Hot Side Week 1

Part of the baking curriculum is 3 weeks on the dreaded hot side. The hot side is a chaotic, sweaty cluster fuck, which is the nicest way to describe this mess. Most of us chose the bakeshop for a reason: we love baking, not cooking.

The class is a crash course on how to cook pretty much everything. We split up individual and group tasks and practice knife cuts on vegetables.

Focus for week 1

• Knife Cuts and Stocks
• Broths, Clarified Butter, Clear Soups and Thick Soups
• Consomme, Cream Soups and Roux
• Brown Veal Stock, Sauces and Chowder
• Starch Cookery

Interesting Tid-bits

1. Working on the hot side is stressful, but making soup was fun.
2. Knife cuts are hard, but they get easier.
3. Consomme is weird. Stock, vegetables, egg whites and lean meat and cooked together in a pot. The ingredients pull the impurities from the liquid, leaving behind a perfectly clear broth. Left behind is a nasty white mass.
4. I fabricated a chicken. I was given a whole chicken. I cut down the side of the carcass to remove the breat, wing and leg. It was horrifying, but I powered through with Chef Elena's help.
5. Potato day was awesome. I now know how to make killer au gratin potatoes.
6. Learning how to make tomato sauce has been the most useful thing I have learned so far on hot side.
7. I'm still trying to form an opinion about clarified butter. Butter is placed in a double boiler. When the butter melts, the milk fat separates and leaves behind a yellow-clear buttery liquid.

Broccoli Soup

 

Chicken Consomme with Vegetables

 
 

Corn Chowder