I'd question putting sweet potato mash and apple sauce on the same plate. I'd like to see a contrast in texture with one of those elements replaced by something with a bit of crunch to it.

Not sure if my answer will help you but I was spending 800+ month before I started working at my current restaurant. I ate out the majority of my meals

Now its probably dropped in half because I am at work 3-4 days a week (thus not eating out) and tend to graze on the stuff were cooking. Additionally, I am the human disposal at my job and take all kinds of stuff home that they would throw away (the trim pieces of various vegetables that are perfectly edible, but dont work with the desired presentation, pre-made food that's fine but has to be pulled from the shelf, etc). The pizza I talked about a few posts back was made out of leftover dough, sauce and arugula that was about to go in the trash can after a catering event. I think I made three pizzas out of it.

Now that I'm learning more and more about cooking, I can whip up tasty stuff pretty quick (close to the time it would take me to order take out somewhere decent) and it tastes SO much better. Using good, fresh ingredients has spoiled my taste buds because when I eat junk food or something made with cheap ingredients or poorly prepared, it really stands out to me.

I've copied something they do at my restaurant and use these quality plastic containers that are 1 Cup, 1 Pint & 1 Quart sizes with tight lids. I premake various items and store them in the fridge so when I want to make something I can grab some quality ingredients on the fly with the work already done. Things like Hog stock, Chicken Stock, sautéed leeks, lardons, honey bacon, brines for chicken/turkey, apple butter, brown butter, various pickled items.

I'm working on trying to map out a food matrix of sorts where I take say 15-20 main ingredients that I can pre-prepare (like stocks, etc) and then from those ingredients be able to create say 80+ meals from those main staples in 30 minutes or less (preferably 15). My hope is that I can do my main staples in 4-8 hours at one time to set myself up the rest of the week to cook some fast, healthy(er) food.

Ok, I went on a bit of a tangent there at the end but if anyone else has any suggestions or input they want to add to my "food matrix" idea, I'd love to hear any and all ideas.

This. I've been cooking at home a lot more, using quality meat and fresh vegetables and now when I get a mediocre restaurant meal or drive thru it's noticeably inferior.

Sounds like a great idea, hope you post it as it comes along.

Gobbo - not sure how much duck you bought, but I actually just picked one up at Costco for $15.

As far as the purees go - I think a good puree game goes a long way. That said, I think what Wallace picked up on and tried to express was more a plating and balance thing. With all the media we're exposed to, our eyes get used to looking at balanced plates that are made to present and serve to guests, which is fine. If you see me at thanksgiving however, I have a massive mound of food that would bring shame to my family should pictures ever get leaked on the internet. Really there's nothing wrong with either tbh, but again, I think Wallace was getting at was a presentation thing.

I think it looks pretty.

Yimyam,

That food matrix idea is pretty sweet and IMO could be the basis for a popular website/book/service/business if you had any interest in that kind of stuff.

That's kind of what I was thinking as well. I've been playing with I-Books Author and looking for a good option where I can document everything while creating a book at the same time.

BIG undertaking that I expect to take quite a while, especially given my perfectionist, obsessive nature so some young buck will probably beat me to the punch.

Having said that, I think its a good exercise regardless of whether I take it beyond this thread and my personal use.

To bring purees and the idea of a food matrix together, imagine adding more options in the enrichment/seasoning/garnish columns for the chart on page 244 of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

I dont have that book, can you post a pic of that chart so we can see what you're referring to?

I can describe it instead of posting a pic because that's faster. I guess it is more of a table than a chart. Columns for vegetable, fat (for binding), enrichment, seasoning and garnish. A sample row would be "Pumpkin, other winter squash, or cassave", "extra virgin olive oil", "some of the boiling liquid", "lots of garlic, either fried or roasted", and "paprika or lots of freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of lime juice".

Using deli cups at home is the sign of a true expert. I use them as drink cups too, which is pretty standard when you're working in a restaurant/bakery. They're like the ultimate multipurpose containers, and they're free if you just keep them after buying things you would buy anyway.

