Skills 3 Done

I'm on the verge of LOSING MY MIND!!!!


3 weeks of being a sanitor dealing with order screwups and other sanitors not pulling their Weight

my team kicked the practicals Ass our chef said it was the best Sauce he'd tasted our soup was good, the veg was cooked perfectly

now on to cuisines of americas! guess what three more weeks of being a sanitor by the time we go on break i will have been sanitor 8 weeks in a row.... Oi Vey

start of skills 3

i kinda left this in the dust part way through skills two we are Finally done with knife trays

it has been told to me skills 2 is the hardest class so now that's over...

i am in skills 3 now so my team makes 20 servings of an item to plate at lunch or put on the buffet.


we have Chef Ken. he is most commonly know as the most intimidating chef he is all about buisness and the uniform he doesn't play around if you are behind.


tomorrow we make roast beef..... lets see how this turns out

Day Five of Skills 2

First plate up :
deep poached Salmon
tourne potatoes w/parsley
Green beans
julienne Veg

but more importantly!!!!



YEAH that is me standing next to Morimoto!!!!! he did a badass demo told some jokes and Sang for us!


....

It has been over a month!

My team made the mosterous sausage ring!

Sorry for the lack of posts I'll give you a brief overview of what has happened since meat fab.

the next 7 days: Fish Fab
We learned :
scaling
filleting: flat/round/ straight cut techniques
skinning
portion cuts
also about oysters/ squid/ lobsters/ crab

Next:

Skills one: Knife trays are terrible
if you plan on going here practice precise cuts! NOW!
we learned about mother sauces
stocks
and soups

Now:
skills 2
Monday:veg cookery : Duchess potatoes/ glazed beets/ braised cabbage/
Tuesday : RICE: parm risotto/ rice pilaf/ Jardinere Veg/
Wednesday: Pasta : Fresh Pasta/ sauce variations / lasagna
Thursday: EGGS: Benedict and all ways
Friday: we plate full entrees

Day Seven: Sausage

the class worked on different sausages today :
breakfast sausage patties for Chef Tom's breakfast cookery class
mergeuz
and sweet italian
we had to form over 70lbs of meat into 2oz breakfast patties
we also cooked the porchetta
i tried my hand at twisting links of sausage and made a solid roll of almost perfect links of italian sausage... today was a goood day!

Day Six: Ovine (lamb)

EPIC DAY!

we had a whole spring lamb, Cheff tucker took that bad boy down into all its sub-primals

each of us got a leg to BRT into two roasts
we also each received a rack to french and portion out
all useable trim was saved for sausage

oh yeah, we also broke down a whole duck each!
i will have a picture and a video up when i figure them out

Day Five: Swine

this class was about an hours worth or trimming meat and tying roast and 3-4 hours of prep for sausage making on day 7

My group also made Porchetta: a rolled pork belly

Day Four: Veal

today we got a whole leg of veal this post will be short and simple
we took off the:
knuckle
heel
tenderloin
top round
bottom round

we turned most of that into scallopini
we used a BONE SAW to cut what was left on the shank into osso buco
we also cut up the bones the bone saw was fun

Meat Fab: Day Three: Beef (again)

Today Was a pretty fast paced class we lectured a bit more of beef anf the primal cuts as well as HRI cuts.
DEMOS:
we saw a striploin (subprimal) from the loin Primal Chef showed us what section makes t-bone steaks and what makes a porterhouse
Each team Received a boneless Strip loin which we had to :
trim the fat/ sinew / silverskin from
we then cut from the ribeye end 2" steaks which we then split in half to make about 6-8 oz steaks
when the rib eye tapered down we switched to 1" around 8-10oz steaks
with the sirloin end we removed extra fat found the seams of an unwanted piece and removed it
we denuded the sirloin segment and trimmed it to steaks
Demo Tenderloin
Teams:
removed outer membrane and fat from Full tenderloin Side Muscle on
cut sinew and removed the chain meat
trimmed off silver skin as well as trimmed the fat from the underside
we removed the Chateaubriand
begin cutting 6 ounce Medallions
Butchers yield test on tenderloin
Demo Sirloin
teams
defat sirloin and separated coulette which was cut square and scored
trimmed sirloin separated exterior muscle, cut to steaks
cut remainng sirloin into 2 roasts
truss both roasts
Clean up etc...
it seems like a lot of work but we took from about 9:30-12 to do all that work including Demos
after lunch i went to pick up the veal order for tomorrows class we are doing something with basically the whole leg of veal it might involve saws i am pretty excited. now i have to do my homework (probably the hardest and most labor intensive part of this class)
Till Tomorrow

Meat Fab: Day Two: Beef

Today we got lectured about the types and cuts of beef primal and sub-primal then Chef Tucker Demoed how to denude a shank and remove it from the bone then cube for stew meat
then we did the same
we then took down a Chuck roast to a flat iron steak / the heart/ and the triangle
we then cubed it for stew meat
not alot of stuff today but it took quite a while

