Level 5: Working at L'Ecole

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is my last day in Level 5 at the International Culinary Center, and that I'm only a month away from graduating from culinary school! It's been a crazy, busy, and exciting five months, and I'm excited to be at the tail end of my education and ready to enter the food industry as a professional chef.

Level 5 at ICC is the first level where we actually cook at the school's restaurant L'Ecole. It's a fully functioning, professional kitchen and restaurant where all the school's students cook dishes for patrons. It just like any other working kitchen; you prep food for lunch or dinner, run service, then break down and clean up. Because I'm a day student, my classmates and I work lunch service every day. The restaurant doesn't get too busy, maybe on average 30 covers a day. But its a great atmosphere to learn kitchen etiquette and technique if you've never experienced working in a kitchen before. You also get to experience working at every station in the kitchen, starting with entremetier, then garde manger, poissonnier, saucier, and finally patissier. Level 6 will be exactly the same as level 5, except we get a whole new menu with all different recipes, and these recipes will be what we have to cook on our final exam. It's been a fun experience working at L'Ecole, and I'm ready for level 6 and my final month at ICC!

Here are some dishes from our menu at L'Ecole:

Arctic Char with Lemon-Yogurt Sauce, Carrot-Dill Vinaigrette and Marinated Cucumber

Strawberry Tart with Creme Fraiche Ice Cream and Basil Oil

Vegetable Terrine, Blue Cheese Mouse and Arugula Salad

Profiteroles with Coffee, Chocolate, and Cookies-and-Cream Ice Cream

Concrete Jungle

"I'm gonna make it by any means, 

I got a pocket full of dreams.

Baby, I'm from New York"

I'm so excited to announce that I landed my second big city job at an amazing restaurant in the Lower East Side called Pig and Khao! The cuisine is Southeast Asian, specifically Filipino, and the kitchen is open to the restaurant. It's a smaller venue with a smaller amount of staff, making the kitchen super close and friendly. The co-owner is Chef Leah Cohen, who has really made a name for herself in the food industry and New York culinary scene. She was even on Bravo's Top Chef a few seasons back and performed extremely well. I'm thrilled to be working for an amazing female chef and to learn new techniques in a awesome restaurant.

I started the job last Monday and I've loved every minute of it since. Today I even worked brunch and was able to work the line on garde manger. Feel free to check back on Nom Nom New York because I'll be giving updates on my two jobs, the conclusion of culinary school at ICC, and of course the restaurants I nom-on in and around the city. New York City; the city where dreams are made of, and there's nothing you can't do...never have I thought this to be more true. Cheers and nom on!

The Grand Buffet

As promised, here are some pictures from the second half of Level 4 at the International Culinary Center...buffet preparation and charcuterie!

We used every part of the pig for our charcuterie dishes, including the entire head! 

This is half of a pig that we had to break down for our buffet and charcuterie dishes. This bad boy provided us with some delicious food and in-depth information on butchery.

This is the pig face that was first cured, then cooked all night confit, and finished in the oven to crisp up the skin. We served it on lettuce with apple...nom nom!

I was so proud of our broken down pig, and I was surprised to find out how much I enjoy butchery! 

This was our first buffet; just a small charcuterie buffet to get the school excited for our grand buffet to come. We served the pig head, chorizo-in-a-blanket, roasted pork shoulder, and much more!

The delicious chorizo we made into chorizo-in-a-blanket...definitely a favorite!

Our grand buffet! We made quite the spread with everything from roasted lamb to duck confit (a total of 30 dishes made the final buffet presentation). After completing both family meal and buffet, I can safely say that this level has been my favorite!