How does he keep his slender figure?

   Chef Dan Fluharty scores final platings from five students in Culinary Foundations III. This plating was worth 50 points. Chef tasted each component to score doneness, seasoning, temperature, appearance and portion size. He also scored each plate overall on food color -- minimum of three colors required for full credit -- cleanliness, design and height. The rectangular plate in the center and the round plate on the far right are grilled pork chops; the plate nearest Chef's left hand is sauté of duck breast; the plate near his right hand is fillet of sole and salmon mousseline; the plate in the lower left is mine, grilled New York steak.

On the last lap of 'cooking marathon'

Early on in Culinary Foundations III class, Chef Instructor Dan Fluharty (right) promised students a "cooking marathon that gives you a real world feel."

He has fulfilled that promise.

Today, we finish the marathon with two meals of five parts each. The first, with a chicken breast at its center, must be completed and presented in 45 minutes. The second, for which I drew New York steak, must be completed and presented in one hour.

All 10 of us should be ready. The chefs have been working us out for 18 weeks. In the last six weeks, we have had intensive, timed cooking exercises almost daily. In that six weeks, we have prepped, cooked and plated two dozen full meals, including three-course offerings and all rooted in the classic French techniques and flavors we have been learning.

We can see the finish line ahead, and we must run hard through it.

The real world lies just beyond.

Now I know how congressmen feel: making sausage

Pasta poured forth in the Culinary Foundations III classroom kitchen today, along with a half-dozen versions of link sausage.

At our station, we encased two kinds of the cured meat -- Swedish potato sausage and andouille. Both were delicious, and there was enough to take home. (Photo shows the Swedish potato sausage in the lower left, the andouille in the upper right.)

We also jammed through the making of three pasta dishes in 90 minutes, using freshly made pasta and other ingredients.

First was butternut squash and ricotta ravioli, fried and served with a marinara sauce. I had made that very sauce the night before at home, so I knew that getting it on the stovetop early to intensify the flavors was the key.

Second was fettucini served with a parsley pesto and one link of the andouilli that had been blanched and sautéed with onions and red bell pepper.

Third was pappardella -- 3/4-inch wide pasta noodles -- served with a mushroom cream sauce and sauté of chicken.

The action was hectic, almost frantic, in getting the dishes plated on schedule. Each had its special elements and flavors, and each was completed with satisfaction.

March madness? No: February frenzy

My classmates enjoy a calm moment in the kitchen, but a storm is brewing.

Seven days remain in Culinary Foundations III, the final class in the basics of classic French cuisine at the California Culinary Academy. That means with each day the pace quickens.

All is leading to a monstrous final exam at the stovetops in one week: two hours of cooking to plate two full meals, to specific, prescribed menus that we have covered in one form or another.

First will be somewhat of a free-form session. We will have up to 15 minutes to cut a whole chicken into 10 specified parts. Then after putting away nine parts, we will have 45 minutes to prepare a five-component meal around a chicken breast from the bird we just cut up. We choose a sauce, starch, vegetable and garnish from what is available in our classroom kitchen.

Second part, immediately after, will be similar to the Food Network program "Chopped." Each of us will get what Chef called a "mystery basket" of five ingredients from which we must make a five-course meal in one hour. Each basket will have a different protein in it.

Timing as well as food preparation and cooking quality will be emphasized.

Are we nervous? Right down to the bottoms of our black-and-white checkered chef's trousers.

What's cooking today? Lamb stew in vol au vent

Turning into the home stretch in Culinary Foundations III this week means puff pastry, known in French as vol au vent. It will provide the platform for a lamb stew today. The way the pastry is supposed to look is at left.

We will also make fried calamari, accompanied by garlic aioli (a mayonnaise infused with garlic).

On another track, prep work will begin for making sausage later in the week.

We have nine days left in the term -- nine days more of learning all we can about classic French cooking before moving to other classes.

Soufflé or not soufflé; that is the question

The soufflé became a most appropriate symbol this week amid the fracas of the culinary school classroom kitchen. It represented one fundamental fact that has been taking shape for a while, almost unnoticed by the 10 of us working our way through Culinary Foundations III.

We made soufflés on Friday, each of us doing so successfully to varying degrees. Among the more difficult-to-make offerings of French cuisine, the dish is part art, part science and all kismet in the hands of the culinary gods and goddesses.

Chef/Instructor Dan Fluharty pointed out the emergent truth on Wednesday in the end-of-class go-round at which he seeks comment on what the day's work taught us. Several of us mentioned making adjustments and adaptations to often-changing conditions. From that, Chef concluded:

"You are starting to think like cooks."

