WWWWAAAAYYYYY OVER DUE!!!!

Ironically, I recently became terribly sick...which caused me to take a day off of work. While laying half dead on the bed and my head feeling like it's about to burst, Julie & Julia came on. I began to feel horrible and nonetheless...convicted about my neglect to my blog.

For the past 3 months I've been interning at the NYC Department of Probation, in hopes to accelerate with my degree in Finance. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Am I mad? No, I know God has a better plan, so I'll just trust Him.

As I began to put life in perspective, I realized how much I dislike sitting behind the desk. My internship has allowed me to gain a large amount of experience but on the same note, I'm genuinely happy in the kitchen. And since I am spending $37,000 to be professionally trained in an industry that I love, why am I allowing time to pass me by and not work hard to pursue my culinary career? Because I want a larger paycheck? Pure foolishness, some may judge, but this is my life, and I intend to live it to the fullest, have joy in my heart and a smile on my face.

I look forward to the day when I will make quite a few PRETTY pennies, while waking up and doing what I love, doing what doesn't feel like a job!

With that said let me give you a quick catch up on my school experiences:

Level 3 was quite intense but I loved every minute of it. It has a "restaurant like" set up with a gardemanger, poissonier, saucier, and patissier station. We rotated sections daily, and rotated menu's every 4 classes. This level teaches time management, sense of urgency, using skills you've learned thus far, and allowing you the opportunity to be more independent and creative.

At the end of level 3, you take a midterm, and you have to cook two dishes that you've cooked during the whole level, but it's picked out of a quart container, lol...SURPRISE!! Good thing my chef was nice enough to give us 4 possibilities, so that made things less stressful.

On to level 4…I started first in Family Meal....WHICH I LOVED!!! It teaches a lot about large quantity cooking, but what made things even better was my chef was extremely creative and love to throw new things on the menu for the night!!!!

Then off to Buffet....what an experience.....9 people bunched up in a TINY, HOT KITCHEN!!!! It was stressful, and we constantly got on each other nerves, but we tried to keep the peace and produce a good, no-theme, buffet LMBO!!! BUT IT WAS STILL GOOD!!! Luckily, after attending a student rep meeting the other day, I was informed that the structure of level 4 will change in May, and it will be placed on the 5th floor, which equals a bigger space, so new students....LOOK FORWARD TO IT!!!

The last section in level 4 is production, where you butcher meat and fillet fish for the restaurant....this section is turning out better that expected. This is the section I am currently in, and in a couple of days I'll be on to level  5. L'ECOLE!!! I'm amped!!!

So below I have a couple of pics: stay tunned, I am going to try my darndest to be more dedicated to writing about my experiences, because things are about to get EVEN MORE INTERESTING!!!!

A picture with my deans!!! TRUE INSPIRATION...and they are hilarious!!!

Level 3..plating "Boeuf Bourguignon"

Don't mind that plate of chicken, it was already presented to th chef, so we just piled it on one pate wit intentions of eating it later lol

A most recent pic of me, this is production, and I had the joy to filleting this humongous sea bass!!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED! SMOOCHES AND DUECES!!

IM MAKING ANOTHER APPEARANCE!!

I know...these blogs are becoming farther and farther apart lol

So, I'm currently half way through level 2 and things are on the up and up. I'm getting used to the kitchen, cooking, standing and being hot lol but I LOVE IT ALL!!!!

The beginning of Level 2 we cooked a couple of things, chicken, beef stew...perfecting technique...then we had a lesson that took a turn for the worst....ORGAN MEATS!!!...Liver, Kidney, tongue, sweet breads (google it) lol yea...quite interested and disgusting...not my cup of tea...but the main point is for me to know how to cook it, if a customer wants it, I have to give them what they WANT...

fried sweet breads on top of creamy polenta (i make them look tasty huh)

After that, things got sweeter, literally,I've been doing pastry for the past couple of weeks....cakes, pies, tarts, doughs, ice cream, sorbet, souffle, moose....EVERYTHING AND MORE...here are some pics

CREME CARAMEL (FLAN) TOPPED WITH BLUEBERRIES 

BAVARIAN CREAM, MADE INTO A CHARLOTTE (STRAWBERRIES AND LADY FINGER CAKES AS THE BASE) 

 APPLE TART

 WHOLE EGG FOAM BASED CAKE, LAYERED AND COVERED WITH AMARETTO FAVORED BUTTER CREAM, AND GARNISHED WITH ALMONDS

 CREPE SUZETTE...ANOTHER NIGHT WITH FLAMBE!!!

