Part One : Chapter Two : Menus and Recipes (A Lesson Learned)

I haven't been grocery shopping in a long time. I keep finding things to use in both my freezer, and my pantry, but we're really scraping the bottom of the fridge, that's a fact. I think the ravioli dish from the other night used the rest of any ingredients I had left in the fridge, and now we're running on vapors. Last night, I defrosted a package of chicken legs, emptied a bag of sticky rice, and used half a bag of leftover haricots verts to make a really nice Japanese meal of teriyaki chicken (along with the rice and haricots verts).

Doesn't that look good!? It really was, and I didn't have to go to the store for a single ingredient! Tonight, I defrosted a couple of steaks. With those steaks (from Omaha Steaks), I received some frozen stuffed loaded baked potatoes. I'm not one to purchase something like that because I'd much rather make it myself, from scratch, but they came with the package, and we had two left, so I threw those in the oven, and also blanched the other half of that bag of haricots verts. Another dinner without a need for a trip to the market!

I took some frozen sauce (of some sort - I really should start labeling) out of the freezer, along with a few chicken breasts for tomorrow's meal, too. I'm determined to use everything, before I go out and buy more. It may be a sort of winter cleaning - I've definitely been on that sort of kick lately. All this using leftovers brings me to today's lesson at "culinary school."

In Menus and Recipes, I expected to learn about planning dishes, and adapting them to a professional kitchen format, and I certainly did learn about that. However, who would have thought the the majority of this chapter would be math equations!? I am not a math person, I've never BEEN a math person, and I never intended to BE a math person, but surprisingly, the equations learned in this chapter actually made a bit of sense to me. I had to read them a few times, and the examples definitely helped, but I think I am starting to understand how a restaurant or catering company can calculate prices based on portions and weights. I won't bore you with every equation I learned (unless of course, you'd like to know more - comment on this post and let me know - I can always write another post) but I would like to talk about one that I found especially interesting.

The calculation for usable trim equation helps determine how much money will be saved and put to use if the trimmings from one mise en place ingredient is used in another place in the kitchen. For instance, when a carrot is peeled, trimmed and diced, there are leftovers - the peelings, any scraps that don't fit the shape and size of the dice needed, etc. Well, is that just thrown out? In my kitchen, until now, most likely. What I didn't think about until now is that these trimmings are valuable product to a restaurant kitchen, and can be used in another place, to save money and time. The trimmings of a carrot can be used in a stock, since all the ingredients used to flavor that stock are strained out before use. What's the difference whether you use scraps of carrots, or a whole new carrot, when no one's going to be eating it anyway. Another example, which can be much pricier than a carrot, is meat. When meat is trimmed in order to get a great cut to serve, what happens to those trimmings? Well, they could be used in place of ground meat in certain situations, and could also be used to flavor a stock.

Example:

$0.106 (As purchased cost of carrots per ounce)

= $0.119 (value of usable carrot trim for soup per ounce)

0.89 (Yield percent for chopped carrots)

I'm determined to apply a version of this idea in my own kitchen. If I peel a carrot, I'm going to save those peelings for stock. Looking ahead in the book, I'm going to be making quite a few stocks and soups in the near future, so it'll be good to start stockpiling. I would like to minimize waste and maximize output, even in a kitchen that only feeds the two of us (and all my friends, most of the time!) When I make menus, I will try to maximize the use of each ingredient that I have to purchase, spreading it among a few different recipes on the same menu. If I can do it in my own kitchen, I can certainly do it in a professional kitchen of my own one day... 

Some day!

Part One : Chapter One : Introduction to the Profession

I opened my textbook this evening, in order to start my promise to you, and to myself that I would take myself to "culinary school." Of course, the first part of this book is an introduction to the culinary arts as a whole, but that doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it. In fact, I highlighted a lot of important information as I read the first chapter, something I haven't done since my college days!

I learned a small amount about many different jobs in the culinary industry, and even checked off a few as possibilities for my future! For instance, starting off in a kitchen for me would mean taking a job as the commis, or apprentice, who works for a station chef, in order to learn how that specific station operates. The Kitchen Brigade system is an interesting operation, consisting of different levels of management along the stations of the line in a kitchen. There's a chef for everything in a large operation, while one person could take on the job of five in a smaller operation. It's a well-oiled machine, it seems.

I also learned that all chefs need to be business people in their own right, possessing the skills to manage, administer and execute all the functions of a restaurant, or other food-related business. Much more than cooking goes into the job, including the ability to order supplies, determine gains and losses, and communicate with a staff, whether it be large or small.

My favorite line in this chapter falls under the heading, The Attributes of a Culinary Professional. "Those who have made the greatest impression know that the cardinal virtues of the culinary profession are an open and inquiring mind, an appreciation of and dedication to quality wherever it is found, and a sense of responsibility." "It requires stamina, drive, and creative influence." 

My mind's in the game...now on to Chapter 2: Menus and Recipes!

A Foodie Social and Some Other Announcements

I just got home from the Boston Foodie Social, an event that I heard about through a deal on Bloomspot, and decided to take advantage of. As we walked into the venue, I was a bit underwhelmed, at first glance, to the amount of vendors in the room, but I ended up meeting a bunch of really great people, with amazing products to offer. I treated my visit as a networking opportunity and spoke with vendors about blogging opportunities, and I was greeted with a wonderful response. I'm happy to report that I've gotten quite a few business cards, been introduced to many new products, and hope to offer reviews of these products in the very near future.

I learned of some healthy new products on the market, met some innovative chefs, new to the Boston scene, and even spoke with a 12-year old girl from the area who has released a cookbook to raise money for the charity, FutureChefs. Impressive, right!? I'm excited to get in touch with all of these new friends, and hopefully partner with them to bring you information on the latest and greatest on the market! So, stay tuned!

As another annoucement, I've made a decision. I'm going to culinary school! Okay, well, not in the literal sense. I have a version of the Culinary Institute of America's textbook, and I've decided that, as a project, I'm going to read it, from front to back, chapter to chapter, and take myself through the curriculum that a culinary student would face. Be on the lookout for posts from each lesson that I learn, and join me on my journey through my own version of "culinary school." It's going to be an exciting ride!