Guest Chefs

The Johnson and Wales Culinary Program offers its students an awesome extra opportunity to learn. We have a “Guest Chef” program that brings in Chefs from around the state (and sometimes further) to gift us with a bit of their hard earned knowledge of the industry we’ve chosen. Our first taste of this was a lecture from “Famous Dave” himself, Dave Anderson. If you’ve never eaten at a Famous Dave’s Barbecue joint, I highly recommend it. His sauces are excellent and spicy. Give this a click: Famous Dave’s Barbecue

Second, we got a chance to meet the most excellent Kurt Boucher, Chef of Salida, Colorado’s The Butcher’s Table. The Butcher’s Table Chef Boucher is the first Colorado Chef to have competed on Iron Chef America. He demonstrated for us a sort of deconstructed gyro, with locally grown lamb loin that he seared to a perfect rare and served with a beautiful tzaziki sauce that he threw together on the spot. It was some of the best stuff I’ve ever put in my mouth, and Chef Boucher came across as warm and knowledgeable. We were very lucky he took the time for us.

Just this last Friday, we were delighted to host a lecture and demo by local Chef Frank Bonanno. Frank Bonanno His lecture on the “money” end of the business was eye opening and frank (no pun intended). He demoed for us his handmade pasta, which he turned into an agnoli stuffed with fresh ricotta that he made on the spot from whole milk, buttermilk, cream and citric acid. He tossed them in a butter and sage sauce that was so simple but incredibly tasty. Chef Bonanno proved himself not only to be a gifted and talented chef but also a consummate business man.

Back in the Classroom

I started my newest class this week and I find myself once again under the tutelage of Chef DeNittis. This time around, the class is Purchasing and Product Identification, which is basically long-hand for “Storeroom.” I’ve said before that in our classes we have a whole “circle of life” thing happening wherein some of the students cook the food, some of the students serve the food and some of the students eat the food. The part that I forgot to mention is that some of the students unload the trucks, stock the shelves and pull the requisition orders for the cooking classes. This is what I’m doing now. The thing that I’m picking up on is that we’re also learning the basics of watching food cost, and knowing the price of every ingredient that goes into the pot in every dish. For anyone who wants to ever run their own kitchen, this knowledge is invaluable.

The first thing I was told about this class is that we won’t be needing our knives, so I’ve been forced to leave my kit at home. Truth be told, I’ve come to feel completely naked without my knife kit at my side. I was afraid that this was going to be a boring class, but honestly most of the class lecture is spent listening to Chef D spin yarns from his years of experience in the business. Most of the anecdotes are priceless. The running gag in class seems to be when, during lecture, Chef D will stop after a piece of information and say, “Y’know, this reminds me of a story.” Then we all get to sit and listen and laugh about one of the Chef’s many misadventures in restauranting. These stories have become the best part of my day, and they tend to make the day run by rather quickly.

Of Note This Week

Last night our friend Ian came over for dinner. He had the idea that we should pound out some tasty shish-kabob madness, and I thought that was a fine idea. A quick trip to the store and we were back in the kitchen with a heap of fresh veggies and a pound of lamb sirloin. I thawed some chicken and we got to work. The lamb was briefly marinated in a bath of A-1 with salt, pepper and a little bit of mint from my Penzey’s spice rack (thanks Draggie!!!). We cubed the chicken, mushrooms, summer squash, onions, peppers (red, green, and yellow) and tomatoes. We skewered everything up and onto a hot grill it went. As it turned out, we had more food than we had skewers, so all the leftovers ended up going into the “experiment pan.” I deglazed the pan and made a sauce with the pan juices that turned out pretty tasty indeed. The experiment was served over couscous with a drizzle of the sauce over the top. Unfortunately, we ran out of gas on the grill before our kabobs were finished cooking, so I had to finish them off in the broiler, though I don’t think that it hurt the taste of the meats any. The lamb ended up being the star of the meal. It was super tender, savory and delicious. I can’t wait to experiment more with some of our locally grown Colorado lamb.

Tonight for dinner I made my marinara sauce. Some of you may remember this recipe from a previous post: My Favorite Marinara This time I made a few simple changes. I added more onion (one whole onion instead of the half I used before. I added a small can of tomato paste to the pot, and before I added the mushrooms, I dumped the pot into a blender and blended it to a nice consistency. I reserved most of the salt I would add to the dish until the very end of the cooking process (a trick I learned in school). This sauce came out SO GOOD. Easily the best it’s ever been. I really feel like I’ve cracked the code on this one. I served it over whole grain linguine with smothered and baked chicken with mozzarella. The whole dish got a gracious helping of freshly grated parmesan and was served with a side of brussels sprouts. Any questions on this recipe will be gladly accepted.

So that’s been my week. Whew, that’s one long ass blog post! In fact, what are you doing sitting here reading?

