Culinary Agoge

French Vanilla Ice Cream

Having a stand mixer is great not only for the work it saves you but but also for the great attachments you can get. Single use appliances and cookware take up too much space, and where possible I like to purchase items with a lot of versatility. I recently purchased an ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and have been looking forward to using it, but my main focus has been the Cooking Through Ratio series. My recent experience making Angel Food Cake left me with several egg yolks that I didn’t want to discard. As luck would have it, I had just made a dessert involving crème anglaise in a French cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Making crème anglaise was a lot easier than I anticipated and was an easy way for me to use up the remaining egg yolks while also allowing me to use my new ice cream maker attachment.

Just about every kitchen appliance you can buy comes with a recipe or two to get you going. The ice cream maker came with a recipe for French Vanilla ice cream. A quick glance at the recipe and knowledge of crème anglaise made an obvious connection. This French ice cream was really nothing more than frozen crème anglaise. Last night I started just before dinner making the ice cream.

As instructed by the recipe, I scalded some half and half cream in a medium sauce pot on the stove top.

Ice Cream: Scalded Cream

The heated cream was set aside as I got the sugar and eggs ready. In the mixing bowl I combined the yolks and sugar, ribboning them together using the whisk attachment.

Ice Cream: Sugar and Egg Yolks

Once the yolks and sugar were combined, I slowly added the heated cream and combined them.

Ice Cream: Cream, Sugar and Egg Yolks

The cream, sugar and egg mixture were poured into the sauce pot to heat up again over medium heat. The recipe called for heating this until small bubbles formed around the edges of the pot, being careful not to boil the mixture. During the French cooking class, Elise the chef instructor cautioned my mother and me to not exceed a temperature of 180 degrees F or the eggs would start to curdle. I got out my digital thermometer and observed the temperature rise steadily as I mixed stirred. 180 degrees were reached, but no bubbles had formed. I wondered if the heat measurement was a result of the ambient heat coming from the stove and not the mixture itself. I made the decision to let it cook longer. The heat rose more and more to about 190 degrees and  instead of seeing bubbles, tiny lumps started to appear. I was 10 seconds away from a pot of sweet scrambled eggs as right after the lumps started to appear, it started to boil. This was not the steady rise that I was waiting for. I had missed the mark.

Ice Cream: Heated Cream, Sugar and Egg Yolk Mix

Immediately the pot was pulled off the heat and the remaining cold cream was added. I put the liquid back into the mixing bowl and stirred on a low setting to cool it down a bit and combine the cold cream throughout.

Ice Cream: Cooling with Added Cream

I didn’t notice any more lumps forming. I further cooled down my original pot and transferred the liquid back into it and mixed in vanilla and a bit of salt hoping to bring the temperature down even more.

Ice Cream: Stirred Cream and Flavoring

The recipe called for cooling the mixture in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Thinking twice before covering the pot and putting it on a glass shelf, I poured it into a glass bowl and then placed it in the fridge for cooling overnight. Elise also mentioned that the cooling down of the crème anglaise allowed it to thicken. This seemed like a good thing for ice cream.

Tonight was the easy part. All that was required was pouring the mixture into the mixing bowl to let it churn for 20 minutes. I used a strainer to prevent any scrambled egg bits from entering the mixing bowl. 20 minutes later it was thickened and ready to go. After that I packed up two pint containers and let them freeze for a couple of hours.

Ice Cream: Packed and Frozen

Despite the mishap, the ice cream came out really great. Even after a couple of hours it was still a bit soft, but the flavor was perfect. Another waist expander has been conceived.

Last Christmas I bought my mother a gift certificate for a couples cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Material gifts don’t carry the same weight that they used to, but experiential gifts, memories, those are priceless. After some thought and consideration, the natural choice was a French cooking class because of her love of French food.

Life seems to get in the way of things like this. We planned ahead and enrolled in a class for the spring, although unfortunately the instructor fell ill and was unable to make our class. Due to some scheduling mis-communication and changes we missed a class during the summer and finally were able to take the class tonight. Needless to say, the anticipation had been growing over time.

My mother had been sick a bit over a month ago and as a result has mysteriously lost her sense of taste and smell for most things. Obviously this is a terrible thing especially for someone who loves food and cooking so much. Of course it was also a terrible thing which would affect her enjoyment of this evening’s class.

