CA 103 night one was all about knife cuts. We met our two new chef instructors, learned about their bios and background, and were lined up for uniform inspection, a practice that will occur nightly. Thank God I remembered my thermometer; I almost left it at home.
Chef demoed all the cuts for us. Each night, class will start with our demo, where chef talks us through the technique, the name for the technique, the reasons behind the technique, and he allows us to inspect his finished work.
Chef first demoed cutting onions -- the cut is called celesier, celetier, something -- it's when you lay some horizontal lines in the onion, then vertical lines, then you turn it 90 degrees and celesier it up. The lines need to be about 3/8" apart. Next, same technique with shallots, then a mince of garlic, half minced, half minced then smeared into paste, which is good for dressings so that your poor taster doesn't get little garlic flavor bombs in the dressing.
Next, minced parsley. Stemmed it, rolled the leaves together, then cut it over and over until minced. (Which requires attention, as there are always some rogue parsley leaves sticking to your knife or hand.) After the mince, chef cut some cheesecloth, packed the parsley in it, and rinsed it under hot water. Squeezed it dry, then tumped it out on a plate. This way, your parsley will be nice and fluffy.
Next, carrots: batonneted and diced. The batonnet is a stick cut: 1/2 x 1/2 x 2-3". A batonnet gives way to a dice: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2. Batonnet creates a fair amount of carrot waste, so it's a good idea to save your scraps for a stock, or for carrot chunk snacking. Chef's dices were a sight to behold. Skills.
After batonnets and dices, chef cut mirepoix: onions, carrots, and celery for Tuesday's stock. Mirepoix is 50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery. Depending on your stock (fish, veal, chicken) and therefore the time required for a simmer, you'll cut your mirepoix accordingly. Longer simmer, thicker mirepoix, or 'poix. Quicker simmer (fish stock), smaller poix.
After the demo we went to it. The great thing about this class is that we'll have tons of individual lab practice time. Very few team assignments in this class. Teams are fine, but this way I have more hands-on time, which is what we're paying for. All in all I did well for my first night. We each received a tray of product. We had to prep our mise en place, decide on a routine for execution and presentation, and as we completed a few cuts, we had to bring our plates to chef for one-on-one critique. My dices looked like odd parallelograms instead of cubes, but chef said overall not bad. Based on the cut he knew exactly what I did wrong, and gave me feedback. My shallots and my parsley were good, and my poix was proportionate.
I'll take a picture of the lab tonight, so you have a better idea of where I'm spending my time. Tonight is stock: veal stock, chicken stock, and maybe mother sauces too.
Chef demoed all the cuts for us. Each night, class will start with our demo, where chef talks us through the technique, the name for the technique, the reasons behind the technique, and he allows us to inspect his finished work.
Chef first demoed cutting onions -- the cut is called celesier, celetier, something -- it's when you lay some horizontal lines in the onion, then vertical lines, then you turn it 90 degrees and celesier it up. The lines need to be about 3/8" apart. Next, same technique with shallots, then a mince of garlic, half minced, half minced then smeared into paste, which is good for dressings so that your poor taster doesn't get little garlic flavor bombs in the dressing.
Next, minced parsley. Stemmed it, rolled the leaves together, then cut it over and over until minced. (Which requires attention, as there are always some rogue parsley leaves sticking to your knife or hand.) After the mince, chef cut some cheesecloth, packed the parsley in it, and rinsed it under hot water. Squeezed it dry, then tumped it out on a plate. This way, your parsley will be nice and fluffy.
Next, carrots: batonneted and diced. The batonnet is a stick cut: 1/2 x 1/2 x 2-3". A batonnet gives way to a dice: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2. Batonnet creates a fair amount of carrot waste, so it's a good idea to save your scraps for a stock, or for carrot chunk snacking. Chef's dices were a sight to behold. Skills.
After batonnets and dices, chef cut mirepoix: onions, carrots, and celery for Tuesday's stock. Mirepoix is 50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery. Depending on your stock (fish, veal, chicken) and therefore the time required for a simmer, you'll cut your mirepoix accordingly. Longer simmer, thicker mirepoix, or 'poix. Quicker simmer (fish stock), smaller poix.
After the demo we went to it. The great thing about this class is that we'll have tons of individual lab practice time. Very few team assignments in this class. Teams are fine, but this way I have more hands-on time, which is what we're paying for. All in all I did well for my first night. We each received a tray of product. We had to prep our mise en place, decide on a routine for execution and presentation, and as we completed a few cuts, we had to bring our plates to chef for one-on-one critique. My dices looked like odd parallelograms instead of cubes, but chef said overall not bad. Based on the cut he knew exactly what I did wrong, and gave me feedback. My shallots and my parsley were good, and my poix was proportionate.
I'll take a picture of the lab tonight, so you have a better idea of where I'm spending my time. Tonight is stock: veal stock, chicken stock, and maybe mother sauces too.
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