Our class dinner at Nao last night was wonderful We sat around a big table and just had fun.  Almost everyone had a cocktail or wine. I started with the Duck Flautas (Four Hour Braised Duck, Avocado Sauce, Crema, Cabbage, Tomato Queso Fresco) which was tasty but Rick who sat next to me and I tasted each others plate to be able to experience more.  We learned in class a little on how to write a men.  For instance,  tomato queso fresco sounds better than tomato sauce and you can charge more.

Below is what our choices were.

I finished with S'More Cheesecake (Cheesecake topped with Marshmallow, Graham Cracker Dust).  I am not normally a big cheesecake fan but this was in a puff pastry ad it was very light.  Absolutely wonderful. it was topped with browned mini marshmallows.  Just the way I like them...almost burned on top and extra gooey.  For my second course, I had Chicken and Shrimp Skewers, Peppers, Onions, Chicharrones.  Chicharrones are a fancy name for pork rinds. That way they can charge more.  These were really big and every so light and crunchy. 

 Look at the glowing coals in the kitchen.

Today (Friday) was really nerve wracking and a bit scary.  We have a competition among the four teams and had no recipes to go by.  All of the teams were assigned the same things plus a mystery box that had ginger and some other items. We had three hours to decide what each team was going to cook and how we were going to divide up the cooking.  I made a Berry Clafoute with Chantilly Cream.  I didn't know what a Clafoute was so that put my stress level on red alert.  At least on the inside. I didn't win for the Clafoute but I did get some nice comments.  I won for the Chantilly Cream.  Yea!  Everyone else made borderline butter. I snuck in a little nutmeg for extra flavor.  We were allowed to add any spices/herbs in the kitchen.  We thought our team was going to win by points but team two aced us out.  We were a close second.  

Our first suprise ingredient to cook with. Raw Oysters and they were not shucked.

 Some of our ingredients such as a pork loin. (Above)  Below was our biggest surprise ingredient...a live lobster.  No way ... no how, am I killing that lobster! Ain't going to happen! No today...not tomorrow...not at the CIA!  Lucky for me, several of my team mates were willing to make the lobster bisque. I wasn't even in the room when all of the teams played executioner.  There are always some pots and pans in another room that you need.

 After blood, sweat and no tears, below are the dishes for the judges.

Three of our five judges, waiting for us to leave the room so they could talk about us.  I wanted to hide in a cabinet to see what they were saying but the food for the class to share was too tempting.

This is our presentation for the judges.  Looks pretty good!

Below, front is my Fresh Berry Clafoute.  One of the "chef" terms that our instructor used when we asked about how to tell if an item was done, was "GBD" which means golden brown delicious.  When students asked about long long to cook food, her stand response was "till it is done."  Meaning there is no exact cooking time because all ovens are different and no matter how many times you cook something, the ingredients are always a little different.

The feast for the class.

Let the feast begin!

Look at all this scrumptous food.  One of the team's lobster bisque.

 One of the judges was the head of the school.  He is a 6' 8 crazy German man (by his own admission) who was one of the judges and concluded our class.  He used a little trash mouth but in an amusing way.  Some of my friends might be shocked but I doubt my police friends would bat an eye.  I think it is standard language in the culinary world!

Although the class was stressful, I truly enjoyed it. It was a blast.  It was a look at working in a professional kitchen, all crowded in together, in the heat of the kitchen.  What a wonderful gift my hubby gave me!  

There is one last funny side note.  I left from the CIA right after class and caught a ride with a fellow student, Mary.  She was one of my favorite people.  She was from Tulsa and has 1.5 master points.  Bridge was on her bucket list!  I did not want to hold her up AND I overslept on the last day necessitating my throwing everything in my suitcase and running to class.  I flew home in my chef togs.  Oh, well!  But I got a diet coke at one of the walk up counters and I had money out.  And the young clerk said "You're good."  Confused, I replied "No, I have to pay." This went on several times and I realized he was giving it to me.  It wasn't until I walked away that I realized he called me chef.  Although it is far from the truth, I got a little make believe charge out of it, plus a free diet coke.  

So Bon Appetite and until my next adventure.  Adios.

And the food continues!

Hey Ya'll!  Still surviving and still stuffed.