PUFF PASTRY FILLED WITH PASTRY CREAM, TOPPED WITH ASSORTED FRESH SEASONAL FRUIT!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED, LEAVE A COMMENT STATING SO LOL..AND ILL KEEP YOU POSTED, WE ARE MOVING ON TO NUTRITION NOW...funny right, pastry then nutrition...lol

*SMOOCHES AND DEUCES*

MAJOR CATCH UP!!!

HEY GUYS!!!

I know I am wwwwaaaayyyyyy behind but these past few weeks have been hectic, trying to balance school and a new job (that I'm about to quit) lol. But any who, I have time now so let me try to give you a short synopis of what I've been doing. Since my last blog, I've learned how to fillet fish and cook various fish dishes.

I've made lobster, mussels, scallops, escargot and learned a whole lot about sea food (which I love so I am so happy).

I've cooked chicken, duck, quail, filet mignon, beef medallions, pork chops, pork loin, lamb chops, lamb stew....I think that's all lol it's jut been so much!

Here are some more pics (sorry I dont have more, but sometimes I'm on a time constraint, and I just dont have enough time to take a pic.

I also volunteered at my school for this event called the New York Culinary Experience. This is like a weekend conference where normal people come and are taught various recipes by well renowned chefs. I volunteered with Bill Telepan and Ben Pollinger.

Below are my stalker pics of Morimoto and Marcus Samuelsson.

Yesterday evening I just took my final for Level 1 AND I PASSED, OFFICIALLY MOVED ON TO LEVEL 2 AND I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

DISCLAIMER, I WROTE THIS LAST WEEK AND REALIZED I NEVER POSTED IT!!! I CURRENTLY JUST FINISHED MY 4TH DAY OF CLASS IN LEVEL 2!! (ill post more by the weekend)

FOOD PRESERVATION AND SALADS!!

HEY GUYS!!! I'M HERE, EXCITED AND READY TO WRITE!!

I thought about writing about Tuesday's class but I felt like there wasn’t much to write so I decided to combine Tuesday and Thursday’s class!

Tuesday was about food preservation, salting, curing, brine's, canning and everything in between. Its funny how back in the day what people discovered as food preservation for droughts and famines, we now use because IT TASTE GOOD!!! Well, in any sense, we owe it all to Nicolas Appert, who first discovered canning and sterilization (aka appertization). So on the menu tonight included gravlax and duck confit. Gravlax is cured salmon, and duck confit is cured duck that is later cooked slowly in its own fat. The duck taste amazing: I didn't try the gravlax on Saturday, it’s still curing. Then we preserved jardinière vegetable and lemons (two separate recipes. Lastly we made brandade and codfish fritters; both these recipes included salted codfish but in the brandade it’s mixed with mashed potatoes and for the fritter recipe its mixed in a batter and deep fried…again BOTH WERE GREAT!!!

TO MAKE CANING SOUND EVEN MORE INTERESTING (and if you love summer fruit and alcohol) read this link, a classmate (thanks Rebecca) sent it to me and you might find it interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/dining/22appe.html?_r=1

BTW…I can’t remember if I stated that last week I misplaced my ladle…IT WAS FOUND YAY!!!

So for Thursday’s class….aaalllll about salads, believe it or not but it was an intense lesson. We learned about simple salads, mixed salads, and composed salads, we learned about various lettuces, salad greens, and several salad components such as beets and bell peppers. I have pictures of 2 or the 3 salads me and my (new) partner made (we changed partners again today and I love her, she’s so sweet!)

This is a cooked vegetable salad: carrots, turnips, peas, & string beans, tosses in a mayonnaise and basil puree dressing, topped with a tomato fondue, on top of cucumbers

This is sweet and bitter greens with tomato and herbs, tossed in sherry vinaigrette

Hope you like them!!! (disclaimer, the third salad tasted really good but my presentation wasn’t the best, so I didn’t take a picture, but it’s called salad niçoise: tuna, anchovy fillets, plum tomatoes, red skin potatoes, hard boiled eggs bell peppers and haricots verts, boston lettuce, drizzled with vinaigrette

Unfortunately classed ended with a classmate almost chopping her finger off and having to go to the hospital…WE LOVE YOU MAURA!!! GET WELL SOON!!!

