Green Days

Days 81 and 82

Arugula. Frisee. Mache. Greens are taking over my life.

The first (official) two days of Level 5 I spent making salads at the garde manger station. Monday it was a chicken salad, today it was a seasonal salad. Too bad the orders weren't flying in—I spent more time prepping for the dishes than actually making them for customers.

It's OK, though. I know the time will come when I'm completely overwhelmed with dishes. Tomorrow is a start: I'm on escargot duty, which is one of the more popular appetizers. I'm crossing my fingers for at least a handful of orders.

I'm just hoping the day doesn't move at a snail's pace.

I was awoken from the slow day—ahem, days—post-class when I attended my second demo with Jacques Torres. He showed the students how to make croissants, pain au

chocolat and rum cream-filled brioche doughnuts. Amazing. Seriously, his movements are so fluid, you can tell he's been doing this for years.

When I arrived in the culinary theater, a camera crew was camped out. Apparently, they were filming a Jacques Torres iPhone app and the audience was part of it. Now that's a first for me.

Just wish there was an app that would magically write my menu project...

Into the Big House

Days 79 and 80

Today was the beginning of the end.

On the last day of Level 4, our class made a move into the big kitchen. Yes, you've got it: We're finally to the point where the chefs trust us to cook for real customers.

Many—if not the majority—of the students in my class have some experience cooking in a restaurant kitchen. I don't. I was nervous, but I managed to get through the experience unscathed.

I was assigned to be the "floater" of the garde manger station. Basically, I spent the day doing odds and ends—filling in when people needed an extra hand—so I didn't have a specific dish. It was a good way to see each dish in the station and get a sense of the kitchen's flow. Plus, one of my odd tasks was making sausage. It's my new favorite activity.

The smoked rabbit sausage I made in class this week was dinner tonight. I served it over lentils. Ryan and I scarfed it down.

This week was a sausage fest.

Nuts for Nut Rolls

Days 77 and 78

Ahh, the comforts of home.

The third and final buffet group presented its week's worth of hard work today. The theme was Croatia, and I was a happy camper: Several of the dishes reminded me of food I grew up eating. (I'm half Slovenian—the country of Slovenia is adjacent to Croatia and has very similar food—and the rest of my ethnic background is Italian, Irish and Polish.)

One dish in particular—potica—was especially meaningful. The first bite of the nut roll brought me back to Christmas in Cleveland when my Grandma Mary was alive. She would make it every year; if there was any left, we'd take it home and dunk it in coffee in the morning. The potica made for the buffet was awesome. Thank you, mom, for sending the recipe, and thank you, chef and a good friend (you know who you are) for trying your hands at a family favorite. Grandma would be proud.

I was obviously thrilled about the potica, but I was also psyched to work with rabbits. The butchering comprised the entire day. The first half, I deboned them and used Activa—also known as transglutaminase "meat glue"—to roll the rabbit into a sausage-like shape. During the second half of the day, I broke the rabbits into several pieces, including front and rear legs, tenderloins and the smallest rack of ribs you've ever seen. Butchering took up most of the day yesterday as well; I removed the legs and breasts from ducks.

I really racked up some butchering practice this week.