Day 1 of Week 7 focused entirely on starches. Some of us made grits, others made pilaf and Chef made risotto. All of it was good. I ate all of it. My new team and I were assigned the pilaf, which is basically just herb-infused boiled rice. We did an okay job, but it would have been better if we had used more herbs since it was a little bland. I believe that pilaf is supposed to have a sort of earthy taste. If not then we did it entirely wrong. But it was fun to cook as it normally is. We have to learn the basics before we can begin the complexities of cooking.
Day 2 of Week 7 entitled the breaking down of the chickens. We definitely made our headless chicken dance to the the chicken song. It was disgusting, and I’ll never break one down again if I can help it. As one person in my group said, “You [Jim] scare me with a knife”. In theory I understand how to break a chicken down, but in practice I have no idea. It would take a lot of practice for me to be able to accomplish this quickly and well.
The process includes removing the wishbone, hyper-extending joints and saving the oyster muscle. There’s definitely more to it than that, but I don’t feel like typing up every step. So there it is. Not only is removing the guts from a chicken disgusting, but the whole process of breaking down a chicken is just fairly difficult overall. I suck at it as I have already stated, so if any future students of Chef’s class read this, just be ready to struggle.
AHA Moment
There are a lot of things that I am either ignorant of, or am unwilling to learn. It’s important to be aware of one’s weaknesses, and it’s important to be okay with not knowing everything. But that doesn’t mean that you should become complacent with knowing what you know, and refusing to expand your knowledge and challenge yourself. If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling backwards, and this is essentially the definition of complacency. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s just thinking of yourself less.
Maison de Gastronomie 