Go Cook Something!

-Hooligan

So, I figured with my recent bragging about my baking prowess I’d better post something that would back it up. We threw a decent party for many of our friends for New Year’s Eve last week and I spent a good portion of the morning before the party being a bakin’ fool. Here’s the dessert spread we put out…

The cake on the left is a white cake in which the batter is about half meringue, making it fluffy and light. The frosting is just a whipped buttercream. I coated the sides of the cake in coconut shavings, as well as sprinkling some of them on the top. The adornment in the middle is a strawberry, cut into very thin slices and laid out like a flower.

Below that, you can see the pate a choux desserts I made, including éclairs and cream puffs. There’s that nice, shiny ganache I was telling you about. Next to the cake you’ll see something of an oddity. After frosting the cake and using up all my pastry cream, I had some left over buttercream and some left over cream puff shells. So, of course I did the obvious thing. I filled the left over shells with the left over buttercream and dusted them with powdered sugar. I called them “Angel’s Nuts,” and everybody that ate one went directly into a diabetic coma.

To the right of all that, you’ll find a batch of my chocolate chip cookies. Those cookies are the result of hours and hours of experimentation and adjustment. I think I’ve finally gotten the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Here’s the recipe, and before you start complaining about how it’s written up in weight measurement as opposed to volume… Don’t give me any shit. Go get yourself a scale. It’s better and you’ll thank me.

Cream together:

Slowly add:

Sift together:

Add just a dash of dry milk solids and a pinch of baking soda.

Slowly add dry mixture to batter.

Add 36 oz semi-sweet choc. chips, only mix until combined.

DO NOT OVERMIX.

Bake 8 to a tray at 365 degrees F. for 12:30.

This will make a pretty big batch of cookies… 40 – 50 of them, depending on the size you make them.

So, chime in! If you want to make a batch, let me know how they come out. I will try to answer any questions you may have, so ask away. Also, I’d be interested in hearing YOUR recipes for that “perfect” chocolate chip cookie, or any variations on this recipe you may try.

Cheers! Now go BAKE something!

-Hooligan

Have you ever noticed how you can put something on the proverbial back burner and then completely avoid it for months on end? I honestly haven’t forgotten that I have a blog, I’m just an inherently lazy person.

So much has happened since my last several posts that I hardly know where to start. I’ve gone through several actual cooking classes now and I’ve enjoyed them all. I’ve seen my “kid” brother get married to the girl of his dreams on a tropical beach. I’ve eaten some wonderful things and I’ve learned that contrary to my former belief, I actually enjoy baking. Turns out I’m pretty good at it too!

So let’s see… I left off after my first week of Essentials of Dining Room Service. I won’t go into much more detail on that class, as I’ve said plenty about it. I will say, however, that at the end of it, I came out with a solid A grade. After that, Heather and I flew down to Turks and Caicos for three days of rain and buffets. I was the best man at my brother’s wedding, and I was very proud to stand with him. He’s a good kid. We stayed at one of these “all inclusive” resorts, where you only have to bring extra money along if you want to actually do anything fun. For about five hundred bucks a night, you get a room that’s not quite as nice as what you’d get at a Holiday Inn Express, and access to about 15 all you can eat buffets around the resort. So we ate, and we lounged. All in all, not a terrible way to spend a few days. You just can’t beat seafood served a few feet off the beach.

I returned to school for Traditional European Cuisine with Chef Angelo. Yeah, I actually had a class with a Chef named Michael Angelo. His name suits perfectly the artistry of his cooking. The man’s a genius and to the end of my career, every dish that I plate I will judge to Chef Angelo’s standards. His class focused mainly on the techniques of braising and stewing and through the course of it I learned how to make a masterful ratatouille and an osso bucco that would make you want to jump up and slap your mama. I left the class with a solid A and some very complimentary words from the Chef.

On to Food Safety and Sanitation. Here I met one of my favorite professors to date, Mr. Lombardi. “Just call me Paul.” Hair longer than mine (and mine is pretty long) and a goatee to match. Paul was pretty hip. After taking his class, I am now COMPLETELY paranoid about cleanliness and sanitation in the kitchen. Have you seen what botchulism can do to a person? Jeebus. I left the class with a solid A and a Food Safety Manager certification from the NRFSP. I feel so “official” now.

Then came the class that I dreaded above all others, Introduction to Baking and Pastry. Historically, I have been known as a notoriously heinous baker. Doughy cookies, shitty pies and the occasional fire were all signs that I had been attempting to bake. Chef Kleber somehow changed all of that for me. She taught me to actually understand and to LOVE the science of baking. After class with her I find that my pies are a delight, my cakes are fluffy and my cookies are becoming the stuff of legend. Oh, and the éclairs… buddy, I can bake some éclairs. My pastry cream is sweet and smooth and my ganache is a chocolatey, shiny wonder. I left the class with an A+. Guess I can’t complain about that.

