Day eight: From duck to chicken
The plan today was to plate everything we, or the Chef, made this week. It was a lot of food. All on one plate. I had no idea why these foods were being put together. And none of them was anything I liked or would ever eat (well, except for the salad). But everything is [...]
And into the frying pan …
Here’s another post on cooking methods I learned at culinary school. This one is on frying. Sure, frying has gotten a bum rap these days, what with everyone all upset about a little (well, okay, a lot) of fat and those silly (well, kind of terribly important) arteries and all. But with a little care [...]
Day seven: Cooking meets reality
There is a scene at the start of the movie Broadcast News (if you’ve never seen it, sign up to Netflix, now, and get it) where the smart kid, who is getting beat up by a school jock, says: “You’ll never make more than nineteen thousand dollars a year.” This, of course, was meant as [...]
And we continue our culinary school series of cooking methods with …
Last Monday I told you I was going to share what I learned about cooking at culinary school with a series on cooking methods so you could cook anything, well. The cooking posts will be interspersed with the posts on cooking school, so regardless of why you are reading me, you’ll get what you are [...]
Day six: Duck, duck, no goose
Today, I seared a duck breast. Perfectly. And I’m going to tell you how to do it, too. And here’s the good part. Know how duck can be so greasy? Well, with this method you get a juicy, tasty duck breast that isn’t that nasty bit of slick meat we all remember from childhood. This, [...]
Learn how to fish, from a culinary school point-of-view
I’m a big believer in the Lao Tzu quote: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” It is a large part of why I am at culinary school; I want to learn to fish. Which brings me to [...]
Day five: The six things no one ever tells you about culinary school
Months and months ago, when I started culinary school, I also started this blog. And I committed to you and to myself to write one blog post every day I was at school. And I have. But then something happened: Nothing.
Day four: It’s been a dreary first week of my last term
Yes, this was not a week of delights. But before I tell you about my day, it is about time I introduced you to my fellow travelers on this, the second to last leg of my schooling. Some of them are new. Some, you are very familiar with. And some you have not seen for [...]
Day three: Three shrimps and one recipe
Today, I got to play with food. In fact, today I invented a recipe. It involved three shrimps and was pretty darn good. If I say so myself. And I do. Let me share.