On my way out of the classroom and making good with the bread people, I was able to take home a French baguette, a loaf of rye bread with flax seeds, and another bread with raisins and nuts (apologize for not remember the name) but my family and I are enjoying the free bread!

So that was my week at FCI, looking forward to tomorrows class, all about potatoes….and a class outing after class, should be interesting!!!

*smooches and deuces*

SWEET SABAYON OVER WARM BROWNIES OOOWWW!!!!!!!

HEY GUYS!!!

SSSOOO hanging around the house today and I made a sweet sabayon sauce (that I learned how to make this past Thursday) and topped in with brownies that I baked (no its not from scratch). Luckily I found some table wine...which tasted fairly sweet to me, I don't think its a dessert wine but any who, I tried it, AND IT WAS GREAT GO MEEE *bbm dancing face*

So yea, I did have class last night right?
Yea this blog entry won't be too long. Last night I think I had my first breaking point....IT WAS  A LOT! I did have a little test which was fairly easy. But we had 4 soups to make, from scratch of course: split pea soup (which I kinda burned :-( ), vegetable soup, french onion soup, and beef consomme. Again, it was a lot to do in 5 hours, I didn't feel like myself, I was stressed, kept burning myself, a lot of people kept cutting themselves, most of us didn't even have time to have family meal, because we had to complete our dishes. But I made it through and was more than ready to get out of FCI that night.

Needless to say, I LOVE COOKING AND I LOVE FCI, lol I look forward to Tuesday's class, pickled vegetables, duck confit and more :-) Soon, I will be posting more pics of me in my whites, some more of my classmates and my upcoming dishes, stay tuned!

*smooches & deuces*

CATCHING UP!

Man....I'm really slacking lol BUT I'm HERE!!! SSSOOOO WHERE DO I BEGIN...

Tuesday: Classic Sauces, Binding Elements & Glazes

What an interesting day, like any other. I walked in the classroom and started preparing for the evening. We've become accustomed to not only just setting up our station with a cutting board and sanitation but getting all the ingredients we need for the recipes we plan to cook for the evening. Within seconds I realized the classroom was different....Chef McHottie WAS ABSENT...OH MY LIFE!!! HOW IN THE WORLD DID HE THINK ME AND REST OF THE GIRLS IN THE CLASSROOM WERE GOING TO SURVIVE :-/

Nonetheless back to the lecture. We learned about the 5 mother sauces: sauce velouté, sauce espagnole, sauce hollandaise, sauce béchamel, and sauce tomate (tomato). We also covered making binding elements and the most common is roux (flour & fat), but you can also make a beurre manié (uncooked flour & butter), roasted flour, singer (flour sprinkle on a sautéed or roasted item), vegetable purée, double cream, egg yolks, and liaison (egg yolks & heavy cream). Lastly we learned about glazes, which is just a stock reduced to a syrupy consistency...

So my partner and I made 5 sauces, sauce espagnole, sauce béchamel, chicken veloute, white wine sauce, wine & mushroom sauce aka chateaubriand....let's focus on that sauce, it's commonly served over filet mignon, I've seen it on a menu before but I guess I never paid attention to it. That chateaubriand is a type of sauce...with out the sauce, the dish doesn't deserve the nice fancy name. So, ill proudly state that I made this sauce....and I'm singing it to the world...because in order for the sauce to be created YA GIRL HAD TO FLAMBÉ!!!!! YES I STILL HAVE BOTH MY EYEBROWS!!! LOL

The day ended with me plating my cuts, it was hw given to us from Saturday night: 4 carrot cocotte, 4 potato cocotte, 1 carrot jardiniere and 1 turnip julienne. I hope I'm not loosing you with all these terms but I'm trying to get used to using them....nonetheless, my cuts were okay, still need work but a far cry from the first day, chef says I'm getting there YAY!!!!

My night ended with my daily walk with "my girls" to the train station, I promise they make my night lol. I guess this is when I spice up the blog and say....yours truly came to FCI to cook, and now I've become a secret admirer...uh oh, watch out LOL! Gotta make this thing interesting right?!