Meat Fab: Day One: Poultry

Today was my first full day on the A.m Schedule... let me break down what that means.
4:45 wake up
making sure i have all my gear and my homework done and sent to myself for printing
6:15 catch shuttle
print homework / Breakfast
lecture 7-9
Demo in the TK
Trussing
Demo
8 Piece
demo
Thigh/drumstick
demo
Supremes
demo
boneless skinless breast
demo
Butterfly breast
demo
boneless/ skinless thighs
Lunch
packaging cuts and inventory
cleaning stations
1:30 Done

Here it is Sunday Afternoon

I had a great weekend i made blue cheese/bacon stuffed burgers for lunch today. Now it's time for me to start doing some work for Meat Fab because starting tomorrow at 7 a.m. i will be in meat i.d. and fabrication. we start with chickens the first day alone we:
properly truss a chicken
properly disjoint a chicken
conduct a variety of chicken fabrications, including boning and skinning
demonstrate proper thawing techniques
each student will truss a chicken.each student will fabricate at least 3 chickens into various parts.

it's here... I am finally nervous for class i have to sharpen my knifes tonight and move my books into my tool kit bag so i remember to bring it tomorrow.

if anybody has any questions for me about the school or anything ask me. i don't really know what to write about....

It's been a while! Week four: block 2

I haven't posted much the last 3 weeks and this is because I haven't really had anything to talk about. We have just finished our first block for my group this was Gastronomy and Mathematics (writing for some) we took those finals and now it's time for block two. Food Safety and Product knowledge. and now it's time for Whites and Checks instead of business casual!


On a slightly less culinary perspective of things:
I went to San Francisco yesterday with a couple of other kids from my class we did a bunch of awesome things which i will list out now:
Chocolate sampling at the pier
Ferry building shopping (ate a meat cone from Boccalone)
Fishermans warf for some clam chowder in a bread bowl and a sourdough turtle
Ghiradelli place for a Delicious ice creamy fudgey snack
Back to the warf to see sea lions and get some gifts
China town got pop its and louder pop its
got a schweet pocket knife
got some tasty Dim Sum
went to the giant pet store
walked to the piers again to go to ...
THE BIG SAN FRANCISCO PILLOW FIGHT!!!!!
Home

well now it's time for PIZZA tonight

Day Two: First day of class

I am in AOS Section 11 i take intro to gastronomy with B&P 2 this class so far is pretty good we didn't intros today and a sensory test to see if we could tell what we were smelling in a hidden cup it showed us how hard it is to distinguish different scents when they are paired with multiple other smells and also how smells can remind us of things good or bad.

I also went to Math online to figure out how to navigate the online class! i think i get to not go to Writing Woooo I have to ask about that in a little bit after I finish this post i am also going to take pics of the campus and stuff so you can see my room and all that jazz

Day one :Orientation

Prepare for Boredom, some breaks, and a tasty lunch!

This day was long but we got our toolkits and parking passes etc... and a LOT of important info.

no real class met some cool people in my class

oh yeah Sunday I moved into my dorm it's pretty sweet not far from the school at all I can walk or ride the shuttle to the school and back... plan on a bike ride later in the week to check out the library and town...

okay now to type and post about day 2

-Zac

Okay Everybody The journey has began

Today i got up and finished packing all my clothes and books and the Sum of my life into boxes and into my truck so we could head out to California.

I said goodbye to my sister and our animals left the house got gas and started on my way south stopped in Kelso/Longview to say bye to a friend before going to woodburn looking for clothes that meet the dress code. (the dress code is a big concern for me i am curious how strictly it is enforced.) Here I am now in Grants Pass Oregon about 60 miles north of Cali we have about 6 hours of driving left to go tomorrow/sunday.

We are going to the Sun Dial bridge in Redding California and hopefully the Jelly Belly Factory.maybe some other places along the way... The Driving is sooo boring!

My nerves are Killing me! i have felt sick all day i am nervous because i Dunno really Anything about my room mate so sunday could be Way Awkward! I'm Excited and nervous hopefully monday will ease all that out...

I think that's all for tonight, i may write again tomorrow if not I most definitely will on Sunday! from my dorm room

-Zac

Ok so this is my first post

My name is Zac; this blog will be a (time willing) day to day story of my trip through Training at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.

As it stands now on Jan/03/10 :Ii was accepted in Mid Oct for the Jan 25th start date Associates in Culinary Arts Program

I applied for loans and all that easily with assistance from the school applied for housing (and received confirmation that I am in the Vineyard lodge!)

I move in on the 24th

My last day working in the kitchen of the Bremerton Elks was last night I started there in April to fulfill the 6 month requirement which calls for 10-15 hours a week in a kitchen where 50% of the food is prepared in house

I finished my Volunteer time at the Lifelong AIDS Alliance Chicken soup brigade a couple weeks ago after almost a year of volunteering

okay so that's about where I stand at this point I'm just counting the days till I road trip down, I'm figuring out some stuff still ordering acceptable shoes seeing if Dickies are acceptable pants for "California Business Casual" dress (I can only hope)

I plan to update this blog with pics of what I create work load info just daily learning's weekend activities and just other stuff that happens while I am In California for roughly the next 2 years minus the 18 week externship at TBD. I think I am done for today with this post check back on the daily for more info, especially after the 25th