Chef Pham is slowing us how to de-bone and prepare red snapper.  Look at those big fish. Their eyes were really clear and they had such a fresh smell.  These chefs get better stuff than we do. We have two ladies from Mexico in the class. Our class only needed one of the fish and they volunteered to make ceviche with the other one. This was the best ceviche I have ever eaten.  It was so good that Chef (Pham) brought in the  head chef at Nao (The CIA Restaurant) and another instructor who teaches latin cuisine to taste it.  YUM!

These are the four demo dishes.  Ours is the one on the right and the bread pudding in front of it.  I made the Chicken Tarragon and shared making the sauce.  I was terrified of over cooking the chicken breasts since I am guilty of sometimes making chicken jerky at home. I can't stand under-cooked chicken.  Blech! Then I was worried about it being undercooked.  I think it was just right...at least the tiny piece I tried. It is a little intimidating to be judged.  I had my first war wound today, if you discount my stabbing myself with my pencil. These chefs don't use oven mitts and all we had were tiny towels.  I was trying to get something very hot and very heavy out of the oven, using two towels the towels spit and I ended up with the base of my thumb on the hot handle.  At least I didn't drop it.  I have a blister.  Turns out two of the other people on my team have blisters.  Robert out did me... his was about twice as big.

A look at our banquet from the end.  My favorites included  Forty Clove Chicken,  Ossobucco (veal) Milanaise, Saffron Risotto,  Goat Cheese Croquettes and on and on,

Another view with the class standing hungrily waiting.

On the first day we chopped and sliced mounds of onions.  Yesterday one of the groups caramelized them and today we made french onion soup.  I had a part in making the soup.  It had the traditional beef stock (homemade).  Yum.  Chef made me place all the little bread toppings  in exactly the same direction.

Behind is a Challah Bread Pudding with Rum Creme Anglais.  Our team made this and everyone loved it.  I was too busy burning myself and making chicken to assist very much.

These goat cheese croquettes were divine.  No one seems to care about healthy or butter or fat or salt or fried.  We have all just thrown caution to the wind.  Hope no one is having their cholesterol checked next week. They will get a severe scolding...maybe hospitalization.

The heavy-set man is French and he is the head chef at NAO where we are having our class dinner tonight.  He is not only French by birth of classically French trained.  He is supposedly preparing a special meal for us tonight.  Just what I need...more food.  Not likely that I will pass it up.

This is out class of wanna-be chefs.  It is a fun group and we have pretty close to as many men as women.  We were looking directly into the sun so we are all squinting.

I UPS'd my chef tools home tomorrow because I have knives and such... $53.00 worth of postage.  The backpack they were in weighed about thirty pounds.  I will have sharp knives when I get home.  The ones at home would be better used as hammers. Then I walked back to the hotel...about 3 miles or so.  That river walk is beautifu and the weather is perfect today.  The wind has picked up and a cold front is blowing in.  I don't get home tomorrow night until 10:00.  Say a prayer that the weather holds for me to get home.

Bon Appetit!

Death by Food!

Okay...not that I needed more food but the husband and wife on my team raved about a restaurant right next to the CIA.  It is called Botika.  It is a Japanese/Peruvian Fusian.  Oh, so right up my alley. Something I have never tried...combination Peru and Japan. Sharon said the empanadas were incredible.

So I ordered them.  It was happy hour and not only were they half price but my very nice Spanish wine was also half price.  These empanadas were stuffed with plantains, onions and some spices.  OMGosh!  They are the only things I have ever eaten that rivaled my grandmother fried pies.  Except her fried pies (fried in lard) were sweet and these were only slightly sweet...definitely not a dessert. They were accompanied by an aoili made with the South America version of a jalapeno.  The combination sweet empanada and the spicy dipping sauce was divine! I find it hard to believe two nights in a row, I had a five star meal.  San Antonio is a fabulous food town!

   There were so many things on the menu that sounded wonderful but I wanted something light so I ordered a Capon Salad.  Nothing to do with chickens.  Oh, I didn't tell you...I never had to cut up that damn chicken.  I got switched to the team that had already cut up their chicken!  Yippee!  So back to the salad.  It had goat cheese, arugula (my favorite weed), fennel, Asian pear, charred fava beans, and puffed quinoa with a miso-citrus dressing.  I really ordered the salad because I love beans and this had CHARRED fava beans.  They were good but it was the puffed quinoa that stole the show.  I thought they were sesame seeds until I re-read the ingredients.  I am not sure how you puff a tiny little quinoa but it was a good idea.

