The Culinary Tales Week 16: To Catch a Thief
There’s a reason for the saying “Easy as pie.” And despite that, my first attempt at baking one was during Week 16 of culinary school. …
The Culinary Tales Week 15: Personality Goes a Long Way
The theme of Week 15 was pâte à choux, a light pastry dough consisting of butter, water, flour and eggs and is used to produce eclairs, cream puffs and…
The Culinary Tales Week 14: It’s A Man’s World
For most of us, the kitchen was Mom’s domain. Ironically enough, the professional culinary world is a testorone-driven universe, probably owing to a misogynistic, sexist French tradition.…
The Culinary Tales Week 13: Hell’s Kitchen
“You’ve heard of Hell’s Kitchen, right? Welcome to Hell’s Lab.” Those were the first words that Chef Satan greeted us with on the first day…
The Culinary Tales Week 12: Water and Oil Don’t Mix (Sometimes)
Just when I thought I was doing a great job of balancing school and work, life threw me a curveball. All of a sudden, my workload went from a…
The Culinary Tales Week 11: Life’s a Buffet, So Grab a Plate!
Week 5 brought an array of dishes and we capped the short week with a buffet for friends and family. This was supposed to be a…
The Culinary Tales Week 10: Baaad Energy Invades the Kitchen
Week 10 brought us veal, lamb and pork. And what a week that was! As usual, we started with our usual weekly quiz, covering the…
The Culinary Tales Week 9: Thanks for All the Fish
I was really excited for Fish Week, and not just because I’m a Pisces. Truthfully, I love seafood for a number of reasons and, though it gets made…
The Culinary Tales Week 8: Where’s the Beef?
Would you believe that up until culinary school, I had personally never cooked a steak? It’s the kind of thing I didn’t bother cooking for myself at…
The Culinary Tales Week 7: Starting Over and Lessons in Poultry
We graduated onto Intro II, which meant: New chef (new rules.) New recipes. (New angst.) New floor (new bathroom, hence new favorite toilet.) It turned…