Forme of Cury
And so my journey as a culinary school student ends. And my journey as a food writer and restaurant critic begins.
I’m going to write about it in my new blog, Forme of Cury.
Let me tell you all about it.
Should I go to culinary school from someone who has been
Despite Anthony Bourdain’s blanket condemnation of culinary school, I would not give it a sweeping no.
But you do need to know what you are getting into. Read more
Term III, Day twenty: Did the culinary school student dispatch the lobster or not?
In my Day Nineteen post I talked about watching the Chef dispatch (culinary speak for kill) a lobster.
This was a prelude to our killing a lobster in the next class.
The next class is today. Read more
Term III, Day ten: I’m either going to hit someone or burst into tears
I’m such a tangle of emotions, I don’t know what I am.
I am full of anger. No, not anger. Fury. Definitely fury. And I am sad. Terribly, terribly sad. But I am also awash with pity. Read more
Term II, Day thirty-nine: The heat is on
I don’t know if I mentioned this (see my last post) but I was seriously panicked about today’s black box test.
See, today was the first day of our two-day final exam. This morning, we had a written test. This afternoon we had what they call a black box test. This meant the Chef gave all the students surprise ingredients and required us to cook some of them using cooking methods they specified (different students got different combinations of different ingredients and different cooking methods). The panic part? The ingredients and cooking methods could be anything. Just anything.
Wanna know how I did? Lemme tell you. Read more
Term II, Day thirty-four: Here’s a chocolate recipe you’ve probably never seen and simply can’t live without
I just have four words for you: Chocolate Stout Crème Brûlée.
Are you dying? You will when I add one more word to the mix: Recipe.
Yep. With the help of two Chefs, I came up with a recipe for Chocolate Stout Crème Brûlée. And I’m sharing. Read more
Term II, Day twelve: Work in low places
Today, I got a “special learning opportunity.”
I suppose this is a restaurant thing. And I appreciate we are being trained to work in a restaurant. But there is one snag.
This isn’t a restaurant; it’s a school. Read more
Term II, Day five: The jalapeño, the penis, and the culinary student
The theme of today is herbs and spices. To help us learn these, we made a one-herb omelet, one-herb mashed potatoes, a one-herb quesadilla, a one-herb glazed carrot dish, a multi-spice salsa, and chicken breasts with a multi-spice dry rub.
And, throughout it all, Other Guy, the third member of our team, kept disappearing.
Where was he going and why?
Term I, Day thirty-one: The kid
I want to tell you a story about a fellow student.
Kid Courageous is young … all of twenty years old. He is from a small town and is a small town boy. He worked in one of the nicer chains (Olive Garden or something along those lines) and I suspect that is what he considers the finest of fine dining.
What happened just broke my heart. Read more
Term I, Day fifteen: Complaining Girl took it
Still sick. Chef told me to get some of the miso soup that was in the student lounge. I hate miso soup. So I got some aspirin, instead.
I’m quite sure the soup would have been healthier.
Still, all was not lost. The quiz we had scheduled for today was postponed to tomorrow. I learned two incredibly great tricks for easily infusing flavor in your food in under one minute. I got practice keeping my temper.
And we got to spend the morning talking about, cough, cough, sniff, sniff, pathogens. Read more