End of Skills 1, Beginning of Skills 2

The last day of Skills 1 was pretty awesome. We made pasta and tomato sauce... and then got to eat ALL OF IT. It was a delicious breakfast. The pasta we made was the standard dry pasta that is bought in grocery stores. The last thing we did before the end was take our final (super easy) and then practice tournes. Now for those who do not know what tourne's are, they are 7-sided football shaped knife cuts roughly 2 inches long and 1 inch across. We cut potatoes in half and slowly carve them down. The first time was pretty terrible and we all struggled. Our final knife test in Skills 2 is 8 of them in 30 minutes which is decently tough. I'm getting better.

Anyway the weekend was a nice relaxing time before the supposed chaos of Skills 2 ensued. Skills 2 is not as hectic as Chef described, just more production than Skills 1. Monday we made 4 different items, Glazed Beets, Braised Red Cabbage, Cocctte Potatoes and Duchess Potatoes. Glazed Beets are basically boiled beets covered in a reduction or orange juice, honey and butter. They were SO GOOD. Next was Braised Red Cabbage which cabbage in a sweet liquid cooked in the oven until tender. The two types of potatoes were easy. Cocotte is just tourne'd potatoes sauteed slowly in butter and garnished with parsley while Duchess Potatoes are pureed potatoes mixed with egg yolks and butter and then piped into little round flower-ish things and baked. It was a fun day and pretty easy, and everything came out well.

Today was Day 2 and it again wasn't terribly challenging. Rice Pilaf, Risotto, Sauce Robert, Sauce Marchand De Vin and Jardinere Vegetables. Turns out that Pilaf and Risotto are cooking methods, not types of rice. Pilaf is starting on the stove and finishing in the oven and Risotto is all on the stove but adding the liquid in installments. Both started by sweating onions in clarified butter, adding the rice to toast and then adding the liquid to do with it what you will. Risotto = awesome. The sauces were derivative sauces of the mother sauce, Espagnole. I'm pretty sure most of you have heard of Demi-Glace which is used as a base in many sauces. Demi-Glace is a 50/50 combo of Brown Veal Stock and Espagnole Sauce reduced by 1/2. These sauces were good but I preferred Robert. They started by sweating shallots and aromatics in clarified butter (Robert: peppercorns, Marchand: peppercorns, thyme and bay leaf) and then deglazing with wine. White wine for Robert and Red Wine for Marchand. Mustard is added to the Robert Sauce and then both get veal stock and demi-glace before being reduced by half and then finally swirled with a pat of butter. I enjoyed the Robert more but both were good. The last thing we did was cut 5 types of vegetables into batonnettes which are 2 inch long sticks (white turnip, yellow turnip, celery, carrot and green beans. They are cooked in salted-boiling water and then finally coated in a mix of water and butter reduced. A good dish but a bit scary when the girl next to me used clarified butter (all oil and fat), heated in up and dumped water into it... imagine an ice cube in a deep fryer. I kid you not when I say the flames hit the ceiling. So although I almost lost my eyebrows, it was minor in damage.

Tomorrow is an awesome day because we are making Fresh Pasta 2 different ways. Can't wait until the 3 day weekend.

Chef Werblin

ps. part 1 of basketball tryouts tonight