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Wha'ts new-velle? [Nouvelle 1]

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:14:09 -0500

Nouvelle began in the 1970s. There was a hype of veggies. More dramatic presentations and presentation vessels. No more piling high. All about color, artistic, eye appeal.

Henry Gault & Christian Millau:

simpler, more natural presentation. Shift away from classical. An evolution.

Paul Bocuse: the father of Nouvelle.

1976: Bault & Millau began publishing an early version of Zagat, reviewed annually.

Nouvelle is NOT a diet cuisine, though spa food is an off-shoot of Nouvelle.

They shook up the traditional world. Haute was getting sloppy and lazy. Everything was buried in Bechamel.

These guys rebelled against:

> raw ingredients of inferior quality

> abuse of fish, not fresh, buried in sauce and puff pastry

> sauces heavy with flour, that tightened and then were thinned out for service

> egg based sauces.

Rules of Nouvelle:

> rejection of pretentious, over done dishes like beef wellington.

> reduction of cooking times, with veg. now cooked al dente

> rediscovered use of steaming

Oil-vey! [Olive oil and balsamic vinegar]

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:13:30 -0500

Killer seminar by an awesome school instructor tonight. We started with olive oil, which is as old as alphabets, thousands of years old.

Olive trees need mild winters, long dry warm summers, well-drained soil (volcanic for example).

International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) is based in Madrid, Spain and has 23 member states. Promotes and governs standards (US not participating).

Production is high in Mediterranean countries, with Spain being #1.

In Italy, from Liguria and south, but some pockets in the north.

Mediterranean diet has led to increases in OO consumption.

Olive Oil is a fruit oil from olives, used in cooking, cosmetics, medicines, soaps and fuel for lamps. It is high in monounsaturated fat and low in saturated fat.

Smoke point: virgin: 375, refined 400

Italy has 20 DOP and 1 IGP OOs.

Oct/Nov is harvet time.

[Side note: in CA, tomatoes can go from pick to canning in just hours, so often canned tomatoes are even better than fresh ones we buy that are manufactured to withstand long travel and shelf life.]

What's new? [New England]

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:12:50 -0500

American food is the sum of its parts. There is nothing that is really consider “American Cuisine”. American food is the food of immigrants. Where you are, who settled there. What did they bring and how did they prepare it?

Colonial period: British came for religious freedom. Puritans were plain people with plain style. Cooked with bare essentials. A hearth and a spit or 2.

Weather and religion were big factors. Puritan Sabbath: sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday. No work except required minimum.

Pepper, cloves, mace, cinnamon and ginger were big. Fish was a staple. Corn was the greatest gift from native Americans and it became a Pilgrim mainstay.

Baked Beans: salt pork. never cooked to a paste. maple syrup and bacon. variations on this dish are endless.

Maple syrup: the sweetener of choice, learned from Indians.

Fish: 16730 began fishing for salmon off the east coast. Served with cream sauce with peas. Salt cod - a must for Saturday dinner.

Scrod (young cod) and Haddock were big. [Some fish have worms that are killed when you eat them; which is different from the disease ‘worms’ you can get.]

Escoffier. Bless you! [Classical French 4]

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:11:37 -0400

August Escoffier lived 1846-1935 to the ripe old age of 89. He changed food. He was the king of chefs, the chef of chefs. He redefined cooking by taking away elaborate stuff that Careme brought.

He lived during a time when there was a shift from dining at home to dining out (at least for the rich).

Dating started, the idea of men and women ‘going out’. Smaller tables. Individual menus. People got dressed up. There were waiters and sommeliers.

Caesar Ritz and Escoffier were great friends.

He cut down on cumbersome garnishes. Food was simply cooked. Vegetables were to taste like themselves. All garnishes were edible. Food should look like itself. Few ingredients.

In 1889, Ritz and Escoffier take over the Savoy in England.

1902, Escoffier’s book, a professional chef’s bible “The Culinary Guide” was published with over 5000 recipes.

Menu planning was introduced.

Service a la Francais: big table, buffet style, no waiters. Big impressive show. Great variety. Dates back to Medieval times. The groaning board.

