ON THE FRONT LINES - BOURDAIN'S KITCHEN BASICS - DAY ONE

Day One Menu Packet

I've made quite a few New Year's resolutions. Some of the top ones? To eat more. To enjoy more. To understand food more. And well....to cook more. While I immensely enjoy being on the receiving end of the line -- seated at a cozy table, hoping that there will be an amuse-bouche -- I made a promise to myself that it would only be fair to write about food IF I joined the front lines, tied an apron on and actually prepared food myself. I also didn't want to sign up for a quick two-hour class. I wanted immersion. Luckily, I received as a Christmas gift the Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Basics three day boot camp held at Sur La Table (yes, that sweet kitchen store that sells EVERYTHING). And, as I promised in my tweets, I would share each day with you on this blog. The good, the bad and the not so tasty. 

When my morning alarm went off for Day One, I was filled with excitement and anxiety. Was Tom Colicchio already waiting in my kitchen with a challenge? Would I show up to the parking lot and find Anthony Bourdain standing in the center with a bucket of oysters to shuck? Ok...so maybe all of my television watching was getting the best of me. But all I knew from the mini class description was that we were focusing on KNIFE SKILLS. And I'll be honest. My knife skills are at a 1. My knife block is old and I usually find myself chopping with a a small steak knife. It's terrible. So, I knew I needed this class pronto. 

Mis En Place at the Sur La Table kitchen

When I arrived at Sur La Table's back room, I was pleased to find a large kitchen, gorgeous demo station, a square unit of mini chopping stations, and two rows of seating. On each seat was a clipboard with the menu for the day and a rolled up apron. I put on my apron while our instructor, Chef Martin Gilligan, and his Sous Chefs, Emma, Susan and Annie, zipped around the kitchen to get things in order for the class. I took a seat and stared at the mini chopping station before me. I also noticed the very large Chef's knife. Oh man, I thought to myself. Now, I'm in for it. At exactly 11am, Chef Gilligan began the class. He briefly shared his background with us, a 20 year career that began with a degree from The Culinary Institute of America and included Executive Chef positions at the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Four Seasons. He also worked for Anthony Bourdain and when Bourdain finished his latest book, MEDIUM RAW, he contacted Chef Gilligan to implement a class to not only promote the book, but also teach cooking -- Bourdain-style. Gilligan spoke quickly about today's focus: knife skills. He also built our confidence up by reading an excerpt from the book, THE SOUL OF A CHEF. The excerpt spoke of how a Chef with 20 years experience in knife skills veered ever so slightly with his knife during a Master Chef Test. The moral -- even with experience under your belt, you will always be perfecting your knife skills. I liked this and I knew at that moment, Chef Gilligan was going to teach us a lot in three days. Without a moment to waste....it was demo time!

Don't forget to pinch

Our class of about 15 gathered around the demo station. In front of our Chef were 20 knives. He ran through in great detail the different types and their uses. He even showed us a knife handed down to him by his great aunt. It was proof that if you invest in a good knife, it will last for YEARS. He then went on to explain the infamous term -- MIS EN PLACE. For those who speak French, you'll know that this means "everything in place". Mis En Place is essential in cooking. It's organization. It's having all your ingredients in front of you. It's the key factor that allows you to track the rest of your meal and keep things timed perfectly. And...I personally LOVE it. I'm a Virgo so if I could keep my life in total "mis en place", I think I'd never be stressed. In the case of our demo, the mis en place setup was a variety of vegetables, a cutting board, two knives and a rag. Chef Gilligan slowly explained how to hold the knife. YOU MUST PINCH THE BASE OF THE BLADE. You do this with your thumb and index finger. The remaining three fingers wrap around the handle. This is important. It should feel like an extension of your arm. It's not comfortable at first but once you get used to it, the positioning makes you feel extremely confident holding an 8 to 10" knife. He then proceeded to cut a few of the vegetables we wouldn't be chopping at our station, like a green pepper and ginger. He even peeled the ginger with a SPOON! But then I swear TOP CHEF kicked into gear. He announced rather quickly the following vegetables we'd be chopping and the manner we'd be chopping them:

POTATO
Peel (one-way peel or use your pairing knife/eyes or brown marks are unacceptable). Cut all sides and rectangle the potato. Slice three sides and julienne. Block cut the rest into fries.

CARROT
Two-way peel in a quick back and forth motion. Thinly chop the narrow end. Once at the meatier part, begin a 45 degree angle chop. Finally end on a Faux Torne (rotating 45 degree chop). 

CELERY
Chop the celery in half, making sure that it's not longer than your knife. Slice into thin pieces, stack and chop.

GARLIC
Take your peeled garlic clove. Place it toward the bottom of your cutting board. Press your knife flat against the clove and slam down with the palm of your hand.  Once you have a few pressed cloves, rock your knife from 2 to 5 (like on a clock) to mince. 