Look out kids, I’m becoming one dangerous dude.

Where was I? Oh, right… on to Chef DeNittis. Chef D is an angry Bostonian with a set of knife skills that would make the average ninja think twice and a prison fascination that makes all of his students just a tiny bit wary. His curriculum came with the following disclaimer: “Kids, you’re gonna learn a lot of things in this class that may not exactly be part of the Johnson and Wales approved curriculum, but if you ever get sent up the river should serve you pretty well.” I liked the man immediately. His class was Meat Cutting, and I’ve never been colder in my life. The classroom is literally a meat locker, and the Chef likes to keep it at about 37 degrees Farenheit. The best part about the class, aside from learning how to craft a razor-sharp shiv from the unedible portions of a lamb’s neck that is completely undetectable by a metal detector, was that every animal we broke down got cooked and tasted. Every part of every animal was served up for our consideration. I have to say, Chef D makes the best beef brisket I’ve ever had the privilege of tasting. I left his class with enough knowledge to break down just about any animal carcass that gets handed to me, be it bird, fish or something of the four legged variety… and as the Chef was fond of reminding us, people break down exactly the same way a pig does. Chef D is a genuinely scary individual whom I would under no circumstances fuck with.

Meat Cutting was by far the toughest class I’ve taken so far. The work was grueling, the cold was bone-chilling and the knives were sharp. I worked hard. I busted my ass in that class and walked in to it every day with a good attitude and ready to learn. There’s just so much a man can do. There’s only so much sweat a man can drip, and so much blood a man can bleed. Some mountains are just too high to climb. I came out of the class with my first non-A grade.

I got a damned B+.

Last night’s dinner was… well… let’s just say it was “less than successful.”

We all have our off nights, yeah? I wanted to do something relatively simple with what we had in the fridge/cabinet, so here’s what I started off with:

2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1/2 Cup White Wine
2 Cloves Garlic
Half of an Onion
4 White Button Mushrooms
Celery Salt
White Pepper
Thyme
Bay Leaf
1 TBSP Capers
3 TBSP Butter
Brussels Sprouts

Okay, so first things first, the olive oil went into my fry pan and the heat came on. I started boiling water for the Sprouts.

The chicken got a dusting of salt and pepper, and into the hot pan it went. Sizzle, sizzle, Bob’s your uncle, and I’ve got two nicely seared chicken breasts.

By now, I’ve got the water boiling, so in goes a pinch of salt and my sprouts.

In another pan, I tossed my chopped garlic, then my chopped onions, and once those had cooked to a nice translucency, I added my mushrooms. While all that was cooking down, I deglazed my chicken pan with the white wine, scraping up all the tasty chicken-bits. In went the butter, and then all my spices. Finally, I added the contents of my other pan, and my capers.

By now this white wine sauce smelled outrageously good, and was even producing a nice golden-brown color. Problem was, I couldn’t get it to reduce, it seemed. The longer I simmered it, in fact, the more oily and thin it seemed to become. Finally, I gave up on the idea of a nice, thick sauce and just served the mess up. I had all but forgotten about my brussels sprouts while fiddling with my sauce, so of course they were a mushy mess. Not even a hint of crispness to them. So, bah on that.

The flavor profile was, in actuality, quite nice. The garlic and onion permeated the chicken, and the saltiness of the capers was a fantastic addition. I just love capers, don’t you? Briney little balls of heaven, they are. It’s just too bad I couldn’t get that sauce to thicken up and reduce. It would have been much nicer both visually and texturally. Had it not been two in the morning, I’d have liked to have put the contents of the sauce into the blender and given it all a good puree and then added it back to the pan to try and reduce it further. I think that may have helped it along.

So, as it stands: was it flavorful? Yes. Would I call the dish a success? Absolutely not. It looked like hell, and was much more oily than I could be happy with.

They can’t all be winners.

If anyone else would like to try their variation on this, I’d love to hear your ideas on how to make this sauce better. Or, for that matter, if anyone has any ideas on what exactly went wrong for me, please, chime in. I can’t wait to hear some opinions.

Now, go cook something… just cook it better than this!

-Hooligan

It was a long week. It was a tough week. It was a great week.

As I’ve said, my first week was spent learning the proper way to wait tables and handle front of house responsibilities in the Essentials of Dining Room class. I’m really learning a lot, but honestly, I hope I never have to use any of it professionally. My Chef/Professor (the guy who reminds me of Leonard Nimoy) is an incredibly knowledgeable and intelligent person, and is, quite frankly, a lovely person and a gentleman. He stands in front of classes for twelve hours a day, every weekday, perfectly coiffed… his tuxedo (he owns several, all well tailored) perfectly pressed. He remains, to this day, the only wait-person who was promoted to management by Chef Wolfgang Puck.

