Diary: August 14, 2002

[Malawry]

Monday, August 12

Still sick, sick enough to not want to go to school at all. I dragged myself there anyway, partly to prove I really am sick and partly because I’d rather not miss a demo if I can help it. I found Chef Peter before class started and told him I planned to depart after his demo was over, and he agreed that this would be a good idea. I called my doctor about getting some prescriptions and settled into my seat.

The demo wasn’t much of anything worth reporting on. I missed black bean soup, a composed salad of tomatoes and roquefort, sauteed beef tenderloin medallions, ratatouille, and a chocolate tart. Lengthy menu. I took the lunch order from school staff before leaving, since it didn’t involve handling food. I went home around 11am.

Tuesday, August 13

I woke up feeling much better after extensive napping and several prescription medications calmed down my system, so I reported for a full day today. I was coughing so much that George called me “barky,” but I actually didn’t feel too terrible.

I missed some interesting shenanigans yesterday. First, the power went out around 11:45am, so everybody ended up with soup, salad and chocolate tart for lunch. The lights blinked back on after lunch service, but nobody got to cook the beef medallions (which were what most of my classmates really cared about). Everybody left their mise in the walk-in, and so today the team assignments were identical to yesterday’s so everybody could prepare the food they’d started on yesterday.

Then, Chef Peter spent yesterday afternoon demo-ing calves brains. Brains used to be on a regular lunch menu, but nobody really ate them, so the school decided to serve a taste of them after a demo rather than waste several pounds worth by forcing them on everybody at lunchtime. I quizzed a bunch of my classmates about what they disliked about them; apparently the texture was the most disagreeable aspect. Zoe really liked them, and likened them to foie gras in texture. (Yes, I have tasted foie gras; I sampled a foie gras mini-medallion wrapped in duck confit and topped with a grape salad at the Julia Child dinner.) I’m sorry I missed them, since I doubt I’ll be curious enough to order a full order of them at a restaurant, and yesterday was my chance to try them without commitment. Not much I can do about it now.

Since we had the entrée mise set up and since the entrée had been demo-ed yesterday, and since today’s menu was only three courses total, the demo wrapped up very early today, and there was tons of time to prepare for lunch service. I was arbitrarily placed with Team 1 and I again took the lunch order. I then tried not to do anything at the stove because I didn’t want to stand in different degrees of heat and because I needed to be able to turn away and cough or sneeze at will. I helped out with setting up Chef Peter’s demo on risotto for tomorrow, I worked on chopping mirepoix for chicken and veal stocks, I made the filling for today’s shrimp ravioli starter. Around 11:30am I started feeling bushed so I sat on a stool for a few minutes. Chef Peter came by and asked if I was going to stick it out and I told him if I’d made it that far, I may as well finish off the day.

After lunch service and break, we had our first round of student presentations. Our first papers (on a spice or herb of our choice) were due last Friday, and 5% of the grade is based on an oral presentation of our subject. My presentation is not until Thursday afternoon and my spice is peppercorns. Today I learned about cinnamon, garlic, oregano and ginger from my classmates. Three of the four presenters offered food; cinnamon french toast, roasted pepper and oregano bruschetta, an interesting Puerto Rican style oregano flan, and ginger ice cream with a real kick. I’m impressed that my classmates appear able to teach class effectively, and now I have a sense of what does and doesn’t work as I prepare for my Thursday presentation.

Wednesday, August 14

I came into school early this morning to start on the food for my presentation tomorrow. I’m making almond-black pepper biscotti, which I will serve with strawberries. I got the dough together but did not have enough time to start baking it before class.

Chef Peter brought in a whole leg of veal and showed us how to break it down as part of today’s demo. It was amazing to watch him expertly move his boning knife around the seams of the veal and the curves of its bones. It looks like an overwhelming amount of stuff initially, but it breaks down into recognizable parts. There’s lots of fat and sinew to be removed, not to mention huge caveman style bones with round ball and socket joints. Chef Peter said we’d be expected to clean the fat and skin off of the cuts he generated as we had time while preparing for lunch service.

Class demos and today’s lunch menu were abbreviated as they normally are on Wednesdays; lunch service was at noon so we could be ready for sanitation class at 1:30pm. We seem to be finishing up with braised and stewed dishes, thankfully; I have never been fond of lamb and veal stews, and even vegetable stews like ratatouille elicit minimal enthusiasm. Today’s lunch menu included a Thai coconut milk-chicken soup, which was refreshingly non-French and which was just what I needed for my sick self, and an entrée of risotto and veal marsala.

I worked mostly on the apple pie we had for dessert. We learned an American style pie crust which relied entirely on Crisco for its fat content. The result was a flaky but not especially flavorful pie crust; mine was technically correct but did not taste like much of anything. I didn’t put quite enough sugar into the Granny Smith filling, so the whole project did not exactly satisfy. It was only the second pie I’ve made in my life, so I’m not upset about it, but it was disappointing.

