Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

1) For the project in general, I am most proud of the job I was able to obtain, keep, and do well at. I never thought I'd be a legitimate kitchen worker while still in high school unless I was a dishwasher or busboy. I'm proud of myself for being able to work and excel in this professional setting. I am also proud of my knowledge on Cuisine, after all the research. For the presentation, I am most proud of how I got through to students. Many came up to me after the presentation and commented that after watching my presentation, they now feel they'll be able to make food taste better. Also, during the activity debriefed discussion, many students asked question, made observations, and theorized answers to those questions that proved to me how much they truly paid attention. Some students brought to my attention thinks even I hadn't noticed. I am proud of this, because it means that I made theses students think in new and different ways.

2) 

a. I feel I deserve an AE for the presentation because of how well I kept the students attention and how I not just taught them content, but got them to think about the subject in a different way. Also, I feel I designed a fun and creative activity that kept the students entertained while demonstrating my answers very clearly and allowing them to put into practice the things they learned. As I walked around during the activity, I could tell this is what the students were able to do.

b. I would give myself an AE because I got an AE on my Exit Interview and Lesson 2, and I feel I deserve an AE on both the final presentation as well as the I-Search paper. I got mostly P's on the small things, like research checks, and went above and beyond with what was required of the mentorship component as well.

3) The things that worked for me were my passion for the subject; it ensures that my boredom couldn't last lint and me strive to always better. Mrs. Ortega and Mr. Rivas worked for me, because they gave me the tools and encouragement to do well in this project. My mentorship worked for me, because they both trained me in being a prep cook as well as providing extra incentive in payig me for my work. Most of the books and journal articles I read worked for me because they were the framework for just about all of my research, far more helpful than web pages and magazines, and kept research checks entertaining.

3) If I could go back in time, I would quit my previous job and worked more at my mentorship. I also would have not only stayed on track with research, but gotten ahead. I would have made sure I always had my headphones so my disruptive classmates couldn't have distracted me. I also would have done something other than mentorship as my second Independent Component, so that I could have furthered my experience in a different way.

5) The senior project taught me how to research. This is an invaluable skill, because now I will go into college knowing how to find reliable sources in sources other than web pages... And I will use less web pages. I also know how to focus on research better. I am also now considering some type of food related job, which I wanted when I was little but cast aside by the time I was 11. I stopped wanted to work with cuisine because I thought being a chef was impractical, but now I know it is possible, and even if I don't become a chef, there are a plethora of other jobs available, such as food developer. Finally, through mentorship, I have learned how to prioritize tasks in a high stress environment. They give me like 4 things to do at once and it's up to me to analyze the situation and see what I should do first and last. This is a skill I know will come in handy in the future.

Blog 22: Mentorship

LITERAL

• The link to my to my mentorship log is on the right of my blog, under Links, labeled Senior Project Hours.
• My mentor's name is Chris Baker. He is employed at The Avocado House in Chino.

Interpretive

• The most important thing I gained from my mentorship is working with a kitchen team. I can now do a "kitchen dance" (a weird combination of ducking, dodging, and softly shoving), and I'm a lot better at the lingo used in a kitchen. (Instead of saying excuse me while walking through a crowd, I know repeatedly state "behind you.") I still need to working on reading sloppy waitress writing. Ive learned a lot about the etiquette of cooking with other, where you are both working on the same thing and different things, together. For example, I could be making one sandwich alone and helping a coworker with two more sandwiches, which he is working on at the same time as working on a third sandwich.

Applied

• My mentorship has helped me understand my EQ first through my mentor. He often drops little nuggets of wisdom while working. Just mall things, but it'll be about the amount of salt to use in a soup, or when to use butter or oil. My coworker, a prep/line cook, also has a lot of information like this. Also, I've made a lot of soup in the last two months and that allows me to experiment with interesting combinations. They let me make what I want, so I usually start with a recipe and go from there. I'll add sugar, or lemon, or certain spices to alter the tastes and flavors in the soup, which puts my answers to the test. For example, in support of my third answer, I once made carrot soup. I knew the soup didn't taste quite right, and my coworker suggested I add nutmeg. A teaspoon later, the soup suddenly had a very warm feeling and reminded me of Christmas, just because of the nutmeg.

Exit Interview

Content
(1) Essential Question, answers, and best answer.

• EQ: What is the most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish?

• Answer 1: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is by multiple tastes perceived by the human tongue.

• Answer 2: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is to utilize all natural ingredients.

• Answer 3: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to use salt and proper seasoning while cooking.

