Week Two - Mother Sauces and Derivatives

Week Two was really fun. Thursday we reviewed production of brown and white stock and then discussed the five mother sauces (Veloute, Hollandaise, Tomato, Espagnole, and Bechamel) and the small sauces that can be made using them (which is pretty much every sauce known to man - those French are crafty). We went over emulsions, starch-bound sauces, thickening agents (are you asleep yet?), and finishing techniques (like if you want a really glossy, shiny sauce...butter is your friend).

My group is made up of me, an almost 60 retired Air Force officer who is going to teach me to crochet between our Saturday classes (she's pretty awesome), a woman in her I'm guessing late 40s who I think has been a line cook forever, and a Moroccan guy in his late 20s (I think) who has been working in the industry for quite some time, calls me "momma" and wants me to have his babies. No joke. That isn't going to get awkward at all.

The other two groups you ask? How thoughtful. One is made up of three kids who are all 18 or 19. They're adorable. The two girls are young and giggly and the guy is the nicest spoiled rich kid I've ever met (and I've met a lot) and hails from St. John. The other group is four people, three older, one young. The young guy is 18, just out of high school and wants to teach the culinary arts. He's a good kid with a smart head. The other guy on the team is about 40, has five (he thinks a sixth might be on the way but isn't sure) kids, a criminal record of some sort, has worked in the industry for about 25 years and is just the nicest guy. He's quite humble and even though he has been doing most of this stuff forever, acknowledges there are techniques and processes he may not know and is willing to learn. One of the women on the team is about my age, sweet, nice, knows absolutely nothing about cooking (she's in the baking and pastry program), and wants to open her own cake store when she's done. The other woman is mid to late 40s, has some level of catering business, has traveled the world with work but won't tell us what her job is, is uppity and prideful and will be the one person in the class I have issues with. While we were making our sauces, Chef came over and we had this conversation:

Chef: Your sauce looks excellent. Good job.
Me: Thank you Chef. It's all been a team effort.
Chef: Yeah, you guys seem to be the only ones working together and communicating.
Me: Please don't split us up.
Chef: Someone needs to work with her (pointing at Uppity).
Me: I will probably end up yelling at or punching her.
Chef: Good. That's what she needs.
Me: (Laughing) I'm so glad you're not going to split us up.

He'd best not. Friday night the German Master Chef ("GMC") came in, as he does almost every class now, and Air Force and I got to talking with him. Turns out he co-owns a company that, in part, does research and development with multi-million dollar companies...which is what I would like to do. I quizzed him for about 20 minutes on the right steps to take to get a job doing that, telling him my plan, etc. He said I'm on the right track and that he'd be happy to help me along the way, to which I responded "Good to hear since I'm not letting you out of my sight for the next two years." This has led to me being one of his favorites. Well, that and my charm. He now gives me side hugs and rubs his hand over my back while chatting with me.

So, in addition to these two classes, I also have Food Safety and Sanitation. I'll do my best to just gloss over this one since lectures include topics of bodily secretions and parasites that cause you to vomit up worms. WORMS. Lovely. That's how I'll be spending the next 9 Saturday afternoons from 1-5. Learning about all the disgustingness that comes from not washing hands, cross-contamination, and just general poor food handling. Fun! The project for that class is to visit a commercial kitchen and perform an evaluation on their food safety practices.

Back to the fun delicious portion of my schooling. Friday night we used our sauces to create an entree. Our group made sauteed shrimp (Moroccan) over mushrooms sauteed in butter and white wine (me) and sliced potatoes fried in oil (me), with steamed asparagus (line cook), all drizzled in the Bechamel sauce (Air Force). It was delicious...except the mushrooms which as some of you know is one of the few foods I just cannot stand.

Phew! All up to date. Sorry for the length of these first few posts. I'll work on writing them on my way home each night so they're broken down and easier to read.

Week One - Stocks and Knife Cuts

Week One was mainly us just getting into the swing of things. Us being the students and our skills instructor. He's retired Navy, has been a West Wing chef for years and years, and is a really easy-going, vibrant, happy man. And he knows his stuff. Thursday night class is our "lecture" period. We went over our syllabus, expectations, dress code, professionalism, etc. Friday and Saturday night classes are our "labs" when we actually cook what we discuss in the lecture. So every week is roughly 4 hours lecture, 9 - 10 hours lab. Thursday, we split up into three groups, which will be our groups for labs. I must say, my group is shaping up to be the best...but more on that later.

Friday and Saturday we prepared our white and brown stocks and worked on our knife cuts, of which there are seven: julienne (1/8" x 1/8" x 2"), brunoise (1/8" x 1/8" x 1/8"), paysanne (1/2" x 1/2" x 1/8"), batonnet (1/4" x 1/4" x 2"), and small (1/4" x 1/4" x 1/4"), medium (1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2"), and large dice (3/4" x 3/4"x 3/4"). We're tested periodically on the spellings, measurements, and actual cutting of these so you'll most likely be seeing me list them out in an effort to help me study. Same with the mother sauces, but that's Week Two.

Brown and white stocks are fairly basic and easy, which equals tedious. But man do they smell good. Next up: Week Two where we create the five mother sauces out of the two stocks.

Orientation

Last Thursday I attended Orientation for school. I expected it to be pretty dull, full of information I really didn't need to be hearing again since I've attended numerous colleges over the years. But it was mandatory, so off to that place called Virginia I headed, leaving my house at 8 am. I arrived at school around 8:45 and then hung out until 9:30. Our Welcome Session was in the sanctuary of a neighboring church which made the music pouring from headphones and chattering on cell phones that much more annoying. So I decided to distract myself by looking at cnn.com, twitter and gchatting on my blackberry. I never said I wasn't a hypocrite - I just do it silently.

Orientation finally began with the Dean of Students lecturing us on how important it is to show up for class, show up on time, and be dedicated and courteous of those around us. And then she started talking to the parents in the room. This is right about the time I began gchatting in earnest. Even after she told us to turn off our cell phones. Since she didn't mention blackberries specifically, I took that to mean she was not talking to me and continued amusing myself while she explained, in painfully great detail, how important it is to take college seriously and that we're now actually paying for our education. Because the hours spent filling out FAFSAs and trying to get loans didn't hammer that in enough...

Then we got to meet some of our student advisors and first year advocates. All I'll say about that portion of the orientation is that I would take someone extolling the virtue and importance of an education much more seriously if they spoke properly.

We finally got to break down into our disciplines at 11 and the day got much more interestng. We met the chefs who will be our instructors, learned a bit more about the program and their expectations, and had the opportunity to ask questions and find out that they're all people who have a great passion for what they do, take it seriously, but also have fine senses of humor. It should be a really challenging but enjoyable program. Never fear, I have no doubt those words will come back to bite me in the ass.

After that hour session, we were sent on our way to clear any remaining holds, get our ids, set up our email accounts, pick up our kits, etc. Any stop that should have required one person helping me for two minutes ended up being something that required four people and thirty minutes. Long long day, but everyone was incredibly helpful and friendly and understanding. At the end of the day, as I lugged my 70 lbs of textbooks, uniforms, and supplies onto the metro, the phrase "Nothing worth having comes easy" came to mind. I came to the conclusion that this is going to be the most worth having it thing I've ever done.