I drove out to my parents’ house to pick mom up. We drove in together and easily found parking. The rain let up just as we were walking toward the school which was nice as cooking in soaked clothes doesn’t spell F.U.N. We arrived on time, signed in, made name tags and took a seat. We happened to be in the same kitchen as the first Back to Basics class I took in the spring. Our chef instructor was named Elise, and I recognized her face from the previous times at the school as well as the web site.

With everyone signed in we briefly went over the recipes for tonight’s meal. There were quite a few options to choose from, but enough for each “couple” to work on one. Our first choice was to work on the Roti de Porc Aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork with Prunes), but someone else’s hand was raise before ours to snatch that one up. We settled on the dessert, Chocolate and Prune Marquis with Armagnac and Crème Anglaise, our second choice. Elise went over kitchen safety, emphasized the goal of having fun while feeling free to experiment and cook to personal preference and taste and we all set out to begin our preparations.

Mom and I started with finely chopping the prunes and apricots. With a glance over she was impressed with my knife skills. Score! We also weighed out the chocolate and chopped that up.

Chopped Prunes, Apricots and Chocolate

Mom created melted the chocolate and butter over a double boiler and once read we mixed in the apricots and prunes and set that to cool in the walk-in refrigerator. While our chocolate ganache was cooling we whipped up some heavy creme in the stand mixer to mix and fold into the chocolate before placing it in the loaf pan for further cooling.

As our chocolate cooled in the walk-in we worked on the crème anglaise. I had never made this before, and was eager to try my hand at it. Being the basis for desserts like crème brûlée and ice cream, this was a valuable lesson to learn. It was fascinating to whisk the sugar with egg yolks together and watch them transform from a solid mass into a light, fluffy almost creamy mixture. Neither of us had worked with a whole vanilla bean before, only extracts so this was also a fun opportunity to work with an ingredient in its raw form.  We scalded the milk with the bean in it and then set it aside to steep for 10 minutes so that the milk could absorb more of the vanilla flavor.  Once ready, I poured the milk into the egg yolk and sugar mixture as my mom whisked it all together. We left the vanilla bean in for more flavor as we returned the pot to the stove. Elise helped us by using a thermometer to ensure that the crème did not exceed 180 degrees F so that the eggs would not curdle.

Once ready we set our crème to cool and thicken in an ice bath. It was dinner time. As it turned out, all the cooking had completed around the same time. The food was plated and set on a table for serving buffet style.

Dinner is Served

The dinner itself was really good, and with the cooking behind us, the our table started to open up, engage in conversation and share experiences. With dinner over it was “show time”. We were not the only ones who had made the dessert. Another couple at our table had also made the same thing.

Chocolate and Prune Marquis

We each portioned out 6 slices onto small plates. To our dismay, the crème anglaise that my mother and I had made had not thickened. We tried to figure out why and after careful review of the recipe learned that I had not added the half-and-half to the milk. It was listed as an ingredient, but a typo in the recipe which did not call out its use lead to me leaving it out. This mistake could have been avoided with proper mise en place as the cream would have been staring me right in the face asking to be used and resulting in a question for Elise about when it should be added.

We we able to use the crème anglaise that the other couple had made and served out the desserts. They all received rave reviews and thumbs up. Conversation was kept to a minimum for maximum focus and enjoyment. This was truly a rich and decadent dessert.

Chocolate and Prune Marquis with Armagnac and Crème Anglaise

Tonight was a reminder that not everything can be perfect, but even with imperfection enjoyment can be had. I wish mom had been able to taste and enjoy the food more, but to me that was secondary to the time spent together and the fun we had. We’ll both remember this night for years to come. We also have the recipes we were able to take home and will be able to re-create and experiment with the other dishes we did not work on.

It was amazing to see how a group of strangers of varying experience could work separately and yet together, sharing counter space, tools, and stove tops to produce a truly enjoyable meal. This of course can be attributed to careful thought and planning on behalf of the school and the Chef Instructor Elise, our patient and knowledgeable leader in the kitchen. I can’t wait for my next class hopefully with mom by my side.

As easy as 3-2-1; that’s how making pie dough goes when you forget about how difficult everyone says making it is and you focus on the ratio and method. I had one remaining disc from yesterday’s pie dough making to use and today seemed like a great day to use it. I have a work activity tomorrow that my team is sponsoring so in addition to using my remaining disc I also decided to create another batch, but this time of pâte sucrée or dough with the addition of sugar to make both a French Apple Tart and French Peach Tart.