My waiter, Jamie, was a CIA graduate (2016) and I asked him how a Japanese-Peruvian restaurant came to be.  I am thinking Japanese person who grew up in Peru or  vice versa?  Come to find out, when so many Japenese people settled in the US they also settled in South America.  The chef grew up in Venuzualia and loved both cuisines.  He actually studied in France and taught at the CIA until he opened Botika.  

So I will honestly be glad when I go back on reasonable rations.  I have been miserably stuffed since Monday.  Tomorrow night is our class meal at the CIA Restaurant - Nao.  I know it has to be good.  And I have two more days of class.  Whew!  So much food...so little time.

So until tomorrow Bon Appetit!

Day 3 at the CIA

Hola!  Another Day...another calorie! (or thousands).  This is not the school for counting calories.  I am stuffed.  Dennis is excited that we I get home, I am going to make some of these dishes.  Don't tell him but I am not going to eat for about a week!

Today was way fun! We had classroom for about an hour and then we moved to the kitchen. Team is busy at work in our station.  We have five tiny stations which are about the size of a large cutting board.  We have one stove with six very close together burners and one oven..  The distance, back to back so so speak, is only large enough to open the oven door.  The person, in our case, Robert has to move away from his station if you need to open the oven door.  Of course, he is the largest of our team but he is great to turn around and stir things for you.  When you pass behind people, you usually yell, "Hot Behind!"  Chef Pham says that is the only time you can say that and not get sued. It is very tight quarters

Our team cooked Grilled Salmon with Caraway Orange Glaze, Wild Rice Pilaf with Dried Cranberries, Roasted Corn Succotash, and Seasonal Fruit Crisp.  I was in charge of the succotash.  It was not that difficult so I wandered around and tried to help my team mates. Today, we worked on our plating skills.  We thought our plate was the prettiest.  Each day we prepare on demo plate which goes to our instructor and she critiques it.  She loved that our plate was so colorful.

Then we present the rest of our food in platters and bowls for the class to share.  Below is our platter of salmon.

Here is our complete meal for the class.  It did not include the crisp which was in a separate area.  This crisp was really good.  The fruit and the topping had brown sugar, cinnamon, lots of nutmeg and some other spices.  It has such a warm, wintry flavor it it.  Barbara made vanilla ice cream for her group and we topped our crisp with her ice cream.  Heaven in a bowl.

Here are some of the other demo plates:

Here is the food that we got to eat.  On the end is baklava with walnuts (scrumptious).

Some of my other favorites were Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (I never met a potato I didn't like!), Grilled Ratatouille, Lamb chops, New England Clam Chowder, Pork Loin with Apricot-Armagnac Sauce.  The list goes on and on.  There were twenty fabulous dishes.  And I get the recipe for every single thing made all week, in my class binder PLUS I have a huge cook book from the CIA.

Her is Barbara and her group with The Roasted Pork Loin.  Poor thing...she was feeling rotten and you can see how flushed her face is.

Chef Pham is critiquing  all of the demo plates.  Always glad to have that over.  I will say she is very tactful but gives great suggestions.  She has owned several restaurant.  Before she came to the CIA, she was an instructor at the Escoffier Culinary School. It is pretty la-te-dah also.  She judges on some of the cooking shows on TV.  I will be paying close attention from now on.

Sooo I am headed out for some much needed exercise! Say your prayers for Barbara.  It is not fun to be out of town and sick.  She has been a trooper!

Day 2 Playing tourist

I went to the San Antonio Museum of Art.  I feel guilty if i don't play tourist in every waking minute.  It was about a fifteen minute walk from our hotel.  Beautiful Museum...right on the River Walk.

I know that art is subjective but I have a particular love for realistic oil paintings.  This was socialite Marguriet Louisa Vanderbilt Shepar, painted by John Singer Sargeant.  Loved it.  The red dress was so rich. 

My favorite painting was by John George Brown and the characters were so distinctive, I thought they were going to jump off the page.  I almost looked like they were paper dolls glued to the canvas and then painted.  Where is my friend Cindy (a wonderful artist) who explains all the technique to me?  I wanted more info.

