The Culinary Institute of America: Flavor Dynamics

It has been a while since my last post.  I have a list of stuff that I want to accomplish/ do before I die, and one more thing on that list has been complete!  I have officially attended culinary school through the CIA.  I took the advanced class on flavor dynamics starting on January 3rd, and I was very excited.  Even though I had to wake up at 6am for class everyday, for some reason, I didn't really mind.  It was really like a dream come true.

The class schedule was similar to a normal science class  w/ lab at rutgers.

In the morning, we would have lecture for an hour and break for breakfast at 8am.  Bagels were fresh delivered everyday.  Afterwards, we would go on to food/ flavor tasting and more discussion.  We tried a plethora of herbs, and basic cooking ingredients.  There was also a herb/ spice  pop quiz on one of those days.  See if you can name these by looking/ smelling them: Szechwan peppercorn, star anise, juniper berry, curry powder, caraway seeds, cinnamon, coriander seeds, chervil, cilantro, sage, tarragon, dill, rosemary, thyme, and oregano.  I got one wrong (too bad tests were not always like this-- I would ace school and really enjoy going to class).  

For lunch, we were split up into 6 teams.  Two teams make the same five dishes for lunch, and we eat, then get critiqued by the chef.  We had two hours to prep lunch, and it was pretty fun.  I felt like we were on Iron chef america, but at busch dining hall.  After lunch, we would have another food tasting and lecture.  I've never eaten so much in a week, but it was a great experience.  

just more about food

hello.  It has been a while since my last post due to exams/ being lazy.  I will attempt to keep this post short, as my other entries have been flooded with extraneous details.
Well, The culinary club finally got approved after I met with the rutgers sanitarian and the dean of student affairs (She has been so busy that it took her a week to respond to a email...). Join if you are interested. If you have any ideas, please let me or let one of the officers know.  I am excited to get this club on a rolling start at the end of the semester.  Also, our first event is sushi night, the Thursday after thanksgiving break (dec 2).  Due to biological pathogens that may invade our food, no raw fish (including spicy tuna) will be served.  Orders go in on the coming Tuesday for this event.  So far have seaweed, bell peppers, soy paper sushi wrappers, bell peppers, immitation crabmeat, avocados, bell peppers, eel, cucumber, bell peppers, and smoked salmon as the ingredients.  Leave a comment, or contact one of the officers if you would like to have more/less of an ingredient, or if you have an idea for a different kind of cooked sushi.  Come early, or there may not be any bell pepper rolls left.  We only have 1400 rolls (if we can even make that many). Sushi line opens at 4pm at the faculty condiment bar.
Now, back to the undercover operation at the dining hall.  I have made little progress, but little progress is better than none.  It turns out that every single sauce for the chinese food section is no longer being ordered because I told them I could make two different sauces.  They must have misheard two for a hundred.  Now, I have the extra responsibility of making sure that the chinese section has enough sauces to last the week.  I don't mind the extra work to make the food better, but the other chinese ladies do.  They know that if I leave, they will be making the sauce.  Extra work = no good for chinese lady.  Everytime I go to work, there is this tension when I see a certain someone.  Surprisingly, its not AAL or whatever that other acronym is, it's chinese 1.  Chinese 1 is always pushing me around to do things so she doesn't have to do them- unfortunately for her, I am not a slave, and I do not tolerate these kinds of people.  She asked me to marinade meat for her, and of course I said yes.  I added the usual seasonings to the meat as she was standing with her hands propped at her hips, staring into space.  When I finished, I put the meat into the fridge.  She had some shrimp in front of the fridge as well, and she wanted me to put it in.  After storing the food, she scolds me to not pushing the container for marinading back to the dish room.  I figured that I was doing a favor for her already, and she has the nerve to scream at me?  At that point,  I was so pissed off at her nasty tone that I snapped, or in the chinglish dialect, I "ma"-ed her back.  I screamed at her in chinese and told her to not ask me to do crap for her again.  The other wok lady was there as well (we'll call her chinese N because she is pretty nice to me)  didn't want to get involved, so she disappeared.  I went to tell another chinese lady cutting salad that i'm pretty chill with (let's call her Taiwan C, for being taiwnese and chill), and Taiwan C told me not to worry cause Chinese 1 is causing problems for many people, and she won't last long here.  It turns out that Taiwan C started out working at the wok, but she couldn't handle it because of AAL.  I feel like as if I am unfolding everyone's story the longer I work at the dining hall.  Another piece of dining hall trivia- Nancy, the chinese ninja swiping cards in the front is 74 years old, and her husband and two daughter are doctors.  She's been swiping for forty years!
Since I already wrote quite a bit, I might as well keep going and finish what I have to say.  So much for being succinct.
I had a discussion with chef pete recently, and he has a 80% chance of being shipped to livingston commons when it opens in January.  As most students can tell, they need someone there that has experience, because they are really incapable at the moment.  I hear that Chef Pete was shipped off to brower before as well, and AAL was jumping for joy, but after only thirty minutes, chef Pete came back because he could not handle all the people there.  I hear that AAL was not happy with his return at all. Hopefully Chef pete will fair better at livingston.  He has also requested that I go there with him to help set up the new dining facility.  I really want to go work there so I have fresh brick oven pizza to eat, but it's a little out of my way.  I'll think about it when the time comes.  If I do go, it might be better off for me, but who knows what's going to happen with the chinese food.  On top chef pete leaving, I learned today that Maria may be leaving as well.  The chinese ladies were so happy to hear this because they are not really fond of chef or Maria.  (It's a shame that they are not fond of Maria because she wants workers to do extra work to make the pasta line better).  Maria told me that she might be running the brick oven, or just leaving rutgers for good.
I have said enough in one post.  Please don't forget that sushi night is Thursday, Dec 2nd, and be sure to try the promo of the night,  the bell pepper roll.

