To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Cue Elton John. I am traveling tonight on a plane.  I can see the red tail lights heading for Spaaaaaiiiiin, oh and I can my children waving goodbye. Technically, I do not leave until tomorrow...but it's so early, it might as well be the night before.  And obviously, I can't really see the tail lights because I'm inside the plane...and I can't really see my children waving goodbye - but I can if I imagine it! Hm.  Huh.  Well. The Boeing 767 I will be on tomorrow touches down in Madrid early Saturday morning.  And while I'm terribly excited to travel overseas, I must first complete what some call "packing".  I find there are two schools of thought here: 1. The MicroPacker: This is a word that describes someone who starts the packing process by making a list...a very detailed list (or maybe even multiple lists).  Then, with suitcases laying off to the side, they lay everything out in neat little compartmentalized piles and double-check everythi...

If I raise a few dietary eyebrows here, I apologize.  I am not being paid by Big Salt to advertise.  However, let's face facts and acknowledge that salt is elemental and essential to the entire human race. Even at the expense of libeling my mother's sacred potato salad recipe. I begged my mother, about a decade and a half ago, for her recipe.  Potato salad can be a laborious dish to make, and so I knew that whenever she did make it, it was for a special occasion...probably to welcome my new fiancé (and later husband) into the family.  Or to apologize for the family.  Whatever.  It's irrelevant. And she laboriously copied it down for me onto a notecard (long before email here, folks) and I lovingly placed in my personal cookbook.  Where many years would pass until I'd pull that card out and make it myself. And now that I think about it...I do not recall the last time I made it.  In fact, I cannot recall with any amount of certainty that I...

I suppose it was going to happen at some point. I've been cheffing solo (okay, with a sous-chef every now and then) for about two and a half months now...and honestly, things have been going really well.  I mean, really well.  I've gotten the hang of ordering food, got my contacts in place at the local supermarkets, the sense of timing is better, my planning skills are being honed...etc.  I've (and we've, on occasion) received adulations for my meals, and in general, the boss and my colleagues have been pleased. So, how to explain tonight?  I'd grown complacent, maybe?  Whatever it was, tonight's Wine and Burger was the single most dissatisfying culinary experience in my life (so far).  However, the silver lining - the self-reflection that will ensue makes for these things not to happen again. My burgers weren't cooking like I wanted them.  Depending on what the "theme" night is, I season/prepare and form my own patties...and I'm suspect...

Then...I would post really cool pictures all day long of things I am doing in my bakery classes.  Alas, since I do not own one, I'll just post a list here...these are items I've done in the last two weeks Sourdough bread White bread Pumpernickel bread Rye bread French/Italian/Vienna breads Soft rolls Danishes Brioche Cinnamon rolls Soft pretzels Pita breads So, yeah, it's going pretty well!  Lots of dough work and much of doing baked goods is "feeling".  Times to knead or bake aren't necessarily approximate.  In that way, baking is very similar to cooking.  Next week, donuts, muffins, and other quick breads.  Bring on the carbs!

I wish today's pop singers wouldn't use cliché phrases in their songs, because it looks like I'm copying them when I use it as my blog post title! A new school term began for me just after Memorial Day, and let me just say, the change of pace was desperately needed. Much of the foodservice we do in line cooking, last-minute, á point preparation.  Much of that is reactive, as unexpected things (although they should be expected) are thrown at us often.  We have been involved in some events through the school that are proactive: catering, scheduled events and such, but more often that that, we're reacting to whatever our chefs want us to do. Those of us who crave intellectual stimulation and academics in our workplaces have been hardly able to formulate coherent thought about food, much less have good conversations about it. Until this new term.  The way the program is laid out, students in my track (roughly 15 of us) are taking a two-term break from the chef side ...