After finishing up with the pie, my teammates seemed to be completely on top of our meal, so I trimmed down the butt end of the veal tenderloin. (I didn’t have time to tackle a larger piece of meat, and I hadn’t worked with the beef tenderloin on Monday since I’d left after the demo). I’m pleased to report that I did a pretty good job with it, and barely removed any meat when I swiped off the fat and membrane. Chef Peter added much of the sinew to his batch of veal stock.

After lunch service, we met for sanitation class and learned about purchasing, receiving and storing food optimally for food safety. Chris showed us a segment from a Dateline type program which aired only yesterday, about unrefrigerated meat delivery vehicles. His enthusiasm continues to amaze me.

This Saturday, the current pastry students will be finishing up their formal classwork with a big buffet and celebration event. The things they are producing are graded as final exams, and they’re spending plenty of time on their projects. Most of the pastry students reported early today to get a jump on their work, and access to the pastry kitchen and ovens was severely limited for nonpastry students. (We made and baked our apple pies in the main kitchen for this reason.) Unfortunately, this meant I did not get a chance to bake my biscotti batter until after classes ended today. A bunch of the pastry students had set up camp in the main kitchen, but there was still a table available for me. I got my biscotti batter in the oven quickly, but I had a half hour to kill while it baked. I decided to talk to some of the pastry people while I waited.

I started by chatting with head pastry instructor Mark Ramsdell. He was working with some hot pink marzipan to make roses, which he said was for a birthday cake he was making for an upcoming Julia Child celebration. I helped him roll nubbins of marzipan into balls between my palms, and then I watched while he pressed the balls out into petals and attached them to the marzipan bud he’d molded by hand. Mark is somewhat aloof when he talks to me. He has obvious knowledge, but he does not interact with students in the same easy, friendly manner that Chef Peter has. Still, I enjoyed chatting with him and got him to tell me a little about his history with L’academie (he has been teaching there since the mid-late 1980s).

After a while, he started being pulled away from his roses by student queries, so I wandered over to one of the students and started asking him questions about the pastillage he was working with. He was coloring it a light brown and planned to use it as a background for a chocolate tart. His name is Christian, and we talked about the Silver Spring area (where he grew up, near where I live) and why each of us is at culinary school. Christian is more interested in the artistry than the taste of pastry work; he likes to eat but he doesn’t think he has much of a palate. He worked in IT for quite a while before enrolling; I’ve found many IT refugees among student populations at L’academie.

I had lots of pastry students wander by and check out what I was working on, and several asked me questions about the biscotti as I worked on them. I really like talking to the pastry students and am a little sorry that this group goes on to externships in a week or so and therefore will not be at the school regularly. There will be a new class soon, of course, but I’ve barely started talking to students in the current class. I’ll miss them and wish I had more a chance to hang out with them before they depart. I hope to visit and check out their buffet this Saturday.

[Damian]

Thanks as ever. Always an engrossing read!

[Fat Guy]

Malawry, do you like many others see pastry chefs and "regular" chefs as essentially two different species?

[Ron Johnson]

Down here in the South, most people make their pie crust with Crisco. It makes for a very "short" crust, but I have never thought of it as not flavorful. I guess the pie filling always supplies that aspect of the item. I have tried pie crust with butter, but it always seems to be a little tough for my taste. I guess we prize flakiness over taste when it comes to the crust. Its more of a texture thing.

We also make our biscuits with Crisco.

Thanks for another great report!

[southern girl]

Rochelle,

You seem to enjoy your time with pastry quite a bit...have you always had an interest? Are you considering going into pastry?

[ShawtyCat]

I really enjoy your posts.

I got the joke about the title..... Well....I thought it was funny.

[Malawry]

Sometimes when I think about the differences between pastry chefs and chefs de cuisine, I think they're totally different animals. Other times, I get almost angry about the common perception of difference. Discussing what different species pastry and cuisine supposedly are obscures the more important issues. Namely, excellent chefs of any type require a nuanced palate, a sense of timing, a meticulous approach to mise, and an artistic and intentional presentation in order to produce the best possible end result.

I don't get too excited about food styling or food photography like I get excited about cooking, teaching and writing about food, because I think the taste of food is the most important aspect to consider in working with food. Some people finish a pastry program without much consideration of their palates, but I don't think it's possible to finish the program I'm in without getting it banged into your head that the taste of food is very important. I think lack of emphasis on taste is more a problem with pastry training programs than something inherent in pastry work, but I also admit to not being able to back that up. I suspect that people describe pastry and cuisine chefs as different species partly because they're seeking an excuse for the shortcomings of one or the other (oh, a pastry chef can't create something a la minute to save their life, oh, a chef de cuisine can't create a beautiful plate without relying on round molds and squeezie bottles). Shouldn't a truly good chef of any type be skilled at all of those things I listed above?

Pastry is an essential part of the culinary career training program at L'academie, and I'm grateful for that. I do indeed enjoy pastry work quite a bit, and I'm something of a pastry program groupie. I always want to know what they're doing in there and how they're making it. If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd probably look at doing a pastry program after completing my current course of study.

