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!