We had a midterm last night in CA 100, the Culinary Arts 101ish course. And it was hard, all over the map. It had some history questions, about Alice Waters, haute cuisine, Escoffier, the de Medicis, the formal names in the kitchen brigade system, nouvelle cuisine.
Questions about tools, pots, and pans: like what's a sauteuse, what's a sautoir, a rondeau, name the three standard floor mixer attachments.
The differences between braising, roasting, steaming, sauteeing, dry heat cooking, moist heat cooking, poaching, how heat conducts and transfers to the foods in each method, what happens to proteins when heated down at the amino acid level, what happens to fiber in veggies when heated, what's al dente, a la minute, au sec. Names of the pigments in green veggies, white veg, red veg, orange veg.
Converting recipes, how to calculate the recipe quantities from an 8 portion recipe to a 35 portion recipe, calculating food cost, basic P&L cost to revenue algebra.
Taste, flavor profiles, primary and secondary flavors, seasoning v flavoring, what happens to veggies x, y, and z when you add an acid, when you add an alkali, when you cook quick, when you cook slow.
When I finished the test, I left the classroom to go call Marcel. In the hallway was a random guy with a tray of bite sized food, so I asked him what he had. "It's uhh...fucking risotto crab cakes. Grab one."
I did. They had a squiggle of mustard on them too. Tasted wonderful. I think I love fucking risotto crab cakes.
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