TOMATO
We're doing a concasse so we're going to take the pairing knife and remove the pit/stem on top by making a small incision. Then, flip the tomato and mark a small x on the bottom. Once this is done, place the tomato into boiling water for 60 seconds, remove, and then place in ice water. This will allow the skin to peel off easily. Once the skin is removed, slice the tomato in half and remove the seeds (fingers will do). Then take half the tomato (flat side on the board) and make thin horizontal cuts first. Once finished, position the knife down and begin to chop. 


ONION
Slice off the bottom so the onion can sit upright on the board. Root on top. Slice through the root, cutting the onion in half. Peel both sides. Take one half, turn root away from you and begin horizontal cuts. Slightly turn onion at an angle and then begin vertical cuts (cutting on the line of the onion) and then stack and chop. 


And then he finished with, "See the vegetables already chopped in your mind!!!" What the hell does that mean?? But there was no time to waste!

READY. SET. GO!
We quickly headed to our chopping stations to begin. Trying to retain all of this information was going to be tricky. And even though there wasn't a timer and we were all beginners, this really felt like a freakin' QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE!!! I quickly tucked the rag into my apron string and then eyed my vegetables. I grabbed the potato and felt confident. At least I've peeled a potato before. But as soon as I grabbed the peeler to begin my first peel --- SCRAPE! I scraped my thumb knuckle!! How on earth could I have injured myself in these first few seconds!?!? I decided to push through. I was NOT stopping. I got a good peel going and then realized I was starting to bleed. I quickly stepped away from my station, grabbed a sous chef and requested a band-aid. I washed it off, bandaged it up and was back at my station in no time. I will note that this was the ONLY time I needed first aid during this boot camp. Phew! As quickly as we were chopping, the sous chefs were coming around and collecting our prep work. These fine choppings were all going into some of the dishes we would be having for lunch. Chef Gilligan paced back and forth as we continued to do our tasks. He gave feedback, complimented and sometimes forced do-overs. It was intense but we were learning. And that's what we came here for. I felt a nice groove happening as I was going from one vegetable to the next. Wipe your station. Chop, chop, chop. On to the next. Within fifteen minutes, everything was chopped. But my onion was a mess. I now know Julia Child's pain when she left Le Cordon Bleu one day feeling deflated after massacring an onion. The onion is a beast but with practice and time I know it will get easier. 

Victorinox 8" Chef Knife

On our short ten minute break, we got a tour around the kitchen store with Chef Gilligan. He pointed out some great knives and was extremely helpful when buying on a budget. He recommended a VICTORINOX SWISS-MADE 8" Chef Knife for the those who want to chop like a pro but not spend $200 on a blade. I ended up purchasing it for the reasonable price of $29.99. 


Back in the kitchen, we realized that knife skills were not the only thing we'd need to get close to perfect in class today. We were going to end on the PERFECT FRENCH OMELETTE. To the demo station we went and observed one-handed egg cracking. Oh yes, we were going to do that too. No two-handed egg cracking in this class. We carefully watched as Chef poured olive oil into his heated, non-stick pan. He then added fresh spinach, allowing it to wilt. While wilting, he whisked two eggs together, adding just a touch of milk. He then removed the wilted spinach onto a plate and added butter to the pan. Once the butter was melted, he poured in the egg mixture. With a silicone spatula, he carefully moved around the edges and stirred the center. Having a browned omelette isn't an option. In the pan for about a minute, we could see the mixture cooking evenly. He then took the wilted spinach and added that into the center and sprinkled with some shredded cheese. He then removed the pan from the flame, folded the omelette in half and slid it onto the plate. The total time was just about three minutes and it looked delicious. He then grabbed his squeeze bottle and drizzled a balsamic reduction onto the plate. 

Correct way to get a good crack at it

As I stepped to my station to begin, I picked up the egg and hesitated. I wrapped my two fingers around it like a baseball, just as Chef said. I looked over at the sous chef who was watching. She smiled and said, picture it already cracked in the bowl. Don't think about it. Just visualize it. I took a moment to take this in -- Just visualize it. See it in the bowl. And then finally, I did. CRACK! With one hand and a little confidence the egg yolk and all the white slipped into the bowl. I couldn't believe it. And I realized at that moment that I didn't just learn how to do a one-handed egg crack, I learned that one of the keys to cooking is to feel confident with your vision. You have to see your plate before you make it. You have to see your vegetables chopped before you even lift your knife. And you need to see your egg, already in the bowl. A good cooking lesson. An even better life lesson.

As we wrapped up Day One and enjoyed some of the meals we helped prep --  Spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce, Pommes Frites with Truffle Salt, and Fennel & Haricots Verts Salad -- we also got to eat our very own omelettes. Not only did the class give Chef Gilligan's omelette a thumbs up but we also gave each other a thumbs up as we realized there was a perfect omelette in each of us just waiting to be cooked.


Stay tuned for DAY TWO...

For more information on cooking classes at Sur La Table visit: LEARN TO COOK