• Best Answer: Answer 3, because: it is the only answer that, once explained, includes multiple senses, which inherently goes best with my definition of flavor; all but one of the cooks and chefs I have asked came to the same conclusion without my help; salt is universally agreed to be a "flavor enhancer."

(2) Arriving at my answer

I thought of all of these answers at one point or another between finalizing my essential question and February. I often went back and forth between wanting to use any of these answers, or picking a few others I'd come up with along the way. I also kept changing which was my best answer. I believe it went something like.. "My answer 1 sucks... No, I love it, it's my best!..actually, I think salt is the answer, but I don't have enough support... You know what? I think Answer 2 is my best answer! It all makes sense!... No, Answer 1 for sure... No, Answer 3, that's it. That's definitely it." This took place over the course of about four and half months. At a couple of points I got really stressed out. I felt like I had so much supposrt for my Answer 1, and after having my Finding 1 peer edited, I realized my first answer was probably the least developed

(3) Problems
I feel like my biggest problems were research based. I've wanted salt to be one of my answers for six months, but never could find the proper research to support this. It seemed more philosophy than science. Then I expanded salt to include seasoning and looked through past research. It seemed every book I'd read had said one thing or another about salt, pepper and seasoning, even if it was just in passing. I used these little notes as my base for creating the answer, then started researching more deeply to find specifics. I ended up with multiple books on how herbs and spices work, and why they add flavor. Also, in looking up my first answer, I found many examples of how salt can help a meal. It was clear that even though salty is a taste, salt is something independent of that. In this way, the two answers are related.

(4)
Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page. The Flavor Bible. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
McGee, Harold. On Cooking and Food. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. pgs. 397-399

The Flavor Bible is one of my most important sources because it helped me develop my question and helped me decide on all three answers, in some way at least. It has become my Bible.
On Cooking and Food helped me realize my idea for a third answer was plausible; it gave me scientific explanation as to how it would be possible for seasoning to truly affect a meal. Without this book, I don't think my third answer would've been my best answer.

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo is a fresh Mexican salsa that is one of the simplest yet most delicious things I know how to make. At its base, you only need five ingredients: tomato, onion, cilantro, lemon, and salt. However, you can add any number of ingredients to spice it up (literally or figuratively), such as Serrano peppers, cucumber, mango, corn or a number of other things. You'd never want to add all of these things to pico de gallo at once, but one or two of these additives, and sometimes the subtraction of tomato, can change this simple salsa into an exciting one.

Pico de Gallo

Ingrediants
Half a white onion, diced
6 Romano tomatoes, diced
A handful of cilantro, shredded
The juice of one lemon
Salt to taste

Procedure
Combine onion, tomatoe, and cilantro in a bowel and fold together. Mix in lemon juice and salt. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for up to one week. Best with chips, tacos, or tortillas :)

I took this recipe and added two ears of corn and two Serrano peppers, minced. That way, I have added both sweet (the corn) and spicy (the peppers) elements. I also love the bright crunch the corn adds.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, Desiree Zarate, affirm that I completed my Independent component which represents 37 hours and 37 minutes of work.
(b) Baker, Chris. Personal Interview. 17 Feb. 2015.
(c) My Independent Component 2 Log is updated and completed
(d) I worked in a restaurant kitchen as a preparation cook on the busiest day of service. I chopped vegetables, made pancake batter, restocked the omelette and sandwich stations, constructed sandwiches, and often made soups. I completed about 37 hours working for the restaurant.

INTERPRETIVE
My mentorship is significant because I got to experience real life in a restaurant kitchen. I am a legitimate preparation cook and have worked side by side with real cooks in a very busy restaurant, serving over one hundred people in just a few hours. My work demonstrates 30 hours because I had a six hour shift once a week every week for the last two months (and three months before that for mentorship). I will bring in my most recent pay stub Monday (after recieveing it from work on Saturday) as part of my proof I work there. I also have these pictures a coworker took fr me on a slow day.

I would have liked to get pictures of myself making soup or sandwiches, but I mostly work on those when the restaurant is busy. These pictures are from particularly slow days doing my most basic duties.

