Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Monday/Tuesday

The last 2 days have been pretty standard, classes, fun food and outdoor activities with my new friends. Monday was pretty boring in terms of class, but I'll let you know about all the great food I ate so you can be jealous. Lunch consisted of a Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Salad with Balsamic which was something I could easily eat every day of the week and twice on Sundays. The entree, Sauteed Duck Breast with Potatoes Au Gratin. I'm getting used to the idea of duck since I've now eaten it 3 times in a week and both were very good. Finally dessert was Profiterole Dipped in Chocolate. Another win in the dessert column for this school. Dinner was pretty plain... Beef Burrito with Salsa, good but not out of this world. Monday night consisted of bball and an hour or so of homework (believe me when I say I'm surprised I actually did homework too).

Today we had Gastronomy with the teacher who I don't care for too much. She just rubs me the wrong way although the material is decently interesting... the odds of me even remotely enjoying any part of that class in the next 6 weeks is highly unlikely. Today for lunch was not a good day... the appetizer was Gravlox (cured salmon) with Arugula, Fennel and a Chive Oil. I don't care for salmon much as is, especially if its cured which I learned today. Not a good appetizer for me although I did try it. The entree was Chicken Roulade with Fresh Mozzarella and Sage over Couscous with Broccolini. The chicken wasn't bad but the sage overpowered most of the flavor, the couscous tasted ok but seemed softer than any couscous I've had before and broccolini is very bitter and was covered in red pepper flake which did not mix well with the bitter. The only highlight of this meal was the dessert (again!) which was a Chocolate Pot De Creme which is basically a little bowl of delicious chocolate, mousse-like pudding that was topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Excellent but too rich for me to take more than a few bites of without developing a headache (thank you genes from mom). Tonight for dinner was Roasted Herb Chicken with Potatoes, Onions and Mushrooms... not bad.

I hit the gym for about an hour, ran to go get some food cause I'm a fat ass and I'm starving at 10pm and finally I'm gonna go to a friends room to hang and play Skip-Bo (a fun card game kinda Uno-ish... look it up if you're curious) before I come back to do some homework... sorta.

Chef Werblin

ps. Today we learned that food aversions are something that people develop usually for strange and non-nonsensical reasons and that overcoming them is very possible so I pose to you this. Pick one food you dislike whether it be from a bad memory or another reason and for 2 months, incorporate it into your diet and meals and overcome that aversion so that your cuisine palate can be expanded.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sunday, A Block Party

I wasn't going to write about today cause not much happened but I'm sitting in my dorm and kinda bored so why not. Today was the Stars and Stripes Block Party which was right behind my dorm. Set-up were some inflatable things, a slip n' slide, a dunk tank and a whole mess of food. Myself and a friend who are new members of the Brewery Club went to the tent to serve our Root Beer Floats with Guinness Ice Cream (that the two of us made). We did that while it was busy then walked around and saw some friends and had some food, including cotton candy, smoothies, frozen bananas, flavored popcorns, fried oreos and twinkies, burgers, hot dogs, and watermelon. After some slip n' slide fun we ended up just hanging out till around 5.

We parted ways to take showers and then three of us went to dinner at this restaurant right on the Hudson. It was excellent and we split Brie in Puff Pastry (incredible!) for an appetizer and I got Ribs and Crab Cakes which was awesome. The rest of our friends decided to grill outside for dinner but didn't do so until around 10pm so when we got back we met them and I had my second dinner of the night... Grilled BBQ Chicken, Corn, Mashed Potatoes and Watermelon. All in all a successful day eating. This week classes really get into full swing so hopefully I'll be learning a whole lot. Looking forward to next weekend when we are going to NYC on Saturday. Time to go read.

Chef Werblin

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The First Weekend

Yesterday was a pretty typical Friday. Woke up, went to class, had lunch, poked around the storeroom, hung out, went to class, had dinner and hung out with a new group of friends. I won't go into details because it was kind of boring since now classes are pretty standard. I will tell you about lunch though. The appetizer was Risotto with Sausage, Parmesan and Herbs. It tasted good and would have been perfect if the rice wasn't very undercooked. The entree was Breaded Salmon with Mustard over Sauteed Spinach and Horseradish Mashed Potatoes. I'm not big on salmon so I tried a few bites but it wasn't my favorite thing. The spinach was just alright but the potatoes were excellent so I devoured that. Finally dessert was just Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce, good but very rich.

The way meals work here if you don't eat at the 3-course Banquet is just to go to K-16 which is a kitchen class where they change the menu everyday of about 3 options and you use a meal swipe and grab what you want to go sit down. The other option is to go to one of the Cuisines classes. These are Cuisines of the Asias, Americas and Mediterranean that each have around 3-4 options and you do the same thing, swipe and grab. For dinner yesterday we decided to do Asia. I had Bulgogi with Scallion Rice and Kim-chi. Its basically pork in some delicious sauce so it was great.

