First Night On The Line aka The Culinary Wonderment thread

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by VKK3450

So when do we get to see some of your own dishes?

K

8, 10 years if I'm lucky.

 

[Saigon]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

8, 10 years if I'm lucky.

Yeah thats what I was thinking. It takes time! Unless you are some sort of culinary savant or have an unusually good palette and knowledge of flavour profiles, it takes awhile to build enough foundation to begin creating your own dishes. Well, good ones anyways! Also, $45K for school? Is that how much the associates program was? I would have assumed that kind of price would have filtered out the jokers and the people who don't really want to be there. My class was pretty much the same though. Out of a class of 20, about 13-14 finished, and im pretty sure less than 10 are still cooking professionally. Geek is right, its pretty amazing to see people use their hard-earned (sometimes) cash to get some education and just squander it. Anyone who just showed up everyday and paid attention did quite well!

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Saigon

Yeah thats what I was thinking. It takes time! Unless you are some sort of culinary savant or have an unusually good palette and knowledge of flavour profiles, it takes awhile to build enough foundation to begin creating your own dishes. Well, good ones anyways!
Exactly, I could create my own dishes now, but they would be relatively worthless. Trust me, I try cooking an original dish every Sunday and 80% of them are epic fail. Besides, I won't be making my own dishes until I'm an executive chef. As a line cook, my job is to perfectly recreate somebody else's vision 100 times a night without having my own imagination or thoughts pertaining to the flavor profile or presentation of said dish. And while I think a lot of people dislike that and want to get straight into being a chef and making their own food, I view it as a really vital part of my development as a professional in the industry.

Also, $45K for school? Is that how much the associates program was? I would have assumed that kind of price would have filtered out the jokers and the people who don't really want to be there. My class was pretty much the same though. Out of a class of 20, about 13-14 finished, and im pretty sure less than 10 are still cooking professionally. Geek is right, its pretty amazing to see people use their hard-earned (sometimes) cash to get some education and just squander it. Anyone who just showed up everyday and paid attention did quite well!

Yeah, 45k. It's a lot. A lot of screw-offs at my school. I guess there are screw-offs at every college, but there seems to be even more here. My school used to be very prestigious, but that changed when it got taken over by Le Cordon Bleu North America. I think Matt could probably verify the same about CCA or other schools. Once they got bought out by CEC and LCB, they became more diploma and profit factories than incredible culinary schools. I know my school and CCA for sure are riding the coattails of the 20 years of being great schools before they were bought out. But, that said, like pretty much everything else you can do in the world, you get out of it what you put into it.

 

[Saigon]

So whats up?! Are you working this weekend? I have to live vicariously through your culinary career!

 

[TyCooN]

I did a stint once in a kitchen as a dishwasher. The chef didn't believe in yelling, but we still managed to get stuff done. Keep giving us updates, kwik. Real inspiring thread.

 

[KJT]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Exactly, I could create my own dishes now, but they would be relatively worthless. Trust me, I try cooking an original dish every Sunday and 80% of them are epic fail. Besides, I won't be making my own dishes until I'm an executive chef. As a line cook, my job is to perfectly recreate somebody else's vision 100 times a night without having my own imagination or thoughts pertaining to the flavor profile or presentation of said dish. And while I think a lot of people dislike that and want to get straight into being a chef and making their own food, I view it as a really vital part of my development as a professional in the industry.

Just out of curiosity, what are some original dishes you've made that failed and what are some that were good? I'm also wondering what constitutes an original dish. Are we talking durian stuffed pork loin or just your own chili recipe? If it's the latter, I and I think most people who can cook decently well make original dishes that are ok pretty often. The former, and I would think it would be difficult to do something completely unique. (What do I know though - I'm just curious what you cook in your free time. You can ignore my pondering if you want.)

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by KJT

Just out of curiosity, what are some original dishes you've made that failed and what are some that were good? I'm also wondering what constitutes an original dish. Are we talking durian stuffed pork loin or just your own chili recipe? If it's the latter, I and I think most people who can cook decently well make original dishes that are ok pretty often. The former, and I would think it would be difficult to do something completely unique. (What do I know though - I'm just curious what you cook in your free time. You can ignore my pondering if you want.)

Well, to be honest, I don't know exactly what constitutes an original dish. If you take a piece of mozzarella, blow it full of tomato water and serve it with a basil gelee, is it an original dish, or is it just a weird caprese salad? It's hard to imagine that there are any truly original dishes anymore, but I'm sure that there are rare cases. I imagine that most everything has been tried before and that the flavor combinations that we see used everyday are used because they are the most pleasurable and have stood the test of time.
So when I say original dish, I don't really mean original flavor combinations. I mean taking items that work together, like fish and citrus, and realizing that fish also goes well with fennel, so can you transfer that to another dish where you pair citrus and fennel? And if it works, success, if it doesn't imagine why it didn't work and what you could change about it. I'm sure as my palate becomes more nuanced and sophisticated, I'll become better at this.
Mostly at home I cook very simple things. This is partially because I'm poor as hell and can't afford to have a large variety of different things in stock at the same time, and partially because by the time I get home, I just want to eat something and relax, and also partially because I enjoy simple food. I'd say probably once every two weeks, I'll experiment and have fun with food. That's usually the day I get more money, and then by the next day I'm out again

