Sustainability. What is it good for?

During the past few months I've heard the word used in various ways many times. Sustainable Agriculture, sustainable growth, sustainable practices. Sustainable development. Sustainability. Sustainable. I finally started to ask myself, what's all the hype around it, and what does it really mean anyway?

I decided to first browse through my favorite writing companion that keeps me company during long days in front of my laptop, the Oxford "Color" Dictionary Thesaurus, to see how the internationally famed university press described sustainable. Sustainable adj. (of development etc.) able to be continued without damage to the environment. Ok, so something that can live on in the world without hurting the environment. What else? Wikipedia cited a definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Commision - led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland - as a development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It also goes on to say that sustainability relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. One last note, Sustainability is one of the four Core Concepts behind the 2007 Universal Forum of Cultures. Very interesting. But enough with the formal definitions. Last week I was given a tip on an organization that has set off on a 38-day journey across the U.S. to promote sustainability throughout our many great communities.

The organization is Sustainable Table, a group that celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food. It's most recent mission? To embark on a U.S. road trip dubbed The Eat Well Guided Tour of America, which kicked off on August 2nd in West Hollywood, CA.

The tour consists of a few Sustainable Table staff members, a tour bus and a map that is taking them on an adventure through some of the best sustainable farms and restaurants that the U.S. has to offer. And, as duly noted from their website, to find the best pie ever!

I'm not sure what they've experienced in terms of great pie thus far on the tour, but I think it's safe to say that the ST team received a great breakfast and an interesting time at one of their stops along the way. I attended the breakfast at Bob's Red Mill last Friday. I arrived at the unmistakable Bob's Red Mill store in Milwaukie, entered the front door and was greeted by a cheery staff ready to guide me to the breakfast. I've seen Bob's Red Mill products all over my local grocery stores and am embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize the company was operated in my own backyard! Founded in 1972, BRM has been dedicated to manufacturing natural foods in a natural way. The family at BRM pride themselves on being proponents of including stone ground whole grain products into every meal of the day.

At breakfast I had the honor of sitting right next to Bob himself! And he really does look like the photo on his product's packaging. He also told a story of how the BRM plant in Redding, CA (where the original business began) suffered a fire in 1988. It was then that he had to make the decision to either rebuild or quit altogether. He decided to go on and partnered with Dennis Gilliam, who is still with him today. Bob and Dennis attended a food tradeshow in Anaheim, CA in 1989 with no sales person, not even a sales sheet and a booth that was stuck in the back hall of the convention center. BRM was one of five companies that offered a sustainable solution for customers. Other health companies at the tradeshow caught wind of that and the rest is history.

That Friday I got an amateur's introduction to sustainability through the mouths of northwest farmers, bakers and Bob himself. And on that day I saw, first-hand, how growers, farmers, food producers and retailers all work together in one region to produce good, natural food. And that day I learned the importance of practicing sustainability to continue the domino effect of keeping regional businesses moving, the freshest ingredients growing and the availability and delivery of the highest quality ingredients coming to local communities.

Ever since the breakfast I've paid more attention to products, restaurants and even wineries that claim to be sustainable. It's out there - it's everywhere! So the next time you're out and about, look for it. And know that sustainability is good for a lot!

Cheers,

~JF

A little research

Have you ever wondered what is so intriguing about the creation of sauces like hollandaise, bearnaise or mayonnaise? Here's a little research...

Emulsions: The Mystery and Science Behind Getting it Right

Day four of Culinary Skills II was the big day of preparing Hollandaise. A rich, buttery sauce with a hint of lemon, hollandaise receives praise for its unforgettable flavor when it’s served warm over steamed asparagus, a pan-seared fish or a plate of eggs Benedict. Hollandaise also seems to cause faces to adopt a look of worry for those embarking on the adventure of preparing it. When day four had finally arrived, I was wondering what all the fuss was about. Why does the preparation of hollandaise get such a bad rap? What is it about the delicious and savory sauce that causes people to get psyched up to prepare it?

What I learned right away is that hollandaise is an egg-thickened sauce that’s contents work together by emulsion. An emulsion is a combination of two liquids that usually do not go together, such as oil and water. In the case of hollandaise, the two liquids are melted butter and water (this includes the water within the lemon juice in a classic hollandaise sauce). Ordinarily, if one puts melted butter and water together in the same container, the two ingredients will not blend. Instead, the oil ingredient forms tiny droplets which are surrounded by the water and can create a grainy looking sauce. In order for these two ingredients to combine successfully into a creamy, smooth sauce, a third ingredient is needed. This third ingredient is called an emulsifier and many foods can act as emulsifiers. Egg yolk is the most popular emulsifier, and egg whites, gelatin and even skim milk are also known to play this role. These foods are also referred to as chemical emulsifiers. Some powders, such as dry mustard and cayenne can also act as emulsifiers but aren’t as effective as chemical emulsifiers. Emulsifiers act as the glue that holds the oil and water together, forming a stable sauce. They contain molecules that can bond with both oil and water and act to coat the oil droplets to prevent them from forming a single, oil mass.

