Fish Course

Seven Course Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables prepared in Classic French Technique
FCI Final Project
April 10, 2007

Atlantic Cod in Coconut-Ginger Sauce with Upo and Star Fruit

Ingredients (4 servings)
200g Atlantic cod
1 upo (winter melon)
100ml fish stock
200ml coconut milk
1 tblsp grated ginger
1 jalapeno, remove seeds and emincee
patis (fish sauce), to taste
pepper
1 star fruit
peanut oil for deep frying
cilantro sprig

Procedure

Fish

1. Clean, skin and debone cod. Portion into 50g per serving.

Upo

1. Peel upo and spoon out the spongy center. Cut into 7in. x 2in. rectangles, and cut those across to form two right angle triangles (3 per serving). Poach in fish stock until tender and set aside. Keep warm.

Coconut-ginger sauce

1. Reduce fish stock by half.
2. Add coconut milk, ginger and jalapenos. Simmer until lightly nappant. Taste and adjust seasoning with fish sauce and pepper. Strain and keep warm.

Garnish

1. Thinly slice star fruit (1 per serving) and deep fry in oil 350F-375F until golden. Remove and drain on paper.
2. Pick fresh cilantro sprig and prepare very thin slices of jalapeno (4 per serving).

Finish

1. Season and steam cod in a little fish stock.
2. Arrange upo triangles on the bottom of a shallow bowl. Spoon on sauce.
3. Place cod on top and spoon additional sauce.
4. Garnish cod with fried start fruit and cilantro sprig. Garnish sauce with jalapeno slices.

Salad

Seven Course Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables prepared in Classic French Technique
FCI Final Project
April 10, 2007

Pickled Asian Pear with Persimmon-Jicama Salad, Kalamansi Citronette

Ingredients (4 servings)
2 Asian pears
100ml rice wine vinegar
salt
sugar
5g pine nuts

4 persimmons
1 jicama
5g microgreens
50ml kalamansi juice
100ml blended olive oil
salt

Procedure

Pickled Asian Pear

1. Combine rice wine vinegar and equal pinches of salt and sugar in a small bowl.
2. Core pear and thinly slice, allowing three slices per plate. Place pear slices in the vinegar pickling liquid and let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Toast pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant. Set aside.

Persimmon and Jicama Salad, Kalamansi Citronette

1. Combine kalamansi juice and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in oil. Taste and adjust seasoning.
2. Cut persimmon and jicama into julienne. Combine with microgreens and lightly dress with the citronette.
3. Serve three slices of pickled Asian pear garnished with toasted pine nuts alongside the persimmon-jicama salad.

Appetizer

Seven Course Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables prepared in Classic French Technique
FCI Final Project
April 10, 2007

Kamote & Plantain Fries with Mango Mayonnaise and Guava-Sesame Sauce

Ingredients (4 servings)
4 kamote (japanese sweet potato)
4 plantain
Peanut oil for deep frying
Salt

Mango Mayonnaise
1 mango
1 egg yolk
150ml vegetable oil
20ml white vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper
mint

Guava-Sesame Sauce
200ml guava nectar
2 tsp guava jelly
30g shallts, ciselee
25ml rice wine vinegar
1 tsp dark sesame oil
1/8 tsp toasted sesames
salt and freshly ground pepper

Procedure

Kamote and Plantain Fries

1. Peel and cut kamote and plantain into pommes frites - 7cm x 8mm (2 3/4 in. x 5/16 in.)
2. For the kamote, follow the two-step method for deep frying: Poach in oil at 300F-320F until tender but without coloration. Finish to order by frying in oil 350F-375F until golden brown and crisp.
3. For the plantain, follow the one-step method for deep frying: To order fry in oil 350F-375F until golden brown and crisp.
4. Drain kamote and plantain on paper and season immediately with salt.

Mango Mayonnaise

1. Peel the mango, chop the flesh, and puree in food processor.
2. Combine yolks and salt in stainless-steel bowl and whisk until thick.
3. Start incorporating the oil, drop by drop, whisking continuously until you have an emulsion. Once an emulsion is formed, add the rest of the oil in a thin, steady stream.
4. Add the vinegar and mango puree. Taste and adjust seasoning. Refriderate until ready to serve.
5. Garnish with mint chiffonade.

Guava-Sesame Sauce

1. Combine the guava nectar, guava jelly and shallots in a small sautoir. Cook over medium heat for 5 mins until guava jelly dissolves.
2. Add rice wine vinegar and dark sesame oil and whish to combine. Continue to simmer until nappant. Taste and adjust seasoning. Keep warm until ready to serve.
3. Garnish with toasted sesames.

Amuse Bouche

Seven Course Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables prepared in Classic French Technique
FCI Final Project
April 10, 2007

Papaya Goat Cheese Tartlet

Ingredients

50g Puff pastry

Butter and flour for molds

Egg wash

40g Papaya, cut into small cubes

10g Goat cheese

Chives, finely minced

Procedure

1. Prepare puff pastry in the standard way or purchase frozen and allow to thaw.
2. Preheat oven 375°F.
3. Butter and flour four small decorative tart molds (Ideally, 4.5 cm x 1.5 cm).
4. Roll puff pastry out to 1/16 inch thickness. Cut with 5cm ring mold, dock, and gently form into tart molds. Rest in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
5. Line tart molds with parchment paper and weigh down with dry beans. Blind bake at 375°F for 10 minutes. Remove beans and parchment and unmold.
6. Brush the inside and outside of tart shell lightly with egg wash.
7. Bake for an additional 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove and cool on rack.
8. Peel papaya and remove seeds. Cut into small cubes and set aside.
9. Soften goat cheese with a fork.
10. Use a small spoon or pastry bag to put a small dollop of goat cheese on the bottom of the tart shell.
11. Mound papaya brunoise on top and garnish with minced chives.