APPLIED
This component helped me answer my EQ by exposing me to many taste and flavor combinations I never would have thought of. For example, one of our sandwiches contains sliced tri-tip steak, cream cheese, grilled onion, grilled bell peppers, and Monterrey jack cheese on sourdough bread. I would have never made this combination at home, but after trying it, I really enjoyed how the onions and peppers became sweet and felt well complimented by the creamy cheeses. The sandwich was a bit decadent for me, but it's also one of our best selling sandwiches. I also got to try making a couple different soups, which was fun because I made a couple different ones I'd had but never made, or had never had and wanted to try. When I made broccoli soup, for example, I didn't know the recipe included Worcestershire sauce. However, trying the soup before and after adding a few teaspoons of the sup made it clear that Worcestershire sauce was very important because it was the only ingredient that included umami; the soup was definitely lacking something salty and savory and moth filling; the nearly 100% umami sauce helped a lot. These types of exaples were presented all the time, and I got to work with my mentor a lot. He'd often drop little bombs of wisdom, related to my EQ or just my topic in general, which was always entertaining and interesting to listen to. He was my 3rd interview, and told me about the chef I interviewed for Interview 4. Both of these sources are cited many times on my three column and in my I-Search Paper. My mentor basically formed my second and third answer with me during mentorship. He was the one that advocated strongly for btoh quality ingredients and the importance of salt/seasoning when cooking.

Meatloaf with a Cutie

I made meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli and garlic bread for dinner a few months ago; it was a nice night of straight cookin for hours. Meatloaf itself is nothing special; it's a basic recipe I've made dozens of times that's a favorite in the simple-palatesof my grandpa and father, so I figured, what better way to please them? Besides, it can still be entertaining to cook. What I didn't expect was for my little brother, Mattox, to walk in half way through preparing the meal and ask if he could help!

He has done this before, but I never took him seriously. I'd say, "Sure! Go mix that right there!" and he'd take one look and reply with, "Hmmmm, nevermind."

Othertimes, when he seemed more anxious, I wouldn't know what task to give Matt and I'd have to tell him he couldn't help. How could I let an 8 year old that's never been in the kitchen chop onions or sauté green beans? My teaching him to cook never seemed to work out.

Today, however, as he approched me hand mixing a bowl of ground beef, onion, and crushed bread, I thought I knew how he could help. I didn't want to wash my hands, but needed to add more ingredients, so I coached Mattox on adding pepper, seasoned salt, garlic, an egg, and worshishire sauce. Then, as I continued to mix, I had him.make garlic butter.

"Garlic butter?" He had exclaimed when I told him what he was doing. "Why not garlic bread, Dez?!"

"Don't worry, Matt, once we out the garlic butter on the bread and toast it, it will become garlic bread." Boy, did that make him happy!

When I was nearly done with the meatloaf and getting ready to shape it, Mattox asked me for gloves. When I said I didn't have any, he ran away and found some, stating, "You and I are going to switch jobs. I jist wanted the gloves so my hands wouldn't get icky." Well imagine my surprise when me germaphobe little brother stuck his hands into a pound and a half of beef and started mixing it all together!

Once I had him form the loaf, he helped me make a glaze. At first, pouring ketchup, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, and worshishire sauce groassed him out, but as I added a little more of this or a tab bit of that, he asked if he coud pour the ingredients and mix the glaze. Sadly, I couldn't get him to taste the glaze on his own, but at my age I wouldn't have either.

From there the movie Thor came on TV, so I was on my own for the broccoli and such as Mattox went to watch the movie. It was still a lot of fun to see my little brother take an interest in cooking. I hope he keeps it up so he doesn't live off of Top Ramen when I'm gone.

Want to try the recipes I mentioned above? Visit October 28, 2014 Recipes.

Fourth Interview Questions

My Interview 4 questions:

1. How would you define flavor?
2. What are the most important factors to flavor?
3. How important is taste when it comes to flavor? How does taste affect flavor?
4. What is the difference between flavor and taste?
5. The similarities?
6. What role does sight play in the enjoyment of food? How can you harness this to make a dish better?
7. And touch?
8. And smell?
9. And hearing?
10. If you had to rate the five senses in order of most important to least important in the enjoyment of food, what would your order be and why?
11. Describe umami as a taste. Is it important? Why?
12. What kind of role does umami play in cooking?
13. Which of the tastes is your favorite? Why? What is your favorite way to use it?
14. What is your favorite taste or flavor combination? Why? What are some examples of that combination?
15. In your opinion, what is the most surprising combination of ingredients you have worked with? What made them work well together?
16. Name two ingredients you would never put in the same dish and why.
17. How can you balance the tastes on a plate of food? That is, a main course that may have 2-3 different components making up the meal.
18. How important is the quality of ingredient you use when cooking? Does organic/free range/no additives affect the quality of an ingredient? Why?
19. What makes an ingredient high quality?
20. How do you define "natural" when talking about ingredients?
21. What are some good brands or suppliers that produce "high quality" or "natural" ingredients?
22. How can the average person incorporate natural food into their cooking?
23. How important is salt when in comes to cooking?
24. What is your favorite kind of salt and why?
25. What are your favorite seasonings? Why?
26. How do you utilize herbs in your cooking?
27. How might you alter the seasoning of a certain dish to make it reflect a different style of cooking?
28. What is the most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish? Please describe your answer and reasoning.
29. How did you develop your previous answers? Were there any movies, books, articles, or videos that helped you?