Our night consisted of hanging in a dorm cause the weekends here aren't exactly wild although we're slowly finding new and fun things to do like the drive-in movie theater, the roller rink and how it only takes an hour to get to NYC.

Today we woke up, and 9 of us went to a diner for lunch and then came back and parted way until we're going to meet for the fireworks tonight on campus. Tomorrow is the Stars and Stripes July 4th festival and I get to serve my homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with the Brewery Club. Hopefully it came out good.

Chef Werblin

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Brewery Club

So my friend and I went to a Brewery Club Meeting to check it out. Turns out its awesome. They had finished brewing an Apricot Wietbeer which is a Belgian-style wheat beer which just needed to be carbonated (I tried it non-carbonated and it was bangin). They also brewed a home Guiness which I wasn't quite ready so I didn't try and finally a homemade Root Beer for the week early 4th of July fest this weekend. As new found members of the club the head guy asked us to make Vanilla Ice Cream... from scratch... so we found a recipe online and made it happen while they finished the brew.

After separating 40 eggs and whisking that with 5 cups of sugar (which almost made my shoulder fall off), we combined vanilla bean, 20 cups of both heavy cream and milk and let that come almost to a boil. From there we slowly whisked the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar and put it over the heat again just to thicken some before we chilled it. It will be put in the ice cream maker on Sunday before the event. It tasted incredible and will go down as the first thing I created at CIA. A fun night so I thought I'd share.

Chef Werblin

First Day of Classes... Kinda Again

Today we had 2 new classes for the first time so it's sort of like the first day all over again. As per my usual which I'm sure I'll manage to sustain throughout the semester, my alarm buzzed at 8:15 and I happily rolled over, shut it off and took an extra 20 minutes to sleep.

The first class today was Introduction to Gastronomy which is all about how people and culture affect food and such things like people such as Escoffier (one of the most famous chefs) and Careme (another famous chef) have shaped cuisine today and so on. The class seems moderately interesting but we unfortunately got stuck with Raider (her last name) who isn't a well liked teacher to put it lightly. Yes shes a feminist sort of and when she lectures its fine but whenever a male spoke in her class she either kept nodding or trying to interrupt as if she didn't want him to finish or answering in what came off in an extremely snobby way, as noticed by most of the class at lunch. Either way I guess we're stuck with her and I'm sure you'll hear plenty more about her in the future seeing as I get pissed pretty easily at people like her so please don't be offended when I use moderately derogatory terms to identify her.

After that we went to lunch at the Banquet Room (3 courses). Appetizer was strangely not a "fine cuisine" food unlike the last 6 meals there. It was Fried Sole (type of mild fish) in almost like a fish stick type presentation with a Slaw and sauce resembling tartar sauce. It was very good but just didn't seem like the typical thing we would eat there. Anyway, the entree was Spice Rubbed Pork Loin with a Tomatillo Salsa, Chorizo Corn Cake, Potato thing and Sauteed Chayote (Mexican Squash... no I didn't know what it was, had to ask). The Pork Loin wasn't great neither was the Potato thing that was like a thick short tube of super thick mashed potatoes without flavor, needed salt. The Chorizo Corn Cake was very good as was the Chayote which kinda just tasted like mild squash in butter. The Tomatillo was a really small spoonful but was so good and I wish I could've taken some back to my room.

Lunch finished and we had about 3 hours to kill so we took a trip down to the storeroom to dig through produce and look at everything.... SO COOL!! There's so many different foods there it would blow your mind, everything from lots of bags of red onions to HUGE wheels of cheese to caviar and quail eggs. We spent about 30 minutes in there with wide eyes trying to guess the things we didn't know (when you ask the guys who work there they make you guess). A quick run to the bookstore where I bought a $5 on sale book called "A Drink For Every Occasion" which is hilarious and a great investment and then a nice run through the rain to the dorm.

Myself and my new friend from class and from my dorm went to hang out in the lounge at the dorm to watch soccer and relax till our 4pm class which was Food Safety. Shoot me now. This class is so ridiculous but unfortunately literally everyone must take it. People here have certifications up to wazoo but are still stuck taking this class and even though the teacher was very nice, spending an hour going over Cross-Contamination will put anyone to sleep.

The end of my day in some sense was walking to the Cafe in the Rec Center for dinner because the dining hall was packed at 6pm. Another friend and I got some dinner and had a beer (the Cafe has a bar with about 6 stools, 15 bottled beers and 4 beers on tap which is awesome) before he headed back to his off-campus apartment and I made my way to the room.