Using the first disc, I created chocolate tarts which consisted of molded dough and chocolate ganache I made by using 2 parts chocolate and 1 part heavy cream (Ruhlman’s book has a ratio for this in the coming chapters so it will be interesting to compare my results). These proved to be harder to make than I anticipated. To create the “cups” for the chocolate, I rolled out the disc and then cut it into squares. Each square was then pinched together with corners touching and molded into a cup. In order to get this done, I split the disc into three equal sections and stored each “batch” in the refrigerator as I worked on the next.

Each time I pulled the tray out for the new cups, I noticed that the previous ones had hardened up in their cup form and were cool to the touch. A good sign.

Pie Dough: Tart Cups

My one mistake with these was to not firm up the last batch of cups in the fridge before I put them into the preheated oven at 325 degrees F. When I took them out after 15 minutes, the ones that were not cooled had flattened out, losing the desired cup shape. Others puffed up with steam, perhaps as a result of me not docking the bakes with a fork. This did not deter me as the final taste would not be affected.

As the cups were baking, I worked on the ganache, bringing 4 ounces of heavy cream to a simmer and then pouring it over a measured 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate pieces. After the warm cream had melted most of the chocolate, I used the mixer to combine the too into what can be described as pure chocolate decadence.

Using a spoon, the ganache was placed into the successful and not-so-successful cups alike and allowed to cool.

Pie Dough: Chocolate Ganache Tarts

I clearly had made too much of the chocolate ganache which can hardly be viewed as a bad thing unless one is considering diet. Thoughts like this make me wonder how the average amount of weight gained at culinary school can only be 10 pounds as indicated by Chef Roberta during the info session at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. My pants waistlines will have to be my mindful helpers in my desire not to gain weight as I learn the culinary arts.

With one batch of pie dough under my belt, the second batch of dough was a breeze to make in the stand mixer. I poured my ingredients in and in no time had my dough ready to rest and cool in the refrigerator.

Pie Dough: Mixing in my KitchenAid

As the dough cooled, I cut 3 apples and 3 peaches into slices and set them aside. I then rolled out the dough into two rectangles, a task not easy to do when the dough is cold. The peach and apple slices were placed on top as well as a half cup of sugar on top of each and squares of butter and set to bake for 30 minutes. This dough seemed to cook much faster than previous doughs I have made before and actually burned a bit to my disappointment. I wasn’t about to through everything out after all the time I had spent, especially with the rolling and shaping of the dough, and hoped that people wouldn’t mind tomorrow. As the tarts baked, I heated up a cup and a half of apricot jelly with 2tbs of spiced rum and poured this over the tarts as soon as they were pulled out of the oven and left everything to cool.

Pie Dough: Apple Tart

Pie Dough: Peach Tart

With any luck, everything will taste as amazing as it looks. I’ll have to admit, I did taste the chocolate tarts to ensure that they were suitable for consumption. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Cooked Pasta

Continuing my my series, Cooking Through Ratio, I have moved on to the next topic under Doughs and Batters which brings me to pasta.  Pasta usually comes in a box doesn’t it? Most of the pasta Americans are used to eating certainly does. The first time I had eaten handmade pasta was in the Back to Basics sauce class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. It turned out great, although we used the a pasta cutting attachment, something I didn’t have which made me a bit nervous.

Pasta dough as it turns out is quite simple. 3 parts flour and 2 parts egg. Less variables are a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that there is less to think about and less to get wrong (perhaps this naive to think, experience will tell). The curse is that there is less to hide behind. Too much egg and my pasta probably would come out sticky. Too much flour and it would be dry and floury tasting and would not hold together. Reading over the basic ratio and instructions left me with these questions in mind. I also noted, that while the ratio was given, no indicators of “doneness” were provide nor was appropriate cooking time. Nevertheless, I charged forward with my dough.

According to the book, a large egg weighs about 2 ounces. I assumed that this was without the shell, and validated with my scaled. I used 2 eggs beaten lightly and then weighed out 6 ounces flour, all purpose this time and got to work. The flour was placed in a bowl as suggested for easy mixing and clean-up. I created a well in the flour and dumped the egg in the center and then combined it with the fork I used to beat the eggs. At this point, I became very aware experience is what determines success or failure. Unlike the bread dough I made previously, this dough required intimate tactile knowledge to know if enough flour had been incorporated. Experience through trial and error will have to be my teacher here especially since I don’t know anyone who makes their own dough. Once I incorporated all of the flour the egg would naturally absorb, I formed the dough into a disk and let it rest for 20 minutes as instructed.