Very, very serious about coffee. [Coffee seminar]

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:10:46 -0400

This guy Peter is VERY serious about his coffee. The story goes like this. George Howell is the Boston area coffee merchant who invented Frappachno. He had a chain of stores that was bought out by Starbucks, in part because Starbucks wanted to own “Frappachino”. I guess George did well for himself. Some years after the sale to Starbucks, he’s back at the coffee business. Peter works for George and he came to school to deliver a coffee seminar. We were bouncing off the walls by the time the session was over, having tasted 16 coffees (I think, who can remember?).

Coffee started in West Africa. It spread east. There are two species of coffee.

> Arabica: 75% of world production, started in Ethiopia.

> Robusta: 25% of world production, a cheaper coffee, often used in instant coffee.

Arabica - could be lousy or great. It depends on the craftsmanship of how it is grown, harvested, roasted and prepared.

Around 500-1500, coffee was just used for its flower, not the bean.

1500 is when man began cooking the beans.

Is it France or Germany? [Alsace-Lorraine]

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:09:57 -0400

In northeast France, bordering Germany and Switzerland and just north of Italy lay the Alsace-Lorraine region. They have a flair for food here, but the cuisine is very German. Since the 17th century, it has been French, but it is the most ‘foreign’ province of France. Alsace takes its name from the river. Hot summers. Tough, cold winters. Mostly rural.

Cooking is not sophisticated. Hearty, local food. Lard is the fat. Pigs and goose eaten here. Heavy German cookery with French subtlety.

Alsace is the 3rd most important wine region, behind Bordeaux and Burgundy. Almost all the wine here is white. Wines here are taken from the grape, not the region, the only region in France like this. Fresh, fruity, all purpose wines.

They are famous here for eau de vie (water of life).

Lorraine is adjacent to and just west of Alsace. They are separated by mountains.

Important terms to know:

a l’alsacienne: designates the presence of choucroute (sauerkraut).

Choucroute: sauerkraut made in Alsace from a local variety of cabbage known as Chou Quintal.

Head for the hills (of France) [Savoie/Dauphine]

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:09:02 -0400

First we did a quick review on important stuff about Provence:

> olive oil, tomato & garlic (the truffle of provence)

> ratatouille: stewed eggplant dish

> mesclun: mixed baby greens

> bouillabaisse: fish stew with saffron and hot pepper paste

> aioli: the butter of provence

> pizzalaterre: pizza, cheese and olives

> cote de rhone: full body; chateau neuf de paup

> pastisse: licorice flavored aperitif

Savoie and Dauphine are in SE France near Italy and Switzerland.

Marches, Auvergene and Limosin are in the middle of France.

Savoie & Dauphine: up to WWII Savoie owned by Italy. Dauphine is north of Savoie, controlled by French of 500+ years. Heavy, hearty, coarse food. Stunning resort area with visitors from around the world.

Food specialties: fruit, nuts, pears, plums, apples, wheat, rye, potatoes and cheese.

Remember:

> potato

> cheese, with gratin

> fish (water very cold, streams)

> game (small birds)

> honey

VOCAB:

a la dauphinoise: served with sliced potatoes mixed with milk, salt, pepper,nutmeg, beaten eggs and Gruyere.

A visit from the Big Cheese [Cheese Seminar]

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:08:20 -0400

What a totally fun (and delicious) night! The owner (and his son) from Formaggio Kitchen came to give us a seminar on cheese. This guy imports TONS (literally) of cheese each week for his 3 stores (Cambridge, Boston & Manhattan) and for wholesale customers.

He suggests that you:

buy what you need

keep cheese in your refrigerator crisper

clean the surface of the cheese by shaving with a knife

bring the cheese to room temp before eating

We tried some goat milk cheese that was awesome. It is the most delicate cheese and is made Spring through November.

Almost always, the best wine with cheese is white wine.

Goat milk has the smallest fat globule, is the easiest to digest and goes with foods of summer.

Suggestion:

Greens with dijon vinaigrette

crisp the goat cheese in toaster oven

serve with Sancerre

All raw milk cheeses are supposed to age 2 months minimum before being sold/imported in US.

