*Switching Gears

“MORE SALT!!”

I heard that more times in the first part of this term than I ever heard, “Jen, go clean you room.” as a kid back in Jersey. Bearing likewise distaste for both even as an adult, I had a hard time giving up the key to the closet I keep my antique salt cellar in. Give it up I did, and boy howdy has it made a splendid difference. I still don’t clean my room, though, and I get to blame that on my schedule and having a dog who sheds. But I digress…

I sat in on a consumer class this fall and did some tasting trials. Still stuck to my guns in the beginning part of school, taking strength from the numbers of us who were afraid of the salt box, but claimed to be “just fine” without, or trying to pass off our innocence with beneficial health information against over-usage. I banded with a young lady who cooks for old farts that cannot eat sodium, recalling how my own mother yanked me from sugar, salt and caffeine in high school- I grew used to the softer flavor of foods and still can’t tolerate a cup of real coffee. Anyway, I stood up for myself, ready to fight if necessary, to rally against Evil Sodium, making a statement that Less Is More.

I was wrong.

Suffice to say, I have sucked on many a tasting spoon in my time at school and I have been happily defeated. Food no longer sucks. With salt and other enhancements, a bite of food as small as a half teaspoon will no longer have chasms of question marks between their start and finish. I have finally learned that a bite of food on the Gastronomic Superhighway has a start, a middle, an end and even a lingering finish once it is swallowed, and all exits heading south must have a Point Of Interest.

Using the formula of Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter and Umami (savory), we wailed on dishes as boring as polenta and barley pilaf, as obnoxious as braised collards greens and as gaseous as purple cabbage until we learned that sweet spot for food. Throwing everything including the kitchen sink at our dishes, we found balance, roundness, completion. We learned that lemon juice makes cream of broccoli really get up and shake its groove thing. Ditto for brown sugar and collard greens. And yes, tons of salt in anything with spuds.

After we finally rocked the recipes and felt like pretty hot shit, mid-term came and they changed gears on us. It was the arrival of Protein (!!!) and the new challenge before us… Keeping Up Appearances.

Ummmm… (eyes darting around the kitchen uncomfortably)… What??

It took about one day of something missing to figure it out. In a huddle with my new posse, M and D, we kind of came to the realization that no chef instructor had tasted one damned dish all day long like usual. We were on to plating full meals with protein, starch and veg, and not one spoon came from over our shoulders the whole first day as we cooked. We felt out of sorts as the chefs reviewed our plate arrangements, fondled the food, and proceeded to the next one without a bite. The ballgame had changed. The next half of this term was going to be about Looks, not Brains.

Once it was made clear to me on day one of this new class cycle that I plate food like a prison cafeteria worker, I launched an assault. Whining to Brian, he brought me to Powell’s to cruise food books, design books, even art books. I was not going to screw up the next day’s project. I threw myself in whole hog.

We were given four assignments of odd food challenges: Asian Minimalism, Neon Purple and Bland Log Shaped food, the Dreaded White On White assignment,  and finally, Tomato Sauce On Everything. If it wasn’t hard enough, we began to realize that we were bring squeezed for time, less and less alotted for the project every day by about five to ten minutes as the week progressed. We had to make it A) Good, B) Pretty and C) Fast. I decided to not take it lying down, so I promised myself one hat trick per plate, one that I was not shown in class already, and I was going to practice.  As of last night, I completed the Dreaded White On White project with a decent amount of dignity at home, and I am prepared to do it again this week. Tomato Sauce All Over is tomorrow, and I will use my watercolor pencil sketches from Friday night’s insomnia session as a rough guide. Yeah, I said sketches. I am SO serious.

I guess I am finally seeing the formula that Oregon Culinary Institute has implemented. Get the flavoring down. Start thinking about how it looks. Branch out from there. I can’t believe I am a little more than 1/6th of the way through my in-house education already. I feel like a kid who does not want to leave Kindergarden at the end of the day…

School Update

Well, the term is half over, and that meant one thing two weeks ago- Mid Term Exams. Not one to take a test lightly, I sweated bullets over every detail, as much as I could manage to stay awake for, and did my duty. You heard about my knife skills test, which I am still very okay with. I had a few more exams to go.

I had to turn in my notebook for evaluation, as my chef instructor requested we show him we were not a bunch of sweathogs who didn’t take notes. Not only did I make it perfect and gorgeous, I sucked up, left the chef a personal note inside explaining the organization for his ease of reading, and thanked him for his time. Out of ten points, I got eleven. My written test was a few pages long and not that difficult. A little math, one or two minor slips that I did not read carefully enough, but I still garnered myself a high 90’s score. My kitchen practical was an assignment of foods to be completed as a group. We divided and conquered, earning another score in the high 90’s.

My chef came up to me and my new partner M and he stated, “You two are making liars out of me. I never give out full A’s. You guys both got one.”. M and I high-fived without expressions on our faces and went home for the day.

Been working extra hours at school in the dining room during dinner shift. I have a complete fear of being a server in a restaurant, of embarrassing myself or being a klutz. I also have a need to completely understand the front of the house in order to better understand the back of it. Not one to be a weenie, I try to face my fears directly and throw myself into the belly of the beast. Shit, if I can conquer an operating room , I can do just about anything. I worked three night shifts in a row after school a week ago, got the flu again, and I figured I’d better slow down. Brian and I have decided to spend one evening a week together at school- me serving tables, and Brian at the counter watching the students in the line cooking as he dines on a meal I have served him.

I think I have decided where I want to start looking for work, and Brian is awaiting my resume update dialogue to do whatever it is that he does to make it show up on a computer screen as pretty as it does. As much as I would love to stay and do NW cuisine all my life, I need and want more. I can do NW cuisine later. The whole world is out there and before I am too decrepit to pull it off, I need to hit the road. One good way is a huge hotel chain… an international one. Stay tuned for further updates as the months progress.

I gotta go. Gotta figure out how to plate pasta, chicken breast, marinara sauce and steamed broccoli and not have it look like the Italian flag or a road kill thrown into the weeds.