Photoshoot

I was fortunate enough to work with a great photographer, Stacy Weber. Stacy emailed my Program Coordinator asking for a culinary student to help her style food for an assignment. The Coordinator then forwarded the email to the students enrolled in Culinary Management. I emailed her back with some of my food photos and we paired up to work on a project.

The food that we shot wasn't my typical refined plating and styling but I'm very pleased. We did a seafood menu theme; something you'd eat at a harbor side restaurant.

I really enjoyed working with Stacy, the whole photo shoot was a very positive experience. What I really loved was working with someone who had that same attention to detail as I do. I believe we will be working together again in the near future.

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Julienne & Brunoise

My first week of school has come and gone and I can safely say that I'm no worse for wear.

The first practical classes have been devoted largely towards familiarization of our tools and classical knife cuts. In short, we're beginning with the fundamentals. I love the fundamentals. The first knife cuts we were told to produce were a julienne and brunoise of carrot.

The classical knife cut called julienne is defined as a stick cut to the dimensions of 2 mm x 2 mm x 5 cm. The brunoise cut are cubes formed from the julienne sticks taking on dimensions of 2 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm.

There's something beautiful about these cuts and the skill it takes to produce them. There is the focus, discipline, and attention to detail that must be attended to when performing the cuts to the exact measurements specified. There's also the connection to the knife, the tool of a cook. A sharp knife helps this process immensely and there's further skill taken to keep and maintain a sharp blade.

Personally, there's the search for perfection in looking for exact uniformity in every single sliver and cube of carrot. Maybe that's what I love. That search for perfection and the knowledge that I'm creating order from a form of chaos.

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Order Up, One Education!

Tomorrow is my first day of school, culinary school. It's the beginning that I've been waiting to come for nearly three years. I'm not scared, nervous or excited about the prospect of beginning school; it's simply part of the journey I've been on for some time.

This weekend I re-read the book that probably started everything for me, Michael Rulhman's The Making of a Chef. I thought it would be fitting to read about the life of a culinary student albeit at a better school hundreds of kilometres away.

The book has put me in a good frame of mind. I feel readied, my mental mis en place is checked off, I'm good to go. I want to ask questions, I want to learn, I want to experience.

Ordering, one education.
Fire, one journey.
Pick up, life.

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Cook vs. Chef

"A cook and a chef are different entities. Chef is a title. A chef can be good or bad or everything in between; he or she can be a hotel chef, restaurant chef, TV chef, personal chef, or a corporate chef. Chef denotes a job. But when you are a cook that is who you are. It's your spine and soul. It suffuses all that you touch."

I've seen this quote being cited by both Michael Ruhlman and Eric Ripert. I'm not sure who said it but it's a damn good quote.

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