CHEF SHUMAN.... While I truly have enjoyed taking your English Composition class, I must say I am happy it is almost over.  By the way, are we having a pot luck lunch next week?  Because I have been looking forward to that part for the past 9 weeks.  I only ask because I did not hear anyone else talking about it.  If need be I will make the phone calls to ensure that we have some food for next Thursday.

If the rest of the world would go to culinary school and actually take it serious, I wonder if places like McDonalds and Burger King would still be in business.  Those fast food joints, just don't do it for me anymore.  However, the fries, oh the fries.  How is it I cannot make fries like the fast food restaurants?  What is really the secret to why they are so good.  Stake n Shake has to have my favorite fries.  Just the small shoestring style with the cheddar cheese sauce over them.  MMMMM.  In fact, I am thinking I will have some after work tonight.

From school to work.  This seems to be my life as of late.  I just got a text message from my executive chef telling me we have a party of 250 coming in.  Apparently the hall that this group had rented out, must have double booked.  So I was asked if I could come in early to help prep.  Sorry chef, no can do today.  However I will be making some beautiful pies once I get there.  That is the task I have ahead of me tonight.

Here they are folks!!!!  The L'Ecole Culinary Competition Team.  Well three of them anyways.  First competition is coming up here in a couple of weeks and as the team gets prepared, you can hear the nervousness in each of their voices.  I keep telling them to just relax and remember to just take their time when the competition begins.  I will be there rooting for them.  Don't want to see our school come in any other place besides first.  They are all strong students and I have all the faith in the world in them.

We are almost done with the 5th phase of school.  I must say that I really miss being in the kitchen.  Especially when I have been doing nothing except for writing papers and watching other people cooking right in front of me.  The kitchen next to the library is called Plate Design.  And by the looks of things, it looks like quite an interesting class.  I am looking forward to that time.

When I decided to go to culinary school, I had this vision of walking in and just having different food all over the place.  That, however is not always the case.  It seems that as we near the end of each phase, you could walk into any walk-in cooler or reach in cooler and find that there is absolutely nothing as far as food products go.  I understand that the ordering goes down to make sure we use the product we have on hand, but just find it ironic.  It reminds me of my refrigerator at home.

Brian, my high maintenance brother, comes over once a month for some type of themed dinner.  This past Sunday he decided he wanted to have Mexican.  While I love Mexican food, it just isn't a whole lot of fun to make.  So I decided to do tacos four ways.  We had chicken fajita tacos, pork tacos with mango salsa, carne asada tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and fish tacos.  I had also prepared fresh guacamole and queso dip.  For dessert we had churros.  After it was all said and done, he says to me, " Why did you make so much food?"  Not a thank you or that was enjoyable, just a complaint.  However, this is my high maintenance brother.

March the 27th, day of the fish competition at school.  The only rule is that we must use Pollock as our fish.  For my dish, I made a cracker and Cheyenne breading, then pan fried the fish.  Under the fish was a Jicama, cucumber, and bell pepper slaw, topped with a balsamic glaze.  While it was agreed upon all of the judges my dish was enjoyable, I ended up getting 3rd place in the competition.  Some day soon I will regain my rightful place at the top of these competitions.  Until then, I will continue to hone my culinary skills.

The nice thing about working at a higher end restaurant versus the typical bar and grill, is the different food dishes you get to play around with.  Now that we are into the lent holiday we had the pleasure of creating some different fish dishes.  Below is a rainbow trout stuffed with goat cheese and fresh thyme.  For sides we grilled some potato squares and sauteed some green beans.  This dish was absolutely amazing.

This past Saturday, I had the honor of volunteering for Camp Rainbow, which is a camp for teens with Cancer or other blood related diseases.  It makes you realize how wonderful your life is when you look at these children dealing with this life threatening disease.  Even more than that is the courage they have and just how up beat they are about life.  For me they were nothing short of inspirational.  One teen comes to mind, in particular though.  Noah, who came up to me and asked, "what is this?" Churros, with chocolate sauce," I replied.  When I was asked if they were any good?  I told Noah that they were like heaven in his mouth.  Without skipping a beat he says to me, " I will be the judge of that.  And if they are, I will be back to compliment you on your cooking skills."  And that is exactly what he did.  A short while later he came to me and explained how amazing the Churros were and gave me a huge hug.  That in and of itself  made the entire day worth while.

I work for the Legends Country Club in Eureka, MO.  As we are getting into the Spring season, all of the cooks were asked to create a light pasta for the new menu.  Based on management, they would then decide whose pasta would make the new menu.  Thanks to Chef Hutchinson, whose pasta dish I copied, the pasta I made is on the menu.

All you need to do is heat a skillet with a little bit of oil, toss in some minced up garlic and shallots until aromatic.  Then put in some broccoli, chopped sundried tomatoes, Italian sausage (all ready cooked).  Once all of these items have heated through add some chicken stock and orchiette pasta.  Toss all ingredients together in the sautee pan.  Add some shredded Pecorino cheese until it is melted.  Serve immediately and top with some more cheese, salt and pepper.

On Tuesday, March the 9th my entire class volunteered to help out at the American Culinary Federation Convention.  They had different demonstration on cooking with grains, meats, seafood, and even a version of Jeopardy, just in the culinary form.  Food vendors from all over the country had shown up to display their products, but I must say that the bacon kabob was my favorite.  Who doesn't love bacon?  And now to have it on a kabob.  Holy Moly!!!

With St. Patrick's day right around the corner, I believe it is time to start making my corned beef.  It will have to sit for several days, but just the thought of watching it sitting in the brine and starting to corn, gets this fat guy all excited.  Once it is done I will post the recipe and pictures of each step. For now, you just get to see the briskets I will be using.

So today my classmate Alex Emrich and I decided we wanted to try something new and different for lunch.  As we drove aimlessly around we came across Atai Mongolian Grill.  Neither one of us had ever had Mongolian, so figured we'd give it a try.  Not only was it delicious, but I decided I want to try and cook on this massive round flat top, with what looked like to long metal poles.  Can't wait to go back again.

Today is :Monday, the 10th of March, the weather is gorgeous, I have no school and the Cardinals are playing.  Whatever shall I do?  That is right folks! Time to break out the Weber and grill up some chicken, potatoes, and some grilled asparagus marinated in a Balsamic Vinegar.

Now that the move to our new home is complete, we finally got to have our first real dinner with some friends and family.  I grilled some Teriyaki salmon, with sauteed squash and zucchini and Soba noodle salad.  For dessert we had warm pineapple, mango, crisp.  Needless to say everyone was in a food coma by the end of the meal.

Thankfully, mid-terms are over at school.  I am really missing being in the kitchen and cooking on a daily basis.  At least today I get the opportunity to go to work and prepare some food tonight.  By the sound of things we should have a pretty busy evening.

Once again, I had the joy of working on the L'Ecole food truck.  Although we were not near as busy, myself, Tim, and Chef Hutchinson had a great time serving our customers.  However, I find it interesting how many people suddenly become practicing Catholics during lent.

The Country Club atmosphere I have found out is much different than any other type of restaurant that I have worked in before.  This past Friday, we started off with 33 reservations.  Before we knew it we were putting together hors d'oeuvres for a party of 75.  By the end of the night we were at full capacity of 187 guests.  Just goes to show you that you never know what is going to happen in this industry.

We had to do 10 more of these platters and another 30 of the ones below

I have worked in a couple of different restaurants, but never have I had the pleasure of working on a line that was so big and open.  We even have air conditioning.  Even though I just started this past Thursday, I think I may have found a home to stay at for awhile.