好一個六年

一連做了三天的工作，好像已經習慣了做牛做馬的生活。工作不用說是會有累的時候，但每天我都跟自己說：「真好，離我的夢又走近了一天的時間。」算是安慰自己吧。

昨天不用上班上學，反而有點不習慣，手腳也開始酸軟起來了。有時候我一邊工作，一邊在想以後該怎樣走下去。也許因為這樣弄到昨晚作惡夢，看見自己一直見每一份工作也遲到．．．

今天回學校幫忙「Chefs in the city」，遇見了比我小十多年的　Vicky Cheng。他年紀輕輕便贏了很多比賽，更在　Auberge du Pommier　做　Junior Sous Chef，更會很快轉到　Canoe　幫忙。原來他在　Auberge du Pommier　做了六年的時間。

好一個六年，才做到　Sous，對於年過三十的我，真是遙不可及的付出，何況我可能要用更長的時間，也別想可以像　Patricia Yeo，在十年內可以做　chef owner　了．．．

When shall we live....

... if not now? (Serve it Forth, M.F.K. Fisher)

The Culinary Artistry ends with this quote, which I found very meaningful.

Another one I like is:

"Through a dining experience, people will connect and share and exchange and support and heal and do all the things that people crave. They reaffirm that life is worth living. And they live." O'Connell

I guess that's part of what I am hoping for if I ever had my own restaurant--be it just a sandwich and soup take-out, that holistic approach should be followed... After all, taste is a sense that is rather social, isn't it?

Unfortunately most of the Chinese restaurants are doing exactly the opposite. The past weekend I dine out with my family in a local Chinese restaurant. Taste-wise the food is OK, particularly when you consider the price. However you need to wait for more than half an hour in a cramped doorway interfered by waitresses cutting your way from time to time. And once you were seated, you need to finish the dinner in a very noisy environment in a fast paced manner. And not to mention that whenever you ask for something the waitress will reply by saying nothing but showing you her face like that of a horse... Oh well, Chinese has a very different philosophy--with good food and price, your customers will keep coming back.

Cost control... that's exactly an important thing that is missing from the Culinary Artistry, which is a collaboration of more than 30 leading chefs, in terms of designing a menu and the holistic dining experience.

引進廚房

這一陣子，一直在讀有關飲食的書，努力記下各種醬汁的做法，就是為了今天的面試。

結果，做了兩個多小時的 observation shift 後，一條 technical question 也沒有問。

下個星期開始上班，3-11pm，但只返星期五到星期日。

工作地點是 Oliver Bonacini cafe.grill，跟多倫多著名的 Canoe 屬同一個集團。

接見我的 Chef Ward 很好。他原先要找可以在週日上班的人，但因為我還要上學的關係，他也安排我在週末上班。

我的工作大概是打雜，從基層做起。但希望很快可以成為 line cook。

當然囉，更好的是 chef apprentice。

指甲不見了

New boy in the kitchen

This is so hilarious! Today we had the last written exam and before we started, chef Rohner played this video for us. I was laughing so hard that my tears almost dropped!

(警告： 本物品內容可能令人反感)


Too bad we won't see Rohner next semester. He's one of the best chefs I've met in the school. He made us some good food at the last demo lab today. His theme was Swiss food, together with a couple of recipes he used to make in the Swiss army. I especially like his Käse Schnitien, which is a cheese toast for the army. I thought he was joking when he said his dad joined the army just because of the toast, and to my surprise, after tasting it, I too love to join their army just for this! His beef stew was delicious as well, MUCH better than my version :P

What a mess

I screwed up the lab today... It's the the most horrible one I've ever did... nothing's wrong with the flavor and the food, but the way I presented it was really sloppy... sigh. Hopefully this lab won't bring down my average too much, but it surely did ruin my mood.

Looking forward though, next semester's lab will be even more interesting:

Week 1 - Cold Appetizers:
Woodland Mushroom Terrine
Savoury Jelly
Mango and red Onion Relish

Week 2 - Hot Appetizers:
Salmon Burger
Scallops in Cheese Batter
Crêpes With Baby Shrimps

Week 3 - Soups:
Chicken Hot Pot (Pot au Feu)
Butternut Squash Soup with Maple Glazed Apples and Sage Cream.