You can make any texture cheese from any milk.

Sour in a cheese is a sign of a high mountain cheese.

McDonalds en Francais? [Classical 3]

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:07:35 -0400

While I can’t see this as fine dining, we did it anyway. Puree some chicken, form it to make it look like a cutlet, fry it up and voila! We also did another variation (above) forming them into fingers, deep frying some left-over skin and why not throw a few wings into the fryer while you’re at it?

Remember if greens are on a plate they must be dressed (even if they’re just for presentation and not to be eaten). Points off on the practicum if you don’t remember this!

Beef Wellington. Nice piece of tenderloin, make a hole in the center with a steele, fill it with duxelle (or top with duxelle), put some foie gras on top OR sear it first, then foie gras on top, cover with puff pastry, roll very thin. Optional, only wrap 3/4 leaving bottom open. Also, cook on rack after a while to avoid soggy bottom (though that didn’t work so great for us).

At 125-130 degrees, pull it, rest it and it should be perfect.

Garde Manger: Guardian of Food. usually cold salads, prep, aspics, choid froid, pate, terraines, gallotines and buffet.

8 Years come together [Classical French 2]

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:06:45 -0400

Eight years ago, I took a trip to Paris where I ate at the famed Lucas Carton. Little did I know that the extreme cuisine I was eating was so classically French or that years later I’d be here in class learning more about it.

Lots of talk about moussiline today.

Moussiline is a food preparation usually involving heavy cream and egg whites as a binding agent. It refers to various meat or fish pastes that are enriched with heavy cream and bound with egg whites. Also used as an adjective to mean to lighten and enrichen or in a buttercream where sugar syrup is heated to 238 degrees and poured into a buttercream.

Egg whites in a moussiline bind and lighten.

Heavy cream in a moussiline adds richness, smoothness and texture.

Quenelle: sort of dumpling made from meat, fish or veg, bound with egg and enriched with heavy cream, football shaped (using 2 spoons).

Moussiline:

use a hand beater

huge ice bath, equipment and fish/meat should be very cold.

Chill the processor bowl and blade

Wrap on fat [Nutrituion 3]

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:06:00 -0400

This week concludes our 3 week series on nutrition.

We talked about changing trends in eating. Food eaten outside the home doubled from 1978-1995. Vast growth of larger portions. People add far more salt to food they eat out (i.e. increased salt consumption). A regular sized Cinnabon is a daunting 600+ calories. Eating just an extra 100 calories a day = 10 pounds weight gain a year.

Serving size on packaging is negotiated between producers and the FDA. Cholesterol reduction strategy is: more exercise, more fiber and less consumption.

All milk (whole milk, 2% and skim) have the same amount of calcium.

Monosodium glutamate is naturally occurring in the body. It helps process food. It’s only high amounts and certain people where it is a problem.

The term “imported from Italy” means it was packaged there.

A “product of Italy” means it was grown or actually made there.

In 1900, life expectancy was 45 years. Now upper 70’s.

The percentage of disposable income spent on food eaten at home has been declining over the years.

Shall we Provence? [Provence]

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:05:13 -0400

We move now to southeast France, on the Mediterranean Sea, just west of Italy. It is very sunny here year-round and influenced by many artists. Mistral is the famous ferocious winds that come through here for a short period at a time.

Nice is probably the most Italian-influenced.

Cooking influences include olives, olive oil, garlic and tomato.

Olive Tree: an evergreen that has been cultivated for 6000 years. Each tree lives 600 years or more and bears fruit after about 5-8 years. In ancient times, olive oil was used as a cleaner, burned in lamps, as medicine (it contains aspirin), as a preservative, fertilizer, lubricant, feed for animals and the wood from the tree was used.

Lard and animal fat was used before olive oil.

Spain grows the most olives and they export olives to Italy to be made into olive oil.

CA produces all US olives.

Top producers in order are: Spain, Italy, Greece.

It is a hearty tree, needs 8-10” of rain a year, but can go months without water. Needs full sunlight and high heat. At less than 10 degrees, it dies. Best grown at less than 2000 feet above sea level.

