The topic of today’s class was totally new ground for me…I had no idea what a bavarian cream dessert was before Wednesday. Now that I know, I can tell you that it is similar to jello, except much more upscale. Like jello, bavarian creams are desserts that employ the use of gelatin in order to achieve [...]
Posts from ‘July, 2009’
Week 13, Day 1: Meringue
A meringue is a light, airy, and sweet dessert product that is made from two main ingredients: egg whites and sugar. There are three ways to make a meringue: French method (aka ‘classic’ method’) – Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks, then beat in the sugar (in small increments) until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny Italian method [...]
Week 12, Day 2: Fish & Shellfish
Today’s class was basically a continuation of last week’s shellfish class. We began the class by talking about lobster, which Chef S referred to as “a trash fish made good story”. It would seem as though lobster’s status as a delicacy is a relatively new concept, which strikes me as funny because in my family, [...]
Week 12, Day 1: Chocolate
There’s no disputing chocolate’s popularity in the modern world. It is rare that you find the person that doesn’t care for the smooth and rich taste of, and comforting feelings, that are often elicited when eating chocolate. It turns out that certain substances in chocolate actually do have effects on body chemistry. Chocolate contains caffeine and [...]
Lobster Night
The wife and I took a little day trip out to the Boston Harbor islands on Saturday. Feeling somewhat consumed by our very “New Englandy” surroundings, the wife suggested that we should buy some live lobster for dinner. Quite frankly, I was shocked to hear her say that. You see, she’s from Northern California, land [...]
Week 11, Day 2: Shellfish
I’ve always been a big shellfish fan and while I can’t exactly remember the time or the place where I slurped down my first sweet and briny raw oyster or my first fresh-from-the-fryer whole belly clam, I also can’t remember any time where I would respectfully decline any offering of shellfish placed in front of me. This [...]
Week 11, Day 1: Genoise
Cakes…I can’t think of anyone that hasn’t sampled a cake at some point in their lifetime. Even those people that haven’t tried cake at least know how to identify one. In the baking world, there are certain techniques and procedures that make a cake a cake. For definition purposes, in cooking school we consider a cake to be “a baked [...]
Craigie on Main
Craigie on Main has been at the top of my list of ‘must-try’ Boston restaurants ever since we moved to town about a year ago. I keep hearing such good things about this small, upscale spot in Cambridge offering a modern interpretation on a French bistro theme (I wasn’t clever enough to come up with [...]
Week 10, Day 2: Fish
For the next few weeks, we will be turning our attention from terrestrial creatures to sea creatures, beginning this week with a discussion of all things relating to fish. For culinary purposes, the thousands of different varieties of fish that exist can be generally classified as round fish and flat fish. Beyond the obvious differences [...]
Week 10, Day 1: Cake Decorating
This class was a bit different than our other classes to date in that we didn’t do any actual cooking this week. Class began just like all of our classes, with a lecture…this one was about all things related to sugar. After lecture, Chef D began a cake decorating demonstration, taking the class through a wide [...]
