 You can see how this is both exciting and nerve-racking – I’m one of those people that when there’s unlimited choices and possibilities, I have a huge problem deciding what “I” think is the best.  I just knew I wasn’t happy with the pear I prepared during the dry run. 

 I had infused my sugar water with orange, indonesian long pepper and cardamom but found it too sweet, with no discernible flavour other than sugar, and it didn’t take on any of the heat I was hoping to get from the long pepper .  I ended up with a horribly sweet, colourless pear on a plate, with colourless brisee cookies, and a thieved bit of caramel sauce I begged off Nick so it wasn’t so ugly on the plate (thank God we weren’t getting marked on these). 

 At that point I looked up and saw what everyone else was plating.  Roger had made a caramel drizzled dome to sit atop their chocolate dipped pear, someone else had a myriad of sauce components artfully painted on their plate to accompany their perfectly poached pear (I forgot to mention, I completely forgot to turn my pear frequently during cooking.  In fact, I totally forgot to turn it even once.  So it was not cooked evenly, at all).  Shu infused hers with lavender so it took on this lovely floral essence, and Kaya used thyme and who knows what else to make some weird flavours that you knew you liked, you wouldn’t necessarily pair them together, but they worked in a strange and indescribable way.

 After that, I knew I’d have to spend some of my weekend figuring out what would make a tasty pear, and make it look great on the plate.  So that was how I spent my Saturday – I poached four pears, different flavourings (one I used chai spices as inspiration, another was earl grey, and two more I played around with orange, ginger and a few other spices).  In the end I’m going with a ginger based infusion – it offers that bit of heat I wanted to get on the plate that the pepper just wasn’t giving me, and works really well for this time of year.  I’m using some pomegranate juice to get some colour on the plate in my ginger-pear sauce, I think a balsamic reduction will give a nice flavour and be pretty on the plate as well as some rough chopped pistachios.  I’m going to flavour my whipped cream with ginger (I tried pepper, and then an orange-honey version but I found the pepper and orange zest flecks mealy and just not as tasty).  I even toyed around with several plating ideas – I came up with one that will work well if I can snag a rectangular plate for presentation, if not I have another idea for a round presentation I think may work well…

 The hurdle still to overcome will be getting it all complete for our put-up times.  You never seem to have time to do as much as you think you do.  I was toying with the idea of adding a tuille into the mix, I may still try for one, but after our Healthy Menu and Bistro Menu exams at the end of 1^st year, I just know when we get in there we’ll all be scrambling.

 So good luck to all the 2^nd year students!  I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!