First Week of Classes - Complete!

Well, I made it through my first week of classes! It was fun yet extremely exhausting! It will take me a few weeks to get used to my new schedule. I have a 3-hour lecture class on Thursdays and a 5-hour cooking class on Friday and Saturday mornings.

I'm in a Sanitation & Safety class on Thursdays. We learned about lots of nasty foodborne illnesses like Hepatitis A, Noroviris Gastroenteritis, Bacillus Cereus Gastroenteritis, Listeriosis, Hemorrhagic Colitis, Clostridium Perfringens Gastroenteritis, Botulism, Salmonellosis, Shigellosis, and many other hard-to-pronounce illnesses that I will be quizzed on next week! I have a bad feeling that once I am done with this class I am going to be too paranoid to ever eat out at a restaurant again!

My Fri-Sat class is called Fundamentals of Classical Tech. The first week was a bit intimidating with all the hard-to-pronounce French terms but it was also a lot of fun. I know I am going to learn so many great things that I'll be able to use at home as well. The first day we pulled out our new knives and made mirepoix (MEER-pwah). Mirepoix is simply a combination of onions, carrots, and celery. It is a standard flavoring combination used in sauces, soups, braised dishes, and stews. The following day we made stocks. My group made fish stock while the other groups made vegetable, chicken, and veal stocks. We learned how to pincé (caramelize an item by sautéing; then adding a tomato product to it) and how to make a Sachet Bag and Bouquet Garni to season our stocks with. Towards the end of class we started practicing knife cuts by producing Tomato Concassé, Minced Garlic, Parsley Dust, and Diced Onion. Let me quote something my instructor said, "Everyone will cut themselves, it's just a matter of when." Well, for me is was Week 1 but it was just a minor cut. :)

Next week we are learning about and making the 5 mother sauces!