"Playing with fire"
Today we had a different demonstration teacher and every students in the class seemed to like her class. She made 4 dishes so fast but when you see her, she looked as if she was just walking in a park. There was no sign of urgency in her face, now I think this comes from many years of experience on the cooking line. Another thing was that she was so tidy and organised, we could not see any mess on her work-top.
Today's main learning outcome was to handle the stove (direct heat) by sauteing vegetables and learning how to 'turn' the vegetables making a barrel shape.
When you're dealing with fire, it's all about Time, Temperature, Quantity of ingredients, so if you concentrate on that it's not that difficult. But turning the vegetables is a knife skill that you cannot perform perfectly over-night. This kind of skill has to be practiced day after day. If I had a sack full of potatos I would be happy to peel and do a various cuts to practise my skill which I'm currently learning from LCB.
Well meantime, I'm image-training how to turn the parsnip with my egg.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
LCB - Lesson Two
"FOND" Do you want it brown or clear?
The classes of Basic cuisine students are like this:
1. Theory lessons
2. Demonstration lessons
3. Practical
Today in theory class, we've looked at the trends of hospitality industry and discussed about the tangible & intangible elements of the hospitality business.
Our lecturer is a lady who has been working in this industry for more than 20 years. Actually she was the one who suppose to give demonstration lessons but she had an accident and hurt her leg so she couldn't move around very well. Anyway after the lesson I stayed behind and asked few questions about few things that I always wanted to know about french restaurants in Australia. Well, she gave very useful advices, informations and answers~!
We made fond!
Yes~
The foundation of our food, the STOCK~!
It's a time-consuming job, especially with brown veal stock. So instead of making one stock at a time, we made 4 different types of stocks... Fish, Chicken, Veal and Vegetable.
The room was first filled with veal shanks and pig trotters roasting on the convection oven also tingling our hearing senses with its sizzling sound. When there were Vegetable, fish, chicken stock was simmering above the stove the aroma inside the room was just felt like so comfotable like home.
Today the lesson wasn't that hard because you just need to do rough cuts of ingredients and wait.
The only difficult part was chopping fish. Even with the cleaver my fish was a bit hard to handle. Most of the classmates ended up with bloody apron.
Like yesterday I was to see the dark sky when the day was over at LCB. It was like losing the track of time. The only thing that I want now is to have more opportunity to implement the skills that I'm learning in the cooking school.
The classes of Basic cuisine students are like this:
1. Theory lessons
2. Demonstration lessons
3. Practical
Today in theory class, we've looked at the trends of hospitality industry and discussed about the tangible & intangible elements of the hospitality business.
Our lecturer is a lady who has been working in this industry for more than 20 years. Actually she was the one who suppose to give demonstration lessons but she had an accident and hurt her leg so she couldn't move around very well. Anyway after the lesson I stayed behind and asked few questions about few things that I always wanted to know about french restaurants in Australia. Well, she gave very useful advices, informations and answers~!
We made fond!
Yes~
The foundation of our food, the STOCK~!
It's a time-consuming job, especially with brown veal stock. So instead of making one stock at a time, we made 4 different types of stocks... Fish, Chicken, Veal and Vegetable.
The room was first filled with veal shanks and pig trotters roasting on the convection oven also tingling our hearing senses with its sizzling sound. When there were Vegetable, fish, chicken stock was simmering above the stove the aroma inside the room was just felt like so comfotable like home.
Today the lesson wasn't that hard because you just need to do rough cuts of ingredients and wait.
The only difficult part was chopping fish. Even with the cleaver my fish was a bit hard to handle. Most of the classmates ended up with bloody apron.
Like yesterday I was to see the dark sky when the day was over at LCB. It was like losing the track of time. The only thing that I want now is to have more opportunity to implement the skills that I'm learning in the cooking school.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
LCB - Lesson ONE
"Knife drills, general hygiene procedures"
New students were like chicken without its head.
All of us were like trapped in a maze, the school is HUGE!
When everyone was in the demonstration class, the chef introduced himself with a light German accent. Chef Werner with a greyish mustache kindly explained the basic knife skills such as cuts of Julienne, Brunoise, Jardiere and many more... then showed us how to make bouquet garni.
After the demo class we all headed downstairs to have a go.
Some guys were really fast with their knives but not all of them were fast and accurate. But there were one or two who were fast and precise with their cuts.
Unfortunately several people cut his/her fingers, but for them it really did not matter at all, they quickly washed and covered their wounds and went right back to their chopping block as if they went to the toilet during watching a movie and came back to the lounge as soon as possible not to miss any part of the movie.
Well, the Demo class was like watching a cooking show, it was pure entertainment!
Tomorrow we're gonna make FONDS (stocks) which means foundation in French. Yes Stock is foundation for many types of Western & Eastern foods!
All these tasty and hearty soup was born thanks to fond!
New students were like chicken without its head.
All of us were like trapped in a maze, the school is HUGE!
When everyone was in the demonstration class, the chef introduced himself with a light German accent. Chef Werner with a greyish mustache kindly explained the basic knife skills such as cuts of Julienne, Brunoise, Jardiere and many more... then showed us how to make bouquet garni.
After the demo class we all headed downstairs to have a go.
Some guys were really fast with their knives but not all of them were fast and accurate. But there were one or two who were fast and precise with their cuts.
Unfortunately several people cut his/her fingers, but for them it really did not matter at all, they quickly washed and covered their wounds and went right back to their chopping block as if they went to the toilet during watching a movie and came back to the lounge as soon as possible not to miss any part of the movie.
Well, the Demo class was like watching a cooking show, it was pure entertainment!
