Kitchen Discovery: Do you have what it takes to cook? (Part 2)
By Jason Doplito

Yesterday, I wrote about the Kitchen Discovery Class at CCA, which allows someone to know if he has what it takes to be a chef and thus, pursue culinary studies.

After a brief intro by Anne, CCA PR Manager, we were introduced to our chef. I held my breath as I finally got to learn if it would be Chef Tristan (aaaaay!) or the lovable Chef Rosebud....

... it was Chef Menoy Jimenez.

My brain had a 3-second blackout before it resumed normal operations.

Now, Chef Menoy, as I later learned, is the founder of the Discovery class and an institution at CCA. And he doesn't teach anymore, but when he used to, students would line up to register for his class, so you can say we were honored to be "discovering" the kitchen with him. (I just prayed he wasn't what Douglas Nierras is to dancing -- you know, the terror teacher.)

Chef Menoy talks fast, breaks down concepts into relatable analogies, and is funny. It wasn't hard for me to relax after the first minute especially when he explained that one of the _object_ives of the Kitchen Discovery Class was confidence-building: that there's nothing to be scared of about the kitchen and cooking is a joy to do again and again.

The class was divided into three groups, and I was paired with Giff, Giles, blogger Ian and Laarni. We had a mother in the group (Ian) so that was a relief. The normal Kitchen Discovery Class requires 15 students to be divided into groups of five.

We proceeded to the kitchen and saw the ingredients laid out before us. While I recognize some of them by name on paper, I certainly couldn't recognize them in real life



Here's a funny story:

Laarni and I are admittedly "beginners" in the kitchen, to put it mildly. I was tasked to chop the cilantro for garnishing.

It looked like this:

I turned to Laarni and asked, "Sinasama ba yung tangkay?"

Laarni turned to the sous chef and asked, "Sinasama ba yung tangkay?"

The sous chef said no and gave us a look which I can only describe as... sympathetic.

The morning dish had five components: (1) Caramelized Salmon with Orange-Shoyu Glaze, (2) mixed Sauteed Vegetables, (3) Soba Noodles, (4) Lemongrass Beuree Blanc and (5) Balsamic-Soy Reduction. Since the name of the recipe was a mouthful, Chef Menoy summarized it as "masarap na salmon." We would make all of these, except for the Soba Noodles, which the sous chefs took care of.

What can I say -- it was very easy! Granted that some of the ingredients weren't staple wet market fare (I think), e.g., Grand Marnier, zucchini, shallot, lemongrass, you basically just mix these ingredients, fry the salmon and thicken the liquid mixture through boiling (which is what reduction means). Chef Menoy also shared that you can do mistakes in cooking -- sometimes, accidents make the dish even better. This is as opposed to baking, which call for exact measurements and timing.

From this:

To this, By Team Fierce:

So watch out, I can now do a mean, to-die-for salmon in a Zen-inspired plating! (Chef Menoy offered a tip on plating; remember the acronym CZA -- Clean, Zen-like and Appetizing.)

We took a lunch break and I delved into The Mystery of Tristan's Non-Appearance. Here are the facts that I unearthed from highly and well-placed sources, whom I shall not name:

a) Tristan is either a flirt or just too charming
b) Tristan calls everyone "baby"
c) Tristan is ALWAYS there every Saturday... except that Saturday!!!

Hmp.


I am taking comfort in the fact that it took years for me to meet Piolo, but eventually, I got to meet him face-to-face in his dressing room.

The afternoon session was devoted to baking under Chef Anne Atanacio, simply the funniest teacher I've ever met. We were doing Panna Cotta, a desert that would be hard for us to go wrong with, according to her.

Since the environment was more relaxed -- we had a funny teacher and the group was down to nine from the original 14 -- we had a "friendly" competition: Who would make the best Panna Cotta?

It was me, Giles and Laarni; Giff and two CCA students; and Fifi, Ruby and Penny, a professional blogger.

Logic would have it that Fifi's group would win this one -- she bakes! But at this point, I was so comfortable around the kitchen (class _object_ive met!) that my ego inflated like dough on a 85°F oven.

While the recipe called for relatively easy tasks, it was the orange-segmenting job that got me stumped: I couldn't cut the orange into smaller segments without mutilating the whole thing. Eventually, I tossed my horrendously shaped orange segments into the citrus caramel sauce -- with the seeds still in them, which I learned, I should've taken out in the first place!

Now the citrus caramel sauce proved to be a little tricky -- we were supposed to bring the sugar mixture to a boil until it turns amber in color. While waiting for the flawlessness to happen, Chef Anne began to spice up the conversation. We reminded her of certain people, apparently. For example, she said Giff looked really familiar ("Lord of the Rings?" I offered), but never got to come up with a name. I apparently look like Beth Tamayo. (Great.) But here was the clincher, she said Giles looked like Vhong Navarro and Dingdong Dantes's ex: Bianca Lapuz.

Ibang level!

Since we were bloggers, we also exchanged sites that are heavily clicked in our bookmarks, traded gay lingo (Shaider for "shy") and got a lesson from Chef on how to be in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model:



Top Chef meets Top Model. Chef Anne strikes a fierce pose with Giles, me, the very cute in an anime way sous chef Miguel and Lalaine.


Amidst all the chaos, we almost burned our caramel sauce that Chef had to step in and rescue it from utter mess. Naturally, we were jeered by the entire class -- until Giff's group actually burned its sauce. They were thus coined, "repeaters."

Fifi, Ruby and Penny were practically yawning at us -- not only did they finish first but they actually made a perfect panna cotta, with perfect sauce, topped with perfect orange segments, and accented with a perfect tuile (it's like apa, those sold outside church every Sunday). Hmp.


Our team's Panna Cotta topped with mangled orange segments (photo by Giff)

In the end, we managed to make not just edible, but actually, delicious panna cottas, so yep, I now have a desert up my sleeve in case the need arises.

So do I have what it takes to cook? I think everyone does; we just need a little coaxing out of our shell. From Lucky Me Pancit Canton, I can now do salmon and panna cotta -- that's quite a transformation.

CCA's Kitchen Discovery class are held on Saturdays from 9 am to 4 pm. Fee is P3,800 inclusive of all food ingredients, access to facilities, utensils, certificate of completion and "costume" -- comprised of a shirt, skull cap, side towel and apron. Check out the CCA website or call (+63 2) 994.2520, 30 & 40 for more information.

http://bluearden.multiply.com/journal/item/215 and http://bluearden.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html