So let's continue to Wednesday evening, I volunteered at the "Taste of the Village" event. This is a charity event to help support parks in Greenwich village. The event was at washington square park where several restaurants and winery's who are located in the village, came out with all you can eat food and drinks. Even though I was volunteering (barely), I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE. I met a few alumni who now work at these restaurants, and I constantly received ooooo's and aaahhh's from individuals who came out, they were glad to see FRENCH CULINARY INSTITUTE IN THE BUILDING, I felt pretty good about life lol. Sssooo the food, I had the BEST red velvet cupcake, THE BEST GUYS!!! From this gourmet store called Citarella, let me tell you, it was great, it was so rich & moist, melt in your mouth, and the cream cheese icing was impeccable!! PLEASE GO THERE!!! Also, guys, if you've never had gelato before, you must try it, you will never go back to ice cream, I promise!!! So I had some olive oil gelato, weird right, BUT I HAD TWO SERVINGS, IT WAS SSOOOO GOOD! PLEASE TRY IT (I'm sorry I can't remember the place). Among other things that stood out, I receive a 20% discount at Amber's (sushi spot), le pain quotidien has a GREAT strawberry tart...okay I think that's all...lol I'm getting hungry all over again...

So since I'm trying to catch up...I did have class last night. So we had to change partners....it was hard to part with Rebecca, I was scared who was going to be my partner...some of those guys in the class think we're on top chef or something. Well I'm glad my partner wasn't like that....but that still doesn't mean he's great lol. Well, on to the lecture...emulsified sauces & sabayons.

An emulsified sauce is a sauce that was created by adding an emulsifier to prevent ingredients that don't usually mix, to mix....hope I'm making sense....for example, oil and vinegar don't mix but when an egg (an emulsifier) is added, the oil and vinegar will combine well. Any who, we made several sauces, hollandaise, mayonnaise, and sweet sabayon (which was sssoooo good on some freshly cut strawberries). So unfortunately, while making one of my sauces, it didn't mix well (it broke)....well CHEF MCHOTTIE TO THE RESCUE!!! He started a new sauce for me and gave me a one on one lesson on how to make it...I was all smiles, and he is so cool! Anyhow, it was another exciting day at FCI....that place brings me joy!

Well...I'm currently coming home from school, I was studying with Caroline...and sure enough, while hanging in the student lounge area, Chef McHottie comes strolling by lol....HILARIOUS!!! I LOVE CAROLINE!!!...Nonetheless, after a drink with my girl, I'm headed home, we have our first written exam tomorrow, culinary school can be intense believe it or not!

*smooches and deuces*

"Stocks are to cooking what foundations are to a house." -Auguste Escoffier

Hey guys...I know, I know....wwwwaaaayyyyy late....haven't been feeling to well...but I'm here!!!!

I actually don't have much to say in this blog though...last nights class involved stocks!!! HOW INTERESTING RIGHT? lol but I did learn a lot about making stocks:
Don't add salt
A clear stock is a good stock
All you need is a liquid, bones of any specific meat, a mirepoix, and a bouquet garni
Your mirepoix is your vegetables, usually onions, carrots, celery but don't hesitate to use more, in class we also used leeks and mushrooms
Your bouquet garni is your herbs, usually consist of fresh time, dried bay leaves, parsley stems, garlic, cloves, and peppercorns. This can be wrapped in a cheesecloth or leek leaves.
Never boil, slow simmer
Consistently skim the top to get rid of impurities and grease

So, I'm not sure if you're going to take any of my own advice but why buy stock when you can make your own (and know whats in it) I promise you, it will taste better, HOMEMADE IS ALWAYS BETTER!!
So in class we made chicken stock, fish stock (my poor partner had to attack that thing....thing as in fish), and vegetable stock.

Here's a pic of our chicken stock!!

Like it??!!!!! IT SMELLED SSSSOOOOOO GOOODDD

To continue, Chef Nick is back with us and back with a vengeance...lol. We were assigned hw to do carrots and turnips, julienne cut; and carrots and potatoes tournage (cocotte (5cm long) (that's from the previous blog). So I practiced that today, very interesting. I also glazed some carrots for mom and dad to taste and the loved it YYAAAYYY!!!!

Well I've got to go now, I have an interview tomorrow morning at my new favorite restaurant - HILLSTONE. Yes it's a waitress position, and yes I have a degree in Finance....but who cares about numbers WHEN I LOVE FFFFOOOODDDD!!!

*smooches and deuces*