To make an emulsified sauce, like hollandaise, the oil product (in this case, butter) is added to a mixture of water and an emulsifier in a quick, whisking action. When the oil is added to the mixture it is broken up into tiny droplets, but immediately coated with by the emulsifier yielding a smooth, consistent product. Enter the trick with creating a successful emulsion for hollandaise: the temperature. Emulsion sauces all contain proteins. If the proteins become too hot, they will coagulate or change from a liquid into a semi-solid ingredient. In the case of hollandaise, the temperature must be watched closely. It must be hot enough to melt the butter, but not so hot that it coagulates the eggs, which can lead to the creation of scrambled eggs within the sauce; not exactly the desired outcome or a perfect hollandaise.

An alternative explanation of how the process of emulsion works is that the emulsifiers change the inward pull, or surface tension, of one of the liquids in the emulsion. The liquid loses its inward pull resulting in it becoming juicy, allowing it to run between the droplets of the other liquid, thus forming a smooth bond. An example of this is the process of making mayonnaise; another popular emulsion sauce. In the case of mayonnaise made with whole eggs, most of the liquid comes from the egg whites. The emulsifiers within the egg yolks dissolve in the egg whites and drastically lower its surface tension. Oil is added while the liquid ingredients are whisked together vigorously and the oil is broken into tiny droplets. The egg yolks coat the droplets and water with a very low surface tension allowing the water to flow easily between the oil droplets, paving the way to a good, smooth mayonnaise.

Additional, popular emulsion sauces include: béarnaise sauce, vinaigrettes, maltaise and mousseline (sauces spawned from hollandaise), Caesar dressing and emulsified French dressing.

At the end of day four of Culinary Skills II, my hollandaise was a success. I was even shown and experimented with how to break up the smooth emulsion of the sauce and bring it back together. As a recap of creating a successful emulsion sauce: a) start with a thick base, this will help make the sauce thicker; b) use a good emulsifier, emulsifiers coats the droplets of one of the liquids to prevent it from running together with the other liquids; c) whisk liquids rapidly as the oil or butter is added, this helps break up the liquid into tiny droplets that can be surrounded by the emulsifier; d) make sure there is enough liquid to surround the droplets, there must be enough or the droplets will be forced together and create one oil mass; e) keep an eye on the temperature, proteins need heat to unwind, but too much heat can cause them to coagulate and make scrambled eggs out of your hollandaise.


(Sources: Cookwise, The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking with over 230 Great-Tasting Recipes by Shirley O. Corriher, Professional Cooking, Sixth Edition by Wayne Gisslen, On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of The Kitchen by Harold McGee.)

Did You Know...?

That at sea level, water's maximum boiling temperature is 212 degrees F? And no matter how high the burner is turned up, the liquid temperature will not go any higher that 212 degrees at that altitude.

That meat is 75% water?

That there is a restaurant in Portland that serves a Kobe beef hamburger for $28? (I love real restaurant burgers and I must find it!)

That salt is arguably the most important seasoning for sauces? And that lemon juice is the second most important? And cayenne and white pepper come in third and forth.

That in English, Liaison means communication and cooperation, or a sexual relationship? But in French, Liaison means a thickening agent made mostly of eggs and cream?

That fiber cannot be digested?

That salt is one of the best things for you? (Ok, maybe it's not, but I honestly believe that if we all put are heads together and believe faithfully that it is good for us, it will be! Come on! Let's hear it for SALT!)

What else?

Cheers,
JF

Sauciers!

"Sauces make the world go around," Chef D.J.

Learning at culinary school is a bit different than an average university. Aside from the fact that an everyday university does not teach classes in kitchens, instructors don't wear tall hats and an average homework assignment doesn't mean memorizing the difference between a white roux and a blond roux, culinary school curriculum moves much faster. We focus all of our minds, energy and sought-after talent on one course for five hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks. What this means is our focus on each subject is intense, there's absolutely no room to miss a beat, and we share the total joy of knowing that every three weeks will be finals week. The majority of us made it through the last round of finals week - which included two major written exams, a product I.D. test where we were expected to name 80 different herbs, spices, oils and vinegars from memory just by viewing them, a knife skills test on our precision with cutting potato pieces into perfect 3/4 inch cubes and carrots into perfect julienne slices, as well as a written paper accompanied by a presentation of our chosen topic to the class. Whew. It was a crazy week and for a moment I wasn't sure how it was all going to come together. But it did. And I remember thinking the next round would likely be more controlled as it was just one class (the first round was two). I was wrong.

