Nancy!

So we went to the MOMA and saw the original masterpieces of famous painters! As you can see, we saw Starry Night (Van Gogh), Salvador Dali, Monet, Kandinsky, Klimt, Seurat, Edvard Munch, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, Picasso! and so much more....... it was an amazing experience (crowded as hell too!)

ALSO!!! I ate Wa-Gyu Kobe Beef!!!! At Yakiniku, they had it on the menu as a special. According to Chef Schneller, Wa-gyu is the most coveted Kobe Beef brand out there. Produced by Snake River Farms. (www.snakeriverfarms.com), this Kobe is the most marbled and the most flavorful and he was right! After cooking it it was So incredibly butter in its texture and full flavored. Oh man...a piece of heaven.






Tulips in Springtime! These were on 54th street close to Central Park (on the street)

NANCY'S HERE!!!!

Nancy came to visit me here in NY (actually she's still here and leaves Tuesday). It is SOOOO SOOO SOOSOSOSOS OS SO SO SO SO SO SOS OS OS OSOSo great to see her (did I mention so?) Anyway, we went to some great places (Central Park, Gray's Papaya, 9th Street Market (great BRUNCh!) MOMA, SOHO, Dean and Deluca, Yakiniku) I think this picture of us is really cute. There's a random picture of Jin Young ironing on Ariel too..just random that's all.

MEAT ID & FABRICATION

Chef Schneller ruled this class. In his past life, he owned and operated a German steakhouse in New York, grew up wit his family owning a meat company (butchering). He has been a professor at the CIA for a number of years. His teaching style is very kind and gentle. He teaches you how to fabricate items such as roasts, tenderloin, hind shank, whole lamb leg, pork loin, stew cubes, tying roasts, butchers knot, veal cutlets,, and much more! He is the type of person that will tell you what you are doing wrong but in a very polite way such as "That looks good but I think you can do better by tying it tighter on the right side). I think I learned a lot but it was only a 7 day class, just like seafood so it's hard to learn a lot in such a short period of time. The pictures below are of a shank bone, the meat room (where we do our fabrication) and Chef Schneller fabricating a shank piece of meat (deboning it)

Skills 1

In Skills 1 (our first kitchen production class), we learn how to make stocks (chicken, white beef, brown veal, fish fumet), sauces (Hollandaise, Mayonnaise, Bechamel, Tomato, Veloute, Espagnole, demi-glace, jus de veau lie), soups (vegetable beef, seafood chowder, cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli, consomme, vichyssoise) and cooking some vegetables (Broccoli, cauliflower,) Also, in this class we learn our KNIFE CUTS. Each day we are tested on a "knife tray" which means we must present to the chef the following:
Chopped parsley, diced onion, julienne onion, minced shallot, minced garlic, sachet d'epice, bouquet garni and
Potato cuts in: medium dice, batonnet, small dice, julienne, brunoise, fine julienne, fine brunoise
My Chef is Chef Jose Sanchez. He's taught my class so much so far. He pushes us every day to our most because he wants us to succeed. Although he is tough and strict, I appreciate it. It is VERY stressful though and I am always nervous I will mess up! Luckily, so far I'm doing pretty well :)

When I presented my French Onion Soup he said "oh...you want to marry me?"

Haha. SURE! jk.
The other soup picture is the Chicken Consomme with brunoised veggie garnish. This soups is very difficult to make and takes a lot of labor and effort. Afterward though, the result is extremely flavorful and must be crystal clear, similar to a cup of tea. I think I achieved that!






These other random pictures are of my roommate's sister's wedding dress it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and some steak that my classmate Bart made. The meat room in the school wanted to do a survey on this type of steak that they had gotten in from a different company. It was well marbled and quite delicious!

Fish Class again

Here is our class in production. We are required to fabricate all of the seafood for the entire school. This means we follow what's on the board, each team makes certain types of seafood (45 fillets of salmon, pave cut 4 oz each) for example. We did lots of things like monkfish, dover sole, flounder, turbot, rainbow trout, king salmon, atlantic salmon, john dory, cod, haddock, hake, mahi mahi, swordfish, skate, mussels, clams, prawns, lobster, scallops!) WHEW!

More fish

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in so long!

Here are the rest of my Seafood photos, blue mussels, manila clams, littleneck clams, oysters, classmates taking notes...

Seafood ID & Fabrication

This class was 7 days long and very intense. We learned how to ID and cut different kinds of fish and seafood. My chef was Chef Hubert Martini, he's French but he lives in Canada. The class was really fun, we learned to identify Atlantic Farm Raised Salmon from Pacific King Salmon, different kinds of cod, Flatfish such as turbot, halibut, flounder, dover sole, Mahi Mahi, swordfish, mussels, clams, oysters, and lobster and shrimp! We had tastings everyday, needless to say, I LOVED the class :)
Atlantic Salmon (farm raised) pink tongue, white mouth, no black spots on their tails hehe...
Some people in class. Dan is the big guy.
Different kinds of Cod (Atlantic Cod, Hake, Haddock, Pollock)
(Rainbow Trout)
(Chef Martini doing our tastings for the night!) We would have fish for dessert haha.

