Proof I'm Not a Food Snob

Here's where a few of my awesome former interns and I went for a snack yesterday after an extended happy hour. This Mickey D's is located two blocks away from the apartment I've lived in for the past two years, and last night was my first time inside. I have to say, that oreo McFlurry was deeelicious. Not as good as a DQ blizzard, though.

Pre-Orientation

Before I get into my pre-orientation to culinary school—a very fun and informative knife skills lesson that took place last night—I'll provide a little orientation for you, readers of this blog.

My name's Sara and I'm a 24-year-old writer from Washington, DC. After college in Philadelphia, I moved back to my hometown for an assistant editor job at the Washingtonian magazine. I've now been here two years, supervising the editorial internship program and writing (mostly about food) for the magazine and its website—but next week will be my last. I'm heading down South, to Atlanta, where I've enrolled in a year-long culinary school program at a branch of Le Cordon Bleu. At this point, I have no intention of becoming a chef. I'm just hoping to learn a lot and gain some solid culinary knowledge that will come in handy as I continue to pursue a career in food writing.

Why Atlanta? Seems like a pretty random place to choose for this culinary adventure, no? Well, besides the fact that I'm about 99 times happier when it's not cold outside, my boyfriend Zack lives there and just started his last year of law school. We've been flying back and forth between Atlanta and DC for the past two years—not fun. Zack is a fellow food-lover—pretty much has to be, as he's from New Orleans—so we're looking forward to sharing lots of food adventures (and cooking experiments!) in the coming year.

This blog will chronicle my experience at Le Cordon Bleu as well as other foodie discoveries in Atlanta. I leave in two weeks, but my first post takes place here in DC. I hope you'll continue to read and give me feedback in the comments—anyone who follows my posts for the Washingtonian's Best Bites blog knows, I love comments!

Last thing: the title of this blog. If you've never worked in a restaurant kitchen, you might be curious as to the meaning of mise en place. I've never worked in a restaurant kitchen either--part of the reason why going to culinary school and doing a restaurant externship is so alluring to me--but I became familiar with the term after devouring books such as Kitchen Confidential, The Making of a Chef, and Heat. For a true definition, here's what trusty old Wikipedia has to say:

"Mise en place" (pronounced [miz ɑ̃n plas], literally "put in place") is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in U.S. kitchens to refer to the ingredients, such as cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components that a cook requires for the menu items that they expect to prepare during their shift.

Mise en place is a fundamental and vitally important part of restaurant cooking that most diners aren't aware of. I know I'll be prepping a lot of it in culinary school. When my friend and fellow food-obsessed co-worker Katie--who you'll read about later--suggested it as a name for my blog, I thought it couldn't be more appropriate.

Finally . . . on to pre-orientation.

* * *

When I started college at the University of Pennsylvania back in 2002, we had the option to sign up for a pre-orientation program—a chance to get to know some fellow students and feel a little more at ease when real orientation began on campus. Though I'm not necessarily "outdoorsy," I signed up for a hiking/camping trip. I do like being active, and an older cousin told me it was a blast—plus, it sounded a lot cooler than the other options, such as a "leadership retreat" that I later found out Zack had participated in! Anyway, after an awesome three days in the wilderness, I had lots of new friends and sure enough, felt barely any anxiety as I moved into my dorm room for freshman orientation.

Before I start the next phase of my education, I hoped for a little pre-orientation to help me avoid showing up at Le Cordon Bleu on Day 1 with my knives, totally and completely clueless. Fortunately, I found some people willing to help. My friend at work, Katie (who's going to be filling my shoes in a couple of weeks!), dates Dan, who's the sous-chef at a fine-dining restaurant in DC that I can't normally afford. Being the nice guy that he is, Dan offered to give me a knife skills tutorial which was held last night in Katie's kitchen.

Super culinary couple Dan and Katie

I enjoy cooking, but have never taken any sort of professional cooking class. My current specialties are ridiculously simple: my mom's turkey chili (I've been told it's as good as the real thing!); seared scallops; garlicky roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil and balsamic; my "famous" (thanks, Becky!) oatmeal loaded with fruit, nuts, and my not-so-secret ingredient: a teaspoon of vanilla pudding mix. I hold a knife the way it has always felt comfortable to me—certainly not the right way. I chop slowly and my cuts are by no means uniform. These habits will hopefully be rectified in a year of culinary school.

After Knife Skills 101 with Dan, I feel like I'm already well on my way. I stopped at Whole Foods on my way over and picked up some produce: onions, potatoes, and a green pepper (for a salad that Dan would serve us after the lesson.) He had printed out a cheat sheet for me with diagrams of all of the important cuts I'd eventually need to know: brunoise (1/8 inch dice), small dice (1/4 inch), medium dice (1/2 inch), large dice (3/4 inch), fine julienne (1-2 inch matchsticks 1/16 inch in diameter), julienne (1/8 inch diameter), etc.

Dan stressed keeping your work station clean as you go--good thing I'm already pretty obsessive about that in the kitchen, as past roommates can attest. He showed me his three-bucket system for prepping your mise en place, placing three containers on his cutting board: one for the whole potatoes/whatever we'd be working with, one for scraps, and one for the finished product.

He showed me how to work the knife while holding the vegetable steady with my right hand in a claw shape (I'm left-handed). At first it felt unnatural to guide the knife with my knuckle against the blade and the tips of my fingers back, as he instructed, but after hacking away at a couple of potatoes, I settled into it and could see my cuts improving. I moved onto onions and then a cucumber for Dan's salad. Chopping can be kind of addictive!

Setup for prepping produce

3-bucket system: whole, waste, and finished product

Potato Brunoise (this looks too good to be my attempt - I'm guessing it's Dan's)

At its core, college is about making good friends and having fun (and, um, education). Pre-orientation helped me get off on the right foot. Culinary school, for me at least, is about truly understanding the fundamentals of cooking. Thanks to Dan's pre-orientation, I'm no longer nervous that I'll chop off a finger on the first day.

Wilbur's leg, which Dan roasted and we feasted on after the lesson. Yum!

Delicious panzanella salad- made with red onion sliced and diced by yours truly!

Spicy pickled salad

Mmm...buttery peach cobbler.
Everyone should take knife skills lessons from Dan. Look how well he feeds his students!