Culinary School

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January 23, 2011 by sweetly spoken

A Bus, a Milk Chug, and Six Cupcake Shops

Well, the cupcake crawl happened. And it was pretty darn cool. Michael and I were floored by the response we had…almost everyone we invited was able to come! I think if you tell people there will be cupcakes (and booze), they make a fair attempt to attend.

Lemon Meringue cupcake from More.
Michael (aka husband of the year….we’ll make it husband of 2010, since he planned this in 2010. He still has to earn the title for the current year!) came up with the cupcake crawl idea from his hair cutter lady, of all people. She mentioned something about a friend doing a cupcake crawl in Chicago, and he (immediately, I’d like to think) thought of me and my then-imminent graduation from culinary school. What better way to celebrate than eat a ton of cake on a bus with a bunch of friends and family?! Read More »

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December 21, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Cooking for medals: my last class

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Kate and I, making tomato sauce and split pea soup.

My culinary school experience has included many memorable moments.

  • My first classes, Knife Skills and Soups, Stews & Sauces, introduced me to Chef Pierre Pollin and my first taste of the finer points of French cuisine (and French accents!).
  • The 16-hour sanitation class was for the most part a snooze fest. But it did allow me to be certified in the City of Chicago in sanitation rules and regulations.
  • In Advanced Sauces, I learned that building a better sauce is about balance and layers.
  • The French Bistro course lit up my world. Cooking from all different regions of France whet my appetite for travel. My next trip to France will avoid Paris, and focus instead on all that the more rural areas have to offer.
  • Baking and Pastry brought stress, but many satisfying outcomes (which led to many satisfied customers).
  • Cuisines of China opened up the world of cleavers, woks, and peking duck.
  • And Catering taught me how to build a model for billing clients. It also taught me the importance of keeping things simple and focusing on technique.  Read More »

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December 1, 2010 by sweetly spoken

A great plate, and a lesson learned

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I’m in my final class of culinary school (tear!). Catering. The first portion of the class was five weeks of lecture. We learned everything from how to identify customers, market a brand, and price the product, as well as how to set up a business for long-term success….not to mention the nitty gritty details of off-site logistics. All in all, the lectures provided good insight into the catering business.

The second portion of the class is in the kitchen. During week one, we put together small plates and one-bite appetizers. I made a very cute (and very easy!) salmon lollipop with a balsamic-ginger dipping sauce. Next time I make it, I’ll snap a photo and provide you the recipe.

During week two of the kitchen portion, the class created a dinner buffet. My assignment? A fruit platter and a vegetable platter. Not my idea of learning something new from (very expen$ive) culinary school. But I went along with it, and created some mack daddy dipping sauces! I figured I might as well make the most of the task by learning how to better slice and present the fruit, plus spice it up with sauce. Bleu cheese sauce for the veggies, and an orange cream cheese dipping sauce for the fruit. The sauces were a big hit!

This last week, week #3 in the kitchen, caused me the most trouble. I questioned my cooking capabilities several times over. Our assignment? A seated dinner for 20. We worked in teams (girls vs boys), and my main tasks were herbed polenta and fig relish. Doesn’t sound too terrible, right? Especially considering the fact that I’ve made polenta (and grits) thousands of times, plus I have a kick-butt recipe from a friend for a rosemary fig jam that is pretty much like a fig relish. Easy breezy. Or so I thought!
Read More »

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September 17, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Chinese Sweets

Homemade Fortune Cookies
This was the class I was waiting for! A class devoted to Chinese desserts. I learned some very interesting new ideas! See after the jump for photos of the favorites from class, plus a recipe for Fried Fruit Puffs. Believe me, you’ll like them. They involve peanut butter, how could you not?!

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September 15, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Cuisines of Beijing

One of the regions we learned about in Regional Cuisines of China was Beijing, the capital of China. Beijing’s cuisine is a combination of all the other regions of China. Popular dishes are Peking duck, hot and sour soup, and Fried Rice. See below for two of the recipes we made in class!

Hot and Sour Soup
Read More »

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August 27, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Daffy Duck and his Friends

Those are ducks.

And I ate one of them.

And I liked it.

Sorry if the photo grosses you out, but that’s what a duck looks like before the head gets cut off. As my chef instructor for Regional Cuisines of China points out, Americans are much more sensitive to seeing proteins in their more natural state than the Chinese. During week five of class, we took a field trip to Old Chinatown on the north side of Chicago. I was previously unaware of this neighborhood and was pleasantly surprised to discover a small community full of wonderful options for Chinese and Asian cuisines….including Daffy Duck and all his friends. (click below for more, and for a photo of the cooked duck!)

Read More »

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August 3, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Cantonese (Chinese food from Guangzhou)

My chef instructor for regional cuisines of China is from Guangzhou, the “Florida” of China. The climate is similar to Florida’s and as such the region is able to grow all sorts of produce. We learned about several Chinese vegetables that I had never heard of before. Here are the few that I recall…
- Hairy melon
- Several varieties of bok choy
- Chinese chives
- Chinese broccoli
- Soybean sprouts
- Winter melon

We made a plethora of food in class. See below for photos! Read More »

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July 23, 2010 by sweetly spoken

Dim. Sum. Yum.

Nothing like a little dim sum on a Wednesday night, I always say.

Seriously. I’m always saying that.

What is dim sum? In class, we learned that the words roughly translate to “whatever touches your heart.” So, basically, choosing to eat small bites of whatever you fancy from a large selection of yummy Chinese morsels. Traditional dim sum includes so many items, but here are the ones we made in class:

Pork Shu Mai
Crab rangoons
Shrimp toasts
Har gowl
Shrimp and pork wrapped in beans curd wrappers
Stuffed green peppers
Spicy Pork Dumplings
BBQ Pork Bao
Steamed and pan-fried potstickers
Deep fried stuffed won tons
Click “continue reading” for close-ups of each dish!
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