i'll miss you, wine class

Oh Wine and Beverages, I already miss you. You gave me a new perspective of the world, making me, for a split second, forget even the tragedies and downfalls of other countries, only to focus my attention on the beautiful grape varietals, the history of culture and progression of excellence that each grape growing region has grasped over the years. The perfection and care that these dedicated individuals put into their grapes and the consideration and strive to make the perfect wine for the consumer is amazing. Pure passion.



If you ever feel you need to know just a little more about wine or wine and food or...just feel like taking a visit to the CIA Greystone, I suggest you take a wine class at our Rudd Center. It was actually mentioned in Food and Wine Magazine in the May 2009 issue on page 110 under "best places to study wine." You can go to ciaprofchef.com/winestudies to get more info. You won't regret it, I promise. I actually am planning on taking a food and wine pairings class within the next year so if you're thinking about it let me know and maybe we can take one together!

One of the most entertaining parts of the class, as my last blog post emphasised, were the comments people made about the smell and taste of different wines we tasted each day. Some of my favorites were:

-burnt toast
-fruit loop
-beef jerky
-gasoline
-pink eraser
-wet rock
-Kern's nectar
-toothpaste
-cigarettes/ nasty ash tray
-dehydrated strawberries
-marzipan
-grandmother's old couch
-canned pineapple
-play dough
-chlorinated pool
-caramel corn
-exotic wood from an import store
-wet cave
-crayons
-Costco's dried mango's
-leather sack
-vanilla frosting
-a pet store
-weeds
-red cabbage, braised

And finally, have you ever thought your wine smelled "off?" Here are a few the most common wine odor defects:

1. Oxidized-- will smell stale, tired, sherry-like. This is caused by too much oxygen contact.
2. Volatile Acidity (or acetic acid)-- will smell like vinegar or nail polish. This is cause by bacteria.
3. Sulfides-- will smell like rotten egg or sulfur. You can actually make the smell of this go away by aerating your wine for a little while.
4. Brettanomyces-- smells like band aid/medicinal, OR barnyard/burlap. Caused by spoilage of yeast, usually comes from poor sanitation practices in winery.
5. Corked-- musty, mildew, moldy. Sometimes you'll find a moldy cork which will automatically tell you the wine is "corked."
6. Sulfites--pungent, smell of a freshly lit match. Sulfites are added to the wine after fermentation to prevent defects 1-4, but...sometimes there's too much added.

Here's to wine knowledge!
You should probably come to the Napa Valley and go for some tastings to refine your palate.
Call me if you do.....please.

"Couvrey 'n Whites"

I never stayed up too late doing homework in college, never had chest pain before a presentation and definitely never had to present a food establishment concept to a group of "potential" investors.

The CIA has changed all of this for me. The past two and a half weeks have been filled with late nights (no, not all-nighters, but 3am is "late" enough for me), coffee (of which I usually don't drink) and extreme anxiety for the presentation of the biggest assignment while here. It's interesting how priorities change when something really takes over your life. I understand now when people really can't answer my email in a day or accidentally skip a meal. It's not that hard to do when every second counts.

My concept, Couvrey 'n Whites is an establishment located in the downtown area of San Luis Obispo, CA, marketed to those between the ages of 25 and 55 who enjoy eating quality, local food. But enough stats...I won't bore you with the projected income statement, start-up costs and menu cost forms. I will just share with you my vision.

It will be a place for people to come grab a bacon waffle (house-made bacon) in the morning, a panini, soup or salad at lunch, enjoy hand-crafted bar snacks with a glass of wine or beer in the afternoon and grab a hot loaf of rosemary bread at 2.
The focal point will be a large wooden table surrounded with black saddle stools, lit by rustic chandeliers. Though there will be prepared foods I will also be selling specialty meats made in-house and local cheese. Plus, on Friday and Saturday nights I will be open into the late night for people to come, stand around the table, eat bar snacks and drink merrily together.

After all was said and done, after my chest pain went away a few hours after I presented and after I compiled all the loose papers cluttering my binder from this project to be put somewhere not to be seen for a good while, I admired my menu.

It looks official. The one on the left is the full menu and the other is the bar menu. It's on thick beautiful paper with sophisticated font. I wish I could send you one in the mail and invite you to come dine at it. Maybe some day.

Oh and to those who think the name "Couvrey 'n Whites" is completely vain, rest assured, I will be opening it with my good friend Lisa White, a graduate of the CIA's Baking and Pastry Program and a bread whiz. Get it? Couvrey, White? I know...perfect.

