jwu ri tri 2 week 5

[KateW]

Well foodservice production is over. I enjoyed the class but I feel like it didn't teach us anything very specific, except maybe recipe conversion, which was the bulk of our project. We had to take a day's worth of breakfast and lunch recipes and convert them to feed 100. In class however, we only cooked 10-15 portions of each dish, which does not seem like a mass production to me. But it was a fun class and I got to finally know some of the people in my class. It still seems like we are not bonding well but I can tell who I like and who I don't like, I think.
I got a 94 on my scantron, and I did well on the quizzes. I was a little cautious during production times though because he gave me a lot of things that were not on the menu and I had no idea how to make them.
Today I discovered I didn't know how to prepare turnips, but now I do. Yesterday I tried some soup with tongue, and discovered I didn't like it, but I would be willing to try again, because I realize it may have been overcooked or prepared wrong in some other way.
It's hard to do things exactly like the recipes call for because a lot call for longer cooking times or marinating times than are allowed. Therefore some things don't taste the way they should. Sometimes we change the menu and do a totally different method of cooking than it calls for. For instance if one of our objectives is to learn how to grill, but the salmon says poach, we might change it to grill. I suppose this might happen in a restaurant kitchen also, for one reason or another.
Well that's about it. Store room is next.

[ALynch]

I just got back from the first day of my food service production class and it was so much fun. We got to have Chef Barber as a guest instructor for day 1, or real instructor will return Monday. Chef Barber is the instructor that was profiled on Cooking School Stories, on the food network and he is the most incredible teacher. We cook for 70 in our class. Our Menu today was Monte Crisco Sandwiches with fries or a la minute pasta. We also had a salad bar and a make your own sundae station.


Storeroom was the easiest class for me, there is no cooking involved. Our final was 100 different products that we had to identify, everything from can sizes, to produce, to seafood.
I got a 98, I mistaked a cubanel pepper for an Anaheim, and a yuca for a taro. I had a lot of fun in that class too. We took field trip to the orange grove and spent a day picking oranges(it's great to live in south florida ) and took another field trip to the docks and saw where they import food. I saw a 100lb crate of truffles that was impressive!

[KateW]

Sounds like a blast. Our final will be way different though--we only have to identify 30 products. I guess that way it is harder to get a good grade.
I am enjoying this class so far because I was looking forward to learning different things and already I know the difference between a couple kinds of hot peppers and I know what fresh fennel looks like. I look forward to learning fresh herbs because I am a little shaky on that. Our chefs commented on how good we are at identifying stuff already, probably because we have had a trimester and a half of cooking already.
It's kind of a drag to be done with filling racks and then still have to go to lecture but I'll get used to it.