Week 4 - Farinaceous:
Egg Pasta Cannelloni
Ricotta and Spinach Filling
Tomato Sauce
Flavoured Béchamel Sauce

Week 5 - Fish:
Potato Crusted Arctic Charr
Vegetable “Ragout Fin”
Beurre Rouge

Week 6 - Variety Meats:
Braised Sweetbreads
Chicken Quenelles
Sweetbreads in Mushroom Cream Sauce
Pastry Shells

Week 7 - Game Birds/Poultry:
Cornish Hen with Wild Rice, Dried Cranberries, and Pine Nut Stuffing
Madeira Jus Lié
Braised Fennel
Fondant Potatoes

Week 8: Intersession

Week 9 - Veal:
Emincé of Veal “Zürichoise”
Veal Burger / Pojarski
Rösti Potatoes
Carrot Timbale “Charlotte Style”

Week 10 - Pork:
Pork Tournedos with Blackcurrant Jus Lié
Savoury Bread Pudding
Peppered Apple Wedges
Potato Crisps

Week 11 - Lamb:
Crusted Rack of Lamb
Ratatouille
Dauphine Potatoes

Week 12 - Beef:
Braised Beef Short Ribs in a Red Wine Reduction with Turned Root Vegetables.
Israeli Couscous with Succotash

Week 13 - Small Game:
Roasted Rabbit Loin
Braised Mediterranean style Rabbit Legs

Week 14: Practical Exam
Roasted Tomato Soup
Veal Fricassée
Pasta sheets

Week 15 - Savouries:
Mussels Marinière
Spring Rolls
Phylo Cup with Goat Cheese
Spicy Chicken Fingers

My first soft roll

Finally I made my own soft roll!

It took more work than I thought, but it's pretty fun. The recipe, again, wasn't that impressive. The rolls were very simple with basic ingredients: bread flour, fresh yeast, eggs, sugar, salt, milk powder and vegetable oil.

I'll go check out St. Lawrence Market as my friend told me that the store called "Rube's" has all the baking ingredients I need.

***

I think I started to like German wine, even more than France and Italy. I changed my impression to riesling once I tried it yesterday during the wine tasting class. Surprisingly, their pinot noir isn't bad as well. If I had the money, I would stock up on Konigschaffhausen Steingrübler 2005. On nose it's earthy, smoky, cheesy (well, kind of a typical pinot noir, but on the good end). On palate it has nice finish, full body, and well balanced. A subtle of spiciness is added too... Good to pair with pork, veal, grilled salmon, or alike. Chill it before serving for a refreshing taste.

Unfortunately German wine is kind of confusing since they don't have a "region" per se, and the wines are recognized by the town name... the problem is, it's difficult to remember all those names in German...

***

Will have an interview in a kitchen of a huge organic grocery store this coming Wednesday. I'm sure I won't get the job since I'll be out of the country for three weeks next month, but it's good to gain some experience. I'll be tested on knife skills... I'm getting my book out and remember all those vegetable cuts :)

Just don't pretend to be smart

And we'll do fine in the presentation... and don't put your cranberry syrup'ed hand on the chef's white and think that it's funny.

And don't steal my spoon dude!

One month left for the semester

Actually, less than that.

I can't believe the end of the semester is almost here. It's this time of the year that comes tests, assignments, and presentations... School work has been keeping me busy, not to mention that I need to work on the extra classes too. I'll have to have a presentation for the Italian class due in two weeks--all in italiano! I can pick any topic though, so probably I'll teach the class how to make risotto (apparently though, there are a lot of good cooks in the class).

Finally I cooked something today. Although it looks a little bit dry and not colorful, it's juicy and tasty.

What a shame...

I just can't believe it... stupid me...

The math test was returned today, and I got 6 marks deducted all because of careless mistakes:

A) rounded up 309.93 to 400!!! That left all my subsequent answers to that question incorrect... 5 marks deducted.

B) 48.6% of 10000 is? 486

* proof *

And then the large quantity class... my partner threw away all lettuce hearts when we worked on the salad... and we both got yelled at by the chef. How embarrassing. I would have stopped her doing that if I knew what she did...

Good though I got what most everyone got in that class... B+, even though I doubt she remembers what I did without looking at her cheat sheet.

Will try to make a tonkatsu ramen from scratch during intersession week next week.

一鑊煙

So in the banquet class yesterday I got a chance to try out the real commercial Chinese wok--and they're AWESOME! Love that engine sound... it's as if I'm a real cook now :) I don't like the results though, partly because of the recipe, which calls for watery vegetables (like zucchini), which is, well, "offset" by eggplant that sucks a lot of liquid. Also we didnt' even marinate the beef (which seems to be a problem of this class... ), and we can't even 走油 for the beef since it's just impossible--nothing is set up for that procedure.

But anyway, it's a cool experience, although it could be much better.

The funny thing is, the chef doesn't really know how to operate the wok--imagine a French-style oriented cooking school with a Sweden lady operating on that sweet monster... and the results? She set up a huge fire on the wok for about 30 seconds, until we grabbed a couple of baking sheet trying to cover the wok.

After that, she tried to stay away from it as much as possible... haha

No offense though, the little cute older lady chef is very nice and sweet... and I believe she's once a good cook too.

