Day thirteen: Where we learn what happens after a “special learning opportunity”
Posted on | June 4, 2009
Today, after the “special learning opportunity” afforded my team yesterday, I decided to shift gears from getting my cuts right to doing my cuts fast.
See, I had always focused on good cuts over fast cuts because both Grandpa Chef and Nepal Chef told me that if I got it right, the speed would come.
But, apparently, it was not coming fast enough.
So, today, speed was the game. And, alas, blood was the outcome.
“They won’t let me teach the night class anymore after I showed a student how to roll a finger cot onto their finger with my mouth.”
~ Motorcycle Chef
First thing I did this morning? Make 15 hard-boiled eggs. Second thing? Broke my mayonnaise. Third thing? Bled on my small dice onions.
See, we had another mirepoix challenge. And, despite the fact that one of the members of our team was not in today, we were doing quite nicely. Focusing on speed, I had cut nearly three quarts of small dice onions when it happened.
My knife slipped on the skin of an old and slick onion and sliced a nice path from the first knuckle of my finger right through the cuticle and nail bed.
Now this was a wide cut (think peeling a carrot) as opposed to a deep cut, so it was no big deal. It didn’t even hurt. So I kept cutting.
Until my onions started turning red.
Damn. Cuts on extremities bleed like crazy.
So I apologized to Sweet Line Cook and went to find a chef (we are supposed to report all injuries). None in the kitchen, none to be seen, so I helped myself to antiseptic, a bandage, and a finger cot from the “Chef’s ONLY!” first aid cabinet.
I cleaned my finger, bandaged it, covered it with the cot (think very small condom), and returned to my cutting board.
I threw away all the bloodied diced onions and got back to work. But between the time lost by my cut and the bloodied onions in the garbage, we came in last.
Oh no! It just occurred to me I forgot to sterilize my cutting board when I came back. That’s bad.
“In America, we love that cow tittie.”
~ Chef Rushmore
The next few days of our education focuses on nutrition and low-fat and vegetarian cooking. Today, we did grains and legumes. Tomorrow we do vegetarian food. And the day after, low-fat foods.
Each team gets a vegetarian menu and a low-fat menu from a different part of the world. Our vegetarian menu is from the Middle East and our low-fat menu is from China. And Chef Rushmore says this is all the international cuisine we will learn.
So, today’s menu …
The deviled eggs we made yesterday were so bad the chef had us make them again, today. My team made a sour cream, lemon, and Dijon version that everyone but the Chef liked. (Later on, I tasted the one he liked best and found it bland; interesting how everyone’s taste is so different.)
Then Sweet Line Cook made a curry millet dish with vegetables and chick peas while I made a vegetable stock and then a kasha (the stock was used to make the kasha) with maple syrup and cayenne-coated pecans.
His dish was nice, if unexciting. Mine was pretty bland (those pecans got lost in all that kasha, despite the fact that I doubled the number I was supposed to add).
At the last minute, we remembered we were supposed to make another grain, so I grabbed some Basmati rice, dried cranberries, and walnuts and threw them at him and said, “You make this; I’ll plate what’s ready.”
And, you know, it turned out okay. In fact, the Chef said he thought the walnuts were a nice textural addition. Proving that you can sometimes pull off some decent stuff when you’re racing.
Of course, sometimes you just cut your finger.
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4 Responses to “Day thirteen: Where we learn what happens after a “special learning opportunity””
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June 4th, 2009 @ 6:29 am
My knife skills are extremely amateur at best, but I’ve a nasty scar from racing to get aromatics into a braised chicken recipe. I went to crush a garlic clove, not seeing that the knife edge was facing me. Thwack! I ended up impaling my thumb. 2-3 stitches in the ER later, I learned a lesson about basic knife safety. Now, I only crush garlic either with a vegetable clever or a pastry scraper (yes, one more thing to wash, but my digits stay intact).
Loving those quotes. Your chef instructors sound like pretty cool people.
Mmmm..walnuts, dried cranberries, and basmati. I’ll have to try that
June 4th, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
I got a little woozy reading about the knife accident.
I managed to gash my finger (using the wrong knife) about a half hour before guests arrived for a dinner party. Luckily, the first guest arrived early and helped bandage up the squirting thumb. You’re right about extremities and profuse bleeding.
June 6th, 2009 @ 7:39 am
Ouch. I’m a huge fan of dinner impossible. He cuts himself every now and then. Occupational hazard. keepit clean and antibiotic cream like neosporin or bactroban until it heals. maybe your hubby can kiss it and make it all better.
June 8th, 2009 @ 1:44 am
Been there… I came close to cutting that very portion of finger a couple weeks ago. Come to think of it I was dicing an onion then, too. No wait – chives. It was chives.
I also took off the very tip (just the fleshy part, and some nail but no bone) on my pinky peeling onions for my food prep 1 class.
One time at work I got the tip of my thumb cutting romaine – rushing, of course, to get it done.
The last two were ER Visits to stop the bleeding. Fingertips are crazy.