Maybe I should have studied and stayed busy maintaining my knife skills while I vacationed. Culinary Foundations 3 was crazy hard. I don't know if I just started missing my family and snow (who would have guessed that the only winter I spent away from Utah/Idaho is the winter that breaks snow fall records) or of the class was legitimately more difficult. I am pretty sure it was a mix of the two.
Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale has two campuses. They are about a mile away from each other. The first campus has its own parking lot. The second campus is a couple of blocks away from a parking garage. I was at the second campus for Culinary Foundations 3. Let me paint a picture for you. The temperature in Scottsdale was about 70 degrees. I was wearing my whole chef outfit and had to walk a couple of blocks in the middle of the day. Then I would spend a couple of hours in a room with about 15 students running around using ovens, stoves, grills, and fryers. Then I would walk the couple of blocks back to my car. This wasn't so bad at first, but let's just say that each time the temperature rose, I walked into class looking like I just went swimming. I think I went through more deodorant in the 8 months I was in Arizona than I will ever admit.
In Culinary Foundations 3, we cooked a lot every day. We would get a list of 4 or 5 recipes each day and the instructors were more focused on plating than CF2. Plus, the chefs would try our food every day and critique us. That was super intimidating. I got a little scared reading the syllabus at first. Calves liver, sweetbreads (PS That is not a nice name for cinnamon rolls or some other delightful treat), rabbit, rack of lamb, sausage, calamari, oysters, lobster, and crab. We obviously moved on from chicken, fish, beef, and pork chops. Well, we still used them, we just got to branch out more in this class. I probably won't make most of the proteins we learned to make, but I am so glad I learned! The most important lesson from this class was to be confident in my abilities. I used to use my nose and palate, instead of measuring ingredients, to create things that tasted good to me. It changed the way I cooked.
Okay, so let's talk about the day I figured out what sweetbreads were then had to make them. I wrote down all the recipes and notes in my little notebook the night before class. That way I knew what to expect the next day and wouldn't feel overwhelmed and cry. (Yes, there was still crying in culinary school at this point.) Well, I read about sweetbreads the night before we were going to make them. It is the thymus (throat) of a calf and looks like a brain. Just because I like you, I want you to see a pretty picture of them.
It is such a crazy process. You soak it for 30 minutes, blanch it, rinse it, blanch it in mirepoix and then you clean it. It has gross membranes that you are supposed to remove. Super gross. Look at the picture and see if you can find them. (It's so much worse than cleaning chicken or pulling beards off of mussels.) Then you press the little pieces together with a weight (we let it press overnight) between two pans. After all that, you cook it. Most times, you dredge it in flour and pan fry it. Sweetbreads were the one thing I refused to try in culinary school. I ate liver, lamb, rabbit, etc, etc. I couldn't eat sweetbreads after spending 30 minutes trying to remove all those membranes. Plus my friend tried it and gagged, so there was no way I was about to follow suit. I won't EVER eat sweetbreads unless it is a life or death situation for someone I love.
The chefs all knew that I wasn't planning on a career in the culinary field. They were so great to work with me! For example, I didn't like breaking down fish when their eyes were looking at me or breaking down a rabbit. They would do those parts for me. The only downfall was that I couldn't listen to music while I cooked. That is what keeps me calmest in the kitchen.
I don't remember a lot of the day to day stuff in this class because I started working during this class. (Don't worry, I have all the recipes and notes still, so I will post recipes once we move and I stop eating my food storage.) I did taxes in the morning, went to school in the afternoon, came home and showered and went back to work for a couple of hours. After work, I would do homework, iron, and plan recipes for the next day. This is one of the reasons I didn't gain weight while I was at culinary school. I didn't have time to eat outside of school. Plus I would cool down in the pool most nights.
The best part of this class was our final. We were tested on our butchering skills. (We had to break down a chicken and a fish.) Then we had to use that chicken and fish to come up with two dishes for our final. We were given guidelines like certain knife cuts we had to use, we had to have a starch, vegetable side, sauce, and garnish. But we got to create the recipes and plates. It was delightful and the chefs loved it. I got an A on it. It was a good end to Culinary Foundations 3. I loved the chefs and this class, but I couldn't wait for my next class: Baking!
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