Nine of the questions above were used in my Interview 3.

Blog 17: Third Answer

1. Essential Question: What is the most effective way for culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish?

2. Answer 3:The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to use salt along with proper seasoning while cooking.

3.  Support:

• Salt is a flavor enhancer; it brings out the tastes and makes them more obvious in other foods. This is one of the reasons why many fine quality meats are seasoned with little more than salt.
• Chemically speaking, salt can alter the way your taste buds perceive certain flavors when the salt is broken down by your saliva. For example, when you add salt and sugar to grapefruit, an extraordinarily bitter fruit, the sodium in the salt blocks the taste receptors for bitterness, effectively tricking the tongue into only tasting the sugar and other flavors in the grapefruit.
• Salt is an integral part of not just food, but also the human body. Incorporating it tastefully makes it easier to consume. For example, salt is an electrolyte; when you sweat, your body loses electrolytes, but something like a Salty-Nutty-Crunch bar helps replenish the lost electrolytes.

4. Sources:

• Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page. The Flavor Bible. New York. Little Brown and Company: 2008. Print.
• Ramsay, Gordon. Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking: Everything You Need to Know to Make Fabulous Food.New York. Grand Central Life & Style: 2012. Print.
• My third interview with Chris Baker

5. The world would be a very boring place without salt.

VFW Breakfasts

For the last year and a half, I have volunteered at the West Covina VFW Sunday breakfasts. They have a three hour service every second and fourth Sunday, and I started working at the end of my sophomore year. I spent a full year working exclusively as a waitress, but then I started filling for other positions; omelettes, pancakes, expediter. By the summer before senior year, I began working almost exclusively as expediter, which is a very stressful job; I had to call out all the orders, put together the plates, and find a waitress to take them out, along with Dillon in for any station that needed extra help.
Once senior year started, however, that job became too stressful, so I switched to pancake station!!
Pancake station is the griddle. I make pancakes, French toast, and any breakfast meats needed. I have a lot of fun, because even though we are far slower and run for far smaller amounts of time than a real restaurant, I still feel like I am in a real kitchen.
I work at Carl's Jr., the Avocado House, and I volunteer at the VFW. Out of all of those places, I only ever really cook at the VFW. At Carl's Jr. I run the cashier and at the Avocado House I do mostly prep work. Therefore, even though the VFW takes away my one day a week to sleep in (since I work at 7am on Saturdays for mentorship), I still go as often as I can. Being able to cook the pancakes, organize the gridle, and grill bacon and sausage for a couple dozen people to enjoy is as satisfying as cooking a five star meal for myself.

Answer 2

1. My EQ is: What is the most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish?

2. My first answer is: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is by multiple tastes perceived by the human tongue.

3. My second answer is: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is to utilize all natural ingredients.

4. Three reasons:

• Natural produce is brighter and more appealing to look at. An example of this might be seen at a farmers market, where the lettuce is bright and vibrant green as opposed to the muted color often seen in lettuces at the super market.
• Natural food is fresher and contains less or no preservatives. Preservatives effect taste, such as in the case of many apples bought from the store. If the skin of your apple tastes sour, bitter, or just a bit unusual, it is probably from the protectant sprayed on top.
• Natural food does not need/contain as as many additives. For example, most store bought chicken has been soaked or injected with preservatives that cause it to release flavors, and is then injected with some type of salt-based solution to make it retain flavor; the resulting meat is often dry, salty, and harder to cook.

5. All About Braiseing is a printed source that supports my answer.

6.  My second interview helped me come up with my answer.

7.

"It’s all about the ingredients, because if you make a really simple-ass dish and use really crappy ingredients, the end product isn’t really going to be be that great." -Chris Baker 

Well, I agree. Many things can taste decent after being cooked with tons of spices, seasonings, and other ingredients, but the mark of a good ingredient is how good it tastes on its own.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my 30 hours, I plan to cook a "traditional" dish or meal once, following a recipe as closely as I can, and then again without the recipe. The second time will also have my own personal changes, and I will attempt to improve and enhance flavor.

2. I will show my 30 hours of work by taking pictures of the food I cook and I will also post links to the original recipes as long as my edited versions to my blog.