While the dough was resting, I brought a heavily seasoned pot of water to a healthy boil. I had heard that freshly made pasta takes less time to cook than dry store bought pasta, so I figured less than 10 minutes would have to be my guide. Once the pasta had rested sufficiently, I rolled it out on wax paper then rolled it up and cut it ala the chiffonade method. Despite absorbing just about all of the weighed flour in the bowl, the I did experience problems with the dough sticking to the wax paper and rolling pin as I rolled it out even as I added more flour to the paper and dough.

Uncooked Pasta

I unraveled the dough and dumped it into the pot in what would become a cloudy mass of dough and boiling water. The water boiled on as I gently stirred the pasta with a wooden spoon to separate the strands. This stuff was not as easy to work with by any means; it was totally different than working with box pasta.

After about 5 minutes, the pasta was very limp and clumpy. I figured it would finish cooking through carry-over heat and dumped it out of the pot to strain in a colander. Not only did it look slimy, it was to the touch. It appeared that the outer coating of flour clumped up on the pasta immediately after I put it into the pot.

I plated the pasta and in a moment of purity I decided to only season it with salt and pepper so as to get an understanding of what it tastes like sans sauce. The taste overall was very good, different that what I was used to for sure, but that was to be expected.

Cooked Pasta Seasoned

This experience taught me that the method and experience are just as important as the ratio, and perhaps even more and the obvious knowledge that I did not make the best pasta in the world, I am left feeling accomplished by attempting something that so few people ever do. This ratio will require some more practice for sure.

NECI, Main Street Grill & Bar

This weekend I took an extended three day weekend trip with my family to Vermont. We haven’t had the opportunity to take our usual week or longer family trip this year so going up north to visit Burlington, Vermont and the surrounding towns looked like a fun way to kick back and relax before summer’s end.

Forty years ago, my mother came from Honduras to study on an academic scholarship to Vermont College, located in Montpelier. While a student, she met my father a professor at Norwich University and the rest as they say is history. My sister and I of course are evidence of that.

Since we were going to be passing by Montpelier on our way up to Burlington I thought it would be fun to combine a visit to the New England Culinary Institute, also known as NECI for short, while also visiting what was the campus of her college which no longer exists, and how now become part of NECI and other institutions such as the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Both of my parents were eager to visit the small town to relive old memories and retell old stories that are part of our family’s history. While touring the Institute we could also eat at the school run restaurant in town and the one on Church Street in Burlington. She was really excited by this and so I called the number on the NECI web site to get information about tours, the school and the restaurant and also to do some research to see if her dorm was still there.

When I called the number I asked the woman on the phone about tours. She politely informed me that there weren’t tours of the school available and that it would best to seek out students on campus to talk to them about their experience. This didn’t seem right to me. What kind of sales pitch was this? I didn’t want to spend a lot of our vacation time on a treasure hunt for buildings and students. She also was unfamiliar with the specific dorm I was looking for, which as it turns out was part of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, 100 yards from the New England Culinary Institute admission building. I began to wonder where the call center for the toll free number I had called was located. The school wasn’t that big was it? She also corrected me when I mentioned my intention of wanting to eat at the Institute’s restaurant in Burlington. Apparently that had closed down a couple of years ago too, but she was eager to point out the truly fabulous food at the Main Street Bar & Grill, the restaurant run by the Institute and its students. The loss of their flagship restaurant was not a good sign especially in the fast growing city.

Saturday we arrived and within a few minutes of driving around we found my mother’s old dorm and her room. That was easy. We walked around campus and viewed some of the buildings owned by NECI while also viewing some of the buildings that belonged to other institutions. My mother was excited and happy and we were all getting hungry. It was time to eat.

Mom's College Dorm

We made the short drive down the hill to the Main Street Bar & Grill. We had been here before many years before to eat and had a pleasurable experience although on that trip we didn’t actually drive around Montpelier as we had this time.

