Stocks, sauces & soups at JWU

Johnson & Wales put on a stocks, sauces & soups class for our Slow Food convivia. I was pretty stoked when Chef Gallaugher said most of our class was going to be held in the kitchen. I was digging this and revving my engines, so to speak. The other members seemed to have a mix of awe and trepidation. Definitely hands on, which is not just practical for the learning & memory curve; but essential for culinary techniques. Not that there was time for discussion on particular techniques, but there is always time to snatch tips & tricks through studied observation.

Observations:

• Induction cooktops still aren't quite there for real cookery
  
• Cheesecloth is too expensive for bouquet garni, just tie it up
• You can't make 2 ounces of roux in standard pans; although I gave it the old college try
• Brown roux is characterized by a nutty/popcorn smell, not color

Quibbles:

• I think it would have been better on JWU's end to plan for normal batch sizes instead of small recipe-sizes.
  
• Although mise en place was explained to us, it wasn't practiced on JWU's end. Whether or not this rests on the reliability of first year students looking for extra credit ("like herding cats" as Chef Gallaugher said), is tough to determine; but at least they were eager to fetch things for you...
• It was readily apparant that the attempt at french onion soup was beyond salvage, but it was still finished and plated. In the real world it would have been tossed. If you want to demonstrate what goodfrench onion soup is for a class, make that one ahead of time.  

All in all an enjoyable evening, we followed it up with some bar food and a Macanudo at Sullivan's.

Ciao.