Spring Term 2010

So this term I'm taking Latin Cuisine and American Cuisine.  I'm very much looking forward to them.  Keep reading and you'll see how they go...... Wish me luck.

CL117 - Latin Cuisine (Tuesday Night)

This course emphasizes both the influences and ingredients that create the unique character of selected Latin cuisines. Students prepare, taste, serve, and evaluate traditional, regional dishes of Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean Islands. Importance is placed on ingredients, flavor profiles, preparations, and techniques representative of these cuisines.

CL128 - American Cuisine (Wednesday and Thrusday Nights)

The course reinforces the knowledge and skill learned in the preceding classes and helps students build confidence in the techniques of basic cookery. The development of knife skills is accented. Students explore the use of indigenous ingredients in the preparation of traditional and contemporary American specialties. The concepts of mise en place, timelines, plate presentation, and teamwork in a production setting are introduced and accentuated. Timing and organization skills are emphasized.

Week 10: The Final

Personal Observations: I was very nervous going into the exam and second guessed myself often. It was really nice to have Danny as a partner to keep me together. Everything in production when pretty smoothly and we were really able to get everything done in our allotted time, and even had some to spare.


The next day we had our Knife Cuts exam and well that was awful. I thought I had done a lot better this go round than I did at the midterm, but that was certainly not the case. My mind drew a complete blank when it came to the dimensions.

Chef comments: Chef said everything was really good. The only critique was that the soup was a little peppery and he took points off for that.

Week 9: Eggs and Brunch

Personal Observations: Week 9 is actually week 11 due to the week of classes we missed because of the snow storm. I’m not a huge fan of eggs in general, but I still need to learn how to make perfect eggs.


The Quiche Lorraine was much too custardy for my taste and I didn’t like it.

The Rosti Potatoes and the Potatoes Anna were fairly easy to make and had a great presentation.

The Crepes were pretty easy to make. I added a little orange zest to give it a little bit of flavor.

Chef comments: Chef said that everything had good texture, flavor and consistency. Chef said I had the best Crepes out of the entire class.

Week 8: Fish and Seafood

Personal Observations: Killing the lobster was one of the weirdest things I’ve done. It totally wigged me out at first how after you killed the lobster it would still move. Apparently if you pet the lobster on the head before you stab it, it helps calm the lobster down so it doesn’t squirm as much. That little trick was very helpful. So I killed two lobsters. I had Ashley show me how to do it first, and then it was a piece of cake. We were given the liberty to be a little creative with our lobster dishes because there isn’t too much to boiling lobster. So, we grilled and made our boiled lobster into a sauce.


My group didn’t get a chance to make Calamari because we ran out of squid. I was a little disappointed but I can always make it at home to impress my friends and family.

But honestly the most daunting thing was fabricating the Salmon. We didn’t do the best of jobs, but we were able to salvage a lot of it. I was very proud of how everything turned out. Our Salmon pieces were all roughly the same size.

Chef comments: All of our dishes had excellent flavor and texture with the exception of the Salmon en Papillote which was over cooked a little.

Week 7: Pasta, Potatoes, and Grains

Personal Observations: Making Pasta dough by hand was much more difficult than I was expecting. Many of the other groups got very creative with the various flavors of pastas they made. My group stuck with just plain Semolina pasta. On the first night we tried to make a shrimp filling for our Ravioli but it didn’t turn out so well, so we remade it again the next night, and with the cheesiness from the Mornay Sauce, it was excellent. We learned that the Ravioli filling needed to be a little denser than we originally had it, so I add so roux to thicken it up and it did the trick. There was a lot of trial and error this week. It was lots of fun and pasta was defiantly the star and focus of the week. Everything else seemed to fall by the wayside.


Chef comments: The Gratin Potatoes were very cheesy, and the Rice Pilaf was undercooked. But other than that, Chef said that everything had good flavor and texture.

Week 6: Meats

Small Wares and Utensils used: Loaf pan


Roasting pan

China cap

Sauté pan

Large Skillet

Stock pot

Melon Baller

Personal Observations: This week we worked with various kinds of meat. Chef gave us the option of making slight variations to the Grilled Lamb Chops. In my group we did a garlic-rosemary marinade for the Lamb Chops, and I was able to get great grill marks on the meat. Chef also had some ground bison meat for the groups that wanted to try and do something extra with it. So I made a classic meatloaf, and it turned out amazingly well. My group also had Venison instead of Beef for the Stew, and it was really nice to have that contrast in flavors from the other groups. Chef made the Roasted Prime Rib and barbeque ribs for us because there just wasn’t enough meat requisitioned for each group to really cook with.

I really enjoyed the flavors of the lamb, venison, and bison meats over that of beef and veal. They all seemed to be more tender and flavorful.

The two potato dishes were by far the most difficult of the dishes made. Trying to get a perfect potato ball for the Parisienne potatoes was more difficult than making tournes for the Chateau Potatoes.

Chef comments: Chef said that everything thing we made had good texture and flavor, the seasonings were well balanced. Our potatoes had a crispy exterior and fluffy interior. Everything was cooked perfectly.