Days 50 through 58 at The Culinary: Seafood ID and Fabrication

This long stretch of time encompassed the end of meat class, my Thanksgiving break, and the start of fish class.

On Monday the 22nd, I had my last meat class at the CIA. I took my final, which included an ID section of 25 cuts of meat, a written section, and a multiple choice section. Also, it was sausage day. This was our chef's favorite day to teach, because he loves sausage more than anything. We each made about five to ten pounds of sweet Italian sausage (the same recipe for everyone), and it was glorious. It was pretty fun making the sausages in general, except I was horrible at it. When I tied off my links, I kept getting breaks in the casings (probably my fault) and sausage meat kept spewing out of them. To say the least, I had a lot of waste. In the end, our chef took the demo sausage he'd made, and cooked it in the corner of the meat room while we did our cleanup. It was honestly the best sausage I've ever had. There was absolutely no debate in my mind about it either; I just knew it was that good instantly.

So meat class ended, and I arranged for a class picture with our chef. I also got my favorite picture so far, and it's of me when I carried out the enormous lamb carcass to chef's demo table for fabrication on day 5 of class.

So there's my meat class!


There was no room for relaxation after meat class. We had to study up for our first day of fish class with Chef Corky Clark. I described what kind of person Chef Clark is at the bottom of my last post, but I'll explain it briefly again. He is very old, always frustrated, screams a lot, passionate about fish and America, and is incredibly opinionated. He has been known to keep students for hours after class because he rambles, and has been known to make students cry. Whenever you ask someone about Chef Clark, and you ask if he's as bad as the stories, they always reply with, "No. He's worse."

We had a lot of prep work as far as day one homework goes, but not as much as we had for meat. I took intense notes on the half hour-long video that was assigned and on the book reading, and tried my best on the study questions and key terms.

I woke up at the same time on Tuesday for fish as I did for meat for the past week and a half, and we all got to the hallway where we were to wait for the previous fish class to finish cleaning up. Eventually, one of our TAs came out to meet us and gave us a quiz. It was on things we should have read about for class, such as where the small equipment is located. I got a four out of five.

This class was so damn intimidating. The first day went really well though. I love seafood, and if it weren't for Chef Clark's teaching style and reputation, I would've been nothing short of extremely excited. We started out class with demo, followed by butchering, and then lecture before we left. This was the opposite of the format of meat. It was also a little scary, since we were learning about the fish after we cut them up.

I pretty much stuck to the TAs for any questions I had, and generally avoided Chef Clark completely. I saw him get frustrated with a few people, but nothing major at all. He yelled a few times during demo, but not at anyone. Just things like, "Don't slam the fish on the table, because that's JUST STUPID!" This gave us a little example of what he'd look and sound like when he'd yell at us.

The first day went by relatively smooth, and I learned how to properly skin a fillet. I did about four salmon fillets, after taking out the pin bones, and they were all, for the most part, skinned really well. I was so excited, because now I know how to skin a fish whenever I want. That was pretty much all I did on the first day. We left class around 3:30, an hour and a half late, and it was overall pretty satisfying.

The next day, I was in charge, with a couple others, of filleting Wild Striped Bass. They were only drawn, which means that the only things removed were the guts. This was pretty scary to me, because bass are hard-boned fish, and they require the up-and-over cut method for filleting. This is a method I didn't exactly understand, or at least as well as I understand the straight-cut method for filleting salmon and trout. I went to the TAs for help quite a few times, but eventually I got it down. Once again, I became thrilled that I learned how to do another invaluable fish fabrication technique.

At one point, Chef Clark went over to me (our very first interaction), and he very quietly and kindly showed me where I should cut, since I appeared a little hesitant. I felt like I could possibly muster up the courage to ask him for help now. Later on I asked him if it was true that there are certain bass species which have toxins in the spikes in their dorsal fins which can be dangerous to humans. He thought my question was ridiculous and said, "There ain't no POISONS in them fish!" He didn't yell or anything, just laughed it off a little and walked to go do some stuff. I went back to my fish.

Soon after, a classmate and I made a grave mistake. Earlier on, Chef Clark told us about proper storage of fillets in the walk-in. We're supposed to never put fillets on or under ice, because ice can bruise them, and melted ice (water) can draw out flavor from the flesh. The fillets of Wild Striped Bass that we just fabricated were pretty covered in scales from the dirty table, and my classmate asked if we should give them a quick rinse-off. I wasn't thinking and said yes. We rinsed off the fillets for only a few seconds time, but that was way too long. Chef Clark saw it, and ripped me a new one.