Most of my classmates are much much younger than myself, and it pains me to see them squandering their time in this class. I hear things like, “this class is stupid,” and, “I don’t care about any of this,” or, “this is such a waste of my time.” Unbelievable. These are kids who someday want to run their own restaurant. I pose this question to them: if, god forbid, one night every single one of your servers calls in sick, or just doesn’t show up for whatever reason, who the hell do you think is going to have to wait those tables? It’s not going to be your kitchen staff, smart guy. Learn it. You’re going to need it. Besides… in a fine dining environment, a good server is quite literally worth their weight in gold. They are your front line, your salesmen. They are the ones putting the money in your register. Respect them, and respect the difficult job they do for you.

Our class gets the bonus of being able to sample foods prepared in the school kitchens daily. I’ve already tasted a few things that I’ve never tasted before, and these tastings are assuredly the best part of my day. I’ve especially enjoyed the plates coming out of the “Traditional European Cuisine” class. Bravo, Chef. Bravo, students.

So here’s how it all works, just like I’m sure it works in most culinary schools. Some of the students cook the food, some of the students serve the food (us), and some of the students sit and eat the food. It’s all very “circle of life.” In Essentials of Dining Room, we spend our lecture times learning the basics of front of house service. Every day, we get a little more responsibility in our dining room. We’re not up to “full service” yet, but we’re getting closer. Friday, we ran a buffet line in which we, the servers, were responsible for serving beverages, appetizers and soups. Unfortunately, even this small amount of responsibility proved too gargantuan a task for my class. What ensued was a comedy of errors. Broken plates on the dining room floor, spilled drinks, unruly freshmen jockeying for position in the buffet line, and one really really angry chef.

I stepped in a pie.

Yes, you heard me right. I stepped in a whole pie. Right by the bar. It was like a pumpkin flavored landmine went off. I had whipped cream all the way up to my hip. Who the hell left a whole pie on the floor, you ask… well, that was my question too. I never did get an answer. As far as I can figure, some idiot must have pulled a pie out of the low-boy fridge at the wait station and set it on the floor while they dug something else out… then they forgot to put the thing back into the low-boy. Secondly, someone must have kicked open the dish-bin door, hockey-pucking the pie out into the main walkway around the bar. Then along came the heavy-footed Hooligan and ker-freaking-splat. One pie, dead on arrival. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to wash pumpkin pie out of the treads of a kitchen clog? It’s a right bastard, let me tell you. Plus, to add squishyness to insult, I had to work the rest of the dinner service with a wet god damned shoe. At the end of class, the Chef assured us that “Monday will be a better day.”

Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying my weekend after this week. My feet are killing me. My legs feel like steel cables, stretched too tightly. I’ve decided tonight is all about wine and good chocolate. I swung by Enstrom’s and picked up a huge assortment of truffles, sea-foams, and chocolates. So far, I am not disappointed, though I’m sure my waistline will pay the price.

On a good note, the highlight of Friday was a brief wine tasting that the school hosted for some of us students. The tasting began with one of the French-born chefs at our school shouting at a number of late-coming students.

“What are you do-eeng? Stoopeed! Ees zere a glass pour vous at zees place setteeng? NON! Seet ovair here, eediot!” This alone was enough to make my day.

A very nice German gentleman, Dr. Carl Von Schubert, brought us three Rieslings from his family vineyard in Western Germany. He told us all about the monks that started the vineyard that his family eventually purchased about a hundred years ago, and that each of the monks who lived and worked at the abbey were afforded three liters of good wine for personal consumption every day. I bet they were a seriously happy bunch of monks. He told us that his winery is the only one that ages their Rieslings in old oak barrels, which themselves were specially aged to cask these sweet, white wines.

All three of the wines we tasted were quite good, especially the last one we tried, which, it was explained to us, was one of the more expensive wines that they produce. We all learned the true meaning of the word “aperitif,” as after the tasting, we all returned to class complaining of intense hunger. The acidity of the wines woke up our taste-buds and falsely alerted our stomachs to culinary delights that, sadly, would not come for hours.

If you’d like to learn more about these wines, or even find a vendor in your area that can get them for you, go to www.vonSchubert.com and have a look. You won’t be disappointed. The site is full of history and great pictures of the vineyard and it’s people.

So that’s it for now. Week one, done. Week two, here I come. I’m off to the kitchen to put together a chicken breast with a white-wine, mushroom sauce. Recipe to follow, whether it’s successful or not.

Now, go cook something!

-Hooligan

PS: This 2007 Ecco Domani Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio that I’m drinking finishes with a hint of sauerkraut. I don’t get it, and I don’t think I like it. Just saying.