Let them eat . . . chicken ?? [Classical French 1]

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:04:20 -0400

Interesting class with a twist today. Chef has us start in the kitchen. Every student got his/her own small chicken. We learned how to debone the chicken, leaving just the legs and wings in tact and leaving the whole rest of the chicken in tact (except bones were out). What you’re left with is this floppy bird with no structure because you’ve removed the bones. No problem, let’s stuff and tie it up. Presto! It looks ‘normal’ again, but it’s fairly boneless. Cool, eh. Let’s call it ballantine, which is to say, deboned except for legs and wings and filled with forcemeat such that it still resembles its original shape.

If you do the same thing, but serve it cold, call it Gallontine.

Memory tip: Gallontine = gallon of ice cream = cold.

Balantine = baked = hot.

Tip for baking vol au vents. Bake in a sheet pan and prop above the pull a greased cooling rack. The puffs grow into the rack and this prevents them from falling over. Well, sort of. I suggested to chef that we bake them in a ring mold. She liked the idea (score a point for me?) and we’re going to try it in another class.

Dozens of pyramids??? [Nutrition 2]

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:03:34 -0400

Most of us have heard of the government’s food pyramid. Did you know there is a special food pyramid for kids, seniors, diabetics, vegetarians, etc., etc.? It’s true and you can Google them if you’re curious. The main government pyramid can be found by clicking here.

We talked about the nutrients in food.

PROTEIN: 8 necessary amino acids (22 total, but 8 are required). Triptofane and lyocene are most important. Animals have all amino acids, so eating any meat will give them to you. Sufficient protein intake is linked to vitamin sufficiency.

VITAMINS: (from the word ‘vital). Vitamins are things that - if you don’t have them - you would develop overt symptoms of deficiency.

Vitamin A: a fat soluble vitamin. Vital for vision. Prevents night blindness. Responsible for healthy skin and hair. Keeps mucous membranes healthy. Can get too much of it. The liver (and all organ meat) in any animal is concentrated with vitamins, especially vitamin A.

Vitamin D: Fat soluble. Found in foods, obtained from the sun. Helps build strong bones. Prevents rickets. Body converts sunlight to Vitamin D. Deficiency is common in elderly. However, in high amounts, can be toxic. Found in dairy products.

Cheesy cavemen found here [Southwest France 2]

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:01:59 -0400

Today we talked about the southern area of France, including Gascogny, Bearn and Languedoc. This is where France borders Spain to the Southwest and Italy to the southeast, but the southeast area of Provence is covered in another class.

Garlic: a member of the allium family that includes onions, shallots and leaks. Sulfur in these things is responsible for the odor, although they are odorless until disturbed (cut, crushed, chopped, etc.). Garlic was used medicinally by Egyptians with mummification. There are virtually no calories in garlic.

Onto to geography.

GASCOGNY: Gascogny is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Spain to the south, the Bordeaux region to the north. The French come here for mineral springs. Animal fat is used, such as duck and goose; and garlic is big. They eat wild birds, bones and all.

PAYS BASQUE: Just south of Gascogny is the region of Pays Basque, which is part Spanish and part French. It is separate from the rest of France and great food is there. Peppers and the sea. Sweet and hot peppers. Tuna and swordfish. Hotte = monkfish. Anchovies and Squid.

Careme de la Careme [Haute Cuisine 1]

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:00:59 -0400

Marie-Antoine Careme (yes, it’s a guy named Marie) lived from 1784 until 1833, and having lived only 49 years, he is considered to be the greatest chef of all time; but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Haute Cuisine is ‘high cuisine’, the highest form of French cuisine, describing food that is professionally and elegantly prepared. It is the ultimate, very artistic and treats food as art.

Back to Careme, he analyzed, simplified and artistically created food. This is not to say that his food was simple. He had a flair for dramatizing food. He was self-educated and he was one of 25 children. At the ripe old age of 10, his father abandoned him in Paris. The boy found his way to a cook shop, where we apprenticed for 6 years.