Tomorrow we're gonna make FONDS (stocks) which means foundation in French. Yes Stock is foundation for many types of Western & Eastern foods!
All these tasty and hearty soup was born thanks to fond!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Le Cordon Bleu - Orientation
8 o' clock in the morning new students from all over the world are gathered for their orientation day. Students from China, Malaysia, Mexico, Korea, Brazil, Australia, USA, India... and many more nationalities were all kind of anxious to start a new chapter of their lives and some to refine their culinary skills at le cordon bleu.
There were very young guys who just finished high school, late 20s, many people who are over 30s and 40s who made a big decision to change their stable career to go after a dream of being a chef.
Chefs, lecturers, staffs introduced themselves and the school. While the lecturers were giving speeches in the auditorium all the students were so concentrated and focused. I was sitting in the front seat of auditorium and when I turn my head around to look at the back seats, everyone seemed to have eagerness to start the course right away. If you really like something (food) and know that you're now going to be surrounded by many others who share the same interest for around 2 years (and more after graduation). Oh boy! Time will fly fast~!
We had a tour around the demonstration room, practical kitchen and student facilities. the demonstration room was highly equipped with state-of-the-art tools and machines with a huge plasma screens showing all the small movements of the chef.
After the tour, we had a guest speaker who graduated LCB and opened her own Pastry shop called Sweetness. Her name is Gena and she is another person who's crazy about food (in her case, sweet foods). She was telling us about her unforgettable experiences at LCB days and how she loved this industry. Actually before I came to sydney I read an article in SMH about her pastry shop at epping and I wanted to visit her store, so it was a very good surprise to see her on the Orientation day.
In the hallway it was full of trophies and the pictures of celebrity chefs who visited or gave classes to students.
How do I feel right now?
I feel very glad that I made the right choice of going to le cordon bleu.
There were very young guys who just finished high school, late 20s, many people who are over 30s and 40s who made a big decision to change their stable career to go after a dream of being a chef.
Chefs, lecturers, staffs introduced themselves and the school. While the lecturers were giving speeches in the auditorium all the students were so concentrated and focused. I was sitting in the front seat of auditorium and when I turn my head around to look at the back seats, everyone seemed to have eagerness to start the course right away. If you really like something (food) and know that you're now going to be surrounded by many others who share the same interest for around 2 years (and more after graduation). Oh boy! Time will fly fast~!
We had a tour around the demonstration room, practical kitchen and student facilities. the demonstration room was highly equipped with state-of-the-art tools and machines with a huge plasma screens showing all the small movements of the chef.
After the tour, we had a guest speaker who graduated LCB and opened her own Pastry shop called Sweetness. Her name is Gena and she is another person who's crazy about food (in her case, sweet foods). She was telling us about her unforgettable experiences at LCB days and how she loved this industry. Actually before I came to sydney I read an article in SMH about her pastry shop at epping and I wanted to visit her store, so it was a very good surprise to see her on the Orientation day.
In the hallway it was full of trophies and the pictures of celebrity chefs who visited or gave classes to students.
How do I feel right now?
I feel very glad that I made the right choice of going to le cordon bleu.
Land of the south
Terra Australis:
After flying 2.5hours to Buenos Aires and another 13 hours flight finally arrived at Sydney Australia. Sydney is situated one degree below to Sao Paulo, so even it is winter in Sao Paulo as well there was a bit more shiverness to the skin in Australia.
Sydney is truly a multi-cultural nation. If you sit outside of a coffee shop and see people passing by in fron of you, 4 or 5 out of 10 people are Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean people. But what really fascinates me is that many of them are Australian citizens.
Sao Paulo's eating out culture is very rich especially in Italian, Spanish and Japanese thanks to the immigrants and of course the Brazilian regional cuisine is a true mix of history, culture and its originality.
Well in Sydney>>> Many great modern French restaurants starting to get huge attention from world wide. Also very diverse in Asian cuisine. Ooh~ Yes! Vietnamese rice noodles, Indian prawn madras, Thai Laksa, Korean yuk-ge-jang and last but not least Amazing Japanese sushis~!
I'm absolutely lost! Where should I start?
I came here to do a culinary course and learn how to cook! not just to develop my taste pallette!
Right now, I'm excited, thrilled, surprised about this country.
2 years and 3 months!
I'm sure that the time will fly with lots of food related activities, new friends and new culture.
After flying 2.5hours to Buenos Aires and another 13 hours flight finally arrived at Sydney Australia. Sydney is situated one degree below to Sao Paulo, so even it is winter in Sao Paulo as well there was a bit more shiverness to the skin in Australia.
Sydney is truly a multi-cultural nation. If you sit outside of a coffee shop and see people passing by in fron of you, 4 or 5 out of 10 people are Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean people. But what really fascinates me is that many of them are Australian citizens.
Sao Paulo's eating out culture is very rich especially in Italian, Spanish and Japanese thanks to the immigrants and of course the Brazilian regional cuisine is a true mix of history, culture and its originality.
Well in Sydney>>> Many great modern French restaurants starting to get huge attention from world wide. Also very diverse in Asian cuisine. Ooh~ Yes! Vietnamese rice noodles, Indian prawn madras, Thai Laksa, Korean yuk-ge-jang and last but not least Amazing Japanese sushis~!
I'm absolutely lost! Where should I start?
I came here to do a culinary course and learn how to cook! not just to develop my taste pallette!
Right now, I'm excited, thrilled, surprised about this country.
2 years and 3 months!
I'm sure that the time will fly with lots of food related activities, new friends and new culture.
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