attitude

I went in for an extra shift this past Saturday on my quest to make the Chinese food better, and as usual, I ran into many problems.  Great, I can marinade the beef to make it tender, but to make cheap cuts edible, baking soda has to be added to tenderize the beef.  No probs, we have good tasting cheap meat right?  Well, it turns out that too much baking soda is not so good for your health.  I will be discussing this situation at work tomorrow with the chef.  Another thing I noticed was that so many people didn't care about what they were doing at all.  When I go in for work, the Chinese ladies at the wok are happy because I take work off their back, one of the ladies (we'll call her Chinese 1) basically treats me like a servant.  Chinese 1 said she has worked in the restaurant for so many years, and she can make hundreds of different sauces, but does she make any for the students?  There really is no point in telling people that you are highly skilled if you are not willing to use the skill. She came a year ago, and with her attitude, I won't be surprised if she gets laid off or fired.  Chinese 1 is always telling me to do things so she doesn't have to do it, but when I try to tell her to make it better for the students by changing one little thing, she doesn't want to hear it.  Chinese 1 just tells me, "we don't do it like that.  If you want to, you can do it that way."   It's pretty sad that she got hired with that kind of motivation.  Chinese 1 and I actually had a pretty intense argument in chinese (idk how i survived raising my voice in mandarin lol) and when we finished, the lady working the omelette line, along with all the other students stared at us with blank faces.
 I was talking to chef Brian, the other head chef, for a while when I was working and he said they tried to train people to do things differently, but they only do it when the chef is looking.  Afterwards, the workers went back to their old ways, therefore we still get crappy food.
The people running the wok claim they are so busy, but they actually are not.  They make it look like they are busy.  They are also afraid to improve the food because it would make them busier if they sold too much.  I despise people with attitudes like this.  No matter what job you do, you should do your best.  I don't care if you're scrubbing toilets or cooking pasta.  If you don't want to try your hardest, then just don't work.
Who knows, I may just go back to cutting broccoli for the pasta line.  Maria is a genuinely nice person, unlike AAL and her crew.  Sushi night is now planned for Thurs, Dec 2 (no one could get their paperwork in on time, and some of them are still dragging their feet -_-).  Also, I can't wait to get my (assistant) chef jacket with my name on it!  I'm sick of wearing red Rutgers dining shirts.  Hopefully I can make more progress this week.

