" Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. " - John Wooden

Skills 1 started Monday, and is exactly what I thought culinary school would be...boot camp!
The first couple of days we have learned everything there is to know about making a good stock or broth including mirepoix (the mixture of veggies, usually 2 pts onion to 1 pt carrot and 1 pt celery), sachet (the bag of herbs added for flavorings, usually bay, peppercorns, parsley, etc), and so much more good stuff! Did you know there were 6 basic stocks? or even 3 different kinds of mirepoix? More than that, we have started knife skills. Every day we get a "knife tray" with various assigments, we are timed, and then place the final product in the center island for grading. For example, todays tray consisted of:2 onion small dice, 2 onion 1/8 in slice, 3 garlic cloves minced, 3 shallots brunoised, 1/4 bunch parsley chopped, 1 potato baton, 1 potato julienne, 3 potatoes medium diced, and 3 tomatoes concasse (peeled, seeded, chopped). It doesnt sound that bad until i add that every single cut has to be exactly uniform with the one before. When chef grades, he literally takes out a ruler and measures that our medium dice is 1/2 in by 1/2 exactly on every piece! Its intense and time consuming but its exactly what i need - since being here i have learned my single biggest problem in the kitchen is a lack of finesse. Im kinda a madhouse - i like to call it rustic, professors here would call it sloppy. So bootcamp training of knife skills...BRING IT ON!
As promised, i have attached some pictures since i did finally get that camera!!This is what happens when your seafood fab instructor is from louisiana...CRAWFISH BOIL! (yum).Some of the gang chowing down after a days hard work. Gutting live crawfish isnt pleasant...Home-made veal bacon - i promise you, there is NOTHING tastier!The caviar tasting settup - complete with 5 different types of caviar, potato pancakes, minced onion, minced hardboiled egg, mignionette, creme fraische, potato skins, and blinis. Dont forget the BLTS i mentioned in earlier posts!My knives, all ready to go. Why, yes, that is a spain flag I chose to distinguish my knives :)Our first timed and graded knife trays. Do not be fooled - this, plus the 4 onions, took 1 hour and 20 minutes, and i was rushing! Supposedly by the end of the course we will be able to do this in 45 minutes - we have to for our practical!
Thats all for now, I have some hw to get done! Until the next post, eat well!