Week #10

This week went well, but nothing too exciting.

For basic, we fabricated and cooked fish. No exciting stories here. But I have been practicing dishes for our final. We have a choice of chicken fricasee, chicken chasseur, and pan fried chicken (but we must use crumbs or panko--or else it is not considered fried chicken. Anyone else ever heard of that rule before?)

Anyways, I tried each of the recipes this past week. I really enjoyed the flavor of the fricasee, but I think the chasseur turned out better (at least for my first attempt).

I also made a panko fried chicken. It actually turned out really good. I made a sage gravy to go with it--very pleased with the results. Nevertheless, I still prefer a good liberal flour-egg-flour coating--which I still think turns out better than bread crumbs/panko.

I also have been making gnocchi for one of our permitted side dishes. I used a few different recipes and so far, the Culinary's text book gives the best basic version, and the internet provided a few other tips for dough preparation. I cook them, then saute them in clarified butter and toss with fresh parmesan cheese and parsley. DELICIOUS!

For Garde Manger, we did sushi. Our Korean teammate was really excited this week because he said that this was the only week that he was able to teach us how to make our dishes--and he did great!

Now if I can get on my soap box for a minute: It was sorta fun to work with making sushi rolls. But I kinda felt like what we were making was not real. For stocks, for sauces, for dressings...we have learned how to make the items the traditional way from scratch with some tasty results.

But for sushi...I guess I just sort of think of it as "fake" unless I know a truly well trained sushi chef is making it. I know that sushi chefs are trained for YEARS before being considered a sushi chef. And out of all those years of training, I know that a majority of the years are spent learning just how to make the rice--and then becoming consistent with it.

So for me, our "sushi" making lab was equivalent to making "chicken fricasee" using precooked chicken and a can of cream of chicken soup--tastes good, but not even the same league, you know?

We were provided with rice, nori, some precooked butterflied shrimp, some raw tuna (which I still don't think was sushi grade and which our chef was disappointed in too), and some other sushi roll ingredients. So all we did was roll.

Again, they were tasty, but I in no way would say to anyone, "I know how to make sushi!" All we really did was roll ingredients. No cutting of the fish, learning about the best parts of the fish to use and why, no discussion about making the rice, etc. But I guess for adding another food item to my repertoire, I can't complain.

Finally, I have been working hard the past couple of weeks trying to figure out how to make a resume for a kitchen job. I have plenty of professional resumes, but it is hard to come up with a decent looking resume when I am starting at square-one for kitchen employment.

But I think I have one that looks ok now. I am working on cover letters today. And I have a portfolio of sorts that I will send to a limited number of establishments to whom I will be applying.

I am looking to work up in Napa, or stay here locally in Vegas. Or maybe even finally head back to my roots in Southern California. I just want to make sure it is a place where I will really learn.

Sorry...no pics this week. There were no real sushi presentations, and Basic doesn't have us present dishes. Its friday...time for a beer!