In store for tonight is the NBA draft at 8, a Brewery Club meeting at 9 in the Rec Center where we will be brewing from scratch Guinness, Root Beer and another something I didn't catch when the guy did his little plug and then my bball workout which on Thursdays and Mondays consists of about an hours worth of shooting drills and then a 3 mile run.

One more day until the weekend and the week-early 4th of July festivities here.

Chef Werblin

ps. I don't have a ps but its been a trend on the posts so I can't break a 4 day tradition

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

First Day of Classes

My alarm went off at 8:15 this morning and I miserably rolled over, shut it off and went back to sleep for 15 minutes in my true, natural college fashion. Finally I managed to get up, shower and get ready for class at 9:15. Red bull in hand I made my way to my first class at CIA ever... Product Knowledge. I knew or recognized most of the kids in my class which made it pretty ok to sit there while we waited for our professor.

Product Knowledge is basically an identification course. By the end of these 6 weeks we will know how to properly identify 235 different types of produce as well as knowing how to determine if they are ripe/usable and what they are used primarily for in cookery. After the tedious explanation and introduction of the class we went down to tour the storeroom where all the produce and such is kept. The place is extremely cool and has more types of food then you could ever know (we are expected to go down there at least once a week just to poke around and look at things).

After 2 hours of intro for a class that will clearly be awesome, I went to lunch at 11:30 with a few people from class at the Banquet Dining Room (the place we eat 3-course meals) and had a nice lunch. An appetizer of Tomato and Roasted Pepper Gazpacho which was ok, there was no heat which I would have liked and I also am not a huge fan of the raw tomato taste. The Entree was a Veal, Pork and Beef Old Fashioned Meatloaf with a sauce I can't recall the name of, Creamed Corn, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans wrapped in Bacon. The meatloaf was very good as was the corn and green beans, unfortunately the mashed potatoes were a bit dry. Finally dessert was a Strawberry and Rhubarb Cobbler with Creme which was fantastic (so far all the desserts have been delicious).

After lunch, about 12:30, I took a walk back to the dorm and relaxed until around 3:45 when I made my way to my 4pm class, Culinary Math. The professor for this class was upbeat and funny. The class is all about food costing and yields and such. It will easily turn out to be the easiest class I'm taking and if I don't get an A I'll probably throw myself into the Hudson. The class ran till around 5:30 and then 2 of my new found friends and I decided to skip out on dining hall food, take a ride to the mall, grab some dinner and walk around.

We made our way back and now I'm headed to the gym (yes, again) to start the first set of 3 weeks (5 sets of those) of conditioning and practice for basketball before I head back to meet up with some people to watch Top Chef. Everyone here is a food nerd so its kinda cheesy that we all talk about Food Network and Top Chef every 5 minutes but it makes for a fun place.

Tomorrow Gastronomy and Food Safety.

Chef Werblin

ps. My Wednesday/Friday bball workout consists of 10 Suicides, 5 17s (run the court 17 times, hopefully in under 60 seconds), 5 60 second Line Jumps, Wall Passing 20 times, Full Court Dribbling 50 times and ending with 50 made Freethrows.
pps. These 3 ducks live outside my dorm near the mini-lake on campus and eat all day... until you accidentally walk to close and they start hissing at you uncontrollably... don't do that.
ppps. If you've ever seen I Love You, Man, this school is just like that movie because all the new students aren't housed together so making friends requires starting conversations with random people and then attempting to attain their phone numbers (kinda awkward between dudes) so you can stay in touch outside of class.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Orientation Day 2

Today was the last day of orientation before classes. We went to the huge, awesome theater in the library to listen to 3 people spend 2 1/2 hours telling us all about a whole mess of meaningless survival skills. Finally after the torturous lecturing we broke for lunch.

Talk about eating well, this place is ridiculous. The appetizer was Melon with Prosciutto and Port Wine Gastrique (a sauce that is thick and reduced down). The sweetest cantaloupe you've ever eaten mixed with the delicious salty prosciutto and with a little of the gastrique was one of the best things I've ever eaten. The entree was a Roast Striploin (again) with Pancetta Stuffed Twice Baked Potatoes and a Vegetable Medley. All very good. And dessert was Vanilla Tapioca with Fresh Berries. Easily the best tapioca pudding I've ever had.

The afternoon was then filled with more meaningless talking except for the one chef who was hilarious is telling us about Life Through a Chef's Eyes. We had an hour break after in which I took a quick 20 min power nap to recharge. Next was a meeting with the big dog himself, President Tim Ryan (the youngest person to receive the CMC at 26... most people spend 25 years studying for it!). We did a little Q&A with him and he was very funny and interesting to talk to (plus we got him to sing).

