'Cutting up poor, defenseless animals...'
... is how the chef-instructor describes the material in the last class, at least the 'Protein Fabrication' part. It's a fair assessment in many ways, although we don't start with live animals. The squeamish may not want to read inside....
Shortly after I arrived for the first class, the entire carcass of a lamb was placed on the the demo table. It had been skinned and gutted, and the head removed, but still, the outline of the whole animal was quite clearly identifiable. There was no mistaking that it was an animal. So, the lecture proceeded along with a demo, discussing the various parts of a lamb as viewed by chefs (and butchers), starting with cutting the carcass in half just behind the ribcage to create 'forequarter' and 'hindquarter' cuts, a process that wasn't complete without bending the carcass sharply to snap the spine with a nice loud crack. It wouldn't, of course, have been complete without the chef handling all the parts to demonstrate how they moved in life and comparing the size and shape of the lamb to that of a dog, and advising us that we now know what to do when a neighbor has a nuisance dog...
Fortunately, I have always had a taste for macabre humor, so despite my vegetarian background the jokes were fine. Possibly even helpful, it might have been a rather horrible experience if given too serious a treatment...
The other high... or low... point of the class would be crustacean day when everyone was given a live lobster to butcher and cook. This is done by placing the knife in the notch behind the head, stabbing down and cutting forward which in theory kills the lobster instantly. However, it doesn't stop moving, legs and claws flailing and tail curling... in fact, even after cutting the claws and tail and legs apart, it still doesn't stop moving. So you toss these parts into a saute pan and you have a pan full of writhing parts of lobster. No wonder that boiling is the preferred method to cook them with...
We also learned that it is illegal to kill and cook a female lobster, in order to ensure sustainability. In theory, they should always be thrown back by the lobstermen (that's the professional lobster catchers, not B-movie monsters), but mistakes do happen. You may, however, not want to take it on yourself to carry such an expensive critter back to the ocean yourself, if you happen to be working in a kitchen at some point... make your supplier take it back unless you want a very unhappy chef.
Fortunately, the entire class was 'Garde Manger and Protein Fabrication', where Garde Manger is the french way of saying 'pantry' or 'cold foods' (in a kitchen duties context; I think it literally means 'keeper of food' or some such). 'Garde Manger' includes the whole range of foods that are preserved and/or served cold, smoked, cured, pickled and dried items, cheeses, sausages, pates, and various appetizers and hors d'ouevres.
Shortly after I arrived for the first class, the entire carcass of a lamb was placed on the the demo table. It had been skinned and gutted, and the head removed, but still, the outline of the whole animal was quite clearly identifiable. There was no mistaking that it was an animal. So, the lecture proceeded along with a demo, discussing the various parts of a lamb as viewed by chefs (and butchers), starting with cutting the carcass in half just behind the ribcage to create 'forequarter' and 'hindquarter' cuts, a process that wasn't complete without bending the carcass sharply to snap the spine with a nice loud crack. It wouldn't, of course, have been complete without the chef handling all the parts to demonstrate how they moved in life and comparing the size and shape of the lamb to that of a dog, and advising us that we now know what to do when a neighbor has a nuisance dog...
Fortunately, I have always had a taste for macabre humor, so despite my vegetarian background the jokes were fine. Possibly even helpful, it might have been a rather horrible experience if given too serious a treatment...
The other high... or low... point of the class would be crustacean day when everyone was given a live lobster to butcher and cook. This is done by placing the knife in the notch behind the head, stabbing down and cutting forward which in theory kills the lobster instantly. However, it doesn't stop moving, legs and claws flailing and tail curling... in fact, even after cutting the claws and tail and legs apart, it still doesn't stop moving. So you toss these parts into a saute pan and you have a pan full of writhing parts of lobster. No wonder that boiling is the preferred method to cook them with...
We also learned that it is illegal to kill and cook a female lobster, in order to ensure sustainability. In theory, they should always be thrown back by the lobstermen (that's the professional lobster catchers, not B-movie monsters), but mistakes do happen. You may, however, not want to take it on yourself to carry such an expensive critter back to the ocean yourself, if you happen to be working in a kitchen at some point... make your supplier take it back unless you want a very unhappy chef.
Fortunately, the entire class was 'Garde Manger and Protein Fabrication', where Garde Manger is the french way of saying 'pantry' or 'cold foods' (in a kitchen duties context; I think it literally means 'keeper of food' or some such). 'Garde Manger' includes the whole range of foods that are preserved and/or served cold, smoked, cured, pickled and dried items, cheeses, sausages, pates, and various appetizers and hors d'ouevres.