Culinary School: Week 2

Week two of school was still filled with some lecture, but this time I got to eat chocolate for an ingredient tasting. So it was kind of ok. I'm anxious for my pasty and baking class to get out of the classroom and into the bake shop. In my second class, cooking skills, this week we learned how to de bone a whole chicken, make chicken and veal stock, and make two of the five mother sauces: veloute and espagnole. I'll be honest the day we worked on chicken I was a little nervous for various reasons. But breaking down a chicken turned out to be no big deal and is actually a really handy skill to know. Buying a whole chicken is much more cost effective than buying chicken pieces. And let's be honest I felt sort of awesome when my cuts were all mostly right on my first attempt. We made a mirepoix which is a ratio of 1:1:2 of carrots, celery, and onion chopped the same size. And then added chicken bones, water and the aromatic veggies all to a big pot and let it cook overnight. When we got to school the next day the whole kitchen smelt like I was swimming in my moms chicken noodle soup. It was so yummy. After the stock was done we worked on our sauces the veloute is a sauce made out of the chicken stock and an espagnole is a sauce made out of the veal stock. I still have no control over my head nodding up and down at everything the chef says but I'm happy to report that the "oohs" and "ahhhs" are becoming significantly less common. In other news I bought a pair of kitchen shoes. They're black and made of rubber and are most commonly known as crocs. It's true I own a pair of crocs. They're comfortable and appropriate for the kitchen so don't judge me (unless I wear them in public, in that case please gently remind me that crocs should never leave the kitchen.) Happily I'm still feeling like school is the greatest thing ever. And although my days are long and my back hurts after standing for hours, I'm tired in a good way, my back hurts in a good way. And I'm happy, that's got to count for something.