Okay, I love some modern art but wouldn't necessarily want to live with some of it.  This work of art truly made me laugh.  Can you guess what it was called?  "City Song: Even the smell on the Way to Work of Fresh Asphalt in the Early Morning Streets of Summer."  Was that your first guess?  LOL  Not mine. The artist was Ben Cutwell (1918-1987)

So you all know how crazy I am about St James and the Camino de Santiago.  I was wandering around the museum, wondering if St. James was any part of the history of Mexico.  Lo and behold:

If your read the information below... Santiago was huge in Mexican histsory.

Lastly, I went back to Cured for another  winter squash salad.  I actually had a double.  I have only thought of proposing to three chefs in my life. The first was in Oporto, Portugal.  It was called a Francesinha. (meaning Little Frenchie or simply Frenchie in Portuguese), described as a Portuguese sandwich made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with melted cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce ( like a cross between an enchilada sauce and good gravy) served with french fries.  Actually, I did propose to the chef.  Dennis was with me so I was safe.  The second time was about ten years ago in Lincoln Park (Chicago) at Pasta Palazzo.  Their Jalapeno Gnoocci is to die for.  I made Dennis come back to Chicago to try it and we eat there every time we go to Chicago.  Tonight, I had to try this wonderful salad again. Just to refresh your memory: winter squash and pepper salad with achiote goat cheese and pickled celery with 2 year aged lardo. The bartender brought the chef, Chef Steve McHugh out and I thanked him personally for such a wonderful creation. The pickled celery gave it a little bite but the star of the dish was a pepita twill or tuiles, which is a French term for tile.  OMGosh, this fried (?) cracker/cookie was incredible.   

So another culinary triumph.  Until tomorrow...God bless you all.

CIA Day Two

Hola and Greetings from the CIA! What a wonderful fun stressful day.  We paired up into teams and this is my team.  Aren't the hats beautiful.  

Each student was assigned a different dish to prepare and I ended up having the most complicated one....Mac and Cheese with bacon.  Doesn't sound hard and I have made mac and cheese my whole life.  THIS mac and cheese started out with a velóute sauce which took forty minutes to make.  It had four kinds of cheese (including blue cheese) which I had to hand grate (oh, how I wished for my Cuisinart) and melt plus crisped, chopped bacon and then it had to be topped and baked in the oven.  I made one little goof and put all of the cheese in the macaroni and then realized I was not supposed to put the Gruyere or the Parmesan so I did what any good chef would do....grated some more cheese.  Our instructor told me it was excellent mac and cheese.  I did not fess up.  The most complicated part of cooking today was every time, I needed an instrument ie a whisk or a stainer or whatever, I had to go find it. I had a dickens of a time finding bowls and pots.  I never found any measuring spoons so I guestimated which is exactly what I do at home.  It drove the engineering types crazy.  You don't estimate anything, according to them.  Our class seems to be divided between those who think a recipe is a suggestion (me) and those who measure down to the pinch.

Our team...team #1 had the below dish of fried chicken with gravy, glazed carrots, mac and cheese plus a salad with even more bacon.  

 There are four more teams and they each had totally different menus so we had twenty plus items for lunch.  It was great but a little more lunch than I am used to.  Below are just some of the foot being put out.

My favorite was the Pork Cutlets with Mustard Beurre Blanc (shown in the left front corner.)  It had spätzle and a really nice red cabbage.  Did I tell you that the CIA turns out classically trained French chefs?

Okay, if that wasn't enough food...as we were pigging out... the head chef came over.  It seems that today was a final testing day for the pastry chef soon to be's and they laid out about twenty or twenty five different gorgeous desserts.  He said, "Help yourself."  I don't ever eat dessert at lunch but today, I had to try at least a few bites.  These are CIA graduating chefs...top of the pecking order in the chef world.  I had a sliver of a cheese pie (?) topped with fresh raspberries and something like a caramelized pecan pie bar.  OMGosh!  These issued us two pairs of chef pants.  I am thinking the second pair should be bigger than the first pair!  

So...I am off to walk the River Walk.  I need to walk about twenty miles to even come close to making up for today!  

Bon Appetite!