I guess he only saw me do it, but that's not the point. Here was our dialogue:

Chef: "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?"
Me: "... I don't know chef" (I wasn't sure which thing I'd recently done he was referring to)
Chef: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW? WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?"
Me "... I rinsed off the fillet?"
Chef: "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ALL ABOUT STORING THE FILLETS? YOU DON'T EVER RINSE THE FILLETS! I TOLD YOU THAT! GOD! YOU DON'T RINSE THE FILLETS!"
Me: "Sorry Chef"

I think I should point out that he has a southern accent, and he pronounces fillets, "fill-its."

This was the first time he'd screamed at someone from our class, and I was honored that it was me. Not really, but what am I supposed to say about it?

I understood his method of teaching better than ever right after he finished screaming at me. It's pretty simple. I'm never going to wash off fillets again, am I?

I finished the day, and then got ready to meet some of my best friends. They planned to come to campus, eat dinner, see the school, and then take me home for the break. They ended up getting a little lost, mostly my fault, and when we finally met up in the end, they surprised me with the whole group of my friends being present. It was great, and I took them to Farq.. I used my swipes for the day at Americas to get the ham-cured duck with chile sauce that I once got before, and two orders of the braised beef from Skills III. No one was around because they'd left for break, so Skills III was giving out free meals. Naturally, I took advantage of it. I "ate my meals in front of them ; )" and then we left to go home.

I had a very good Thanksgiving meal at home, and I cooked only a few things. I trussed the turkey with my awesome meat class skills, cooked the Brussels sprouts, broccoli rabe, and made a maple syrup sauce for the sweet potatoes. My mom did everything else, and I thought it was one of the better Thanksgivings that I've experienced. Here was my plate:

The next day, my friends had a sleepover, and it was a big reunion sleepover for us. We had a really great time, and the next day a few of us went to a local show of one of our local bands. We used to see this band a lot during high school, so this made the weekend extra sentimental. I also saw the new Harry Potter movie with a different friend, and in general the weekend was very memorable.

I went back to school on Sunday, and today I had my third fish class. I didn't get screamed at this time, but today was a little different. We mostly had to gut things. We gutted Wild Striped Bass, Branzini, Sea Bream, Red Perch, Rusty Dab, and Sardines. I think gutting is just awesome. I think everything in fish class is a lot of fun. Most people hate it and or are grossed out by the fish, but I love it, even though we have Chef Clark.

Now I will post the pictures of what I ate.

Fabada Stew with Chorizo, Sausage, Pork Belly, and Fava Beans (Cuisines of Med. - Spain)

Spain Tapas: Ham and Breadcrumb-Stuffed Squid in Squid Ink, Assorted Olives, Toasted Almonds, Sausage (Cuisines of Med. - Spain)

Spain Tapas: Fried Cheese Balls with Bacon, Chicken Canape (Cuisines of Med. - Spain)

Jerk Chicken with Pineapple and Jicama Salad, Black Beans, White Rice, and Yucca Crisps (Cuisines of Americas - Caribbean)

Crab and Coconut Callaloo (Cuisines of Med. - Caribbean)

Salad with Guava Curry Vinaigrette, Toasted Cashews, and Hearts of Palm (Cuisines of Americas - Caribbean)

Corned Beef and Swiss on Rye with Fries (Courtside)

Chicken Paprikash with Roasted Onions, Buttered Noodles, Mushrooms, and Roasted Tomatoes (K16)

Let's work backwards. The chicken paprikash wasn't as good as it was last time, and neither are as good as Grandma Szabo's recipe from back home. That's one my best friends' grandma. This is a Hungarian dish, and she's from Hungary. The corned beef sandwiches and fries are always the same. They taste very good. The Caribbean food was very interesting this time. The salad was definitely not as good as it was when I'd gotten the goat, but it was still good, and the soup has the same story. The jerk chicken was exceptionally good, and the yucca crisps were really interesting. They were made as flattened yucca patties, and then sliced plantains were arranged on the sides in a cool way. It tasted great, and everything else on the plate was good, too. The Spain day stew wasn't that great. The broth had no flavor, and there were so many damn beans. I ate the pork products, but even they were dulled from the broth. The tapas, however, were fantastic, each thing was as good as the next, and they were definitely the highlight of the meal.

Until the next post,
Eat well, then eat more