. I keep a journal full of different food ideas, will this work, will that work, etc, whatever inspires me I just jot down a thought or two and try to translate it to food. When I have free time or the ability to have fun with it, I'll pull out that journal and do something with it. Make the same dish using 3 different cooking techniques, 3 different plating techniques, etc. It can be a lot of fun.
Also, when I say whether a dish fails or not, I'm holding myself (at least, trying to hold myself) to a professional standard. Meaning, will this dish work in a restaurant? Could I sell this for money? Would someone actually be willing to pay for this? It's a lot more than just whether or not something tastes good or is seasoned correctly.
Anyway, sorry for rambling and thanks for stickin around if you made it this far

 

[KJT]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

Well, to be honest, I don't know exactly what constitutes an original dish. If you take a piece of mozzarella, blow it full of tomato water and serve it with a basil gelee, is it an original dish, or is it just a weird caprese salad? It's hard to imagine that there are any truly original dishes anymore, but I'm sure that there are rare cases. I imagine that most everything has been tried before and that the flavor combinations that we see used everyday are used because they are the most pleasurable and have stood the test of time.
So when I say original dish, I don't really mean original flavor combinations. I mean taking items that work together, like fish and citrus, and realizing that fish also goes well with fennel, so can you transfer that to another dish where you pair citrus and fennel? And if it works, success, if it doesn't imagine why it didn't work and what you could change about it. I'm sure as my palate becomes more nuanced and sophisticated, I'll become better at this.
Mostly at home I cook very simple things. This is partially because I'm poor as hell and can't afford to have a large variety of different things in stock at the same time, and partially because by the time I get home, I just want to eat something and relax, and also partially because I enjoy simple food. I'd say probably once every two weeks, I'll experiment and have fun with food. That's usually the day I get more money, and then by the next day I'm out again

. I keep a journal full of different food ideas, will this work, will that work, etc, whatever inspires me I just jot down a thought or two and try to translate it to food. When I have free time or the ability to have fun with it, I'll pull out that journal and do something with it. Make the same dish using 3 different cooking techniques, 3 different plating techniques, etc. It can be a lot of fun.
Also, when I say whether a dish fails or not, I'm holding myself (at least, trying to hold myself) to a professional standard. Meaning, will this dish work in a restaurant? Could I sell this for money? Would someone actually be willing to pay for this? It's a lot more than just whether or not something tastes good or is seasoned correctly.
Anyway, sorry for rambling and thanks for stickin around if you made it this far

I made it through the post.

The reason I brought this up was that last night I made some jerk chicken and my girlfriend can't handle the spicy stuff so well. I of course used a heavy hand with the jerk because that's the way I like it, but once I started cooking it I realized I was going to put her into anaphalectic shock without something to cut the heat. So I opened the fridge and pulled out some sour cream, some cilantro and green onions that I had, threw them into the food processor with a little garlic and a little salt, and ended up with a light, fresh, creamy sauce that worked well with the jerk. It was delicious and I was pretty pleased with myself.

The point of this is that what I threw together has been done thousands of times in countless variations, just like the caprese salad you mentioned in your post, but for me it was an original recipe and an original thought. I've never had jerk anything with a creamy sauce or heard of it happening, although I'm sure it's been done many times before. It just seemed right, with the ingredients I had on hand, and it worked out well.

I take back where I said there was a point to this. If there was one, I lost it. It's the bourbon.

 

[EL72]

Originally Posted by KJT

I've never had to jerk anything with a creamy sauce or heard of it happening, although I'm sure it's been done many times before. It just seemed right, with the ingredients I had on hand, and it worked out well.

So it was your first time jerking it with a creamy sauce? It always feels right to me too no matter what ingredients I have on hand. Next time you should ask your gf to help you jerk it and the creamy sauce will come out even better.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by KJT

I made it through the post.

The reason I brought this up was that last night I made some jerk chicken and my girlfriend can't handle the spicy stuff so well. I of course used a heavy hand with the jerk because that's the way I like it, but once I started cooking it I realized I was going to put her into anaphalectic shock without something to cut the heat. So I opened the fridge and pulled out some sour cream, some cilantro and green onions that I had, threw them into the food processor with a little garlic and a little salt, and ended up with a light, fresh, creamy sauce that worked well with the jerk. It was delicious and I was pretty pleased with myself.

The point of this is that what I threw together has been done thousands of times in countless variations, just like the caprese salad you mentioned in your post, but for me it was an original recipe and an original thought. I've never had jerk anything with a creamy sauce or heard of it happening, although I'm sure it's been done many times before. It just seemed right, with the ingredients I had on hand, and it worked out well.

I take back where I said there was a point to this. If there was one, I lost it. It's the bourbon.
That's awesome though. I can't tell you how many people in my school can't do something like this. "This is too bitter, what are you going to do to balance the flavor?" "Uhhhhhhhhhh...... I dunno." It's sad. But it's a really good thing to be able to do that.

Originally Posted by EL72

So it was your first time jerking it with a creamy sauce? It feels right to me too no matter what ingredients I have on hand. Next time ask your gf to help you jerk it and the creamy sauce will work out even better.

+1. Can't believe the gf didn't help, especially when you made the sauce just for her.

 

[KJT]

Hahahahahaha jesus I didn't even notice the pun the I typed 95 times in that post. See I knew it wasn't original... http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Harves...1582622&sr=8-1

 

[aqhong]

Just got here from Fok's Twitter and read through the whole thread. Your posts makes me indescribably happy. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you'll continue to keep us updated.

 

[Master-Classter]

We the people demand updates!!

 

[Saigon]

Originally Posted by Master-Classter

We the people demand updates!!

+1