What I Learned at Culinary School Today

[amerikajinda]

"I might get ridiculed a little "” like a new student playing a Cremon[ese] violin "” but I don't care."

 

[Thomas]

Suddenly I want to buy some sacrificial veggies and chop them up. Probably next week, when I'm responsible for dinner. Pictures might be forthcoming around May or so - once I've had adequate time to prepare and lose a few fingertips.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Manton

I bought some sacrificial vegetables yesterday to practice on. Here are the results:

I am a bit underwhelmed.

The tournes actually look better than the ones I did Saturday, if you can believe that. But they are not smoothly seven-sided.

The macedoine are mostly square, but not uniform. They frustrated the heck out of me because I mostly got them right the first time. I don't know about the rest of you, but I find that carrot battonets tend not to stay straight. They bend, whcih makes cutting uniform cubes really hard.

The jardinaire are pretty good; first try on those.

The two piles of brunoise look OK, but if you could see them in real life, you would see that they are far from uniform. I sort of wonder how much it matters when they are close in size to grains of salt, but I know that it matters to chef, so it must matter to me.

The julienne of carrots are a little flatter than they should be.

The turnips are pretty good. The left turnips are more matchstick size -- mostly uniform, but too big for this chef. The ones on the right are more his speed.

Lemon eplucher on the left. Still a little pith that had to be trimmed. Doing this right, you leave no pith, and you take no flesh. Hard.

On the left, the first set of supremes. Not bad in that I did not break any. However. you are supposed to be able to pick the seeds out with the tip of a paring knife without leaving a visible gash. I failed.

Both supremed. I mostly did a better job on the second one, in that I was able to navigate the membrane more easily and get the slices out faster, but I also broke one. C'est la vie.

I think that I have a machine in my kitchen that does that.....

 

[kaxixi]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I think that I have a machine in my kitchen that does that.....

... and then bends over when she's finished?

 

[cchen]

Originally Posted by Manton

The FCI is a professional school that trains working chefs, but also offers amatuer classes. It is not as prestigious as the Culinary Institute of America (but then nothing is) and the program is far shorter.

not true...

really, all you learn at any culinary school is the basics. you learn almost everything you use on a daily basis on the job, usually at your first restaurant or hotel job.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by cchen

not true...

really, all you learn at any culinary school is the basics. you learn almost everything you use on a daily basis on the job, usually at your first restaurant or hotel job.

That's not entirely true.

And even if it were, it has no effect on the fact that the CIA is the most prestigious culinary school in America.

 

[cchen]

As a professional in the industry, I would say its true.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by cchen

As a professional in the industry, I would say its true.

Did you go to school? What kind of restaurant do you work in?


Anyway, what industry isn't it true of? In school you always learn the basic and learn how to actually do the job on the job.

 

[cchen]

If you talk to any professional chef, they will tell you that it doesn't matter what school you went to. When I look at resumes to hire for my kitchen, I really don't care where they went to school. When you enter a professional kitchen, you're going to working along side people who went to CIA, FCI, ICE, and people who never went to culinary school.

There's no prestige factor. No ones gives a ****.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by cchen

There's no prestige factor. No ones gives a ****.

That is what I noticed as well. Performance is much, much more important.

Mike,

The class looks awesome. I sent links to your blog to some friends

.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by cchen

As a professional in the industry, I would say its true.

"professional" in the "industry" can mean WD-50 or ******* Chik-Fil-A. Some people do in fact care, and curriculums are quite stringent. People don't spend that much money just to learn the basics. They are fundamentals but they aren't basic, especially with how much molecular/avant garde is going on now. Yes pro experience is everything, but just like 'everything I learned I learned in Kindergaarden', it is in many ways, quite the same.

Tell any average joe that you went to CIA and watch the reaction, if they're at least someone well read. What you say for pros not caring can be said about any industry. GS doesn't care if you went to Harvard business, but that doesn't nix the reality that it's prestigious.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by SField

"professional" in the "industry" can mean WD-50 or ******* Chik-Fil-A.
Yeah, but cchen runs DessertTruck, not McDonalds Restaurant #3719 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

 

[sloane3]

Way to steal kwilkinson's thunder.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by sloane3

Way to steal kwilkinson's thunder.

You tell him!

 

[Manton]

Well, I am new at this. So far, it seems that both views are held in roughly equal strength.

That is, lots of people say that it doesn't, in the end, matter where you go to school. But most also agree that CIA is the most prestigious school qua schools.

Sort of like Harvard. It is the most prestigious university. Still, many very successful people went somewhere else, dropped out, or didn't go to college at all.

In the end, performace is what matters.

That does not alter the prestige factor of the school qua school among its peers.