That is what I always say to classmates when they ask me the temperature of the oven and I do not know the answer. 350 is usually the standard temp the oven is set to unless you’re trying to get a sear then go 400+ or a slow braise which you’d do around 300-325 or a really long roast for tough cuts, then you can go as low as 250. This is all in Fahrenheit. I know people can just ask the chefs, but most people fear asking the chef anything at school. More on that later.
Culinary School
Yes Chef
Those are the 2 most important words you will need to learn at the CIA or just working in higher end restaurants.At school I would just constantly chant “Yes chef”. I still do it at work when given orders by my chef. I rarely, if ever, heard anyone say, “No chef”. Chefs like to hear people say, “Yes chef”. That is all they want to hear, that you understand what they are saying. Nothing more or nothing less. Although, make sure you actually know what they are saying before you mess up the roasted chicken for the night.
On being a CIA graduate
People often think I’m a walking encyclopedia of food. That I can answer every question relating to food. That I should know how to make any restaurant faced or asked about because I graduated from the “best” culinary school in the world. The fact is I am just like any other young cook. Still learning and when people ask me questions I often say I do not know because I do not want to give them false answers. True I may know more than the average person, but I cannot tell you how to make some dish from a cuisine I am unfamiliar about. The truth is the CIA and most culinary schools teach you the basics to hopefully create a successful cook that will become a chef one day.
Dress code at the CIA
The CIA is different from many colleges in many fashions but the first thing you will notice is the dress code! All Associates students have to dress in their chef whites. All BPS has to be in business casual. Anytime you are in the main building( Roth Hall) or in class. You can get kicked out of the building if you are out of dress code. Also you have to be clean shaven and no beards at all! A mustache is ok. No four o clock shadows. It’s annoying sometimes because you’re in casual wear and have to change into your whites to grab food.
“On Food and Cooking” By Harold McGee
If you were to buy one book about food it would be this book. Every chef has read it. It is the only book you really use at the CIA. It basically talks about the science of food. “The Modernist Cuisine” is like “On Food and Cooking” but with pictures and recipes. If you are really interesting in learning about food and how everything works, buy this book or attend the CIA and it will be one of the books given to you.
The 5 mother sauces
1. Hollandaise
2.Veloute
3.Sauce Tomato
4.Sauce espagnole
5.Bechamel
Important sauces because they are the foundation of classic French cuisine. They build almost all their sauces from these 5 different sauces. They drill the five sauces into you head at the CIA. You do not hear much about the five mother sauces now a days because a lot of places don’t really use it. You see a lot of jus today.
For you future culinary students here is how I remembered the five sauces.
1. Hollandaise- the only emulsion sauce, pain in the ass to keep from breaking until you find the trick(future post)
2. Bechamel- the white sauce, just a white roux and diary
3. veloute- blond sauce, blond roux with stock.
4. Espagnole- fortified beef stock with a brown roux, used in demi.
5. Sauce tomato- the sauce i always forget, just your basic tomato sauce.
The block system at the CIA
The school is based on a 3 week block system. Academic classes can be 2+ blocks. All kitchen classes excluding Culinary Fundamental is 1 block. My thoughts on the block system? It sucks! Everything felt rushed. Say I wanted to learn more about Asian cuisine, I would not be able to take additional classes to learn about it. Most of the classes are just designed to give you a broad understanding of what they are teaching and move you along as the next class behind you fills the spots.
You will become use to one chef and how he/she likes everything done, then BOOM! New classroom, new chef, new rules. I definitely did not like the block system, the one good thing was that if you did not like a chef you won’t have to see them for long.
Grades
When I first went to the CIA, I wanted to be the best by getting the best grades. After externship, I just have given up. Up until externship my GPA was 3.8. 6 weeks prior to my graduation AKA “restaurant row” my grade was 3.69. I graduated with a 3.5. My grade drastically dropped during my last year and I could have prevented a lot of things, but at some point you just figure out the grades are very biased. You can be busting your ass off in class and if the chef does not notice you because he is too busy screaming at one kid, you will just fly with a B.
People barely fail classes at the CIA. In the baking program, I am told from friends, that chefs do not fail you because they do not want you retaking the class, which would be with the same chef because the baking program is smaller and has less chefs.
I’ve seen a girl beg for the chef to change her C to a higher grade because she was on the path of being valedictorian. She was smart, but in kitchen classes she could not perform. The chef gave her an A because she wrote a study guide for his future classes.
You see what I am getting at here? The grades at the CIA are very biased on how the chefs are feeling, how they like you, and also which chefs you get. Some chef in Cuisine of Asias maybe super nice and give everyone A’s, the other chef might be a dick and give the class all C’s.
I’m not saying don’t work hard at Culinary school because it is what you put into it, but don’t expect A’s even if you bust your ass off.
Foie Gras
I live in California where foie gras is banned. I went to school in the Hudson Valley of New York, where one of the three foie gras production facilities are located.
Chefs at the CIA love foie gras. There is foie terrines, truffles and foie, sauteed foie, it is just endless in French cuisines
My view on foie gras: I can live without foie gras, it is sort of like eating butter to me. Does not taste like something I’d die for. Although, I did like it in a beef wellington in Las Vegas. I do not like the ban and protest on foie gras. I think chefs should be able to cook with it. The whole duck is being used as opposed to other hot topics such as shark fin which I find is disgusting. Everyone has a right to their own opinion though. It sucks that the foie gras company in California closed though and that chefs have to go underground with the foie gras. It seems a bit silly to me.
I staged at some restaurants in California and I have seen higher end restaurants use foie gras even though it is banned. Chefs just cannot get enough of foie gras.
If you want to share your opinion on foie gras, just comment below.
Extremely Early Classes
Yes, you may have heard the CIA has some classes starting at 12am, 1am, 3am. What classes are those, the 12am class is the bread baking for Apple Pie Bakery Cafe. I did not have this class but I had friends who took it. It was either a hit or miss depending on the person.
The 1 and 3 am classes are both breakfast cookery classes. The class you take right before you go on your externship. It may seem horrible to wake up so early and work, but I actually did not mind it. I got use to the schedule and to have most of your evenings free was GREAT! Besides breakfast is not as difficult to prep as other meal times. Less precise cuts and lots of eggs. I had a blast during breakfast class. People are in a good mood because they are about to go on their externship.
I laugh when my friends complain about their 8am classes, so stop complaining everyone!
Just a Cook 