The last part of the day was the part everyone had been looking forward to forever. Schedules, knife kits, and books. We filed in the lobby and received our things. The knife kit is insane with more tools and utensils than you could imagine and our schedules finally came so we all found out about AM and PM. For classes here you either have morning or night classes and then next semester you switch and so on. For our first 6 weeks the four classes I have, Culinary Math, Food Safety, Product Knowledge and Intro to Gastronomy are more like normal college classes instead of AM/PM. I have class everyday from 9:15-11:15am and then a break on MWF until my 4:00-6:00pm class and a break TTH until my 4:00-5:20 class. Not so bad.

After taking about a half hour to drop things off at the room we went to go have dinner which I can officially say is now the most awkward thing ever. Since other students now will be having 3 course meals as well with us, unless you are with a friend or two you get seated with 5 or 6 random strangers for an hour and a half to eat. Luckily today I knew everybody at dinner, tomorrow is another story.

Dinner was exciting and new for me. An appetizer of Split Pea Soup with Mushroom and Ham, not too bad, not my favorite soup. The entree was something I've never had, Roast Duck with a Pineapple Jus and Rice and Braised Bok Choy. The duck was good, different but good and the Bok Choy is an Asian leafy type deal that tasted like butter mostly. Finally dessert was Fresh Berries with Marscapone Cream and that was incredible. A dinner that definitely was out of my usual culinary bounds but was cool to try.

Tomorrow class starts and so I'm hitting the gym for an hour or two before I have to read some of my new textbook that has to be dragged by a rope to class its so freaking huge (1200 pages!).

Chef Werblin

ps. If you want to know what the CMC test is, its a 7-day, $5000 exam that only roughly 90 people have ever passed and you can only take and fail twice in your lifetime. If you want full details just follow this link CMC Exam.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Move-In and Orientation (Day 1)

Yesterday was move-in day. I got here around 2pm and spent the afternoon arranging my triple. Yes that's right a triple dorm, as in with 2 roommates, which is a big change from a house. Both my roommates seem cool and the dorm is decently big and with its own bathroom. We took a tour of the campus after that around 5 and then had a "meeting" where they tell you all the dumb crap about dorms for an hour but then feed you pizza at the end. I finished the night by absolutely destroying some helpless chefs in basketball at the gym which is 10 steps from my dorm for about 3 hours until my early 10:30pm bedtime.

Today was the first of a two-day orientation and we had to be at the Admissions Office at 7:45am in business casual (the required dress code for classes not in the kitchen and for most places on campus including meals). We filed in, were handed massive packets of material and then shuffled around the building for 2 hours while acquiring such things as IDs, parking passes, mailbox keys and measurements for our chef's whites (uniform for those not in the lingo). I made some friends while waiting for lunch at 11am and we walked around and chatted until lunch time.

As part of the meal plan, we are required to eat one 3-course meal every day for 6 weeks in either lunch or dinner which is made and served by second-year students in the Banquet and Catering class. As for orientation, we ate 3-course meals for both lunch and dinner. Lunch consisted of Mushroom Ragout in Puff Pastry as an appetizer, Roast Lamb with Ratatouille and Potatoes for the entree and Creme Brulee for dessert. The appetizer was excellent and I'm not a huge mushroom fan as was the two enormous slices of lamb cooked perfectly medium rare. The Creme Brulee might've been the best dessert I've ever eaten.

After lunch we listened to some lady talk about school and values and all that crap and I almost wanted to punch her. She was one of those people who asks ridiculous rhetorical questions like, "Who came here to be mediocre?" Obviously she was trying to get us hyped but after 45 minutes I wanted to kill her cause it got really old and the dumb question thing is one of my top 5 biggest pet peeves. Either way we made it through and then quickly hustled back to the dorms to put on casual clothes and do some cheesy team-building at the gym. After an hour doing cheesy and fun puzzles with my group we had a 45 lecture on alcohol and sexual harassment before dinner. Dinner was also fantastic. An appetizer of a piece of salmon over a salad of spinach with a warm-bacon vinaigrette. The entree was a strip sirloin in a red wine jus (which is sauce) that was massive with mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots... all excellent. And finally for dessert was an apple and cherry crisp. Then a few guys and I drove to Target to grab some missing stuff and now I'm writing this blog before heading to the gym again.

All in all a moderately boring and long day but filled with crazy good food. Tomorrow we have day 2 which is spent mostly sitting around and then Wednesday we start classes.

Chef Werblin

ps. I'm definitely trying out for basketball in October so I'm now on a "get fit" regiment to prep. The basketball coach said they could use some new blood... look out old scoring records cause Kobe (the skinny white one) just arrived

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Learning How to Really Cook

So this will be my blog for culinary school which I start tomorrow with move-in day. A whole bunch of people asked me to keep them updated all about it so I figured this was the easiest way to do it.

I'll probably keep it updated at least every other day so if you wanna know what culinary school is like feel free to read and follow.

Chef (to be) Werblin