Week four marked the beginning of Culinary Skills II. The follow-on to Skills I, Skills II teaches the basic cooking methods, stock making, mother sauces and secondary sauces. The worlds of protein, starch and vegetable cookery are also emphasized as well as continued conditioning on product identification skills and utilization. From the syllabus:

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• Prepare a Classic White Stock (Fond Blanc)
• Prepare a Brown Stock (Fond Brun)
• Prepare a Vegetable Stock (Fond de Legumes)
• Prepare a Fish Stock (Fond de Poisson)
• Prepare a White, Blond and Brown Roux
• Prepare the [five] Mother Sauces of Classical French Cuisine
• Prepare Derivatives [Small] Sauces of Classical French Cuisine
• Prepare Thin soup
• Prepare Thick soups, creams and purees
• Demonstrate how to control texture, flavor, color, and nutritional changes while preparing vegetables
• Prepare vegetables cooked to their proper doneness
• Describe the methods of handling dried legumes
• Identify the major types of potatoes and their best uses
• Identify the major types of rice
• Prepare rice by the pilaf method
• Prepare and cook dried pasta
• Describe the various cooking methods associated with proteins
• Prepare protein dishes using a variety of cooking methods and protein sources.

As Monday of this week was Chef's in-service day, we started out Skills II on Tuesday. No, this didn't mean that we would cut out a day's lesson just because of the short week. Instead, this meant we would have five lessons in four days. In looking at the syllabus's we were to learn and study 74 cooking terms, complete six recipe conversions and read 45 pages from our textbook, Professional Cooking. A large feat for one week, but we made it through and got our first taste (as a class) of working it in the heat of a culinary kitchen. Below are some photos from the week.

The French Chef! Chef Jacky demoing how to make the the perfect Hollandaise sauce. Just about everyone knows that Hollandaise can be tricky. It's a finicky sauce and one must be careful when preparing Hollandaise as it's incredibly easy to get the eggs to curdle if the heat is to high and it's common for the sauce to break if it's not watched closely. We all made it, though! Chef Jacky thought there would be tears on Hollandaise day, but we proved him wrong. I think he was a bit dissapointed.

Chef D.J. (our associated Chef) instructs students on obtaining perfectly caramelized onions for our French Onion Soup while others work feverishly over hot stoves in the background. And it was hot. That day was the first time of really feeling the heat. Like an orchestrated Broadway show, we all worked to create French Onion Soups, toasted baguettes, and Duxelles (minced button mushrooms and shallots sauteed in clarified butter).

That's me working like mad to get those darn onions to caramelize!

Chef Jacky's spicy shrimp and my spicy shrimp. Can you tell who's belongs to whom?

Spicy Shrimp:

3 Shrimp

1/2 tsp Paprika

1/4 tsp Cayenne

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/2 tsp Thyme, dried

1/2 tsp Basil, dried

1/2 tsp Oregano, dried

2 oz. Onion, julienned

1 ea. Garlic Clove, minced

2 oz. Clarified Butter

Warm butter in saute pan. In a separate bowl, combine shrimp with paprika, cayenne, black pepper, thyme, basil, oregano, onion and garlic. Add to saute pan and cook until shrimp is done. Place on a serving plate and savor immediately.

Oh, and one more thing:

Under no circumstances. No matter what you do in life. Don't ever, ever, ever forget the five Mother Sauces: Espagnole, Tomato, Veloute, Bechamel and Hollandaise.

Cheers,

JF

Vacation Over: A New Routine

It's Sunday evening and I'm taking a break from my new Sunday-night routine of ironing all five uniforms for the week. Ironing five sets of commis hats, cravats, chef's aprons, chef's jackets and chef's pants calls for a long session at the ironing board, but I've learned in just three weeks that it's worth it; to get it all done in one shot. Because when those weeks start, I've realized, they fly by in a whirlwind that is called the adventures of culinary school.

The first three weeks proved to be eye-opening. The hustle and bustle of getting my unemployed self back up and running and into a new routine was a wee bit challenging and, quite honestly, down right comical at times. As downtown parking can be an absolute shock to anyone's debit card, I've vowed to include a ride on Portland's MAX lightrail into my new daily school commute. Though catching the MAX would be an entirely new adventure for me, I decided why do a practice run? I've seen the MAX station in Beaverton, I've driven past it at least once. I've got it down. I'll give myself plenty of time to get there, board and be on my way to slicing and dicing and prepping for my future showdowns with Bobby Flay, Giada de Laurentis and maybe even Chef Gordon Ramsay. I was wrong. While on my way to the easy-to-locate transit center, I received a phone call from a long lost colleague who is now based in Hawaii. I couldn't pass up this conversation and decided he would keep me company during my first day of commuting to school. I soon learned that the multitasking game of talking (with an ear piece!) while driving does have it's downside. I was so consumed by catching up with my dear friend that by the time I arrived at the "area" where I believed the transit center was located, I could not find the exact spot of where I would catch MAX. Fifteen minutes of driving and blabbing and I gave up. Bob, my friend on the other end of the phone, noticed my drive getting louder. "I just got on the freeway," I said. "While talking to you I couldn't figure out where to park and catch the MAX; I'm driving." I was then joined by chuckles from Bob on the other end of the phone. We decided to end our much overdue conversation and I continued my drive into the city.

