Read Online Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina López - Free Book Online Page B

Chef Sauber demonstrated which knife was to be used for cutting meat
     and which was for the fish. A few tools specific to pastry were also part of the kit. He picked up his sharpening steel, just
     like the one in our kits, and told us it wasn’t that great, but it did the job. He confided that if we still had money left
     we should get a real knife sharpener. Chef Sauber sharpened his knife and reiterated that we must never walk around with a
     knife pointed outward because in a kitchen with lots of people running about it was very dangerous. He advised us to mark
     our knives with nail polish or a permanent marker because everyone had the same equipment and it would be easy to misplace
     our tools.
    Today’s lesson would be simple. He was going to demonstrate which pans and casseroles to use for what purpose; then we would
     learn to make stocks and a vegetable soup.
    The first stock we would be taught was chicken stock. Stock is the strained liquid that results from cooking bones. It’s the
     basis of most sauces and it’s what gives dishes extra flavor and juice. Chicken stock is made up of a pound and a half of
     chicken bones, with two cups of mixed vegetables that include onion, celery, and carrots roughly chopped. You boil the vegetables
     in six quarts of water and throw in two garlic cloves, six peppercorns, and a bouquet garni.
    “The bouquet garni is a French chef’s little secret,” confided Chef Sauber as he lovingly wrapped thyme and bay leaf together
     with celery and parsley and put them inside a leek as if it was a miniature taco. He tied up the leek taco with cooking string,
     leaving a long, loose end, and turned it into a bouquet. “This is what truly gives the stocks and sauces flavor,” translated
     Henry.
    Today would be a short and easy day, to give us time to take in all the information. Making rustic soup was an opportunity
     to learn to cut vegetables.
    Chef Sauber turned on the electric burners and explained that all the stoves in the school were electric for safety reasons.
     He warned us against leaving pans on the burners after we had turned them off, because even though they were turned off it
     would take an average of ten minutes to cool down—or to heat up to the assigned number. He advised us to set up our system
     in a way where the hotter settings on the burner would be in the front and anything left simmering for a while could be placed
     farther away from us. But we could do it however we wanted to, as long as we didn’t burn our food. He assured us that almost
     anything in cuisine could be corrected except for burning something. He told us, “Cuisine is more of an art, and pastry is
     more of a science. In pastry you have to get all the details and steps right or things don’t rise.”
    Chef Sauber grabbed a tray of uncut vegetables and picked out a celery stalk. He demonstrated for us how to set up the
planchette
—a plastic cutting board—by getting a paper towel and wetting it and placing it under the
planchette
to secure it to the counter.
    “We will be cutting vegetables in four different ways,” translated Henry. “The proper way to cut and the technique we prefer
     to teach is one in which you fold your fingertips in and the knife barely touches the back side of the fingers. When the knife
     comes down it slides alongside the back of the fingers and the knife is permitted to move forward only by the back side of
     the fingers. That’s how I can look away and not cut myself.” Chef Sauber looked up at us and cut quickly, showing off his
     technique. Everyone oohed and aahed, like children watching a magician.
    “
Mirepoix
is a mixture of vegetables cut into large dice, used mostly for aromatic flavor. For our soup we will be cutting our vegetables
     in two ways:
brunoise
and
paysanne
.
Brunoise
is cutting vegetables into two centimeters and
paysanne
is cutting vegetables into sticks or triangles, then thinly slicing them into three-centimeter segments.”