It was a statement that is profound for its simplicity and despite its obviousness. What he described is in fact occurring as we get a tighter grip on the basics and routines of the kitchen and as we face cooking challenges with increasing complexity.

The soufflé, for example. Chef did an aborted demo on it at the end of class on Thursday and promised to show it again at the beginning of class on Friday, less than an hour before we had to make them ourselves as part of a plate for a grade.

We all watched intently, some taking notes but most committing the timing, texture, touch of the hand and temperature of the oven to instant memory for recall as needed. Then we did it ourselves, not as a stand-alone exercise but as part of the complications of plating two distinct meals of five parts each.

Hence, just one-tenth of what we were cooking was the soufflé, but the degree of difficulty made it seem a much larger fraction. Yet, we all fit it into the production work, made needed adjustments and kept the work flowing.

That each of us was able to complete it in the hectic schedule, handle it with some perception of the grander scheme of things and emerge at day's end with success manifest our ability to think as cooks.

The rise and fall of the soufflé

That most pretentious and, by reputation, most difficult to make dish of classic French cuisine is on the menu for Friday in Culinary Foundations III class.

The soufflé.

It's from the French verb souffler, "to blow up." A premonition about Friday's cooking exercise, perhaps?

We will make a blue cheese soufflé to accompany bacon-wrapped filet mignon, mushroom Madeira sauce and haricot verts or green beans.

Not to worry, Chef Dan Fluharty said. First, he said, he would demo a soufflé for us the day ahead. Second, he said, this is not a difficult soufflé to make.

Chef had to rush his soufflé demo as we ran out of time in class. He promised to show us again Friday before we are obliged to make one for his scrutiny and grading.

"This is a safe soufflé, an easy one," Chef said, attempting to assure us. "You know how to make a béchamel (sauce), right? Just add blue cheese to it, like a mornay except double the amount. Then put in onions, have your egg whites and butter. You have to do it perfectly so it comes out. Put it into a 400-degree oven. ... It's very particular."

Oh, and the easy part is what, Chef?

Friday's exercise looms. Will we rise to the occasion? Or will we fall from grace?

Turning up the heat in culinary school

"I want you to make some kick-ass food today, and the next day, and the next day."

Chef Dan Fluharty (right) presented that challenge today in introducing the agenda for Culinary Foundations III as the new six-week term began at the California Culinary Academy. It's the third and final class in the basic French-techniques curriculum taught at the Academy.

It promises to be a doozy, up several levels from where we left off last month in completing the second class in the triumvirate.

Chef Dan set the tone in an inspiring yet daunting rundown of what we will face for the next six weeks. Here are excerpts of what he said:

"Every day's cooking in here will be a competency exam on which you will get graded. ... I'd like to think when you leave this school that you have a good idea of what makes you a good cook, of what makes you marketable as a cook. ... We want you to achieve the highest level of performance here and in your careers. ... "

"Tomorrow we'll make beef stew. Will it be just any beef stew? We might tend to think, 'Well, it's just beef stew.' But we want it to be the best beef stew you ever tasted. ... So it's time we kind of draw the line a little bit. Do you agree? That means if it's good, I'll say so; if it's outstanding, I'll say so; if it sucks, I'm going to say so. ... Don't take it personally."

Chef said he wants the 10 of us in his class to be a part of the continuing tradition that the Academy "puts out better high-end chefs than the CIA (Culinary Institute of America, the granddaddy of U.S. cooking schools) or anywhere else."

Quite a charge, quite a challenge. Let's get cooking.

Getting in shape for culinary school ... by cooking

Back to culinary school on Monday for my third term, and what better way to prepare than making Sunday dinner? Here's what's cooking:

Braised beef ribs (with the bone left long, 6-8 inches, for flavor and presentation. After browning and then "sweating" the mirepoix in rendered bacon fat, I am braising them in chicken stock and red wine at 225º F. for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until the meat is ready to fall off the bone.

Braised fennel and apples. Slicing the fennel lengthwise and the apples in eighths. I will sweat a diced shallot in 1 TB unsalted whole butter before adding water, bringing it up to a simmer and then adding in the fennel and apples. Should take 20-30 minutes covered on low heat.

Pommes duchesse, the fancy mashed, then piped, then baked potatoes.

Brown sauce thickened with roux and strained from the remains of the rib braising.

I will blanch and then fry a bit of the fern-like green tops from the fennel for garnish.

Check back later today to read how it turns out and for a full rundown on expectations in the first week of classes in Culinary Foundations III.