3. My topic is cuisine, which is basically food. What better way to explore food then preparing and cooking it? I will try to make different foods, some vegetarian, some Mexican, some American, or any other number of types of foods. Exploring various types will help me see trends of what always tastes good; it will also help answer my EQ. My EQ is all about enhancing flavor, so if my overall goal for each meal produced is to enhance flavor, then I can use each meal to try out various answers, mainly the three answers I am determining this month. I can test out methods and hopefully find support for each of my answers through this Independent Component.

4. The last section of my Senior Project Hours is now labeled "Independent Component 2"

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
• I, Desiree Zarate, completed my Independent Component which represents 35 hours of work. 
• Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

• Stevens, Molly. All About Braising. New York. Gentl & Hyers: 2004. Print.
• Ramsay, Gordon. Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking: Everything You Need to Know to Make Fabulous Food. New York. Grand Central Life & Style: 2012. Print.
• Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page. The Flavor Bible. New York. Little Brown and Company: 2008. Print.
• Ruhlman, Michael. Ratio: the Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. New York. Scribner: 2009. Print. Pgs. 177-181.
• Recipes
• Garten, Ina. "Garlic Roasted Potatoes." FoodNetwork.com. Barefoot Contessa Parties, 2001. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
• Drummond Ree. "Pots de Creme." foodnetwork.com. Food Network. n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
• "Apple Stuffed Pork Loin With Cider Sauce." williams-sonoma.com. Williams-Sonoma Inc. n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
• "Apple Cider Vinaigrette." myrecipes.com. Time Inc. n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
• Over the last couple of months, I planned and hosted a 7-person dinner party. I also spent time crafting and then writing down the recipes used the night of the party. The party required research on season, dinner party hosting, flavor combinations, and recipes. I also looked at the night of the party and thought about how the food could have been made better, then spent the last week recreating my two least favorite foods at the party to create more flavorful food. I ended up with a much more flavorful stuffed pork tenderloin and better-textured potatoes.
• INTERPRETIVE
• My work was important because it helped me understand the craziness of a professional kitchen; it showed me how much work goes into feeding a table of people. Beyond that, it taught me the importance of planning and how much goes into cooking; to create a good meal, it is important to appreciate that more then a couple hours of chopping and frying was involved. This is what my Lesson 1 was all about. I also gained confidence in cooking and found support for potential EQ answers (more information on this is found below, under APPLIED). My work proves to be more than 30 hours of work, as is reflected under Independent Component 1 in Senior Project Log. I was able to reasearch on four separate occasions, shopped during four different market trips, spent over 6 hours on five different occasions making blog posts (a total of 7 posts) and internet-documents (logging in Senior Project Hours and Independent Component 1: Dinner Party Planner) to record my progress and what I learned, and cooked on 5 separate occasions. The cooking definitely took up most of this time, as I made each course twice and one course three times. However, it only makes sense that cooking food would take up the most time, as my project is on Cuisine.
• Evidence can be found throughout my blog, as I posted recipes and updates regularly. Most posts include pictures, and all are detailed. Here are links to the articles in the order they were posted on my blog:
• My First Dinner Party
• Stuffed Mushroom Recipe
• Spinach-Cranberry Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette
• Some Revisions
• Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin Recipe
• Sides
• Dinner Party Dessert
• Here are pictures from my final day of cooking, which took place February 4th:

  

  Pork loin roast, already salted, in the process of being stuffed.

  
  

  

  Pork loin roast in the process of searing! The outside it slightly darkened.  I  didn't have enough
  kitchen string for the roast, so I used toothpicks instead.

  
  

  

  Here is the finished roast! The cider helped carmelize the outside of the roast, which
  became a slight problem, as the fat ended up burning; thankfully, though the appearance
  of this roast isn't the best, the taste was not affected.

  
  

  

  The potatoes, post boil/dressing, pre roasting. You can see the minced garlic and the soft
  outter edges. The center isn't completely cooked, because that will be taken care of during
  the roasting.

  

  My beautiful roasted potatoes! Color-wise, they could have benefitted from longer
  oven exposure, but other than that I was satisfied! Well seasoned, still crisp, and
  pefectly creamy within.

