So It Begins...

Dear Friends,

So today it begins. I'm on my way to re-invent myself as a chef. I don't know how much I should explain now as to how I came about to pursue this path. But please know that cooking gives me joy. For the past few years, when nothing made sense in my life, I found refuge in cooking. So I had to ask myself, "why not do something with your life that you enjoy?" So, today it begins. I enrolled in a culinary arts course. And today, I had my first lesson.

The purpose of this blog, DJ Cuisine, is to keep account of what I'm learning, in techniques and in food, but most importantly in who I am as a person. So, in a way, it's going to be a bit self-absorbed. Friends, if you decide to follow me on this journey, you may just have to deal with the "me, me, me" tone of this blog. You have been warned!

Besides getting an overview of hygiene and safety in the kitchen, we learn about the kitchen brigade. We are also introduced to the many equipment and tools in the kitchen. My head is spinning at this point. But the most exciting part of the lesson is the hands on activity.

After setting up my "poste de travail," we begin with washing and then peeling the vegetables, "épluchage."  It is during this process that I encountered my first accident.  I nick myself.  The paring knife is indeed very sharp! The most surprising aspect of the whole activity is that I am not managing my time well and I'm a bit disorganized. I guess I am overwhelmed by the many jargons involved with cutting vegetables! Taillage is the practice of cutting vegetables into uniform size and shape. And depending on the vegetables, we have different ways to cuts. The onion and the shallot need to be émincer and ciseler. With carrots and turnips, we tronçonner, parer, and tranches. (By this point, I am not even sure I am using these words in the correctly conjugated form.) With turnips, we are asked to have jardinière and macédoine. With carrots, julienne and brunoise. With the cabbage, we do a chiffonade...

At this point in time, I'm going to stop and continue writing tomorrow... Cuz I'm falling asleep.

Nite nite!

J