Day 13 at The Culinary: Roy Yamaguchi Demo

Hello, today I ate more than usual.

It was a special day because the famous chef and restaurateur Roy Yamaguchi came to give a demo in our school's Danny Kaye Theater in the Library. His first successful restaurant was opened in Hawaii, and since then he's come to own 34 restaurants in America, Japan and Guam. He is a CIA graduate, and is known for starting what is known as Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. This was his second demo at the CIA, and I was lucky enough to get a third-row seat to watch him cook.

But we're starting with lunch at Banquet:

-- Cobb Salad with Blue Cheese and Tortilla Chips
-- Sauteed Breast of Chicken with Polenta Cake and Collard Greens
-- Cape Cod 

Polenta: A northern Italian staple of mush made from cornmeal

I don't have a picture of the salad because I started eating it right away. I guess I was hungry. But it was a basic salad with crumbled blue cheese, hard boiled egg, bacon, onions, olives, and a gigantic tortilla chip.

I tried gorgonzola a while ago when I thought I didn't like any kind of blue cheese, and I didn't mind it so much. Therefore, I was more open-minded when it came to try the blue cheese on the salad. This blue cheese was extremely salty, and I didn't really like it. I gave it a shot though, but didn't end up eating much of the salad. The chicken was a lot like fried chicken, and it was really good. I ate it in about thirty seconds.

I ate it so fast because Banquet starts at 11:30 and the demo was supposed to start at 1:00. I had no idea how fast the theater would fill up, but I figured a famous chef visiting would be a popular event, so I wanted to come early. For some reason I decided an hour early would be a smart time to find a seat, so when Banquet service was late, I got a little anxious. We were seated at 11:45, served our salads at about 11:55, and we were served our main dish at 12:10. I knew I had to skip dessert if I wanted to get to the theater somewhat near my desired time.

I left the table and went straight to the theater. When I arrived, I found the place relatively empty. There were copies of menus on every seat, as well as a napkin and fork. There were a few adults in the back who looked as though they could be in charge or could just be visitors. I walked in and went down towards the front to see where the closest seats were that I would be allowed to sit in. Most of the rows had a piece of paper on the end seats saying "Reserved for ___". I thought that it just meant for those seats with the paper on them, so I thought I'd take a seat right up front in the middle. One guy from the back explained to me that those were all reserved and that I could sit on the sides where there were no reservation signs.

It turns out the closest seat I could get was on the right side in the third row. This was not bad at all. About twenty minutes later, the group I left at lunch showed up and took the seats next to me. I felt a little dumb, but I didn't know how these things worked yet, so it wasn't my fault. In any case, they told me I'd missed créme brulée, which I have to admit was pretty disappointing.

Here are the pictures I took of the event, including the menu and what we ate:

-- Vietnamese Style Boneless Colorado Lamb Rack with Grits, Quail Egg, and Baby Root Vegetables in a Thai Curry Demi Glace

Grits: A coarsely ground corn mush similar to polenta or porridge, often molded into block shape

Demi Glace: A rich brown sauce made from combining equal parts veal stock and sauce espagnole

This demo was very interesting. The recipe itself seemed insane to me for it's incredible amount of required preparation. According to Roy, it takes around two to three days to make the dish because of the process of making the sauce and the marinade. There are so many instructions when it comes to marinating the lamb, involving vacuum-sealing it with the marinade, simmering the sauce for hours and then letting it rest in the fridge for a day, etc. It seemed like it's more work than necessary, but the food was exceptional.

He went through the steps of making the recipe in front of us while we ate samples of the finished product that the Skills kitchen made with his supervision. The lamb was very tender, and I think my favorite part of the dish was the lamb with the bone still in it; it had the most flavor. I'd never tried quail eggs before, and I didn't know what to expect. To me, they taste like a smaller, more delicate chicken egg. I have to say, I like it a lot. The small plate is the one we each got, and the larger one was Roy's demo plate that he made at the end. I went to him at the end to shake his hand, get his autograph, and I asked him which of his many restaurants is his favorite. He said his favorite is his original one in Hawaii. In case you're confused, he did sign his name with the completely incorrect date. I didn't go to this demo ten years and one day ago. But that doesn't matter, I still got his autograph.

It looks like we have one new addition: quail eggs. And the list of foods I've never tried before coming to the CIA grows even larger!

After his demo, I went to class. After class, I went to dinner. I decided to try the Americas kitchen for the first time, and I was excited. Here are my photos:

-- Field Green Salad with Almond Fig Vinaigrette
-- Tortilla Soup with Chicken, Avocado and Blue Corn Strips
-- Ham-Cured Duck Breast with Spicy Red Chili Sauce
-- Pumpkin Pie and Banana Cream Pie

Oh man this meal made me happy. I was first on the line for this kitchen to open, a whole 30 minutes early. It was Southwestern United States and Pacific Coast day, and I figured it was as good as any region for my first meal at Americas. When I finally got my meal, I was starving. I found some friends who were half-way through their meals, and sat with them. When I sat down, I saw they had pie. Not only pie, but my two favorite kinds of pie. I went straight to the dessert table and got a plate of each.

I started with the salad, and it is to date my favorite salad ever. It was nutty, earthy, and sweet. Then I had the soup, which was my favorite soup ever, until I had a soup a little later on in my time at the CIA. I can't really explain the flavor profile of the soup itself, but I think it was made from a rich chicken stock. It was a thin consistency and super-rich in flavor. The chicken was shredded, or at least it was so tender that the pieces started to shred themselves, and it was delicious.

The duck was duck, so it was naturally awesome, but nonetheless it was my least favorite duck dish from the CIA so far. It was kind of rubbery, and I don't know how it was ham-cured. Maybe they tied ham to it and then roasted it. Maybe they lined the space between the flesh and fat with ham. I'm not sure, but it wasn't too ham-like. The reason why I didn't type what the vegetables that came with it were is because I don't know what they were. They were certainly not what the menu said they were. From what I could tell, there were sauteed julienne vegetables on top of what tasted like a sweet pancake. It was really good too, but definitely not squash noodles, tamales or pumpkin seeds.

The pies were delicious, although a friend of mine stole half of my pumpkin pie and ate it. Luckily he doesn't like bananas, so that one was all mine.

So needless to say I went home full.

Until the next post,
Eat well, then eat more