  
  
• APPLIED
• Having to pay attention to everything from forming a list to plating showed me how long the process of cooking can be. This in itself is the basis of cooking: knowing what you can cook, when, and your ability to do so. I created a meal to a schedule with practice, which was season appropriate, balanced, and even. Also, in evaluating myself and my food, and reading multiple articles and book entries on creating proper flavor combinations, textures, or a certain dish itself has made me feel much more confident in creating those items. For example, the idea of stuffing anything but a turkey terrified me a few months ago, but after stuffing a pork tenderloin and it coming out perfectly white and still juicy, I now know I have the proper skills to stuff almost anything. (Here's a hint: BASTE! The loin was too fat to retain all the juices on its own.) I also had never made a vinaigrette before, and even though it took a couple tries, the outcome was delicious and well-balanced. Re-making the potatoes and pork tenderloin allowed me to test certain methods I read about after the dinner party or had forgotten about before; some of these theories. Overall, this meal has given support to my answer 1 (the fact that one taste balanced another, sweet stuffed pork and salty seasoned potatoes. This also reminded me that my question is on a dish, not just a single piece of food, meaning the different parts of a meal affecting one another is part of my answer) and gave support to two potential answers: salt enhances flavor (which was salting the meat and letting it rest, then cooking it) and that cooking (using heat) allows flavors to be melded and married, producing better, more developed flavors than before (which was the searing of the meat, meant to lock in the flavor before baking the loin). 

Lesson 2 Reflection

1. For my Lesson 2 Presentation, I am most proud of my activity. I made three small snacks that I had the students try and attempt to identify the flavors in the food. I was really worried the food wouldn't taste good, because I was getting over a cold when I made them and my tastes were all out of whack so it was hard to season the food correctly. However, everyone seemed to enjoy the food and many people understood the points I was trying to get across; people commented on the sweetness in the Pico de Gallo, or how the salt on top of the s'mores brought out certain flavors. It was satisfying to see the points I was making in my presentation come out as I walked around the room during the activity.

2. a) I would give myself an AE or E on this presentation.
    b) I know I deserve at least a P on this presentation because I had no concerns with any of the criteria seen on the Lesson 2 contract; I was clear, communicated effectively, and had welcoming body language as well as eye contact, I made time perfectly, used a digital presentation, and brought in food as a prop, clearly had many sources that I cited and used examples from continuously (I even brought in my favorite piece of research, The Flavor Bible), made reference to my mentorship, and had a well planned activity to help explain my answer with clear instructions and a debrief. I deserve higher than a P because I had a lot of scientific explanations with clear pictures of examples and diagrams to help demonstrate the complicated processes and ideas. Many of my peers commented that my presentation was particularly interesting and everyone loved the activity. As stated earlier, the activity particularly made students pay attention to the tastes detected in their mouths, which is truly what the whole lesson was about. Also, aesthetically speaking, I felt my power point was top notch, and I designed it myself to match my blog (which I also designed myself) so I think that counts for something as well.

3.The things that worked for me in my Lesson 2 were my bullets on taste buds, flavor, and the five tastes. I think I could have had a better answer, but I feel I explained everything possible in the lesson. My activity definitely helped get my point across; I almost feel like I've trained some students to recognize tastes and how they interact.

4. I don't think my hook worked very well. My video did, it definitely got students interested, but the question I asked seemed to confuse people. I think next time I'll stick with the question from my Lesson 1, which was, "What is your favorite meal." If I had a time machine, I would do that but I would also debriefe more on my activity. I feel like I should have asked for volunteers to name the tastes of each ingredient in front of the class, rather than just asking students individually during the activity; that way the whole class could have heard what I had discussed with individuals.

5. My answer 2 will probably be something along the lines of, "The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to attempt to satisfy as many of the traditional five senses as possible." I would pick this answer because my definition of flavor is, "The effect food has on the senses," so if a single dish can cohesively satisfy all five senses, then theoretically, it would be enjoyable in every aspect of flavor.

Dinner Party Dessert

I don't usually make very good desserts, so I decided to use an exact recipe I found online. Pots de Creme is kind of like a chocolate-coffee mousse thing; I'm reluctant to call it pots de creme or a
mousse, however, because pots de creme is a French custard that usually requires baking, and mousse is cooked before being cooled. However, this recipe did not call for any cooking at all, only preparing and cooling.

I loved these because I very easily made them Friday night, refrigerated them, and then topped with whipped cream and served in about 2 minutes. Serving them was fun, because I placed the dessert in wine and champagne glasses. This is one recipe I intend to hang onto.

In my initial test run, I put them in tea cups, which came
out to be a really cute way of serving the dessert. 

Sides

Here is the full main course from my dinner part. The far left shows my sauteed green beans while the far right shows the roasted potatoes. The green beans are only slightly muted in color, which is right for cooked green beans, though mine may be little dark. The potatoes could be crisper on the outside, but have a decent appearance.

