Becoming a Boulangère

The teaching kitchen was swarming with people as we started our third week of classes.  Every kitchen suite was filled with CIA students or guest chefs that were participating in a Kikkoman sponsored event on campus.  The energy was palpable, as the guest chefs worked quickly to prepare intriguing dishes and all of students did our best to impress our guests.

I worked efficiently and confidently that morning, that was until I lit my frying pan on fire.  I was simply moving around small pieces of beef, but a flash of oil caught on the gas burner and before I knew it huge flames shot up.  It was as if I flambeed chunks of beef.  My instructor appeared quickly and helped quell the flames, and somewhat sarcastically said, “hey, you’re a real chef now”.  Slightly embarrassed, I did my best to laugh it off and ignore the frightened and shocked face I made. We joked around that I gave the guest chefs a nice show and proved that we did real cooking here at the school.  Thankfully even with my rookie mistake, the beef had a nice sear and was suitable to use for my stew.

Day 10

Most of the tenth day of the class was spent working on knife cuts as our beef stew simmered away.  We used demi glace as the base of the stew to develop deep and hearty flavors.  The vegetables were prepared separately by cutting battonets (1/4” x 1/4” x 2”), blanching them, and finishing them with butter and parsley.  Preparing the vegetables separately brings a nice burst of color to the dish and makes a more appealing bowl of stew.

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