http://cookingschoolconfidential.com Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:46:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today was the last day of my three-day rotation as saute cook. And it is day seven of me not wearing my wedding band. But don't worry. It's not what you think. Apples are 25% air which is why you can bob for them When I got into the kitchen this morning, the first ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/03/08/day-twenty-four-and-i-havent-worn-my-wedding-band-for-a-week-now/ What? More cooking tips? Well, really, can you ever have enough? No, I don't think so. 1.    No single purpose gadgets allowed. If it's taking up space in your kitchen, it needs to be able to do more than just one thing. A Microplane is the best lemon zester, garlic mincer, and ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/03/04/cooking-tips-galore/ One hot, sweaty, impossibly bright day, many, many years ago when I was still a university student, I was running across a meltingly hot tarmac in the middle of an Egyptian desert, trying to get a seat on a plane. In one hand, I clutched a bag sticky with moisture. In ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/03/01/day-twenty-three-where-i-get-slammed/ And here are even more cooking tips from that contest I held. This is a good batch of really practical kitchen tips you can use right now. I know. I did! 1.    Clean as you go. 2.    Relax. Don't be afraid of food. Its just food. Jump in and HAVE FUN. Experiment. Trust ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/25/and-even-more-cooking-tips/ I am hot. The kind of hot where even your scalp emanates heat, just like in the comics. My hands smell like fish and, of all things, salt. There is a bruise on the back of my right hand and another, about three times the size, on the inside of ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/22/day-twenty-two-i-am-saute-cook/ Do you remember the contest I held at the end of last year? The one where the readers who entered also gave me some cooking tips? Well, if you've been reading me all along, you know I have been sharing the tips with you in batches of ten. I've been caught ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/18/who-wants-some-cooking-tips/ Today I start the last semester of my last term. Unlike previous semesters, which were split between classroom time and kitchen time, this semester is spent entirely in the school restaurant. We will be cooks and waiters and dishwashers. And if we screw it up, our paying patrons will be hungry or ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/15/day-twenty-one-my-first-day-in-the-restaurant-and-i-never-touched-any-food/ 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. 5, 4 . . . Before we were allowed anywhere near any lobsters, we had to do our ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/11/day-twenty-did-the-culinary-school-student-dispatch-the-lobster-or-not/ The two most interesting students at the consumer baking class I took this weekend stepped, I swear, right out of the Soprano's. The mother, for it was a mother / daughter team, was a rail thin, make-up caked, bottle blonde loaded with jangling bracelets and necklaces, all gold, and buoyed ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/08/what-does-a-culinary-school-student-do-on-the-weekend-go-to-culinary-school-of-course/ Shortly before we moved here, a restaurant in the last city we lived in announced their newest special by hanging an enormous banner outside their establishment that proudly announced "Lobster Lovefest!" When my husband and I saw the banner,I turned to him and said: "Not for the poor lobsters. For them, ... http://cookingschoolconfidential.com/2010/02/04/day-nineteen-lobster-murderfest/