These sides were kind of thrown together when I realized my main course consisted only of a stuffed pork loin; I needed something else to go with it. I knew a starch and a vegetable, and two things that could be cooked either quickly or with little attention, so I settled on roasted potatoes and green beans; both simple, both fall, and both uncomplicated.

Roasted Potatoes

The recipe that inspired me can be found here. I used a recipe from the Food Network cook Ina Garten.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs red potatoes, quartered
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Fresh ground black pepper and sea salt
• 2 tbs. minced garlic
• 2 tsp. dried thyme

Procedure

Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well until potatoes are evenly coated. Spread on baking sheet in 1 even layer and bake 45 minutes to an hour, flipping twice so that all sides can become browned.

Sautéed Green Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tbs. butter
• 2 lbs. green beans
• Salt and pepper

Procedure

Add olive oil and butter to a cold skillet and allow to heat up. When butter melts, add green beans. Saute until tender-crisp, about 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin Roast Recipe

I got the idea for making a stuffed pork loin roast when I read a delicious-sounding recipe for stuffed lamb. Then I realized it is impossible to find cheap lamb, so I thought, "Why not pork?" Pork tenderloin was the perfect choice, and I knew it'd taste good stuffed with apples; I mean, pork chops and apple sauce are a classic! I just didn't know exactly what else to stuff it with.
I knew I was going for a fall theme, one with cranberries and spinach and apple cider, so I started looking up "apple stuffed pork loin roast" recipes. I found many interesting recipes, and after a while, I settled as one as my main guide. Apple-Stuffed Pork Loin with Cider Sauce is an excellent recipe, but I made some changes after my initial trip to the grocery store.

Ingredients

This is the beginnings of the stuffing; the apples are just be-
ginning to turn gold in the picture.

• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 chopped apples
• 1 medium chopped yellow onion
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 1/2 apple cider (possibly more)
• 1 boneless pork loin roast, 2 1/2 lbs

Procedure

Stuffing: heat oil in medium sized skillet and saute apples and onion until onion is translucent and apples golden, about five minutes. Then add garlic and saute about 1 one minute, until garlic becomes aromatic. Add cranberries, thyme, and 1/2 cup of apple cider. Boil, stirring occasionally, until cider is completely absorbed. Fold in bacon and blue cheese and then remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly. You can store this stuffing overnight if needed.

This picture perfectly shows the browned outside of
the pork tenderloin; it almost began to burn, but I took it
out just as the color was deepening enough. The texture was
crisp and locked in flavor perfectly.

Next, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and make four 18 inch segments of kitchen string. Butterfly your pork tenderloin, making sure not to cut all the way through. evenly distribute stuffing to center and then tie tenderloin with string so that it returns to its original shape. You might need to push some of the stuffing back in if it falls out of the sides! Next, rub the loin roast with thyme, salt, and pepper. Place in a roasting pan with another 1/2 cup of cider and roast for about 1 hour, or until a thermometer read above 150 degree Fahrenheit. Baste every 15 minutes unless you want a dry roast! and a little more cider every time you baste until the final 1/2 cup remaining of apple cider is used.

If you aren't going to bake the tenderloin immediately, let stuffing cool about 15 minutes before stuffing the tenderloin with it.

Here was the completed main course! You can easily see the stuffing in the pork
tenderloin; especially evident are the apples and cranberries.

Some Revisions

I am editing my Independent Component!

After feeling the heat and pressure of throwing a dinner party, along with the financial responsibility that comes with it, I have made the decision to edit my Independent Component. I can’t afford another hundred dollars, nor can I devote another 25 hours of time to creating another whole party. Beyond that, when this Component was originally crafted, my essential question was about time management in a kitchen; I had been looking more into the production of food in a restaurant kitchen.  A dinner party, I reasoned, had a lot to do with this: I would be working under a time crunch, I would need to cook multiple courses, and I would have to serve a table of guests, just like in a kitchen.
Now, however, my final essential question is all about the flavor of food; I am focusing on the contribution and impact food has on the body and it's senses. This Component is no longer as helpful as it had been to my original question. Therefore, I am taking the two parts of the meal I was least satisfied with and recreating them for my family. This way, I can take the food that lacked in some area of flavor and make it better. Learning to fix previous mistakes while improving the flavor of food should help me find an answer or support to current answers for my essential question.

I will be remaking the stuffed pork tenderloin and the roasted potatoes.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the pork, but it just wasn’t as exciting or flavorful as it could have been; the meat could have been amped up farther. Therefore, I decided to take some information from the book All About Braising (book D in my WB). Though I am roasting the pork tenderloin, both braising and roasting involve letting the heat of the oven do the cooking. I think the most important thing I can take from this book, however, is the importance of searing the meat before baking it (entry 21D of my WB). According to this book, some initial searing is important because it creates a base for all other flavors to build off.

