Day 2: Tomato Fondue

Day 2 began with a flourish. My partner and I arrived around the same time and began prepping our station with bowls, 6 pans, cutting boards, and our knives and other necessary equipment. We finished this in the nick of time, as chef called our attention to the front of the class where he began the evenings lecture/demo of what we were going to do that evening.

If I had any doubts as to whether this class was going to be as serious as "professional" cooking school, these were laid to rest quickly by the chef's expectations of us for the evening. I was happy to see that chef is all over the place in the kitchen like I am, moving back and forth between recipes. I have to admit that he is a lot tidier than me in his back and forth. Perhaps, that is something I can learn from culinary school! I am not going to lie though...It was hard to remember all his steps when we needed to replicate them later!

He began by explaining that we were going to cook potatoes cut in the football shape in a three part process and started blanching these in the first step. He then moved onto a tomato fondue we were gong to make by first blanching the tomatoes then putting them in an ice bath to cool. Then he moved to cutting carrots and turnips in the same football shapes as the potatoes and explaining that we would cook them aletuve after break. Here I am going to put in my little aside about this cut. I hate it...I abhor it. I just don't see the point and you whittle away perfectly good pieces of veggie all while putting your priceless fingers in possible danger of cuts. Also, it sort of reminds me of the veggies you get on the side of your plate at a wedding. And of course, the fact that I am not so great at cutting the veggies this way doesn't help the cut's case!

Then onto pearl onions which we peeled and cooked glacee, which is the same as aletuve but with sugar instead of salt. Then back to the now cool tomatoes which he peeled and diced. Then he smashed some garlic and chopped scallions and began cooking the tomato fondue, which literally means melted tomatoes. He cooked the tomatoes with the scallions, garlic, a thyme spring, a bit of water mixed with tomato paste and salt and pepper. This was covered with a bit of parchment in the style of of aletuve cooking. The onto the artichokes that have to be cooked in a flour, butter, lemon, water mixture to prevent browning. He showed us how to properly trim these down to the yellow leaves. These were then covered with a towel in the water mixture and brought to a boil for about 20 minutes. Then back to the potatoes which he took out of the boiling water and explained had to be fully air-dried before they can be cooked.

Then he said "Okay! Got all that everyone? Start cooking and begin with the artichokes." My partner and I looked at each other with a bit of panic in our eyes and then began telling each other which ingredients we would each get and then mise en place'd everything. We whittled our huge artichokes down to their yellow, and, as always, I was amazed by the utter lack of useful pieces of an artichoke. It's one of those times you think to yourself, whoever first figured out that once you cut all the tough leaves and cook this veggie its delicious was really a genius.

Before we knew it, we had all the food the chef had wanted us to get done before the break completed and it was time for dinner.

When we returned from the break, the chef demonstrated how to trim the artichokes once they were cooked and remove the choke, which resulted in a little bowl of artichoke goodness. Then the potatoes were browned in a hot pan with oil and then moved to a hot oven to finish them. Then the chef showed us how to make a delicious basil oil, which he used to plate the veggies. We then were left to finish our carrots, turnips, artichokes, and potatoes and then to plate everything.

The tomato fondue was delicious and I would spread it on a piece of bread any day and serve with a nice glass of red wine. The potatoes were also very delicious with a nice crisp outside and soft inside. All in all, I really liked the evenings lesson. I think a big part of it was to get us used to preparing multiple things at once and to see how simple and tasty simple vegetable preparations can be. And for me, it was a mission accomplished. I left class feeling more comfortable in the professional kitchen and less worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Let's hope that feeling continues!

Next up, we're learning stocks and sauces. I am beyond excited to learn how to make a stock other than a chicken stock and I can't wait to whip up some homemade mayonaise and hollandaise!