The one time I made a pie on my own, the crust was a delicious half butter, half Crisco combination. We will be learning more American pie crusts, including one similar to what I just described, as we continue our studies. I think an all-Crisco crust can have a fine texture but it just tastes...blah. But then, my butter fondness is well-documented around here.

[Varmint]

Ron-

I don't find that the addition of butter makes either biscuits or pie dough tough. In fact, I use all butter as my fat in biscuits -- the secret there is the flour more than anything else. As far as pie crust is concerned, I find using all shortening indeed results in a crust that lacks any depth of flavor. Moreover, butter does not make it tough. Thus, I, like Rochelle, use a half shortening - half butter mixture. Toughness is ultimately dependent on the amount of moisture in the crust and how aggressively you work the dough. I keep everything ice cold, keep the water scarce, and then barely work it at all -- just enough to keep everything combined.

To me, the crust is more than just a vessel for the filling. It is an integral part of the pie. My favorite complement when making a pie is not related to the filling -- it's for the crust!

[slarochelle]

Malawry,

I join all the others in saying thank you for chronicling your adventures in cooking school. I just found this site and your diary a couple days ago. Since then, I’ve read every post and am eagerly waiting for your next entry, and look forward to following you through the school.

It’s a small world after all………I found your personal site (Malawry) while searching for the web site of a local family grocery store. It’s amazing what you find on Google; somewhere on your personal web site, you wrote a few paragraphs on your favorite food stores, and it was mentioned, as was the eGullet diary link. I still have not found the web site for the store, but I digress…

If you didn’t already figure it out, I’m local; Silver Spring to be exact, grew up in Rockville. I’ve even taken a class at L’academie de Cuisine, the Bethesda location however; it was a one weekend recreational class. I did enjoy it, but would probably more enjoy/appreciate a more professional slant to the class, thus my interest in your writing.

You mentioned having many “IT refugees” classmates. Deep down, I wonder if that’s where I’m headed. I’m in IT now and neither love nor hate my job/career. I doubt I’ll be able to do this for the next 30 years though; I guess I can be ambivalent about my work for only so long. I do enjoy cooking however and find myself wondering more and more if a career in the food industry would make me happy (happier). Your writings have already given me more to think about. Maybe one day I’ll make the same leap you’ve made.

Enough about me; now a question for you, hopefully you didn’t already cover it. Class is over at 3:30. How do you (or classmates) spend evening/weekends outside of class as it pertains to the school? Is there a lot of reading? Do you go home and practice what you’ve done in class? Review notes? Work at a night/weekend job, in or out of the food industry?

Again, thanks for allowing all of us to participate in your advancement, and thank you for introducing me to eGullet.

Steve

[Malawry]

Hi Steve, welcome to eGullet. I am amazed that you found eGullet through my personal website, and that you found my website through Google. You may want to consider posting a bio in the Member Bios board, and of course you should also check out our fledgling DC local board (look under "North America").

I personally do not work in the industry, but many of my classmates do. After school lets out I normally go to the gym and then go home. (I skipped the gym all week because of my sickness, which is why I am on eGullet right now.) As soon as I get home I grab something fast to eat (usually something light, since I eat a lot while at schoo) and then I work on my diary. The diary takes me about 30-45 minutes of work most days. After that, I work on writing up recipes. This takes about 20-30 minutes most days. The rest of my evenings are taken up with reading, surfing the Internet (I miss the information flow I got when I worked at a desk all day), talking to my partner and housemate, seeing friends, playing with my cats, and doing laundry. Nobody told me how much laundry there'd be after I entered school. Weekends, I see more of my friends, catch up on whatever I've put off all week in terms of home maintenance/family obligations/errands, and I cook.

We rarely have reading these days, but I try to review my notes and also look over relevant information in the On Cooking textbook a few times a week. Also, I consider it important to keep current with what's happening in the food world. I read the Washington Post and NY Times food sections each Wednesday, and I check around other major newspapers periodically to see what they regard as worth covering. I at least glance over Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food Arts, Cook's Illustrated, and other periodicals at school on breaks. I spend time as I can on eGullet, which is helpful on many levels. Members point me to information that I may find useful or interesting, and sometimes I get ideas for writing projects from this site. Plus, it's fun.

I eat out periodically, and I try to choose restaurants that I've read interesting things about rather than returning to the same places. I have limited time for cooking but I cook at least two meals each weekend (usually three or four), and when I cook a meal I usually make at least one dish that we've covered in school as practice.

In my household, I'm the primary purchaser of food, as well as the primary chef and kitchen-cleaner. I visit the Takoma farm market every weekend and am slowly getting to know some of the vendors there. The farm market is an educational, social community experience, and I try hard not to miss it. I regard the full process of acquiring, preparing, and cleaning up from food to be a part of my education, and I approach all those jobs with the same energy I bring to more formal studies.

I'm not just in culinary school as a student, I'm there because I have a passion for food, and I try to learn as much about food as possible. I did a lot of these things before I started school just as a matter of habit. It's great that all this "work" is stuff I regard as enjoyable and even relaxing. Not many people can say that about their jobs!