With the potatoes, I will be trying the methods described in "Really Crisp Roasted Potatoes"  (entry 40 in my WB). Originally, I made Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes, but those came out dry on the inside and only mildly crisp on the outside. I kept them in the oven until I say a pretty brown color, but that proved to be too much fro the potatoes to handle. Thanks to this article, I now have many things to change; for example, I will be using golden potatoes instead of red one; This potato has a medium starch content (good for browning) and medium moisture content (good for creamy center). I will also be slicing the potatoes rather than quartering them, which increases surface are while reducing number of flips (now 1 is needed instead of 2-3). I will also be parboiling the potatoes in simmering water for five minutes, which will bring the starches within the potato to the surface, so as to kick-start the browning process once the potatoes hit the oven.

I hope these changes will make for an even better meal! I am very proud of my mushrooms, a dish I've made many times before and even convinced one of my guests that mushrooms can be good. I also really enjoyed my salad, and the dessert was a big hit. Therefore, I will not be re-trying those dishes.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

1. I'm doing my mentorship at the Avocado House in Chino.

2. Though my physical mentor is Chris Baker, my contact is Shelley Biggs, the owner of the restaurant. This is because Shelley is my boss, hired me, and agreed to take me on as a student and intern. Because she is the owner and doesn't do as much cooking as she used to, however, I do my training with Chris. The location 11618 Central Avenue, Chino, CA 91710 and phone number is (909) 627-9733. 

3. I have done approximately 108 hours and 40 minutes of work at my mentorship.

4. In all of the time, I have worked at the Avocado House, I have spent about a quarter or more of my time cracking eggs, another quarter chopping various vegetables and meats, and the last half working Saturdays. On Saturdays, I do a variety of things; a lot of time is spent making pancake batter, but I am also mostly in charge of making the waffles themselves. I also have to make sure the cook's stations are fully stocked at all times, meaning the omelette and sandwich bar is stocked, the waffle and pancake batters are in their places, and everything that needs a to be chilled is in a fresh ice bath.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1. Over the break, I worked on my senior project by tackling a form of cooking I've never truly been comfortable with: baking. Originally I had plans to bake with three friends, one of whom has been baking for three years. We were going to bake tons of pies on December 23rd, but they all ended up getting sick that day. I was sad that my plans were cancelled, but then I decided to do them on my own. I chronicle my work on these three pies in the post Happy Holidays! I also did a lot of cooking (mostly breakfast), eating, and even caught up on my research check! Sadly, the lace I do my mentorship at was completely closed, so I didn't get any hours there. However, I feel the amount of work I did do over break was an excellent amount.

2. I feel the most important thing I learned over break was that I am capable of baking on my own. Spending a day baking pies really helped show me that it's not much different from cooking, except that there are some things in which only the recipe will work. Like any recipe, all the ones I used had variables. In the case of baking, however, variables are different from regular cooking; this was broken down further when I read the Batter section of the Mike Ruhlman book Ratio. When baking, you have to use a certain ratio to create any dough or batter. When creating the fillings to the pies, it was obvious how important the amount of cornstarch and sugar cooked would completely determine the consistency of both the lemon meringue and chocolate pies. The variables, however, were the flavorings. I don't think the pies would have been hurt much if I added more lemon zest or cocoa powder; the chocolate pie didn't suffer anything flavor-wise, or even consistency-wise, once I added the coconut (though the texture was very weird). These types of additives, unless specifically a thinner or thickener, can be changed. To make this evident, the instructions for both the chocolate pie and lemon filling were extremely similar; the only big difference was one used lemon juice and zest while the other used cocoa powder. Though it wouldn't be smart if I changed how much cornstarch was used, If i switched out the lemon with chocolate, I would probably have a decent chocolate filling on my hands.

3. I think I would like to talk to either the owner of the restaurant I do my mentorship at, or a man my dad is friends with. I'd want to talk to the owner of the Avocado House because almost everything we cook there is a recipe she personally created and fine tuned the recipe for; she had to find a way to make a recipe that retained flavor and was also consistent. However, I'd most like to talk to my dad's friend. Though his name escapes me, this man used to work in a Beverely Hills restaurant. He was a head chef, which meant he created new recipes and had to experiment to get them. According to my father, his friend rose up to this position, starting as a busboy and dishwasher, slowly working up to cook. The only reason he no longer is a head chef is because he now manages a restaurant himself.