I didn't know the French were this loud.
Chef Alfred Schilling is a Master Chef, Master Chocolatier, Master Patissier, and lays claim to the thickest French accent you have ever heard, which can be difficult to follow, but after a few days, we all seem to be getting a handle on his particular brand of French to English slang. Included with Chef Alfred is a returning Chef Tony, who you might remember from Contemporary Cuisine about 6 weeks back. Chef Tony isn't much for translation and Alfred can cook circles around him, so at this point I'm wondering what he's doing there, but whatever.
Chef Alfred is a banging, smashing, yelling old-school chef with a long history of prominent success to back up his routine. He never places anything on the table, he tosses is. Crash. He carries a pointer during lectures, using it as a drum stick to underline points. Slap. Bang. His hard core instuctor routine is a thin veneer that he doesn't work very hard at protecting. The fact is, for all the obnoxious noise, he's a comedian. I think I've demonstrated that as a class, we are an unruly bunch. Chef Alfred is louder. Loud enough that we generally calm down when he starts yelling.
We working our way through Europe, a country a day, starting in Norway, ending up in Portugal last night. I believe we finish in France, where we'll spend an entire week. Thus far, Spanish cuisine has been the most intriguing. Lots of color, lots of flavor, very rustic. Coming in to culinary school I really didn't know what genre of food I would want to claim as my own. Having experienced Spanish cuisine, while being such a fan of tradtitional South American cuisine, if I had to pick one genre to work from for all time, that'd be it.
The learning curve is steep, but more than any other chef, Alfred is right there with you, demonstrating, talking you through the procedure, watching every move, so you never spend very long in the weeds. Only a week in and I'd say Chef Alfred is the best teacher we've had, bumping Chef Susan into 2nd place.
In other news, Chef Marc Rasic, my butchery instructor, will be handling the opening of 350, CCA's new restaurant located at South Campus in Potrero Hill. As it stands, my class should be the first class to work the new digs, and the idea of working with Rasic is incredible. He's younger than most of the instructors and has a French pedigree and a series of successful restaurants behind him. We've all got our fingers crossed for 350.
So, I finished my time at Perry's. It was a very positive bad experience. The number one reason for my leaving was the work schedule. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where part-time work is an option. However, hauling my ass out of bed on 4 hours of sleep everyday was more than I could handle. My grades began to suffer almost immediately, so I had to quit. There are other reasons that made it easy to leave as well. Quality of food and production. For all the lip service I received regarding putting out better than airport food (after all, Perry's is a SF tradition), it was airport food. There are more reasons, but I'll save the rest.
Chef Alfred Schilling is a Master Chef, Master Chocolatier, Master Patissier, and lays claim to the thickest French accent you have ever heard, which can be difficult to follow, but after a few days, we all seem to be getting a handle on his particular brand of French to English slang. Included with Chef Alfred is a returning Chef Tony, who you might remember from Contemporary Cuisine about 6 weeks back. Chef Tony isn't much for translation and Alfred can cook circles around him, so at this point I'm wondering what he's doing there, but whatever.
Chef Alfred is a banging, smashing, yelling old-school chef with a long history of prominent success to back up his routine. He never places anything on the table, he tosses is. Crash. He carries a pointer during lectures, using it as a drum stick to underline points. Slap. Bang. His hard core instuctor routine is a thin veneer that he doesn't work very hard at protecting. The fact is, for all the obnoxious noise, he's a comedian. I think I've demonstrated that as a class, we are an unruly bunch. Chef Alfred is louder. Loud enough that we generally calm down when he starts yelling.
We working our way through Europe, a country a day, starting in Norway, ending up in Portugal last night. I believe we finish in France, where we'll spend an entire week. Thus far, Spanish cuisine has been the most intriguing. Lots of color, lots of flavor, very rustic. Coming in to culinary school I really didn't know what genre of food I would want to claim as my own. Having experienced Spanish cuisine, while being such a fan of tradtitional South American cuisine, if I had to pick one genre to work from for all time, that'd be it.
The learning curve is steep, but more than any other chef, Alfred is right there with you, demonstrating, talking you through the procedure, watching every move, so you never spend very long in the weeds. Only a week in and I'd say Chef Alfred is the best teacher we've had, bumping Chef Susan into 2nd place.
In other news, Chef Marc Rasic, my butchery instructor, will be handling the opening of 350, CCA's new restaurant located at South Campus in Potrero Hill. As it stands, my class should be the first class to work the new digs, and the idea of working with Rasic is incredible. He's younger than most of the instructors and has a French pedigree and a series of successful restaurants behind him. We've all got our fingers crossed for 350.
So, I finished my time at Perry's. It was a very positive bad experience. The number one reason for my leaving was the work schedule. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where part-time work is an option. However, hauling my ass out of bed on 4 hours of sleep everyday was more than I could handle. My grades began to suffer almost immediately, so I had to quit. There are other reasons that made it easy to leave as well. Quality of food and production. For all the lip service I received regarding putting out better than airport food (after all, Perry's is a SF tradition), it was airport food. There are more reasons, but I'll save the rest.
