If you want to find a chef instructor quickly, you go to the smoking section.
Officially, the North Campus, aka Main Building, smoking section is at the far end of the school premises on Turk Street, between Polk and Van Ness. It's a 10 foot by 15 foot plot of sidewalk that is far enough away from the front door to be certain that the inmates are not spotted by the customers. Before and after classes, the area fills up with aspiring chefs in spotted and smeared jackets, hats stuffed in pockets.
Let's say you're me. You are doing a somewhat experimental item for your plated dessert final. For a variety of scientific reasons, it's a gamble. What do you do? You talk to the chef instructors about it. You could email the instructors, but few of them are at computers all day, so getting a timely reply is unlikely. Your next option, go to the smoking section. I'd say 20% of CCA chef instructors smoke, thogh I solid 40% of the instructors I've had are smokers.
Yesterday, hiking up Polk Street, I spot Chef Damon, my Asian instructor, and Chef John, my current Baking and Pastry instructor, smoking. A perfect scenario for discussing the ins and outs of apple tempura. Thank god I found you two in the same place at the same time, I said. I table the apple tempura issue, which Chef John had already heard to some extent, and let them battle it out. Listening to a pair of working chefs talk about preparation and procedure is a really cool thing. The consensus: apple tempura is a tricky gamble that may or may not work, but a nice idea either way. Use a cornstarch batter, they said. Cook the apples in a lot of butter, they said. Double fry them, they said. Have a fall back recipe, they said. Then they started getting extemporaneous. Do a caramel sauce, they said, but drizzle in a balsamic vinegar reduction. Sprinkle some balck sesame seeds in there, they said. Do a pair of chop sticks out of tuile batter or white chocolate they said. Plate it like this, they said. So I scribbled notes.
I'l do a trial run on the apple tempura today. If it doesn't work, I am doing fried apple dumplings in won ton skins. Once I said tempura, everything turned Asian, which I could take or leave. I simply wanted the texture of the tempura, the crisp, light coating, to balance out the rich sweetness of the rest of the plate. But who am I to disregard the advice of two chefs I respect? So, I'll hang with the Asian theme.
Officially, the North Campus, aka Main Building, smoking section is at the far end of the school premises on Turk Street, between Polk and Van Ness. It's a 10 foot by 15 foot plot of sidewalk that is far enough away from the front door to be certain that the inmates are not spotted by the customers. Before and after classes, the area fills up with aspiring chefs in spotted and smeared jackets, hats stuffed in pockets.
Let's say you're me. You are doing a somewhat experimental item for your plated dessert final. For a variety of scientific reasons, it's a gamble. What do you do? You talk to the chef instructors about it. You could email the instructors, but few of them are at computers all day, so getting a timely reply is unlikely. Your next option, go to the smoking section. I'd say 20% of CCA chef instructors smoke, thogh I solid 40% of the instructors I've had are smokers.
Yesterday, hiking up Polk Street, I spot Chef Damon, my Asian instructor, and Chef John, my current Baking and Pastry instructor, smoking. A perfect scenario for discussing the ins and outs of apple tempura. Thank god I found you two in the same place at the same time, I said. I table the apple tempura issue, which Chef John had already heard to some extent, and let them battle it out. Listening to a pair of working chefs talk about preparation and procedure is a really cool thing. The consensus: apple tempura is a tricky gamble that may or may not work, but a nice idea either way. Use a cornstarch batter, they said. Cook the apples in a lot of butter, they said. Double fry them, they said. Have a fall back recipe, they said. Then they started getting extemporaneous. Do a caramel sauce, they said, but drizzle in a balsamic vinegar reduction. Sprinkle some balck sesame seeds in there, they said. Do a pair of chop sticks out of tuile batter or white chocolate they said. Plate it like this, they said. So I scribbled notes.
I'l do a trial run on the apple tempura today. If it doesn't work, I am doing fried apple dumplings in won ton skins. Once I said tempura, everything turned Asian, which I could take or leave. I simply wanted the texture of the tempura, the crisp, light coating, to balance out the rich sweetness of the rest of the plate. But who am I to disregard the advice of two chefs I respect? So, I'll hang with the Asian theme.
