Back to the kitchen, foot on the accelerator

Culinary Foundations III, the final basic cooking skills class in the curriculum at the California Culinary Academy, starts today, promptly at 1 p.m.

Chef Dan Fluharty will be the chef/instructor, and our familiarity with him from Culinary Foundations II should make the transition seamless. It also will mean that he knows us and our abilities, so he is bound to want us to step right up and resume, at an accelerated pace, where we were when we left off on Dec. 18.

Here's an excert from the course description for Culinary Foundations III:

... butchery skills are added as well as cooking techniques for proteins. Students will prepare secondary sauces and classic starches while applying different cooking techniques. Students have an opportunity to expand on the foundations of classic culinary repertoire including an introduction to the theories of plated presentation.

 Further, the class syllabus outlines what we will be expected to know and do by the end of six weeks, or Feb. 12:

* Fabrication of a variety of proteins and cooking techniques specific to each protein. Properly use a variety of cooking techniques to make a single plate.
* Duplicate a picture or diagram in presenting a plate.
* Prepare and properly store stocks and primary sauces.
*An introduction to concepts inherent in the industry: Meeting deadlines and timelines for plate presentations, effciencies, space and equipment limitations, and personal, memorized recipes.

 Most exciting and most daunting is that last phrase -- "personal, memorized recipes." Exciting because it should show that we have mastered the basics to the point that we can introduce a little improvisation to our cooking. Daunting because, having read it, my mind went totally blank, unable to provide me with even a single recipe of anything I had ever made.

My recovery from that is in the works. Stay tuned for what should prove to be another fun-filled, adventurous six weeks.