Dinner at Cured

OMG!  What a great dinner  Cured is a restaurant near the CIA that I kept hearing was good.  Barb and I decided to eat at the bar and I had the best salad I have ever had...bar none.  It was a winter squash and pepper salad with achiote goat cheese and pickled celery with 2 year aged lardo.  It was accompanied by some fried crackers of unknown origin that I could have main lined.  OMG.  I was considering proposing to the chef but who knows? these days chefs are under thirty? gay? whatever.  And besides if he or SHE accepted my proposal...what would I do with Dennis.  I intend to keep him. That would be ackward.. But I am telling you this salad was worth it.  I also had an appetizer of chicken livers.  Yea, I know...I know... it is an acquired taste which I happen to really like. These chicken livers were accompanied by an Asian sweet and sour/ chili sauce.  Divine!

I walked back to the hotel on the river walk.  It is about a 15 minute fast walk.  Beautiful and the weather was perfect...about sixty degrees with a slight breeze.  Beats the heck out of 8 degrees.

This is the walk back.  So beautiful!  

Goodnight and sleep tight!

Greetings from the CIA! I am at the Culinary Institute of America for a five day bootcamp…compliments of my wonderful husband.  People have been teasing that he will really benefit from my training but the truth of the matter, is that I love to cook and what a fabulous gift.  I suppose if you hate to cook, it would be the gift from hell.

The bootcamp was described as follows “The prerequisite for every skilled at-home chef, Basic Training Boot Camp gives you the hands-on foundation of knowledge and skill to take you to a higher level of cooking. In this course, you’ll develop a command of classic culinary methods and techniques, including mise en place, station organization, knife skills, soup and stock production, and sauce making. You will also learn and use a variety of dry- and moist-heat cooking methods such as roasting, grilling, sautéing, pan-frying, stir-frying, braising, poaching, and steaming.”

The Culinary Institute (CIA) has three campus locations: Hyde Park (New York), Napa and San Antonio. As much as I would like to visit the New York Campus, flying into NYC in January is dicey at best.  Napa was closed when we booked this trip because of the fires.  I think they are back open now. I told my good friend Barbara Hunter about my trip and she wanted to come, so here we are in San Antonio.

Today was pretty long and tiring.  We had to be there at 6:30 AM!  Yes, there evidently are two six thirties every day. Normally class starts at 7:00.  We got out of class at about 2:30. 

We started by changing into our chef togs. Tomorrow, perhaps I will get someone to take a photo of me in my togs. I had to roll up the pants about 3 times.  Our instructor, pictured below, is Chef Pham. She is funny and personable and overall cute as a bug. Did I say patient?  She in in the same outfit we each have, including the hat.  The only difference, which you cannot see is that we have checked pants and she has solid pants.

We started with a couple of hours of classroom and then spent about three hours chopping everything in sight.  Today centered on knife skills.  I didn't start really well.  I stabbed myself with the pencil in my purse which was just the way I like it, extra sharp.  I drew first blood but lucky no one saw the base of my thumb.  It was my only injury.  I guess I can not always be trusted with sharp instruments. We chopped everything that wasn't nailed down...mangoes, kiwis, apples, carrots celery, potatoes, etc.  It was pretty fun.  I learned to make tiny  dice 1/8 inch, called brunoise, that actually looked pretty good.  We also learned some fancy cuts such as oblique.  

The chef then showed us how to salt scrub a chicken and the proper way to cut up a whole chicken.  I will be in charge of cutting up a chicken tomorrow.  I have only cut up one chicken in my whole life.  After many years as a vegetarian, my father poked fun of me because (after I started to eat meat) I bought chickens already cut up.  Always one to take a challenge.  I hacked away at a whole chicken (I am never going to kill one...it would be back to veggies) until there was not one recognizable piece. I would have been better to have just taken the axe to it.  I thought it was the most disgusting thing I had ever done.  Eeeeeugh.  I swore that I would never cut up another one even if they were a hundred dollars apiece already cut.  Well, eat my words because tomorrow, I will be cutting up a chicken.  

Lunch was great.  The real students (future chefs) at the CIA prepared our lunch and we had a very tender skirt steak(?) that was so well seasoned along with many tex-mex ingredients.  We also had a large fruit salad from all the fruit we sliced and diced.  Starting tomorrow, we will be eating what we prepare.  Chef Pham said it would be like Chopped, each group of about four students would get a mystery box and we would use those ingredients.  We prepare a dish for our chef, to be critiqued and a platter for each other group of students.  Fun!  Just incase you don't know what Chopped is...it is a cooking competition that I watch pretty regularly.  I think it is on the food network.

So it is off to dinner and a glass of wine.  I am sure I will be calling it an early day!

Bon Appetite!