Chef Tyler Florence

While at the FCI, I was given the opportunity to work with Chef Tyler Florence. When I got this email, my head almost exploded...

"Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for your response to the event. We'd be really happy for you to come out to Armonk and help with the Citigroup dinner on Wednesday 20th September. We'll arrange transportation for pick-up from FCI in the morning and drop-off at the end of the night. You'll need your knives and chef whites and we'll be doing prep and service with the kitchen staff at the retreat. Service is for 90 people, and it should be a good experience and fun event. I will confirm the pick-up time and other details on Monday.

Event: Armonk, Citigroup Dinner for Top Customers Worldwide
Chef: Tyler Florence
Dinner: Upscale Italian - 4 courses (90 people)
When: Wed 20 September 2006
Volunteers: 2
Bring: Chef whites, knives
Work: Prep and cook during the day, service during dinner

Thanks,
Anthony Hoy Fong
Culinary Director, Tyler Florence TV"

Read the article I about the event HERE. It was picked up by the FCI blog: The Hot Plate.

Here are a few more pictures from the event:



And, yes, it was weird being around Citigroup folks again, but the whole experience was so great it still makes me consider corporate dining as a career option.

The French Culinary Institute

Entering the real world with an undergraduate degree in Quantitative Economics got me just where I was supposed to be - working for such companies as World Savings (now Wachovia), Morgan Stanley, BearingPoint (now bankrupt), Citigroup, and Fannie Mae. Basically, the who’s who in evil banking/mortgage dudes. After 5 years of closing bank branches (read as: dissolving lots of jobs), public relations (read as: lying to the press about crooked brokers), and consulting on corporate governance (read as: covering up screw-ups with fancy words and charts), I had my fill. I’d been suppressing my desire to become a chef since high school, and eventually realized if I wanted to make the leap, I should do it now – before marriage and kids – when I had the money and it was still okay to be selfish and spend it all on myself. And I got out of that hell hole just in time.

I attended the 9 month FCI Culinary Arts program from July 2007 to May 2008. There were four levels, although I think now there are six. Level One was the basics. In each class we would focus on one item – one day, stocks; the next day, soup; the next, chicken. We were partnered up and graded on our plates at the end of the day. At the end of every week, we were tested on vocabulary and basic recipes. The chef instructors were all militant strict old French, Ukrainian, and American chefs with thick accents and tattoos. They yelled and berated and told us our food sucked. When we eventually did do something right, we were rewarded with only a silent nod. Three people dropped out by the end of the first month. I thought it was all so very hardcore and exciting.

In Level Two we rotated stations - Garde Manger (cold station - salads, soups), Poissonier (fish), Saucier (meats), Pastry and family meal. Family meal was, for me anyways, the absolute worst station, as it was spent making dinner for the students and faculty (read as: breaking down 100 chickens). The whole of Level Two is devoted to preparation for the midterm. Two practiced dishes were drawn at random and we had an hour to complete it. Judges watched our every move, quietly ticking points on and off. By the end, we plated for four additional judges who were sitting in the next room, knife and fork in hand.

In Levels Three and Four, students are moved to FCI’s restaurant, “L’Ecole.” Here we rotated stations and prepped one or two dishes. After a two minute pep talk and a couple hours of prepping (chop, slice, marinate, parboil), orders start coming in at 8 o'clock sharp. A big black board in the front of the kitchen holds the orders, "order up!" and "fire!" are being called out by a big French chef with a thick accent. After deciphering that he was saying 4 lamb, 6 salmon, and 2 veg plates, pots clang, food is flung and plates appear under the warming lamp. It is during these last levels that I gained the new satisfaction that comes from knowing the food you create is actually being eaten by paying customers. Even better is the adrenaline rush that comes from working in a professional kitchen. There is no time for hesitation, second-guessing, or excuses. If you make a mistake, you fix it and move on. The heat is all-consuming, the challenges come every second, and the movement is constant. It's a feeling I could never get sitting behind a computer, in a conference room or in front of a client. I fell in love with it. Blink and it's over. Blink again and it resets.

Upon graduation, I was awarded “Graduate with Distinction” - ranked #2 in my class. I also won “Best Final Project” for A Tasting of Philippine Fruits and Vegetables, an original seven course tasting menu of Philippine fruits and vegetables prepared using classic French techniques. Finally, something I loved to do that I was actually pretty great at.

You know those people who love their jobs? Well, I'm not quite there yet, but now I feel like it's a real possibility.

My tiny space on the web.

My plan is to treat this blog much like I would brand new chef's whites - slowly stained with the colors of my culinary trails and tribulations... (gag)

Okay, so that was bad. I have to say creating a blog is easy in concept, tedious in execution. It took me the good part of a month to come up with the title. After some seriously punny ideas - food&whine (taken), my thyme (taken), how to blog water (will never be taken) - a friend suggested "the girl in whites". The most intriguing and a literal fact. Blogging also makes me reevaluate my writing style. Attaining a balance of detail, honesty, wit and humor without sounding forced is exhausting and the self-scrutinizing and editing is constant. In short, I take a big deep breath before I hit "Publish Post", but maybe that's just me.

And who is me? I'm a career changer from finance to professional chef. I went to FCI for culinary arts, was a line cook at Nobu, and am now trying to start up my own catering/cooking school/private cheffing company. Since it is the most awesome time economically for me to embark on this, in the meantime I'm experimenting in my tiny kitchen, creating a portfolio of original recipes and freelancing to keep my skill level up.

This is my little place to blog about culinary school, professional kitchens, and other food-related randomness. I know it's probably only family and friends reading, but that's fine with me.

So here I go - the girl in whites - ready to make a mess. (gag)