Diary: July 17, 2002

[Malawry]

Monday, July 15

George is a big guy. He drives a big Suburban-type SUV and likes loud hip-hop music. He’s from Baltimore, where he worked in the restaurant industry for several years. He was sous chef at an upscale restaurant up there when he decided his lack of formal education was holding his earning power and career below where they should be, so he enrolled at my school. He’s excellent in the kitchen, but he sometimes misses things in lecture. He’s good-natured about the ribbing Chef Peter gives him about his inattention during demos. I’ve been dying to work with him since I found out about his history, and today I finally got to be on his team for lunch service due to the shuffling of the class cards.

Things happen effortlessly when you’re teamed with George. He instinctively knows how to season a hollandaise, he never forgets about the croutons under the broiler, and he can tell from across the kitchen whether or not those wild mushrooms are properly sauteed. Everything is banged out quickly, yet he doesn’t run all over doing everybody’s work. He gets his teammates involved in the tasks at hand while he makes sure nothing goes wrong. Among today’s enjoyments: whisking the hollandaise while he expertly seasoned it. Piping potatoes for potatoes Marquise while he explained to me why they were coming out lopsided, and having him show me how to do adjust the angle until I piped perfectly. And then there was the ultimate enjoyment: when he tasted my tomato concasse (the one thing I did which he had no part of) and declared it perfect. His approval carries almost the same weight as Chef Peter’s in my book.

Lunch was completely on-time, and it elicited no comment worse than “Not bad” from Chef Peter. Despite the magical George influence, I felt I’d learned a lot about all kinds of things: proper technique glazing a fresh fruit tart, how to hold a whisk ergonomically for making hollandaise, how to use a salamander to toast English muffins, and so on. We munched on a composed salad of mesclun, toasted pecans, and goat cheese croutons, followed by more eggs benedict, more glazed carrots, and the Marquise potatoes.

The fresh fruit tartlet was a particular delight. My classmate Chin put extra apricots on mine at my request. For some reason, Chin always seems to be teamed with George. He’s quiet and experienced, and like George he is very efficient. Since he is so quiet I haven’t gotten much sense of his personality. He’s very precise with a knife, and his tartlets were gorgeously geometric. Chin works at a dinner house-type chain restaurant on saute station when he’s not in class.

Tuesday, July 16

I got my first official feedback on how I’m doing at school today. Chef Peter called me aside about an hour before lunch service and asked if he could speak to me in his office. (He’d warned us late last week that he’d be talking to us individually this week about how we are doing on the class participation grade.) When he called me in he told me I’m doing very well, and that I have one of the higher class participation grades in the class. He said this is because of my attitude and my teamwork. He said I need to work on keeping my station clean (which I knew since he yelled at me about it last week), and he said I need to get my speed up. I was pretty happy with this feedback. He asked if I had any questions and I asked what I could do as homework to help me get my speed up. “Time how long it takes you to tournee a potato. And then try to knock a minute off that time every week. You’ll get faster in no time.”

Later, I went and checked my student mailbox. I’d popped a couple recipes in the box for Chef Francois and asked him to look them over and tell me if they were on track. He had returned them with brief comments: “Very good. If anything too detailed.” Nice to hear, since at this point I’ve already invested a good amount of time in writing recipes.

Lunch today included consomme, a rice pilaf, a sauteed chicken dish with cream, mushroom, and white wine sauce, glazed carrots, and a crème caramel. I ended up on George and Chin’s team again. I volunteered to do the consomme, since it’s such a classic dish and we haven’t had the opportunity to do one yet. Consomme is a concentrated stock, clarified using a “raft” of egg whites and flavored with ground meat and a mirepoix of vegetables. My raft formed perfectly, and the finished consomme was perfectly seasoned. Everybody came by and commented on its clarity and its strong flavor.

George made our rice pilaf after he went to the pastry kitchen to assemble the crème caramels. I’m sorry to report that it was overcooked and gluey, although it did have dead-on seasoning to recommend it. George, Chin, and I all have an inability to cook rice properly (I’d shied away from it for this reason). George isn’t perfect, but I respect and admire him just the same. He seems to respect me as well. He asked to poke through my notebook and then commented on my detailed notes while we were waiting for lunch service.

Late in the afternoon, Chef Somchet did a demo on pate a chou. I was very excited to see this demo since eclairs are one of my favorite desserts, and pate a chou is the basis for these delicacies. I look forward to wrestling with the pastry bag tomorrow if I can be the one to make dessert for my team. Later on we’ll get to do fun things like cream puff swans using the pastry dough.