After a short wait for an outside patio seat we sat down and ordered our meal. Our waiter, Joshua, a student was friendly and welcoming and overall did a great job especially given the fact that he was a culinary student and only serving as part of the curriculum rotation. This is pretty much where my praise ends. Overall everyone felt that the food was pretty good but really under-seasoned. I had flashbacks to the basics cooking class I took at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts where Chef Angie told us that new cooks generally are afraid of using too much salt and usually under-season their food. Was this day one of the rotation I wondered? The dressing on my salad lacked taste as did the other components of my dishes. The dessert was in fact the best part of the meal which is fortunate because it is the last impression a restaurant gets to make on a customer, but also unfortunate as my aspirations involve the culinary program and not the baking and pastry program.

Appetizer: Asparagus, Salmon & Poached Egg Salad

Main Dish: Gnocchi

Dessert: Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Plating was another thing I noted. While we were only eating lunch, I was expecting more for presentation. My appetizer and main dish appeared as two distinct dishes while the dessert was already melted and lacked color. While not at the heart of culinary training, this is something that is important to me; a well plated dish evokes emotion and clues you into what you are about to taste. As far as showing off technique and skill, this just wasn’t doing it for me.

I asked our server about touring the facilities. He kindly informed us that we could walk to the back of the restaurant and through the back door to view classrooms and the rest of the facility. Once we were back there I was let down again, looking at the small drab classrooms. They just didn’t look inviting, and in contrast to the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts they were completely removed from the cooking setting entirely. While having an on site restaurant is a plus for any culinary school the complete separation from the classroom and kitchen didn’t feel appropriate. I also wondered where the rest of the school was. Was that the wrong question to be asking? Was this all there was?

After finishing our meal, we left to walk down the street and get a sense of the town. My parents walked and noted how much things had changed and how the area had grown and modernized. I saw a town only slightly more populated than where I grew up, a stark contrast from living in Boston, a world class city with neighborhoods and numerous cultural culinary influences and establishments. We visited the student run baker, La Brioche and sampled some of their baked goods and pastries. Delicious. Another home run for the baking and pastry program.

NECI, La Brioche

The New England Culinary Institute was the school were famed Alton Brown matriculated. I had high expectations of what the school had to offer after reading it’s web site contents and given the aptitude and success Alton Brown has attained. I left the school feeling disappointed and yet I don’t think my high expectations were misplaced especially since I have fond memories of eating at NECI restaurants in the past. I wonder what had changed, but left clearly feeling that if I did decide to pursue culinary school, this place wasn’t for me.

I may not have seen all of the buildings, fancy kitchens and labs the school had to offer, but as a someone interested in the school it just seems like I could have gotten more out of my visit with a little friendly guidance and key points of differentiation to focus on. I know when I have guests I do my best to make them feel welcomed and answer all of the questions they have. A school where I could potentially spend a large amount of my hard earned money would do well to have a similar philosophy.

Taste of Cambridge

Last night I attended the Taste of Cambridge food festival in Harvard Square. The event hosted at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge benefited two local children’s charities. It was my first food festival and certainly exceeded my expectations. I planned on attending with my friend Anthony, whom I had met in the Back to Basics cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. We were both really excited about the event and were slightly disappointed when it was postponed a week from last Thursday because of the weather. The warm summer evening last night more than made up for it as we enjoyed the event immensely.

Through the sea of people we traveled from station to station, plastic plate and beverage in hand, sampling food from restaurants from all over Cambridge. The atmosphere was electric with restaurants featuring their best and most innovative creations for people to try. I ran into my friends Jerome and Stephanie Picca, owners of Small Plates Restaurant in Harvard Square who were sampling a delicious gazpacho. I also ran into other friends I had not seen for a while; it seemed like everyone was there and having a great time enjoying and talking about food.

There were people from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts as well as Le Cordon Bleu, the culinary school that is in the same building as my gym. I secretly envied them all in their chef whites and checkered pants. My thoughts wandered to applying to culinary school and thinking about if that’s what I really want to do and if it makes sense at this point in my life. I wondered if I would ever feature creations of my own someday at such an event as I walked around observing and sampling food to no end, breaking any semblance of the diet I try to maintain in exchange for culinary experience. The food was so good.

In between stations, we discussed making coffee, the differences between blade and burr grinders, stand mixer models, recreational cooking classes  and thoughts of applying to culinary school, true signs of culinary enthusiasts.

This was my first food festival, but it certainly won’t be my last as an  attendee and perhaps even some day as a participant.

