OMG!!! How to begin.... OK, I'll give as much detail as I can.
First of all, they days were LONG!! Roughly 6 a.m. - 10 p.m. altogether. Not all of that was cooking, of course. Here is how it worked:
6:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. = breakfast
7:00 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. = 1st lecture
8:15 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. = coffee break
8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. = follow-up lecture & production review
9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. = production (cooking!)
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. = lunch (we eat what we cooked)
1:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. = 2nd lecture
4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. = break (research, change for dinner)
6:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. = dinner
Can you say, EXHAUSTED!!! But what a blast!! The 7:00 a.m. lectures were different cooking techniques.
DAY ONE
7:00 a.m. Lecture
- Kitchen Orientation & Terminology
- Knife Safey & Usage
- Knife Cuts
- Stocks
Production
We practiced making/cooking:
- Batonnet cuts
- Chiffonade cuts
- Julienne cuts
- Mirepoix
- straining sauces
- making all sorts of stocks and how to deglaze
Then we made:
- Roux
- Corn Starch Slurries
- Citrus supremes
1:30 Lecture
Plate and Platter presentation
This is where we were shown how to "plate" food correctly, how to organize your menu to get a good mix of cooking techniques, color, and texture on each plate. AMAZING! We would use this later on our last day.
Dinner
St. Andrew's Cafe
We had (all included) two different wines, one red, one white - Maitre d' selection
I had for my meal:
- Smoked Duck Risotto with Dried Figs and Goat Cheese
- Korean Style Braised Beef Short Ribswith Steamed Brown Rice, Kimchee, Snow Peas
- White Chocolate Cheesecake
The reason I say that the dinner was part of the class is that the next morning we spent a few minutes each day discussing our meals. How did the flavors and textures compliment each other, did we like the food, if not, what would be change, etc.
(as this post is so long, I'll send another one out ASAP on the next days)