Calendar
May 21, Wednesday: Class 49 begins.
June 12, Thursday: BISTRO!
June 28, Thursday: BISTRO!
July 10, Thursday: BISTRO!
July 24, Thursday: BISTRO!
Aug. 19, Tuesday: Graduation.
Week in Review
Written as a group effort by the CCSC chefs.
For week ending June 27
This week it was all about Braising and BISTRO! prep. The BISTRO! was cancelled unexpectedly, but more on that later. It was also that time for Chef Peter Reinhart to come and teach the class about baking.
Chef Chelsa bought the class a big hunk of Beef chuck flap meat for braising and each class braised a bunch. Our plan was to use the focaccia, made with Chef Peter, as a flat bread for our braised Italian beef flat bread. We used oven-dried cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan cheese and reduced the braising liquid of beef stock, bell peppers, garlic, rosemary and tomatoes to make a thick pizza sauce. Can you say delicious?
The BISTRO! had to be cancelled because a group of children had been scheduled for a food camp that day. Since we had already bought most of the food, and started the prep, we decided to have it anyway and put the food out for lunch. We think we will do this menu again for Bistro because it was exceptionally good. Lemon custard with fresh strawberries, eggplant involtinni, semi fredo and other yummy things were put out for lunch.
Again, a big thank you to Chef Peter Reinhart for coming out and teaching the students how to make the aforementioned focaccia, cheese biscuits, Kaiser rolls, cinnamon buns, chocolate chip cookies and all the other delicious items.
For week ending June 20
This week we were hip-deep in Hollandaise sauce and Egg cookery. Both classes made about 2 quarts each. One class made a bunch of omelets and the other made some home fried potatoes topped with over-easy eggs for lunch. Both were smothered in hollandaise.
They were taught the old fashioned way, a hot water bath(bain marie), a whisk, a metal bowl and a whole lot of whisking as well as the new-fangled way with a blender, food processor or immersion blender. This class took much more time with the hollandaise sauce, so we didn’t get to complete all components of egg cookery. We will be re-visiting eggs at a later date.
We also had Kelly Vass come in and teach the students about nutrition.
It was also a busy week with Encore Catering. There was lots of on-the-job training for the students. Chef demo was soups. This was in preparation for the soup battle that we will hopefully do next week.
Also next week will be a light, Italian style BISTRO! Think shaved fennel salad, angel hair pasta with a fresh tomato sauce. Peter Reinhart will be in working his magic with yeast and flour. Should be an awesome week!
For week ending June 13
This week both classes got to make pasta from scratch. We made Angel Hair, Fettuccini and Ravioli. One class made a creamy tomato sauce for the Angel Hair, and the other made a Chicken Veloute and added herbs, grilled chicken and roasted peppers. Both were very good.
This was also a very busy week for Encore Catering. The students were kept busy assisting Chef Chelsa with various catering events, including the Tosco Music Party.
And the topper was this, the first BISTRO! for Class 49. This class pulled it off with flying colors. Everything was ready, hot, on time and extremely tasty. As Chefs it can be difficult to pull back and let the students do all the cooking. We want to jump in and take over, but that would be a disservice to them. If we do it they don’t learn and we defeat the purpose of the workforce development training.
So far, so Great with this class. Next week will be egg cookery and a soup battle to determine the final name of this class. We can feel the competitive drama already.
Stop in and taste the difference CCSC is making in the lives of our students.
For week ending May 30
Controversy. That is the word of the week. The class voted themselves “the Fabulous 49” and apparently a group of the students vehemently hate the name. They hate it so much that they have proposed an egg throw down to determine if the name will be changed, or remain the same. The “Fabulous” group apparently accepted. We will keep you updated on who gets egg on their face…
We have begun delving into the mother sauces. Tomato, Béchamel and Veloute sauces were on the menu this week and the students are taking to them with abandon. We also made some roasted chicken stock and we will be making more of that next week. Roasted chicken demi-glace next week? I think so.
The classes used the béchamel sauce and made a cheeseburger mac and cheese ,the tomato sauce to make a baked penne with ricotta custard and the veloute to make a roasted red pepper gravy as a sauce for grilled chicken. A pretty delicious week.
Next week will be Espagnole, hollandaise and boxed lunches for 400.