Infiltration Step 2: Complete

So I must've been so excited to go work today because I woke up at 8:10 without and alarm clock and couldn't go back to sleep.  I drag myself to the dining hall and arrive at 8:45.  I wanted to get to the dining hall earlier so I could beat AAL to the stove and fix the marinated meat.  FAIL.The moment I walk in, all the meat is already cooked.  I didn't want to start off the day in a bad direction so i avoided AAL.  I go and start prepping sauces.  I made 60 gallons of sweet and sour- the real stuff at the real chinese restaurants, and 50 gallons spicy garlic sauce- the stuff that goes on general tsos chicken and other sorts of americanized chinese food.  The flavor was mad good (thank goodness, because I didn't really know how it would come out).  . Anyways, I start prepping for fried rice.  Chopped ham and scallions for some time and as I was using the machine to chop up the ham, I stuck my hand in the machine too and it ground up some of my hand as well.  jk hehe.  Then i went to the wok station.  There was an unusually high amount of tension because I was there, along with chef pete, but we managed.  We tested the sweet and sour on chicken nuggets, leftovers from takeout.  The sauce was good, but as usual, the chicken wasn't.  I talked to AAL, and she said she calls the wok station a "sanitation department" because all the leftover steak, beef, chicken nuggets, and the leftover food on students plates go to her station.

As it came to opening time, one of the ladies were mad nasty, telling me to leave them alone.  I smiled at her-- then walked away lolzz.   AAL calmed down today because she saw that there was no choice but to deal with me.  I got her boss behind my back, and whatever he says, goes.  I started making my fried rice, and it was an improvement from the usual fried rice, but the rice needs to be changed, and there nothing I can do about that because chinese rice is too expensive.  Other people told me to back off too because they were afraid that the wok ladies would scold me, but I just told them I don't care if they scold or hit me.  They forgot to consider my bro past.  When I was a kid, I was the ghetto bro on the block.  Hell, I never listened to my rents, and now i'm immune to ppl screaming at me because of them.  No matter how loud y'all holla at me, i aint hearing nothin-  it's one of my own brodaptations.  All them women were ignorin me when I did them some stir fry, but I kept making my fried rice like a chill bro.
After working the wok for a while, I went back and started peeling onions, and after that moment, idk what happened, but everyone just calmed down.  AAL was not as angry, and the wok ladies started to be a bit kinder.  I went back to cook, and made some tofu, beef stir fry, and more fried rice.  Then, one of the ladies approached me, and we started talking.  We started off with why i'm here and all this other crap.  A few mins later, we got to the meat of the conversation.  Why is the food so bad?   

Its not that the ppl there cant cook.  They have tons more restaurant exp. than I do (more like 27 and 18 years experience).  She told me this is not a restaurant, and that thousands of students come in to eat everyday.  If they made raw chicken to order, no food would ever get out to the students.  I sort of understand their situation, but i'm nowhere near giving up.  I told them to add more marinade (nvm, I just added more seasoning to the meat marinade myself...who cares what they think).  

I talked to other ppl running the wok, and they all told me their story, and their opinion.  They also said that if I told them anything they said to chef pete (especially the fact that they have so much experience, and all the other rebellious crap), they would get fired and would have to live in my house cause they won't have any money.  I don't think I would mind that thou, I always wanted a private chef :).

So, now that I have infiltrated the wok station, it is time to being phase three- reform.  I will try to make new sauces, and teach them not to overcook the meat and vegetables.  Hopefully they will listen since they are sort of chill with me being there now (yo, they are smart to be chill with me.  I'm like and extra bro cooking the food, and taking some of the work off their backs.  It just took them time to get it), but who knows, they could be just as moody as AAL.  I hope to see more improvement as the weeks progress.

(Just letting you know, that the leftover food on plates really goes to pigs, not students lol)

