Un kilo de pommes de terre

On friday, the scariest, most bad-assed chef announced to my cuisine class that he was leaving the school after 16 years. He is o on to a new adventure. The demonstration he gave was the first and last he would give to my class. Why is he so bad-ass? Besides his incredible resume, having worked and taught around the world, banging out a demonstration of 3 entrees for 25 people in an hour and 40 minutes which he started in french and then started speaking spanish (confusing the translator, too funny), he just plain looks tough. He is intimidating, period. I had one practical with this chef before. He is the chef who when looking at our individual plates for the practical tasting, preceded to ask each person in my practical class, "You, want to be a chef in a kitchen?" and then either scoffed, laughed or shook his head. It was a hard day for all of us, but for some reason I didnt take it as badly as I normally would have. I knew he had extremely high expectations and I already knew he scared me so as long as there was no physical abuse, it was fine.

During this demonstration, the chef provide advice. He has seen many schools and said we made the right decision coming to LCB, but it is all what you make of it. He feels that the mistake students make is thinking that they will get all of their learning in class, but there is always homework just like any other school. You also need to be tough. You need to be strong to be able to work 16 - 18 hours a day in the kitchen. He also spoke about the chefs you will learn the most from. It is not the nice chefs, it is the ones you are most scared of. It is for those chefs that you will always get things perfect for, you will never mess up because you are too frightened of the consequences.

On Monday, I will be preparing a fish dish will a garnish of turned potatoes. In preparation, today I turned a kilo (~2.2 pounds) of potatoes. I have carpel tunnel now. My hand hurts.

My version of turned potatoes (it's practice, no judging)


My gear



A beautiful paring knife


The scraps


What do you do with the scraps from a kilo of turned potatoes? Make lemonade. I mean herbs de Provence and garlic mashed potatoes and take them to a picnic tonight on the river.