On a whim and a aside from my culinary education I have enrolled in the Drinkmaster Bartending School in Boston and attended my first class today. Sure, we’ve all seen the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise and thought to ourselves, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to be a bartender?”.  Reality probably set in and for many and various reasons we assumed that bartending wasn’t something within our grasps.

While taking such a class may seem unrelated to pursuits in my culinary education, it actually has some pretty clear benefits to me and my desire to learn to cook. I signed up for the class a few months ago while reading through a book, Running a Restaurant for Dummies that I had purchased to learn a bit about the restaurant industry and its inner workings. I signed up with the thought of breaking into the industry and learning a bit about the front of the house operations through bartending or by acquiring the skills necessary to work small private parties or catering events. Bartending is much like cooking in that it involves taking orders, clearly defined recipes with occasional improvisation, fast, efficient production and interaction with a team. The money happens to be pretty decent as well which is an added bonus.

I arrived at the appointed hour and took the elevator to the 5th floor. The doors opened to a small hallway with slightly dim lighting. I walked through the door and was immediately welcomed by Jeff, our instructor for the day. I was given materials, a name tag, and signed in before taking a seat at a full-sized replica bar with bartending stations. The place looked really cool and felt like a real bar.

Once everyone was settled, the owner started talking to us about the school and its aim to teach people the core mechanics of the industry and how to be a great bartender. He introduced us to Jeff and left us in his hands for the day. After introducing ourselves, we were giving a brief overview of the basic bar setup and went right to work. This place apparently was going to be really hands-on, something I immediately became excited about. Music was pumped up to enhance the experience and provide some real life distraction. We were all jammin’ behind the bar with classic rock, raggae and current and familiar bar and club anthems.

All students in the class shared stations, switching back and forth, going over the basics of order taking, customer interaction, pouring, mixing and shaking and presentation. The pace picked up as our comfort level increased with drinks being called out in succession. I imagine this is what being on the line in a kitchen is like, firing plates and plating dishes for servers with consistent and attractive presentation. We were mindful of our workspace, the bar mise en place, putting back our bottles where they came from and keeping our space clean. I was really having a good time now. Everyone made mistakes, but as we kept moving it became easier to get over them. The operational aspects  and good business practices of a bar started to take form, as we honed our skills moving to what hopefully will some day be instinct.

The question on everyone’s mind at the beginning of the class of course was, “How do you remember all of the different drink recipes?”. It was great to know that you don’t need to know how to make every drink there is in the world, but rather the mechanics and the tools to be able to figure them out, along with some clever customer interaction techniques to elicit recipes for your first time. We learned bases and different combinations and substitutions. I started to make parallels with cooking and the differences say between a classic braise, fricassee or blanquette.

I left class feeling more confident than I ever imagined I would be after my first day. The mystery that shrouds bartending has started to break down into simple individual components. Much like what Chef Dowling said at the info session I attended at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, I am sure that when I am done with the class next Sunday I will never look at bartending or the drinks that I order while out the same again just like she said about food after taking the certificate or professional programs.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s class and the challenges and fun that I will experience. In just five hours I learned so much and know another five hours will increase my skills dramatically again.

Today was a big an exciting day for me with respect to advancing my culinary skills. I attended an information session at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. I’ve been thinking in the back of my mind about checking out some schools and investigating further how far I want to take my studying and learning about cooking. I could never have imagined just months ago how deeply this interest would take a hold of me.

When I walked up to the school I noticed a different feeling. I approached more confident and at ease since I had already taken a basics class at the school and was familiar with the surroundings. I entered, took my seat and waited for the session to begin. Prospective students filed in, each inspecting every other person as I was, wondering what their story was, reason for being there, perhaps wondering if we would be in the same classes along with a multitude of other questions that ran through our heads.

The session was headed by Executive Director, Chef Roberta Dowling who founded the school 36 years ago. As she started to talk I was eager to learn more about the school. Interestingly enough, the tables were turned and each person had to introduce themselves stating their name, current occupation if any, and desired course of study.

She described the school as a kind of family, different from other larger institutions in the industry. The jovial and high-spirited chef made you instantly feel at home and you could just tell that she loved this school and what it offered its students. She described most student as career changers, those just out of high school atypical and assured us that people graduating from the program don’t go on to be line cooks. This was serious business for people with high aspirations and a love of cooking (which includes the pastry program as well). The program is modeled after traditional European-styled training, offers small classes with a maximum of 15 students per class, and a hands on approach, making everything from scratch; no pre-made dough or worse number 10 cans would be used here except for tomatoes of course when required. Students gained an average of 11 pounds through the program without question provided that you still exercised. Not so bad. Fail to keep up your exercise program and in an extreme case you could gain up to 85 pounds. Yikes!

