Culinary School Pt. 1: Sensory Awareness, Competition Team & the Basics

I am almost through with my third week of culinary school. It has been flying by! The first week was just serve safe. The second week we learned all about the history of French cuisine and the classic kitchen brigade systems. We also got to test our ability to identify flavors; this was really fun! Chef set up a bunch of stations with a ton of random things and we had to taste them and judge the flavors in them. I actually liked the shrimp paste and fish sauce quite a bit, my classmates thought I was looney…

I was also recommended to join the Escoffier Competition Team for our school, which was a HUGE honor! I was a bit nervous starting out, since the others are all either week 20 or week 12 (of a 30 week program), but we practiced the skills set for the state competition this week and I think I held my own. =) The state competition involves a skills salon- filleting a fish, fabricating a whole chicken, knife skills, and pastry skills- as well as a 4-course menu that we develop ourselves. The state competition is in November, but only 5 of us get to actually compete so wish me luck!

Fabricating a Whole Chicken (My first try!)

This week I was also the “team chef” for my class. Each week a new student gets to be the team chef, which is like being a sous chef. We had to write production lists and make sure our team got everything done on time and correctly. It was a lot of fun. We made stocks, mayo, sauces, grains, rice, legumes, chicken, potatoes and much more this week. We made out own mayo and aioli, then used them to make potato salad, below is my team’s end product.

I am definitely looking forward to what is coming next, since the beginning has kind of been stuff I already know. I will keep you all posted on my exciting experience in culinary school! If you have any culinary questions please ask and I can help you out!