Conquering the Practical

Last week I completed one of two practical exams I will be expected to pass while at the CIA. Every student had a time slot throughout last week that allowed us to to attend class in the afternoon as well.....though it would have been nice if we could have just had a week of practicals without extra class.
The test is intense, to say the least. We have 2 ½ hours to prepare four plates that include a protein, two vegetables and a starch. We are also required to prepare four cups of consommé, which is a clarified broth also known as a “clear soup.” We clarify it with a mixture of ground meat, vegetables, egg whites etc. It’s a culinary school thing. There are six different menus we could “choose” the day we go in to perform. They included: beef stew, deep poached salmon, shallow poached halibut, grilled mahi-mahi, chicken w/ sauce fines herbs and roast chicken. We were expected to have all dishes memorized and know how to prepare each perfectly. We're graded on our professionalism throughout the meal preparation (how cleanly we are, how we use towels, sanitation with cutting boards, making sure things are refrigerated etc.), our plates presentation, temperature, taste, salt content, doneness, color etc. Two chefs judge and critique your plate and ask you 10 of 350 possible oral questions at the end of the practical.
I’ve never been so nervous in my life. The entire month before I had a weight of dread over my entire body and by the time the day before came I was shaking and more anxious than I had ever been. I can handle speaking in front of crowds, running in triathlons and taking huge exams…but preparing a meal to perfection and needing to do everything perfectly, having six different menus memorized and having to perform it all in the allotted time was too much for my brain to handle.
I came in Wednesday morning to pick the menu I wanted most, poached salmon. Those 2 ½ hours were the most intense of my life. In the middle of it I remember looking up from chopping and thinking, “this is crazy, my brain is going to explode, keep moving, go faster, you can do it.” I did pretty well. My consommé “raft” didn’t break and it came out clear, I remembered all items of the menu and prepared each well, cutting them correctly and cooking them the right amount of time. My only mess up was being 30 seconds late to put up the four plates on the counter. This cost me 10 points, which is A LOT. So much that being late failed two other people in my class since other points from their plate couldn’t make up the lost ten.
Thankfully, as chef Toni told me with a look of slight relief, “your plate was pretty good.” Thankfully, I answered the ten grueling questions correctly. Whew. God is good.
I never ever ever ever want to do it again. The whole week before I kept thinking of going on a bike ride after the practical and taking pictures of the beautiful vineyards. When I finally got to ride most of the vineyards were brown but there were a few “diamonds in the ruff” that I was able to capture. I think Napa in November/early December is one of the most amazing sights to see in the world. You should come visit.

Here we go...

Before beginning culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America I had this lofty idea of an elaborate blog that I would tend to every day so family and friends could see what I was learning and feel like they were part of my experience. Now, six months into the program it seems I took that little gem of an idea and threw it to the back burner without any remorse. I don't know why now is the time, but I want to give this blog thing a shot and see how it goes. I will talk about school and all things related to food hoping it can give you a little bit of an idea of what it's like living amongst some of nations most intense foodies. Oh and foodies they are....and I admit, I'm slowly becoming one.
After six months I finally feel like I'm in the groove of things on campus and know enough people here to feel like it's home...or maybe it just feels like a temporary home.
I go to school with the same 14 people every single day. We used to have 16 but one dropped out early on from not appreciating all of the "in classroom" time we had and the other dropped out after Skills II... if you're interested in the story ask me another time. It's kind of a good one.
I also live with students from school in an off-campus housing unit, 4 of those students being in my class. By this point we're like family with all the normal ups and downs. You can't live with them and you can't live without them. It's funny really. I remember thinking four months ago that we had reached this family place but now, looking back, it blows my mind how much all of our relationships have changed from being around one another so much. It's weird how much we see each other.
So about this family...yes, I've had arguments and yes even when I really really don't want to deal with someone I still have to go to class with them for eight hours and work with them in the kitchen. This isn't the most challenging part of my experience but I would say it's up there in the top five reasons my time here has been the most challenging time of my life. We have some very unique personalities in my class and the dynamic between us all is quite interesting.
My school-day is supposed to be from 2-8pm, which it was, in the beginning, before we entered the kitchen. Now I get to school around noon and usually don't get out of there before 9pm. Lately I've been working with various chefs before school and have needed to be there between 7 and 8am. Shoo dang that takes a toll on you. I do like it though. It's funny because I always think I can push myself to the limit, work and go to school and not get much sleep and start drinking espresso to keep myself awake. Then all of a sudden I notice my body fighting me. Just the other day I felt sick all class, went home, collapsed onto my bed, was out by 10:15, called in sick to work at 7:30 the next morning and was completely comatose until 11:30am. I felt like my body was screaming, "give me rest!!!! I'm gonna make you REALLY sick if you don't do this for me." So, now I feel great after sleeping almost 12 hours on a regular school night. Who does that anyway?
Just to be a little more specific about my day.....
When I say 12-9 what I really mean is I get to school by 12, eat lunch, chat a bit with everyone, go to the computer lab and print homework and whatever else I need, go and talk to the chef or anyone else I need to see, grab my class' mail to distribute, make sure I have all my recipe cards done and begin thinking of getting into the kitchen setting up my station and gathering mise en place (a phrase for ingredients and supplies for a given recipe) for the day between 1 and 1:30. By 2 everyone should be set in the kitchen with produce and meat brought up from receiving downstairs. Our knives should be set out and sharpened and we should have a game plan of what we're doing that day. We go into the classroom at this point and have lecture, usually lasting until 3:30 at which point we return to the kitchen and start our daily production. By 6:30 we need to have a "demo plate" for our chef and to present to the rest of the school to showcase what we will be serving that night and at 7 we begin taking orders and busting out dishes for other students and faculty. We're in groups of three in the kitchen that we're not able to choose and that we're either lucky to have or "stuck with" for the entire three week class we're in. It's a rush. I'm pretty much exhausted every night and though I think of fun things early in the day to do after class each night I usually abandon them by the time I get back to the lodge because all I want to do is sit down and not talk for awhile.
So that's my life in a strange strand of paragraphs. It's a brief overview but I hope it gives some sort of picture for you. I don't know why I decided to begin my blog with such detail. I just felt like those who I haven't spoken with much about school would need a little background to understand what I'm talking about for the rest of my posts.

So now that the boring stuff is out of the way...
here we go!