There's a lot of things left undone :-) On top of the school work and struggling with the languages, I have started a (yet another) little secret project--hopefully I'll be able to reveal it one day, should it become successful.

食品技工

星期六，終於有機會睡足六小時了。

過去的一個星期，每天都睡不好也不足。肩頭以上的東西全然酸痛。

昨天在 lab 時割傷了手，然後同一個傷口給熱鍋灼傷了。

真的來個禍不單行。

那個 mayonnaise 更要命。因加了不該加的水，令醬汁不企身。活該。

結果？ 用了比別人一倍的時間手力，才勉強完成。

可是手也快斷了．．．連我的同學也看不過，幫我攪了一陣子。

Chef 說 "Absolutely no flavour!" 我才想起忘了試味！

四個小時的 lab 沒有時間上洗手間，一丁點水也沒有喝．．．加上要應付一個連 olive 是啥也不知的同學．．．

只有兩個字：「要命！」

我正努力完成 Kitchen Confidential，裡面說作 cook 的只是 craftsman，不是 artist ("Cooking is a craft, not an art." pg. 62).

No wonder this program of "Culinary Arts" has no class that deals with "arts"--all the courses are named "skills" and "techniques"....

And providing an opportunity of working in a food factory...

My cooking journal

The banquet/large quantity class is a cooking event that has a special theme each week: the first week we had chicken, last week we had lamb, and this week? Pig! And I really love the habitant pea soup my fellow classmate and I did--it's just awesome! The secret? put aaaaaa lot of fat in it :-) We put in 75+ grams of butter, 150+ gram of slab bacon, and two big chuncks of ham with bone and all the fat attached!

I didn't like soup too much, but now my impression towards it totally changed :-)



And on Monday's dessert class, we made some cookies. I was too hurry and ate a few cookies without really chewing on them :-) And the result? I think I hurt my throat badly.

I'm glad I didn't choose to become a pastry chef though, since making good pastries is really not easy! Afterall, I'm not a detail oriented person.... the chocolate lines, for example, were way too thick!



***

Talked to a chef today who coordinates the Italian program, but he said I need to work in a good kitchen and get recommendation from the chef...

Looks like I need to start working next semester.

有若浮雲

The wine tasting class was pretty fun. We spent the first two hours on theory, which had enormous information. During the last hour we tasted eight wines...

and I finished all the 8 ounces without taking any food.. :-) and I was like riding a cloud back home after the class...

Here's my first tasting notes:

Sancerre Henri Bourgeois 2006 AOC. 12.5%
Aroma: peppery, lemony, fruity
Taste: dry, medium light body, citric flavour, savory, tart
Food pairing: chef cheese, fresh water fish, avocado, asparagus, mussels

Cave Spring Riesling 2006 VQA 11.5%
Aroma: tarry (apricot), floral, berrylike, green appley
Taste: medium dry
Food pairing: veal, cheese, fresh water fish, Turkey

Brouilly Georges Duboeuf 2002 12.5%
Aroma: sour cherry, banana, buckwheat
Taste: medium to light body, dry, cherry, peppery, hot syrup
Food pairing: salty dishes, cheese, salami, chicken sandwich, spicy food

High Field Pinot Noir Marlborough 2004 14.5%
Aroma: Smoky, fermenting cheese, leather, raisins, tobacco
Taste: dry, medium light, spicy, full body
Food pairing: truffles, duck, venison, game meat, escargot

Cotes Du Rhone E. Guigal 2003 13%
Aroma:
Taste: dry old finish, dusky
Food pairing:
*Note: There was a sever heat wave in France in 2003. This made the to get matured a lot earlier

Dry Sac Sherry 19.5%
Aroma: roasted vanilla, pork!
Taste: nutty
Food pairing: grilled sardines, olive

Canadian Raspberry 13%
Aroma: Raspberry
Taste: chocolate
Food pairing: ice cream

Cava Champaign Spain
Aroma: nutty, biscuit, ocean
Taste: dry
Food pairing: anything except steak

Consommé 中的盼望

今天學煮清湯。

對中國人來說，沒有什麼特別。反正廣東人的老火湯一向也清，也好喝。

雖然說 Consommé 是「清」，但材料多，花的時間也長。

要湯清，全靠雞蛋白。

原理是，蛋白受熱凝固上升，連帶其他的東西也帶走。

最後成為一層厚厚的東西，像木筏一樣，浮在表面上。

最近被一些事煩著，如果有層蛋白給我就好了．．．讓煩惱凝結，心靈如清湯。

不過，煩惱是我自找的。

舊老闆說得對．．． 我是一個喜歡鑽牛角尖的人（他是個會批命的人）。

難怪他三番四次著我改名 （可是我謝絕了）。

信基督的人，「命運」在信的那一刻就改了（我姊夫說的）。

「命運」改了，可是性格還須磨一下．．．

哎，還是給我蛋白就好了。

Making soup

The first dish taht I made in the Culinary Skills class: Clear vegetable soupm, which uses a chicken stock base I made. The taste? I think it's OK, although it's a bit less salt than it should be. But other than that the chef was pleased with it.