Dinner with the Master Chefs

One of my professors, John Nihoff, (Gastronomy teacher), asked our class to volunteer for this event that he was coordinating called "Dinner with Master Chefs" where all the profits go to scholarships for the school. The basic idea of the dinner is that there are a series of courses (about 6) and each course is made by a different Master Chef. If you don't know about the Master Chef title, it's the BEST OF THE BEST. It's a 10 day grueling exam and if you pass the first 9 days of it and fail the last day, you fail the exam. It costs $6,000 to take the exam and you can only take it 2 times and no more.

Anyway, so Nihoff asked our class to volunteer so we did. We worked front of the house, serving the guests (it was a 14 hour day!) but it was so awesome seeing the Master Chefs in action. The menu was this:
Hors d'voures (spelling not sure):
Lobster Canape, Petite Salmon Burger, Smoked Salmon Gougere, BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Arugula Butter, Potato Cake with Creme Fraiche and Osetra Caviar, Saffron Poached Pear with Prosciutto Ham and Gorgonzola, Duck Rillette on Garlic Crostini.

First Course: Lots of little things on one plate (Paired with Beaujolais wine)
Buffalo Tartare, Fried Oyster on Sweet and Sour Cucumber with Remoullade Sauce and Caviar, Seared Peppered Tuna with Wasabi Cream, Sauteed Quail Breast with Caponata Sauce.,Rabbit and Fois Gras Gallantine with Fig Chutney.

Second Course: (Sancerre)
Sauteed Scallops and Prawns Wrapped in Parma Ham in a Winter Vegetable Compote

Third
Intermezzo (taste of something between courses:
Carrot Sorbet with Champagne

Fourth: (Barbera D'Alba)
Veal Cheeks with Shallots and Apple Compote and an Apple Chip, Roasted Veal Loin with a Mushroom Mousse and Buttermilk Puff Pastry (a take on traditional Beef Wellington), and Sweetbreads and Morels wrapped in a savory Crepe with Sauteed Spinach

Fifth: Cheese Course (Reisling)
Deep Fried Camembert with Lingonberry Preserves, Blue Cheese Mousseline, Gruyere Souffle

Sixth: Dessert
"Cake and Ice Cream"
Not sure what the cake was, but it was served with Starbucks Coffee Liqueur and espresso ice cream

Each dish was paired with a certain type of wine as well.
Overall the event was amazing and I'm sorry I couldn' get any pictures because I was serving the entire time! Anyway here are the list of Master Chefs who were featured in this event:
he culinary dream team is comprised of Certified Master Chefs (C.M.C.s) in education leadership positions and faculty at the CIA – Victor Gielisse, Ron DeSantis, Ken Arnone, Tom Griffiths, and Russell Scott – along with Chef David Bruno, who teaches the CIA’s Banqueting & Catering class, and guest C.M.C. Dale Miller, CIA class of 1979 and executive chef at Jack’s Oyster House in Albany. The seven chefs will prepare hors d’oeuvre for the reception as well as each of the dishes on the six-course menu. Every course will be paired with wines specially selected by the Master Chefs.

THE PHOTOS!!
This is our class and the one with the sculpture is made by the CMPCs (Certified Master Pastry Chefs) and they said it took 3 weeks to make this sculpture. It is made COMPLETELY out of chocolate and sugar...I KNOW crazy!

Hobnobin...

After a long week of classes and tests, we like to go out and have a little fun :) haha. The picture of four of us is at the Hobnobin pub across the street from the CIA (really convenient since it's walking distance). There's karaoke there on wednesdays, but I haven't gone yet. Anyway, the pic of four of us, it's Me, Jin-Young, Geoff, and Chris.
The group pic is a bunch of us, I can't remember the order but it's Gerry ( he's from San dIego), Ross (Minnesota), Chris (Oregon), Geoff (Vista, CA), Jin Young, Gigi and Me.

Don't worry Mom, I'm not that crazy.

STEIN

This is my FAVORITIST professor here at CIA so far. His name is Jay Stein and he is the most hilarious prof in the world. He is the Product Knowledge professor and he's pretty much a Produce Geek. He makes the class humorous though with his little things that he does. For example, he is wearing a star fruit slice on his lab coat because he says that when he wears that he can be the "Unneccessary Garnish Police" because so many students here put unnessary garnishes on dishes that do not belong, so hilarious. Anyway, I could go on about him for days. Gotta love him.

Saigon Grill

A mainstream take on a Pho 79 back in LA. Spring Rolls, Tom Yum Soup, Cubed Filets of Beef with Taro Chips. Quite good and pretty good prices too. :)

Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven and SOHO Cafe

Since I had to go with some of my group members to the Jacques Torres Chocolate shop, I dragged my friends with me too! Haha. In the group picture on the left side, closest to furthest (Jin-Young, Diana, Kiki), on the right (Me, Chris, Rose). We ate in SOHO at this place called SOHO Cafe (aptly named). We had some wood-fire pizza and pasta which was swimming in bolognese sauce. Overall, it was alright, subpar actually. The highlight of the day was when we went to H&M! We were dragged by Chris to go to J.Crew because he needed some pants. Guys are so strange...

Times Square

Diana's friend Kiki had never been to Times Square, so we took a little trip out there after dinner. It was still freezing and windy so we didn't stay outside too long and ventured into a nearby Starbucks for some protection from the cold. It was unfortunate that the weather was in such bad condition because we could have taken a nice tour of Times Square...oh well :(