Wednesday, 5/5/10 – Level 3 Day 9 (Happy Cinco de Mayo!)

Gooood news everyone! You are now looking at (a.k.a. reading from) a real-life ServeSafe Certified cook! Woo hoo! According to the National Restaurant Association, I am, in their eyes, educated enough to recognize health concerns and hazards in a kitchen environment! I have a shiny new stamped certificate to prove it, and plan on adding this to my resume STAT. I thought I botched that scantron test a few weeks ago, but I actually passed with flying colors.

To be honest, I wasn't incredibly pleased with my performance last night in our first class working solo. I've made Chicken Grand Mere so many times now, but I had kind of a rude awakening. My problem was that I assumed I had so much time, and was leisurely peeling pearl onions and turning potato cocottes…all of a sudden we had 25 minutes left and I was scrambling. In the end, I was only 5 minutes late, but my pearl onions weren't sufficient and my potatoes rissoler were subpar. Part of the problem was that we each had an oven, a single burner and a half of a flat top to work with, which poses some difficult problems for a dish that has four different vegetable garnitures to cook separately and a sauce to reduce. If you've ever tried to cook anything on a flat top, it's basically like cooking on an open fire: it's either too hot or not hot enough.

When I finally presented my dish, there was a sort of back-up to get to the Chefs. By the time I got up there, Chef took his dry erase marker and wrote '6 mins late' on my plate. "Um, Chef? Hi, it's Jackie. In my defense, I was up here at 5-after," but the look he gave me clearly said "late is late." In the end, I had a great jus, my chicken was a beautiful golden brown and portioned correctly, and my bacon lardons and mushrooms were nice. The potatoes weren't great, duh, and thank goodness Chef didn't taste the onions…

So I learned that I need to pick up the pace and work with a purpose, even if it seems I have all the time in the world, and I need to learn how to better regulate my flat top, because I won't survive without it. I think I've got the basics down, and the skills I need to survive, I just need to work on timing.

After we presented our dishes (the other half of the class worked on Consommé) we quickly cleaned up the kitchen, had about 2 minutes to shove something in our stomachs and had to run across the hall to start our wine class. The French Culinary Institute does an amazing job training us on the full culinary experience, which inevitably includes wine pairings for the delicious food we create. Many people claim that French food is too strong and intense, often too salty, but it's important to remember that the entire cuisine is built around the assumption that you will be consuming acidic wine while eating. Salt and acidity are perceived with the same flavor receptors, so if you have a glass of wine before dinner, the seasoning in the food you eat will be underplayed and overlooked – so it must be increased!

Everyone who knows me understands that I'm not a huge drinker. I rarely have a drink, wine included, and am happy at a bar with a Diet Coke or (gasp!) water. Some might think this is lame, and I'm prepared for your comments, but it's just not something I enjoy. The part that frustrates my dear husband, I think, is that I always act like I'm totally up for it, coming home with bottles of wine and margarita mixes and ordering $15 cocktails at expensive Manhattan clubs. Inevitably, I drink about $3 worth of that cocktail, and he ends up finishing my entire glass of wine he poured at the beginning of dinner. I guess part of me deep down wishes I enjoyed a nice Cabernet or an expensive Caribbean rum…I just don't. I was, however, very excited for wine class. As much as I don't enjoy wine, I sure like to act like I know what I'm talking about so a little bit of professional education doesn't hurt.

We started with a lecture by one of the instructors at FCI, who spent several years as the executive chef at a famous Napa Valley winery and made it her personal goal to become a sommelier. She went through the basics: region of origin, grape varieties, flavor factors, etc. We then tasted the "Big 6": Riesling, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Since this was an educational experience, and because we hadn't eaten dinner and some of my classmates are under 21, we were asked to simply swish and spit out the wine, instead of swallowing it. That was good news for me, because I get even sillier and more flushed after sipping red wine on an empty stomach (more than I already am naturally, that is). After smelling and swishing, we were asked to record our thoughts, including any flavors and aromas we perceived. Note: I am terrible at distinguishing tastes and smells…and am amazed by people who smell "Granny Smith apples, with a hint of English nutmeg and Christmas morning." Bull…how is that possible?? My notes look a little something like this:

Riesling: Smells like gasoline, sweet and winey

Sauvignon Blanc: Cat pee? Grapey and tastes like wine

Chardonnay: Wine-ish?

Pinot Noir: Made mouth tingle, tasted like fermented red grapes

Merlot: More tingle, less grape-ish. Hint of subway (transit system not sandwich chain)

Cabernet Sauvignon: Most tingle, tastes like raisins (grapes?)

So Le Cirque won't be hiring me as their next famous sommelier, but I think I did pretty well…it's all subjective anyways. Where I smelled cat pee, others smelled "fresh cilantro, spring fava beans and avocado rind." Seriously people?? Crazy enough, there's actually a kid in my class who works in the tasting department at Wine Spectator, so maybe if I sit next to him on Friday I'll smell something different.

With all of the "serve this with that" and "don't drink that with this" rules that exist out there, we were left with a solid guideline for future wine pairings, something that is helpful for all of you at home as well: never let your food be sweeter than your wine!