To make the soup, we first need to make the chicken stock with the following ingredients:

2kg Chicken Bones
125g Chopped Onion
60g Chopped Carrot
60g Chopped Celery
60g Chopped Leek (white part only)
4L Cold water
Spice bag with thyme, bay leaves, parsley stalks, crushed black pepercorns

The ingredients were boiled and then simmered for 1 hour and a half. Skim as necessary. After it's done, strain through conical strainer lined with cheesecloth.

To avoid cloudying the soup, avoid stiring the ingredients. In case we need something light in color, we probably need to skip the carrots.

The vegetable soup is more or less the same thing, except that this time we'll save the vegetables. Also we added turnip, green beans, and parsley. We'll need to sweat the vegetables first before adding the chicken stock. Make sure the veggies are not browned during the sweating process... or else the soup will turn out dark. Oh, of course, spice bag is needed too.

大鑊飯

第一次入廚房煮大鑊飯！我負責煮馬鈴薯泥．．． 沒有太大的挑戰，卻很好玩 ：）當中的隊工、大家的投入、是最吸引人的地方。

And I really like how the chef yelled at people. There was a chef from another class who is sharing the same ktichen, who just happened to be tasting our food, and then he said he needed salt and pepper... The gorup who was responsible for the station just passed the salt to the chef (and it took them a while to do that).

The chef yelled at them, "I said salt AND pepper. Where is the pepper? Who is getting it??"

And they replied,

"Black pepper?"

ＴＩＦＦ

今年中因出走歐洲而錯過了ＳＩＦＦ，幸好來到多倫多有ＴＩＦＦ，而且比ＳＩＦＦ更大規模 （來自５５個國家３４９套電影）。

想看的（比較大路的）有：
Lust, Caution
Blood Brothers
Love Comes Lately
Chaotic Ana
Chacun son cinéma

因為錯過了買學生套票，所以不能多看。況且沒太多時間．．．

開學一個星期，漸漸習慣了。每天不到６ＡＭ便起床，陪伴我的是比我更早的娘，還有早晨日出：



＊＊＊

OK, that's all for practicing Chinese typing for now :-)

So the Culinary Skills lesson on Friday is pretty fun, as the chef told us that we don't use any measuring cups--we use large eggs to "measure" our stuffs. Each large egg has about 2 oz, so:

3 eggs = 1/2 cups
1 egg = 3 table spoons
1/2 egg = 4 tea spoons

Oh, and the chef said that he doesn't use white pepper, as it destroys any flavor. I was a bit skeptical on this, until my mom cooked fish in tomato that same night--the white pepper she added was way too strong and stimulated my throat. After doing some research on the web though, the white pepper is supposed to be less pungent than black pepper.... hum... that doesn't make sense to me now.

I am planning to try replacing black pepper with white pepper and see what the difference would be. And I'm going to try it out on a 羅宋湯 ：）

怎麼辦

I just don't understand, that "Beginner" French class is so difficult! 80% of what the teacher said was in French, and 80% of my classmates konw French in certain degree. I guess that's because of the mandatory French lessons kids need to take till Grade 9. There are a few students who can introduce themselves in fluent French--it's not just ordinary introduciton, but the teacher gave 15 questions where they need to answer and include in their "speech"!

I was totally a foreigner in the class. I really want to quit.

But thinking about it more... you won't get to learn a language unless you really have to use it--I guess (or hope) the teacher is forcing us to come over this anxiety and step out and make mistakes. Then learn from them.

But honestly, I don't really like this method. Anyways, I'll do my best to get over this hurdle.

The teacher gave us a lot of good resources where we can learn French on our own. Probably starting next term I'll start learning on my own.

開學日：shit!

第一天上學，聽得最多的，就是 Shit！ Butchery 的老師說，Shit 是 culinary term: "Get a shit of beef loin", "cooking shit", "the kitchen is in deep shit"．．． 哈哈！很快，我應該變成另外一個人了．．．

Butchery 很好玩！會切割雞、羊、豬、牛、charcuterie、小牛肉，然後學如何大量烹調這些材料。唯一的是，我們需要在４４度華氏（攝氏６度）的環境下工作。加上昨天晚上睡得不好，現在有點頭痛．．．

＊＊＊

謝謝你，Eric, Tim, and all! Love the T-shirt :-)