Food Safety & Sanitation (Mullets & a Mustache)

Chef M laid down the hard-line at the start of class at 8am today: "On time is late." He gave hard stares and stern "you are late" comments to those coming in at 8:01. He runs his class like he runs his kitchen -- when his kitchen crew is a minute late, he is on the phone a minute later digging up new kitchen staff.

Today's lesson was a half-hour video and a lecture. It was kind of like a '50s educational film retrofitted for the '90s, but the video actors' hairstyles were shockingly '70s and '80s. One man talking straight to the camera had a thick mustache and a mullet peaking over his collar. A still of a hand close enough to one's face to cause cross-contamination featured a wickedly woolly Van Dyke (mustache & soul patch combo). Totally rocking.

The lecture was in two parts. The first was about general cleanliness habits (wash hands obsessively), proper food temperature & storage strategies, and various types of contamination. The second part was a brief overview of the span of culinary history, starting with "fire" through the Moors, the first green-house, and Escoffier all the way to James Beard and Julia Child.

We wrapped up with a discussion of dairy -- commercial (bad) and organic (good), different varieties of product -- from skim milk (colored water) to butter (a staple of French cuisine), and the incredible edible egg and all its parts.

Learned a little bit more about my classmates. Some (including myself) are answering and engaging with the teacher -- these are the ones I'm going to want to partner with and vibe on. Only 5 students in the class have restaurant experience, 3 of those are under 21 and doing work-study, another is the ex-truck driver -- definitely not dilettantes like myself!

Still weird not hitting up email for four hours straight. Tomorrow, we bust out our knives.

ADDENDA:

Had a hell of a time with my tool chest strapped to the back of the bike this morning; it will be staying in the locker. Nice full day -- class all morning, all afternoon in the office, and all evening cooking, doing my readings and chilling with my sweet-B.

Hmm, second consecutive day without sweets. I think this recipe from today's NYT may be in my future...

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews and vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10am, piece of fresh french bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Water, coffee, and a couple of loaves of french bread for the class, as no cooking was done today

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pork tonkatsu with curry and white rice, 3 pork dumplings, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Midtown lunch with E before a freelance gig. Came with miso soup, but skipped it -- that stuff is all salt and little nutritional value.

PM WATERING: 4pm, several cups seltzer

DINNER: 6:45pm, baby carrots with ranch dressing, sauteed shrimp with mushrooms and onions in butter and herbs de provence, oven baked broccoli, half a beer, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
I finished the sauteing in high-heat canola oil with a large pat of the good butter (organic, grass-fed, etc etc.) I sprinkled a generous shake of 'herbs de provence' which I received in a wedding gift. The smell a little funky in the jar, but they really gave a nice herbal kick to the shrimp and veg. The fresh butter taste turned up the volume on that, too.

I replaced half the olive oil in the broccoli recipe with sesame oil, and used whole-wheat panko. Really nice, great way to get in my veggies.

EVENING WATERING: 7:30pm, quart o' NYC tap