I arrived into the city successfully, found a Smart Park and picked a prime space on level two. I grabbed my book bag and my perfectly ironed chefs ensemble - neatly covered in a dry cleaning bag - and was off down the steps, over the sidewalk, across the MAX lightrail tracks (how fitting) and into the Galleria building on SW 10th. I made it up to the 4th floor and entered the reception area of the school. It was a mad house. Students were everywhere asking where to go and some of the school's admissions reps were waiting in the lobby. I found Heidi, my admissions rep, gave a smile and asked if I should just come back down to the lobby after I changed. She nodded. I made it up to the 5th floor - the home of our kitchens and my locker for the next eight months - and grabbed my chef's shoes. I headed into the ladie's room for a quick change and was welcomed by a hoard of females with similar intentions. We were all so nervous. Why? The cravat. That darn cravat. Within our student manuals we received at orientation is a fool-proof instruction sheet on tying the cravat. With 18 steps included, tying the cravat can seem a bit intimidating. I appreciated the veteran students assisting us newbies with tying it. In all honesty, the thing can be tied in five steps - five and you're good to go. Bye bye, long brown curls and hello white, fitted-to-my-head toque. Bye Bye fitted, sleeveless tops, fitted capri's and new summer sandals and hello loose chef's jackets, MC Hammer black and white checkered pants and black, leather, steel-toed shoes. Vwala...it's the new me.

I hurried back to my locker to leave my book bag, grabbed the books I needed for Culinary Skills I and headed back down to the lobby. There I found...no one. It was completely empty. "Oh perfect," I thought. "Where in the world am I suppose to be?" Immediately sensing my panic, the receptionist returned and suggested I head back up to the 5th floor kitchens. Oh yes. I'm in culinary school after all. The kitchens may be a good place to start. I scurried back upstairs and was greeted by the school's president. (Side note: as Portland really is such a small city, it's not surprising to run into familiar faces who are connected to you in some way. The president of the culinary school went to high school with my brother.) Naturally, I wanted to come across as being totally organized and knowing all that is going on. (Second side note: I have a terrible game face and don't hide well on the outside what I'm feeling on the inside.) I think she sensed that I was a bit lost and pointed me in the right direction.

I made it into room 510 and found a spot in the last row of the lecture room adorned with rows of eight-foot steel tables. I'm usually not a fan of the back row. My lack of organization apparently caused me to be one of the last to arrived. Mental note: get to class at least 30 minutes early. In class we were greeted by Chef Stephanie and Chef Jacky, both of whom would be our leaders for the next three weeks. Beginning her culinary career at age eight, Chef Stephanie has worked her way through an interesting culinary career which included working with chefs such as Alton Brown, Caprial Pence and Nicole Aloni. She's also written six cookbooks. Chef Jacky was born in France and decided at the age of 14 that he wanted to be a chef. He was once the Personal Chef to the Commander and Chief of the French Armed Forces in Algeria and also worked as a Chef at the London Playboy Club in England. He was perfect. Standing no more than 5'3", he wore black, wire-rimmed glasses with lanyard and spoke in a very soft and incredibly thick French accent. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. That said, all I could do was smile at him and make another mental note to myself to absolutely get to class 30 minutes earlier to sit front and center for the days of lectures.

At the kick-off of the class we were also greeted by an ensemble of faculty from the school as a means of introduction with who was who, who was responsible for what and where we could locate anyone if we had any questions. I will say the school is pretty organized in that way. This was the third time I had seen these faces as I had attended a president's luncheon a month prior as well as orientation a few weeks before classes began. They definitely want you to know who's around and running the place.

At the end of the first day of Skills I, I did walk away with not only an overwhelming excitement for actually starting my program, but a few words from Chef Peter, Dean of the Culinary Arts and Patisserie and Baking programs at the school. Chef Peter made some comments that I jotted down for the day. I always appreciate words of wisdom or thoughts that stop and make you think. With a good luck to us all starting that day, Chef Peter parted with the following:

"Opportunity knocks. You just have to be willing to open the door sometimes." Chef Peter E.

And that's just a snippet of Day 1. 149 to go!