Hello......back again.
Well, I just completed my first 2 days in culinary school. On Weds (1/9/08), attended the "Knife Skills" seminar, an intro into using the chef's most versatile tool, the French chef's knife. We were asked to choose one that would be suitable for each of us. I picked the 10" regular knife (as opposed to 10" wide knife) and were shown the various cuts used on vegetables. Julienne, batonnet, brunoise, etc. all the French names....sigh! Pretty good class, learned a lot and got to know my chef's knife, which I am christening, Norman (after Norman Bates from Hitchcock's Psycho). I know.....weird but it seems appropriate and Janet Leigh would be proud.
First class is a Food Basics class with Chef Stephan. This is a class of "Vegetables and Herbs." Learned about blanching vegetables (never done this before in all my years cooking) and had a hands-on on all the usual herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc. Tasted, smelled and learned what each herb is normally used for. Then we are divided into groups to cook one dish from the various recipes for the class. My group was tasked to cook a Pasta Primavera. Learned Mise en Place, a term used to mean "everything in place" meaning getting all the ingredients ready before starting to prep and cook. Class started late because Chef Stephan was late due to a graduating class having their practicum final exam. Anyway, class only finished at around 12:20am and we all shared the food that everyone cooked. It was a pretty late dinner.
Attached is the pic of the pasta primavera...........time to sleep....zzzZZZzzz