Another unique advantage of this program is the flexible scheduling, allowing students to enroll in either a certificate program or professional program with flexible class days totaling 19 hours per week. This allows you to keep your full-time job and even take classes on weekends if that is what you choose; you pick your most convenient days and that’s your schedule for the program. Classes usually have 1 instructor and up to 2 assistants allowing for a lot of personal attention. The world was looking pretty rosy now. Everything was sounding great until reality set it.

Anyone choosing this program does so for their love of cooking. You would have to of course given the significant cash outlay and time commitment for any one of the programs. As she went into detail, the obvious differences from the recreational program I was a part of became even more obvious. Yes there would be homework. There would be required uniforms and class materials including a knife kit. The days would be long and tiring, and as any curriculum would have, there would be examinations.

To this point along with my 6 week Basics class and self-prepared meals at home have been studying leisurely reading and acquiring knowledge through books, while even taking notes. The culinary programs would have written tests as well as a required practicum, something I have never been faced with. This was the punchline you weren’t ready for. The gem missing from the catalog, brochures and web site descriptions.

For the practicum, students would be required to have obtained and assimilated all of the knowledge learned in class and through study at home. Then each student would arrive and find a table with cards equaling the number of total students in the class placed face down on the table. At random, they would pick out a card and find their assignment for a food preparation they would have to create with one big surprise (to me anyway); the card would have have the item to make written on it with the ingredients and the measurements, but a key thing would be missing, the recipe! Students would have to write out the recipe and then present it to the instructor. They would be graded and any major errors which would prevent the student from producing the item given would have to be corrected before they even entered into the kitchen. Students are also graded on their choice and use of equipment, mise en place and their final products and presentation. My heart started to pound. For the mid-term (final for the certificate program which is just the first half of the professional program) this is what was required? To make matters worse, as part of the final practicum for the professional program the process for examination is the same except that measurements for the ingredients are left out. You have to know your stuff and you have to know it cold. This is real culinary knowledge. After the initial shock to my system, I became excited again. 37 weeks of education would give me this knowledge.

Many thoughts began to form in my head. I had questions about which program was right for me and how much depth I actually needed to satisfy not only my curiosity, but my new found passion in the culinary world. What level do I need to get to? What are my real goals? Do I want to change careers or just enhance my culinary knowledge as a hobby?

At the end of our session, we were invited to sample some student cakes and to tour the kitchens. I had the brief opportunity to speak with Chef Dowling, a dynamic and warm personality, about her story. Her deep connections to cooking were immediately apparent. Her great grandmother a chef, her mother being a great cook came to mind quickly when asked how she developed a love for food. She was fortunate enough to experience transatlantic travel at a young age where she was exposed to a variety of foods enjoying many sights, tastes, and textures. She studied in Europe and from what I gather and observe seems to have modeled the school’s  program as a way to emulate her experiences with learning the culnary arts to her students.

While touring the kitchens were introduced to some students and got to see their amazing final projects. All were friendly, inviting, and proud of their projects. They had learned so much during their time at the school and felt well equipped to face the challenges of the professional culinary world. I was inspired.

We were also given the change to view student created portfolios, a program requirement. Each student is required to bring a camera to class to capture their progress and detail and show to the world what they are capable of producing and what they have learned. Each page turn of what could be described in some cases as mouth watering food porn further inspired and excited me. All of this is in reach.

As I do some soul searching, visiting other schools and learning about their  programs is probably a good idea even if they only re-enforce what I am not looking for.  I am favorably impressed with the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and feel fortunate to have the possibility of taking part in their unique and flexible program.

Over a decade ago I was making my first educational inquisitions. It’s funny how similar this process is starting to feel and how I am getting closer to a new chapter in my life.

My cousin Gladys just graduated from college today, on Mother’s day. If there is one thing unique to humans, is that celebrations often follow major life events and achievements or are held to honor those special people in your life. These celebrations often include the sharing of food either at a home or at a restaurant. Accompanied by family and close friends my cousin celebrated her graduation while our mother’s celebrated Mother’s day. They chose Davio’s, a northern Italian steakhouse in Boston and one started by a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, the school I took my Back to Basics intro class at and where I am considering enrolling in for more formal study.

