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.

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.

Blog 11: EQ

1. I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2. a. What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?
             i. You must study weight and the factors that affect it.
            ii."most important" implies a subjective answer.
           iii. The wording is sound. Broad, but still specific enough.

    b. What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?
             i. You must study the practice of law
            ii. The idea of something being "most important" implies the answer is subjective.
           iii. The wording is sound, broad enough to give freedom but specific enough to have defined                    answers.

     c. What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?
             i. You could study hair styles, but it'd be very hard to study what will "satisfy a customer,"                      because it is too subjective. Therefore, this isn't a good question.

     d. How can an anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?
             i. Treating chronic pain and anesthesiology is what they must study.
            ii. Something being the "best" is subjective.
           iii. The wording is sound.

3. What is the most important factor in creating a flavorful meal?

Blog 8: Research and Working EQ

1. & 2. What is the most effective way to prepare a meal so that it is delivered to the guest in a timely manner?

• Have your mise en place, or meez, completely set before preparing the meal.
• Have food between 80% and 90% done before the guest even walks in.

3. The most useful source I've used so far is Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. I''ve read a bit more than half of it and it is filled with knowledge on basic strategies and techniques, as well as plenty of recipes to apply the techniques to. It explains the importance of various elements in in the preparation, ingredients, cooking, and anything else I'd need to know.

4. My mentor is Chris Baker. He is a cook at The Avocado House,, and I have obtained a job in this restaurant. I've onlydone two days of mentorship, but so far I have learned more eeffective was of slicing, chopping,and preparing, which should help me in answering my question because i am learning a lot about my topic in general. Also, a lot of what iI do has to do with setting up a meez. I think I will learn more things that will help me directly with my question once I've done more hours at the restaurant.

Blog 5 - Mentorship and Research Reflection

1. In looking for a mentor, I have had to make a lot of emails, and talked to multiple managers. I quickly realized I'd be unable to obtain an internship or job shadowing at a franchised restaurant so I have been researching independent restaurants in the down town Pomona and Covina areas, along with restaurants in Ontario and West Covina. I've spent time carefully composing emails and researching the websites of restaurants I send them to. I've also been editing my resume so that it is up-to-date and ready to be given out or emailed to the businesses I am applying to. Whenever possible, I look for the email of the head chef of the restaurant I am applying to, as well. Along with trying to find restaurants on my own, I have asked for suggestions from family members and friends to see if they know of any good restaurants. In doing so, I have been unable to find a mentor but have found a professional chef who would be happy to give me an interview.

2. The most important article I have read so far would have to be the introduction to "Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen." This introduction gave insight on how to tell what instruments would be helpful to a person in a kitchen, and how the tools relate to a person. It gives tips on cleaning out your kitchen's toolbox and how to stock it with what you really need. These types of tips are very helpful, because (as I learned from another article, Design Fundamentals by Richard Keyes) kitchens are often cramped and full of people, equipment, and food. This means everything in a kitchen needs a specific purpose, and maybe two or three more besides that. Brown gives great insight in deciding if an instrument is worthy of your kitchen.

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. My Topic: Cuisine

2. Question to focus this month's research: What is the most effective way to prepare a meal so that it is delivered to the guest in a timely manner?

3. A link to my WB can be found on the right hand side of my blog under the heading "Links". It can also be found here.