Sunday, March 05, 2006

No Cooking, Some Learning

I haven’t been doing much blogging about culinary school because the first two weeks have been, uh, pretty unblogworthy. As you would expect, they don’t just hand you a knife and demand a perfect hollandaise – there is much to be learned before you even set foot in the kitchen. We learned vegetable and fruit identification (I can spot a horned melon a mile away), basic nutrition, equipment identification, and food safety. Tomorrow is our first quiz – herb identification (we’re allowed to nibble) and restaurant food safety practices (terrifying how much can go wrong).

Our Chef/Instructor has a STRONG preference for organic foods, grass-fed free range meats, and natural ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup). Part of each day is spent discussing how eating industrially produced meats and artificial ingredients will rot us on the inside. He supports his positions with newspaper and magazine articles, and the facts are actually pretty terrifying. Soooo, JF and I are going to be trying a little harder to eat locally, avoid scary meat laced with antibiotics, and stick to products with ingredients we recognize. The only drawback is the cost, so I guess we’ll be eating a lot of organic rice and beans.

I’m off to Whole Foods to review my fresh herbs for tomorrow’s quiz. After the quiz we begin meat fabrication (butchering) – hopefully they let us take some for homework!

5 Comments:

Blogger s'kat said...

I'm sure the next few months will be very eye-opening! I've not had the education that you have (will have), but I've been trying to stay away from non-organic sources. The most difficult part has been to stray from items that have high-fructose corn syrup; almost everything contains it.

I draw the line at making my own soft tortilla shells, but other than that, its pretty difficult to get away from. I read labels all the time, and its quite scary.

Once again, good luck, and I'm looking forward to butchering lessons! :)

9:36 PM  
Blogger Jeff in NC said...

Butchering - woo! What's not to love? Joe really puts alot of effort into job of watching out for us as far as eating well - and it's made a huge difference in how we feel.

Can't wait to here more on your adventures! Does the Chef know you are a raisinhater yet? =:o

10:39 PM  
Blogger melissa said...

Well, how'd you do on your herb test? Have you fabricated anything yet? I guess it's only been a few days... can't wait to hear more!

4:59 PM  
Blogger Mona said...

Mebeth, that sounds great! I am thinking I might be interested in cooking school myself...do you mind my asking where you're taking classes? If you don't wanna post it you can email me.
Do you have orange clogs? haa:)

5:48 PM  
Blogger anythingwithcheese said...

I can't believe you've already learned that much! I'm taking sanitation right now, and we've covered the basics of handwashing. I can't wait until I have my chef coat and knives so that I can really get to cookin'!

12:12 AM  

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