Herbs and Vegetables

Yesterday was my first day in lab and I'm happy to report that I didn't burn anything, cut any appendages, or get yelled at by Chef Stephan (who, by the way, is a dead ringer for Bruce Willis).  Class started at 8:30 AM with a two hour lecture on herbs and vegetables.  Chef Stephan passed around about fifteen different types of herbs that we had to smell, feel and taste and then describe the flavors- much like wine tasting.  The hard part was, he would pass around something like rosemary, for example.  We'd taste it and he would ask, "now what does this taste like?"  In my head, I was thinking, "well...it tastes like rosemary."  His goal was to make us breath in the herbs slowly and taste them through our noses in order to decide whether they were earthy, robust, sweet, etc.  He really helped us understand how to use them so that they best compliment the dish and don't overpower the food you are preparing.  

After lecture, Chef Stephan went through about ten different recipes that were herb or vegetable based and we each got to choose the one we wanted.  I picked a Hungarian mushroom soup with a mixture of portabella and dried porcini mushrooms, garnished with an herbed sour cream mixture.  Without any further instruction, we were let loose in the kitchen to gather our ingredients and start preparing our dish.  Talk about intimidating!  Luckily, I wasn't the only one with a dazed, I don't really know what I'm doing, type of look on my face.  

For the next three hours we worked as the chef and assistant chef would walk around and shadow us.  Chef Stephan certainly wasn't hesitant to tell us if we were doing something wrong, but all in all, he was pretty patient.  Sometimes I felt like he would look at me like I was stupid if I asked a question, but I think it's just his demeanor- I've found they don't smile very much up here.  When my soup was almost done, Chef guided me through proper seasoning technique. It's going to be really hard for me to get used to cooking without measuring cups and spoons, but he says that is the goal of real cooking.  

Little by little, everyone's food started to come together.  After they were done, we got to present our dish and give a sampling to the class.  We then had a critique session where we explained how we prepared it and then received feedback from others.  People were really complimentary of my soup- little did they know that it was the Chef's amazing seasoning at the end that made it so delicious!  Other yummy items were a sweet potato ice cream (sounds weird but was delicious), gazpacho, and an herbed frittata.  

I came home completely mentally and physically drained but I'm so excited about tomorrow's lab about fruits and spices!

Mangia bene, stare bene,

Molly