Wednesday, July 17

I finally hit the wall on eating meat today. Most of the class seemed to, and nobody gave me a hard time about it, but I still have the willies from my experience. On today’s menu was Le foie de Veau Lyonnaise: Veal liver with onions. I kept an open mind about it for three reasons: my partner Erin really loved veal liver when he ate meat, I used to adore my grandmother’s chopped liver, and I’d promised myself I’d at least try anything that was presented to me. When Chef Peter finished his demo and passed around the plate, I put a piece into my mouth. There wasn’t a strong flavor to it, but it was greasy and left this awful taste and sensation in my mouth. One of my classmates popped a Certs and I actually asked her for one, it was that bad. There was nothing wrong with the liver (I’m sure Chef Peter wouldn’t have passed it around if it had turned), I just found it repulsive. Almost nobody in my class liked it, fortunately, so I didn’t stand out too much in my distaste.

I somehow ended up teamed with George and Chin yet again for lunch service (are those class cards being shuffled properly??). The only two major jobs I still haven’t done are saute station (today, that would be the veal liver) and pastry. I am so glad I was able to go make our profiteroles instead of mucking about with the veal liver today…since George and Chin both did pastry this week, I was off the hook.

Profiteroles are chou paste baked up into a large walnut size and filled with pastry cream or ice cream (we did the pastry cream version). My profiteroles were a little too large, more like a golf ball, but they were perfectly even and gorgeously browned. I am getting much better with a pastry bag than I was when I was messing about with the Duchesse potatoes for the first time. I’d made a fruit tart over the weekend with the pastry cream, so it was no effort for me to whisk it together in the pastry kitchen. I flavored mine with rum. Chef Somchet suggested I use a tablespoon of rum to flavor a single batch of cream, and I didn’t feel like looking for a tablespoon measure so I just used about ¾ of the bottle’s cap full. Turns out this was more like 2 tablespoons, and I got a lot of ribbing about the strong rum flavor that resulted. Oddly, I didn’t think the pastry cream was that rum-y; I could definitely taste it but I didn’t think it was overwhelming. So then I got ribbed about being a lush too. Heh.

After break, Chef Francois discussed various properties of meat with us. He will be talking about meat during his weekly lectures for the next eight weeks or so. Nothing new came across today, but since meat is so foreign to me I look forward to learning a lot in the coming weeks. Chef Somchet promised me that veal liver will not appear again on le menu this session, so I can maintain an open mind about the remaining offal and variety meats yet to come.

[Jinmyo]

Rochelle, did you enjoy the raft? An amazing process, isn't it? A clear stock is a sublime thing.

I'm surprised no one in the class liked the veal liver. Well, happy variety meats.

[Paulazuchef]

Malawry...I am enjoying reading your diary...and I must say you are bringing back alot of fond memories for me. Three years ago I left my very boring job in Insurance sales and went to culinary school (The school formerly known as Peter Kump's). It was one of the best times of my life and the time just whipped by (so enjoy and savor the experience). I am now an assistant pastry chef for a catering company and I love it. I cannot imagine sitting behind a desk now. I was a square peg in a round hole before. Now...going to work is so much fun. I never thought I would feel that way about a "job".

Keep up the great work! and keep posting!

-Paulazuchef

[cabrales]

Malawry -- Thanks When you have a chance, please consider discussing whether you are having enough rest nowadays.

[Fat Guy]

Thanks for another great installment.

[Ron Johnson]

Malawry,

These installments are just excellent. Please keep up the good work. I look forward to each new one.

[Malawry]

Consomme rafts are bizarre and extremely cool. Making the mixture is like a child assembling a mud pie, only instead of sticks and leaves it's mirepoix and ground meat. It looks nasty but it works. I look forward to making it again.

Rest? Whazzat?

I haven't enjoyed as much leisure as I used to, but that's ok. I'm very focused on both school and this diary project, and I'm committed to getting the most out of both experiences possible. This means I have less time to play on eGullet or the rest of the Internet, and it means I see less of my friends for now. I'm fortunate to enjoy so much support in real life. My partner Erin has been instrumental in making sure our social lives don't die a slow death, and both he and my housemate Abi have picked up some of my slack around the house. The other thing I'm lacking on is time for cooking, ironically. I have spent much of my weekends cooking, but on weeknights after school and workout I just want to eat something quick and get cracking on homework and diary entries. I hope that as I learn to manage my time better I can go back to cooking dinner a couple times a week, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that this may not be possible.