Wish I could say I was an expert, but at least I'm working with some and reading a lot of great stuff here as well. The deli cups are such an obvious use in retrospect, surprised it never crossed my mind, much better than the odd shaped containers I bought at the grocery store

thx, ill add that book to my wish list

definitely will, but it will be a while b4 I think I'll have anything remotely presentable...I have so much I'm learning and WAY more to learn

Duck is technically red meat like cow.

How does one determine the technical classification of meat color?

Googling the duck/salmonella topic taught me couple things:

-Ducks carry a variety of pathogens including salmonella.
-Ducks that are infected with salmonella become visibly sick and are easy to spot and are therefore usually removed from the food supply.
-A hot wax treatment is used to remove stubborn feathers and this kills the majority of pathogens on the skin.
-Reports of people infected by anything eating duck is very rare.
-USDA recommends 165 f.

I will still go medrare and take my chances.

Red Snapper on Caramelized Fennel with purple potatoes and a Saffran-Noilly-Prat-White-Butter-Sauce



Pressure-Cooked Oxtail-Risotto with Maniok Mash, chanterelles and crispy onions



Any ideas to get some colors into that dish?

Boy I think it's best you turned round and went back where you came from. *shotgun pump*

raw herb garnish, would not eat






but DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNN

actually caramelize the fennel, and leave the skin on the potato?
(and lose the weed growing out of the middle)

oh you meant the second one.

mince whatever is on top of the maniok, and incorporate it. use tarragon or chives instead of parsley.
chanterelles should have a beautiful gold color. don't mess with it.
oxtail risotto is gonna be brown. maybe use a different garnish than the crispy onion. think red. tomato, radish, red onion. red wine braised grape or pear.

I'm assuming this is a cooking class or similar endeavor?
I apologize if this seems harsh. It's meant to be constructive.

No offense intended, but the plating is just a lot too precious for me on both of those. On the first, it's mostly the herb, but on the second it's the herb + the circle of secondary ingredients in the circle that's killing me. I'm also not sure what's up with serving a risotto with an accompanying mash, just seems too texturally similar.

For me, the second dish would be much more appealing with the chanterelles incorporated in to the risotto, the mash removed, and the herbs minced and used as a garnish on top of the risotto, which would also add the pop of color. Great risottos don't really need more than a simple garnish, and frequently lack big color pops.

Otherwise, the food obviously looks tasty and impressively cooked.

cardcore,

both of those dishes sound very good, but please let's talk about the plating.

The herb twig sticking out in the 1st dish is very 1970s and gimmicky. I'm not a fan of inedible things on the plate. I'd like to be able to see the texture of the fish and the fennel, but I can't because it's covered with various garnishes. It looks like there's green moss growing on the fish. The plate is very granny-ish with all the fussy patterns on the rim.

2nd dish obv you weren't using a good camera so it probly looked better than it does in the pic. I agree with what nhlnut said. The symmetrical pinwheel pattern around the risotto is very expected and boring, but that's just my opinion, some people like that style.

I think if the mash is very flavorful, there's so little of it that if it stands out from the risotto in terms of flavors, then it could work.

thank you all for your feedback, I really appreciate it

the red snapper was indeed done in culinary school. The chef gave us all the ingridients so we couldn't do a lot wrong colorwise and then we had the freedom to freestyle and play with it in teams of two. The fish was actually a little undercooked and was not well seasoned, but I was very proud of the plating, because thats what i usually really suck at. anyway, you are right on the thyme sprig... no more from now on.

the Risotto was made at home and while I agree on the plating issues I wouldn't know how to plate it in a better way when using the same ingridients. minced parsley on top of the risotto is a good idea. I think the main problem is that this whole plate consists of very rich components and that something "light" is missing. Any ideas?

tx again.

Culinary school is awesome and I would recommend it to everyone who is at least a little passionate about about cooking and has some free time to spare. I came here 4 months ago with ZERO experience (just 1 year of donkey home cooking) . the chefs here are amazing and I'm learning pretty fast.