At 16, Careme began apprenticing in a top pastry shop, where soon the student outdid his teacher. At night, he would go to the Paris library and study architecture and he would bring these grand ideas to food and pastry. He did amazing sugar work. Later, he left Paris to go to England and then to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Getting fatter all the time [Nutrition 1]

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:00:14 -0400

Tonight we started the first of 3 sessions on nutrition. The whole area of nutrition is fairly new. there was no real nutritional science until the 18th century. Before that, most of the beliefs were silly, made-up and incorrect.

Dietitians: work in a clinical setting, typically with sick people to improve health through nutrition.

Nutritionist: typically work in the community, menu development, advisory towards healthy eating.

Marketing research shows that people equate ‘fresh’ with ‘healthy’, even though the connection is fallacious.

Trend: more people are eating away from home.

Convenience foods: such as lettuce in bags. Premiums are paid for this speed and convenience.

Chefs create food trends.

MDR: (old) provided for the minimum daily recommendations to avoid disease.

RDA: (more modern) provided the recommended daily amount people should consume (i.e. what you really need)

DRI: (new) 8 volumes, 1200 pages, used as a dietary reference used by dieticians. The DRI breaks guidelines into age groups and genders.

Great wine, if you're patient. [Southwest France 1]

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:59:11 -0400

Today, we learned about and - of course - cooked food from the mid-western part of France. The most well known area here is Bordeaux, known for 5 important food influences and they are:

> Foie gras

> Truffles

> Confit

> Cepes

> Walnuts

Bordeaux partly borders the Atlantic Ocean and inland features the confluence of 2 rivers, the Garrone and the Dordogne which form the Girand Estuary.

The most famous wines in the world come from here. More on wines later.

FOIE GRAS: Foie gras is fattened goose or duck liver. Goose liver is softer, by the way, than duck liver. The geese are force-fed for 4-5 months before slaughter. Their movement is restricted and their liver enlarges to 2.5-3 pounds for a goose and about 1 pound for a duck.

The liver is light rose in color and the color is influenced by diet.

Raw, the liver is the consistency of cold butter. When depressed it gives off a small amount of fat.

The animals are force-fed multiple times a day and the liver is very expensive, for the best quality could be $160 a pound. Just the liver is worth 10x the value of the whole rest of the bird. The rest of the meat is used in confit and stews. Breasts are vacuum packed for grilling or roasting. The blood and gizzards are also used.

A meat loaf on steroids! [Classical French 3]

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:58:28 -0400

This is the last week of our 3 part series on Classical French. Today’s food could have been the best yet.

Next week, we start a series on Haute Cuisine (even more involved). The attention to detail and the number of steps involved in just one recipe can be quite astounding. The terrine we made (above) is the kind of thing that you need to have a lot of time on your hands to do. Just the process of keeping the aspic at the right temperature for the several coats is a delicate endeavor.

We talked a lot about the mother sauce: Espagnole. You start with an excellent brown sauce and from there you can build a variety of small sauces.

It takes 32 quarts or 8 gallons to get 2 quarts of sauce. A lot of reduction. Heat, labor, time, gas; it all adds up. It must be skimmed to avoid bad flavor and cloudiness.

Roux blanc: about 2 minutes

Golden roux: 3-5 minutes (for veloute)

Roux Brun: cooked until mahogany brown, but NOT burnt at all

Espagnole technique:

use a large le Crueset pot

Head for the hills! of Burgundy [Provincial French 3]

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:57:34 -0400

Burgundy (dark green area in central France above) has been inhabited since pre-historic times. Romans introduced wines here and the area was independent for many years. Dijon is the capital of the region and its major city. Dukes and Monks were powerful here, including both Benedictine (more liberal) monks and Cistercians (more strict and conservative) monks.

There are mountains, rolling hills and various typography here, making it a great place for grains and cattle.

There are 4 rivers here: Yonne, Saone, Laroire and Rhone.

The soil is important and is chalk, granite or clay and all are conducive to wine making.

It gets cold here, with frost and snow. The food is hearty.

Major cities:

Dijon in the north. A food centric place. A gastronomic capital.

Lyons in the south.

Auxerre known for cherries in the northwest

Bresse - known for blue footed chickens in the central area

Charolles - known for beef.

This area is known for solid, peasant food, but elevated.