Day 4: Juice Fight

I got in a fight with an orange juicer this morning. Let's just say that the juicer won the battle. Here I am, a culinary arts student at the world's most prestigious culinary school and I can't figure out how to work the juicer. I had a 6oz glass of OJ and ate the rest of the 6 wedges that I gave up on.

Gastronomy is quite an interesting course. Yesterday and today we talked about perception about food. How do we perceive food and what is our response to it? We discussed how our senses are receptors to all aspects of the food and that taste of the food is one of the last things that happens during a meal. Knowing this information is extremely useful as I consider how to plate, design a restaurant and other very important part of a meal. We also discussed how we taste with our nose and mouth.

Today was more focused on different methods of cooking and browning reactions. I've heard numerous people explain that they want to carmelize a specific dish, which is not possible without the presence of sugar. Other methods of browning are Maillard and enzymatic reactions. Ah, the Maillard reaction. There's nothing like a beautifully seared fillet of beef tenderloin. Good ol Maillard!

This first week at school exceeded my expectations. Not only do I thoroughly enjoy the professionalism ever present in the curriculum and overall atmosphere of the school, but I love the passion that resonates off of those thick stone walls. I walk those corridors and can hear the dreams that reach out from each and every talented mind present in that building. Everything from the faculty's dreams for the students, to each and every story we will have to tell very soon. Here begins the hard, but ever so exciting work. Hand me my chef's knife, lets jump this jump.

Breakfast
-Oranges (of course!)
-Pastries

Lunch
-BBQ Beef Sandwich with onion rings
-Stuffed Quail
-Selections of a beautiful arrangement of Garde Manger

Daily Bite
-Garde Manger (loosely pronounced Guard Mon-jay) is the fine art of cold cooking. This type of cooking reflects those dishes that are prepared, then served cold. This can be anything from cured salmon to any type of appetizer that is chilled. For more info check out wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garde_manger