Chef Spahr’s Culinary Class Blog

A few of you are leaving this facility soon.  I am offering you an opportunity to have the last word.  In a comment to this post, write about some or all of the following questions:

1. How did coming to this facility change your life?
2. What useful things from your experience here will you take away?
3. Are there any staff members that were particularly helpful to you?  Who were they and what would you like to say to them?
4. How have you changed?
5. What are you most looking forward to when you get out?
6. What are you most concerned about when you leave here?
7. What plan do you have in place to help you make it on “the outs”?

I have taught at this facility for almost seven years now.  Over that time, I have always been puzzled by this strange phenomenom: students are like two different people depending on where they are.  In school, most students behave pretty well (there are always exceptions).  You guys are engaged in the class activities and mostly act like typical teenagers.

Then there is how students are when they are in the housing units.  You guys get into to all sorts of trouble.  Some of it seems to be foolish pranks, but often it can be more serious stuff.  Its like the anger switch gets flipped when students return to the housing units

So my question to you is this:  What is the difference?  Do you think it is easier to stay out of trouble in school?  Why or why not?  What influences your behavior on the housing units?  What influences your behavior in school?  What are some specific things you would change to make your situation better?

Photo credit: Oops Anger from switch_1010’s photostream

This group of students has been in the class for a few weeks now.  Besides learning how to cook things in the kitchen, we have spent quite a bit of time on team building.  You have really started to come together as a team.  Today however, the team is changing: we have added a new student (who has been in this class before).  Anytime there is change in your workplace (or classroom), there are some real opportunities.  How will you adapt?  What can you do to include a new person on your team and make him feel welcome?

Respond to these questions in a paragraph (or more) by leaving a comment to this post.

Photo credit: Handshake I from oooh.oooh’s photostream

Today we sat down at the table together and shared Thanksgiving dinner that we prepared as a class.  I hope you enjoyed cooking and eating it.

Reflection on the past year has been part of the Thanksgiving tradition for over 300 years.

In a paragraph comment to this post, please answer the following: What are you thankful for this year?

Photo credit: Leaf Turkey from Jennifer13’s photostream

Every chef should be able to cook eggs: a chef should be able to prepare them in a wide variety of ways, and a chef should be able to do it well.  It is part of the history and tradition of the chef.  Don’t believe me?   Just take a look at the hat you are wearing on your head.  All of this is thanks to a French chef from the mid 1800’s named Marie-Antoine Carȇme.   Your chef hat or toque, has lots of folds, or pleats.  Have you ever wondered why?  Consider this quote from an article by Joseph George on the History of the Chef Uniform.

The folded pleats of a toque, which later became an established characteristic of the chef’s hat, were first said to have been added to indicate the more than 100 ways in which a chef can cook an egg.

Making an omelet is one of way a chef can cook an egg.    Each picture in the slideshow embedded below shows one step in the preparation of an omelet.  In a comment to this post, write a description for each picture in the slide show.  In other words, write a recipe for preparing an omelet.

photo credit: American Gothic painting updated from turtlemom4bacon’s photostream.

Recently, we talked about the idea of “essential recipes.”  What is an essential recipe?  Essential recipes are the basic recipes and techniques that all successful cooks must “know.” A chef can use his or her repertoire of basic recipes and techniques and adapt them to create new recipes of all kinds.

What are the recipes that you consider to be essential?  What makes them essential in your opinion?

Leave your response as a comment in the blog.

Remember- don’t use any personally identifiable information in your comment!

photo credit: “Blond Roux” from Andrew Huff’s photostream

For this project, you will be divided into three groups. Each group will be assigned to create a brief PowerPoint presentation that effectively demonstrates one aspect of food safety and sanitation. Your group will be given one of these three topics:

1. How to wash your hands.
2. When you should wash your hands.
3. How to set up a three-compartment sink and when to change the water.

Use the information from the ServSafe videos that you collected in Noteshare as an outline for your slide show.  Each group will be given a digital camera to take pictures for their presentation.

Here are some guidelines:

• You should have one slide for each step in the process.
• Each slide should include text and a picture describing the step shown.

photo credit: “Mas Agua” from prozaciswack’s Photostream

Here are the projects:

Yesterday you participated in another activity: the “Tube Challenge.”  Your task was to get marbles into a water bottle by rolling them down sections of tube held by each member of the team.  The rules were that once a marble started down the track, it could not stop, move backward or fall off the track.  If any of these things happened, the group had to start over.

In a comment to this post, write about the activity using the following questions:

1. What did you find difficult or frustrating about this activity?
2. There was one member of the group who made it very clear that he did not want to participate.  Was there anything that the group did to encourage him to participate?  In the end, what do you think changed his mind?
3. What strategy or strategies did your team try?  What worked or didn’t work and why?
4. Describe how the team reacted the first time you were able to get a marble in the cup.  How did this success make you feel personally?
5. What do you think you learned from this challenge that will help you be successful in the kitchen?

Remember- don’t use any personally identifying information in your post!

Yesterday in class, we did the Lizard team building exercise.  Your task was to build a triangular puzzle using all the foam lizard pieces.  We did this two different ways.  The first time through you were given the instructions and told to solve the puzzle.  The second time through all but two of the class were blindfolded.  The “eyes” of the team gave directions.

In a comment to this post, write about the activity using the following questions:

1. What did you like or dislike about it?
2. What did you find difficult or frustrating?
3. Do you feel like you were involved the entire time?  Why or why not?
4. What strategies did you develop to be successful at the challenge and did they work?
5. Do you think that any of the skills you used during this activity will translate to working in the kitchen?  Why or why not?

Remember- don’t use any personally identifying information in your post!