Diary: July 3, 2002

[Malawry]

My feet are fine so far, but my shoulders got a little sore from practicing yesterday. I might make it downtown to check out clogs today.

I bought a U-shaped peeler and a tourne knife at Sur La Table yesterday (they gave me a 10% student discount, yay!). The peeler is one of the OXO Good Grips ones, which I thought would be easier to grasp when wet. They were both super cheep.

Hey Nick, we weren't taught to turn the potato as we make tourne cuts. Wouldn't that lead to a "swirly" pattern on the finished potato? I'm all curious now. The finished tourne Chef Peter showed us, and the finished one shown in the On Cooking textbook, both show straight sides.

The love and support here and at home are phenomenal. Besides supporting my decision to go to school and pursue my dreams, my partner and my housemate seem amenable to all the carrot soup and hash browns I'm making from my practice vegetable trimmings. (I hope they still want these foods after a month or two of veggie scraps!) I appreciate all the kind words. I've dreamed about doing this for years, but I never dreamed I'd have so many people rooting for me along the way.

[Jinmyo]

Rochelle, I believe what Nick meant was to turn the left hand holding the potato away from you as you draw the knife toward you with the right hand. Straight line.

[Rachel Perlow]

So your household doesn't get bored and in the spirit of Bubba Blue's obsession with shrimp, here are some other foods, courtesy of the iVillage Recipe Finder, you can make from carrot and potato trimmings.* Some of them call for sliced or diced products, but shavings and chunks should work just as well for family, if not school.

Potato

Various Potato Soups (the Zucchini Potato Soup sounds good)

Various Potato Salad

Potato Pancake/Latkes

Mashed Potatoes/Puree

Potato Dill Bread/Rolls

Various Potato Gratins and Kugel

Various Casseroles

Gnocci

Potato Florentine Pie

Pierogi

Potato Chive Souffle

Caramelized Vidalia Onion and Potato Gratin with Fresh Sage

Spanish Tortilla (potato omelet)

New Orleans Green Gumbo

Portobellos With Potato & Swiss Chard

Carrot

Various Carrot Cakes and Muffins (Soy Milk Carrot Muffins)

Carrot & Raisin Salad (and many other salads)

Cool Carrot Soup With Roasted Beets and Herbed Goat-Cheese Crisps (and other Carrot Soups, many soups contain carrot that don't have carrot in the name, like Mulligatawny or Black Bean)

Carrot Cream in Squash Shell

Carrot Puree with Mint

Coconut Orange Carrot Bars

Carrot Juice and Smoothies

Carrot Risotto

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

Chicken Carrot Pilaf, and other Pilafs

Orange-Ginger Stir-Fry

Vegetable Lasagna

Orzo Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Carrot Sea Vegetable Quenelles (vegan)

Gefilte Fish or Gefilte Tofu With Horseradish

Chili Non Carne

Chicken Burgers

Raspberry Beet & Carrots

Potato and Carrot

Gratins, Casseroles

Various Stews, Soups and Chowders

Vegetable Pate and Terrines

Brussels Sprouts with Three-Root Vegetable Sauce

Vegetable Pizza with Potato Crust

Potato-Vegetable Latkes, Tzimmes

Potato-Carrot Quesadillas

Low-Fat Mashed Potatoes With Grated Carrots

* Add sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabega, celeriac, jicama, etc. to your practice veggies and the possibilities are endless.

[ngatti]

Hey Nick, we weren't taught to turn the potato as we make tourne cuts. Wouldn't that lead to a "swirly" pattern on the finished potato? I'm all curious now. The finished tourne Chef Peter showed us, and the finished one shown in the On Cooking textbook, both show straight sides.

The knife is drawn towards you perpendicular to your body as the potato is turned away from you, also perpendicular. Don't wiggle the potato from side to side elsewise you will get the swirl. A smooth turn, towards you and away from you at the same time. Or rather, knife clockwise, potato counterclockwise, at the same time and along the same plane. Keep practicing and good luck.

Hope I didn't confuse you further

Nick

[Ron Johnson]

Brilliant work! I am hooked. Cooking school has always been a dream of mine as well. These installments may push me over the edge.

[SobaAddict70]

You're making me hungry just reading your report.

Someone once told me that cooking school's two biggest hurdles are enduring the physical aspects (standing, the need for good shoes/clogs) and honing knife skills. Once you get over those, everything else is just gravy.

Sounds to me you're well on your way past those. You go!

SA

[researchgal]

Eagerly awaiting your next post! Rochelle, thanks for taking the time to do this, it's really interesting.

[Wilfrid]

Rochelle, I believe what Nick meant was to turn the left hand holding the potato away from you as you draw the knife toward you with the right hand. Straight line.

Goodbye thumb.

Got to try that, if only once! Also, will be stuffing wet paper towels under my board in future. Thanks, Rochelle.

[col klink]

Rochelle, thank you so much for posting about culinary school. I'm enjoying every bit of it and picking up new tips like the wet paper towl. Thanks!

[Malawry]

At home, you can steady your cutting boards by wetting a kitchen towel and setting your board atop it. I do this at home, where kitchen towels are not at as high a premium. At school, I don't think they had enough kitchen towels for everybody to have one when they had classes of over 20 students. They're that scarce. So they use paper towels.

I haven't cut myself yet, while tourneeing or cutting anything else. Let's hope it stays that way!

[SerenityH82]

Wow! What detail in your report. Im going to cooking school in fall. My second year. Please keep posted.

Serenity Hutchinson

[RBloom03]

Malawry: Would you recommend On Cooking for chef-wannabes to use at home? My parents have already asked for gift ideas for the holidays and this book immediately came to mind. Thanks!

[Malawry]

Hm. I don't know about that. I haven't compared On Cooking to many other textbooks. I think that if you want strictly technique with lots of illustrations, you're better off with Jacques Pepin's techniques book that Jinmyo mentioned once. On Cooking has lots of full-color photos of things (like how different herbs and spices look, that type of thing) and some recipes which can be helpful. The text varies in its usefulness. Woe betide the student who tries to figure out a tournee cut from the information in On Cooking. You may want to check out CIA's textbook and some of the others on the market before making a decision.

If I was making out a holiday wish list, I'd ask for basic references I've been meaning to add to my collection that I just can't spring for right now. Larousse Gastronomique is a good example of this; I don't have $50 to spend on it but would love to have it handy. I don't find textbooks all that helpful and rarely learn as well from them as I do from reference books written in other formats. One of my favorite reference books is Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. I'd consider Robert Wolke's new book on the science of food as well if I was fishing for gift ideas.

[Nick]

You may want to check out CIA's textbook and some of the others on the market before making a decision.

I don't know if it's the same as the textbook, but I got The Professional Chef by the CIA a few months back and it's a great book. Color photos, recipes, techiques, etc. Very complete and you can go from this thing to that thing, learning all kinds of stuff. Very interesting and from Amazon at about $50.

[RBloom03]

Thanks to both of you for the advice. It's funny that you mentioned CIA's The Professional Chef and Larousse Gastronomique because both are on my Amazon wish list. Before I spend that much on a book though (or ask someone to spend that much on a book), I like to actually have it in my hands to review, so I will continue searching bookstores for live copies of all of your suggestions before making a decision. Thanks again!