[cabrales]

Malawry -- Do female cooking school students generally tie their hair up in a ponytail (as applicable) and avoid having nail polish?

[Malawry]

L'academie has a fairly strict dress code. Those with long hair are expected to keep it tied back, so I've been wearing my hair in a ponytail daily. (This sucks, since I feel I look much better with my hair down.) Nail polish is verboten, as are heavy makeup, excessive jewelry, extreme hairstyles, open-toed shoes, and so on. Tattoos are ostensibly frowned upon, but one of the pastry students has one on her lower arm that's easily visible when she rolls up her sleeves, and last session one of the students had significant tattooing on his lower arms. I haven't seen facial jewelry other than ear piercings, but I'm not sure on the policy.

We are expected to be in full uniform every day by 8am. Full uniform involves the chef's jacket, a neckerchief tied according to regulation (like a man's tie, with the ends tucked under), chef's pants, and closed toe shoes. The apron must be added before doing any kitchen work. And of course hands must be absolutely clean before handling anything in the kitchen.

[cabrales]

We are expected to be in full uniform every day by 8am. Full uniform involves the chef's jacket, a neckerchief tied according to regulation (like a man's tie, with the ends tucked under), chef's pants, and closed toe shoes. The apron must be added before doing any kitchen work.

Malawry -- With all that clothing on, do you feel hot (particularly when you are near the stove)?

[Malawry]

I do not get as hot as I would have two years ago, when I weighed much more than I do now. It's definitely hot in the kitchen, but it's usually bearable. The apron makes the most difference to me of all the uniform pieces, and I look forward to removing it at break every day. That and the neckerchief can get annoyingly heavy. At least we don't have to wear hats of any type!

The temperature in the kitchen is not overwhelming unless I'm working the grill station like I did today, when I think I could be naked and still find myself soaking a few kitchen towels. I may change my song when we start using the deep-fat fryer, though.

BTW, I wear a tank top under my chef's jacket every day. And I bought some cheep Rockport clogs on special at an outlet last weekend, which seem to be working well on my feet so far.

[Lesley C]

Malawry,

Nice reading, brings me back to my cooking school days.

Are you using the concentrated pastry rum or just regular rum?

[Malawry]

It was regular rum. Myers's rum, to be exact. (My rum!)

[cabrales]

chef's pants

Malawry -- Are chefs' pants comfortable, and how do they differ from "regular" women's pants?

[Malawry]

Chef's pants are okay. They're not amazingly comfortable, but they don't chafe either. They have an elastic waist with a drawstring, two side pockets, and a back pocket. They are a checked/houndstooth black and white pattern. Mine are too long, so I cuff the bottoms twice. They don't look too terrible considering all of these qualities. They were stiff initially, but they've softened up after being laundered a couple times.

You can buy chef's pants in other patterns and probably other cuts too. I've seen tie-dyed chef's pants, and I seem to recall Fat Guy wearing some chile pepper pants in one of his travel pictures. L'academie expects its students to stick with the houndstooth ones, which we were issued on day 1.

[earljenkins]

Very interesting account. Merrells are great shoes for the kitchen. Are the students at your school "older", mid to late thirties? Is it possible to have a career with a "late start"? thanks

[Malawry]

The oldest student in my class is around 37 years old. I think the youngest is 22. We're mostly between 25 and 30 years old.

Sure, it's possible to go to culinary school later in life. (I don't know what it means for your career to graduate from culinary school and start out fresh in the restaurant industry at age 40 or 50, though.) You do need to be able to move fairly quickly, and have good motor skills. But I don't think you necessarily need to be young and spry. It certainly helps, but there are probably culinary students in their 40s who could run circles around me...and there are DEFINITELY professionals who can do so that are far older than I am. But then, that's why I'm a student! For me, it's been a clear benefit that I'm bright and studious, and I think that's made more difference to my ability to perform well than my youth. Had I gone to culinary school fresh out of high school or even in my early 20s, I would not be doing as well, nor would I be enjoying it as much.

[Steve Klc]

Earl--don't you think it's a bit soon to be asking Malawry "Is it possible to have a career with a late start?" That's something to ask people much farther down the road--after they've acted on their dream, sunk their money into school, worked for a few years and the bloom of hope wears off the rose.