We deserve better food because we pay for it

Everyone may have reasons for why the dining hall food should be better, but my understanding is that chef Pete wants better chinese food, so that more ppl will come to the dining hall.  The more ppl that dine at busch, the more props we get. YEE sonnnnnn.  Anyways, angry asian lady (we'll call her AAL) thinks that she will have so much more work, but if she had a brain, she would not have said that.  Sure there will be more work in the beginning, but as we streamline the process, it will get easier as days come along (everything gets easier as you do more of it, other than organic chem...).  I might make it look like everyone in the dining hall is a slacker, but there are a few hard workers in there working for the students.  For example,  Maria, who is in charge of the pasta line is always bending her back to work for the students.  She always asks for new ingredients to put on rotation so that we don't get bored of the food. (Next time you see her in the pasta line, thank her for all the hard work she does for the students.  She really does bend her back for you guys).
Now to deal with AAL on thursday... Because of the current situation, there are 2 routes of action I can take. I can remain reasonable, respectable, and kind, or I can make her life a living hell.  Treating her the same way she treated me might sound cool, but idk if i'm that kind of person. (As some of you know, i seem mellow at times, but if you get me angry enough, i will hunt you down until you are miserable for the rest of your life- just stay on my good side and you'll be fine lol).  Let me know what you think I should do.
Anyways, I will give it my all on thursday and unleash my knowledge and skill set to the dining hall workers working (or pretending to work) the wok station.  Whether the process of making good food is enforced is out of my hands- that would be up to chef pete.  Hopefully I get out of there alive.  Sticks and stones (and asian cleavers in this case) may break my bones, but words will (hopefully) never hurt me (you never know with chinese ppl...).
BTW, if you ever need to approach someone at work that you dont like, having their boss back you up really helps.  Another thing about the dining hall- apparently, everyone knew the food was crap, just no one wanted to approach AAL, well because shes crazy!  (maybe we should name her ACCL- angry crazy chinese lady).  I have the support of many of the dining hall workers, and they are proud of me for standing up for them.  They just tell me to watch out for ACCL lol.  I look forward to seeing the result of this reformation.
PS.  If you like doing any of the stuff I do, JOIN THE CULINARY CLUB! yay.

Being Threatened in the dining hall

After chef Pete tried my recipes for sauces and fried rice this weekend, he was ecstatic to improve the chinese food for the students.  Unfortunately, the crazy lady in charge of the wok has a different approach.  Right when I stepped into work, she told me to not tell chef pete too much, as they are going to have to work harder.  (I can already see how hard they are working-  they have peppers cut from 10/23 and they are still not used.  Basically, they don't want to cook shit, or do they lol, so they just stand around and cut peppers and onions all day).  That crazy lady may be mad pissed, but the other chinese workers say that the wok station has been slacking off, so it was about time I got them in shape.  As I said many times, I am at the dining hall for the students, so I will tell chef pete everything I know about  chinese cooking.  I tried explaining new techniques to the angry chinese  lady, but she kept making ridiculous excuses for herself.  I  told her to make ham, egg, and shrimp fried rice, and  her excuse was that ppl are allergic to eggs....THEN EAT THE VEGETARIAN FRIED RICE DAMMIT! That lady doesn't care and has a horrible attitude towards everything in life.  If I were in charge, she would be fired, but i'm not in charge, so I have to deal with her.  Hopefully the other ladies working the wok are nicer.  I will be going in on thursday morning for a chinese food reform.  Hopefully all goes well.   Keep me in your prayers that the angry asian lady doesnt chop my head off with a cleaver.

shedding blood for the team

Remember when I said that you will either learn to use the knife or cut your finger off? Well, i'm on my way to cutting my finger off, that is, if the thumb is a finger.  I was trimming the usual broccoli on thurs and the paring knife slipped and went straight into my thumb on the same hand-  Pretty depressing seeing that I have been cooking for such a long time. 
So, having infiltrated dining services a few weeks ago, I am still scouting out the situation and making progress progressively.  I have seen that the attitude of some of the workers is great, and some just don't give a crap. In my quest to improve the sushi, I was halted by the stacks of paperwork handed to me for my minions to fill out.  This delay in completing the paperwrk had delayed sushi night to either nov 11 or dec 4.  I did however persuade them to order more things for sushi- 200 avocados, soy paper, and fish roe (masago)- along with the usual eel, smoked salmon, and crabmeat. 
Due to the delay in project sushi night, I am beginning my adventure into the wok station- responsible for all the greasy, disgusting tasting stir frys.  I already mentioned not using chicken nuggets to  the chef, but apparently those are leftovers from takeout.  oh well, at least they don't waste.  I happened to wander into the pantry, and there seemed to be many authentic asian ingredients.  I guess the angry old chinese women just don't know how to use it.  After mapping out the general situation, I am going in for extra hours this weekend to make a few sauces, and maybe make a Singapore style rice noodle and fried rice for the chef.  Hopefully we can adopt these recipes soon. 
Also found out that a chinese restaurant chef is working in the dining hall, but he is in the dish room.......