A great thing about eating at a restaurant is taking note of how the Chef’s creations are put together on a plate to be eaten.  Food presentation has a lot to do with the overall experience of eating and I was able to take a few pictures of some interesting dishes that I enjoyed.

My Dinner:

Roasted Tomato Soup

Flank Steak

Sampled Delicious Meals:

Foie Gras

Pan Seared Scallops

“I don’t want to go to work today. I’m not feeling well. I’m going to call in sick. It’s a holiday, so I don’t have to go to work. It’s snowing out; I’ll stay in.” These are all things most people have said as part of their working lives. These are choices that most people are able to make, however these are not things choices a chef will ever make. Chefs work while others enjoy the fruits of their labors. They work long hours, holidays and weekends under tough conditions. They are not deterred by sickness, weather or long hours. They are passionate about what they do. The training they endure solidifies what they know already inside them, that they are different. What it takes to become a chef  and what makes them different is what Michael Ruhlman set out to learn at the Culinary Institute of America which culminates in his writing a account of his time there.

Ruhlman is an accomplished writer, the author of of many books on a variety of topics. The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America is a unique work, part narrative, party story, part culinary education.  Have you ever really thought about where your food came from, how the idea for a dish was conceived, how your favorite dish at your favorite restaurant looked and tasted the same each and every time you had it or wondered what chefs go through to acquire the knowledge necessary to do their job well? Have you ever wondered who decides to be a chef and why? These and a myriad more questions are researched and answered not through survey’s and telephone calls, but a unique first-hand experience at one of the world’s best culinary schools. “I was never one to get all goosey about recipes. Recipes were a dime a dozen. You could follow them for a hundred years and never learn to cook. I was after method; I wanted the physical experience of doing it, knowing what the food should look like, sound like, smell like, feel like while it cooked.”, he states and throughout the book details the process and experience one goes through to graduate from this highly competitive and prestigious school with a set of standards and experiences and most important of all, knowledge that will allow them to be called  a Chef.

The curriculum of the school is described as rigid and methodical. Each chef upon graduation is expected to have the same broad knowledge about cooking as their peers while being armed with the requisite skills to acquire more knowledge and be successful. It provides a structured blend of theory, practice and in-field knowledge through an externship. The chef instructors, the top in their field instill a desire for perfection within their students.  They understand that no-one can be a great cook without the basics and instill this in their students from the top down. Ruhlman is provided unique access to the school facilities and faculty allowing for many insightful and instructional interviews. “With his first statement-the fundamentals of cookery don’t change-he seemed somehow to extend his meaning all the way back in time to remind me that water has always behaved as it does now, the physical properties of heat work the same way now as they did ten thousand years ago. Cooking, now as ever, meant learning the physical forces of the world and applying them to eggs, to flour, to bones and meat.” Chefs learn the hows, whens and whys of cooking in exacting detail with an appreciation of the science of cooking.

It was interesting to read that students would continually referr to Harold Mcgee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, a required text of the school. The book was considered The Bible of food knowledge, the frequent answer to the unknown. The combination of lecture, hands-on work and reading provides depth of knowledge for the graduates of the program.

While at the school Ruhlman could sense a change in his understanding of himself, a change that many students had already discovered and a reason for their being at the school or a change they would soon discover as a result of the education and their experience. “As in all matters of food, there was an intellectual and spiritual correlative. I’d already discovered that I was a cook. I could know what cooking was, fully in my bones. Cookies, I learned, came to cooking not to fulfill a desire, but rather, by chance, to fulfill something already in their nature.” Although students and instructors hold the title of “Chef”, they consider themselves cooks first and foremost; it is the essence of who they are. The education translates into an unconscious skill that allows them to free themselves from thinking and focus on the tasks at hand without getting caught up in thought.

This is a truly informative and fast-paced text with tremendous detail and insight into a culinary education. It is amazing how much you can learn from one person’s own experience; I found myself immersed in it from the beginning to graduation.  It was also fun to read this book as I took my basics class at The Cambrige School of Culinary Arts and it gave me a better appreciation for a solid foundation in food knowledge. As I read through the book’s pages I continually found myself asking, “Is this me? Is this what I want to do? Do I want a culinary education?”.  These questions and their answers are important to consider for anyone looking to enter the field and are easier to answer as a result of Ruhlman’s account of his experience and training. On to the next one!