Institute of Culinary Education: Techniques of Fine Cooking I

If you've noticed I've been quiet on the blogosphere lately, it's because I've got my learning cap on and have been busy with school (the cooking kind, as well as the more serious kind)!  The Hubby had the brilliant idea to enroll me in the Institute of Culinary Education's Techniques of Fine Cooking 1 as an Anniversary gift.  Smart, isn't he?  It's the gift that keeps on giving! He sure has been enjoying the new kitchen skills I've picked up lately.

The Institute of Culinary Education ('ICE') is located on West 23rd Street and offers career training for real chefs-to-be, and also holds a lot of recreational classes for people like you and me.  It's pretty fun walking by the real chefs in class and watching them in action.  There are recreational classes which range from just a few hours, to others that span several days like the one I took.  Check out their website, it's hard not to find one that doesn't pique your interest!  You can sign up for classes online so the whole process is pretty easy.

Photos from Techniques of Fine Cooking I

Techniques in Fine Cooking is a program which focuses more on teaching technique rather than recipes.  (Though admittedly, I've been loving practicing the recipes at home).  It is a 5 day course, with 5 hours each day.  ICE offers sessions which are either 5 days consecutively, or 1 day a week over 5 weeks.  

I learned how to truss a chicken, poach eggs, make mousse (hello, arm workout), wet and dry braise and work with mussels.  The list goes on and on!

The class introduced me to working with foods that I'm unfamiliar with, or had been intimidated of.  The techniques taught are not actually that complex, but I think the class gives you the confidence that you can do it!  There's also no better way to learn how to make something than to actually do it yourself. 

Though class sizes vary, my session of Level 1 Techniques had 16 students, along with a Chef instructor and a kitchen assistant.  Chef Anita was an energetic lady who sure kept us on our toes each day!  She has been teaching at ICE for many years so she's a true veteran and knows how to keep the class moving.  

We were in a nice sized kitchen and split into groups of 4.  Each group works together to prepare dishes.  I loved that Chef Anita structured the class so that for the most part, each group made everything in the curriculum - i.e., granted each group may make a different type of vegetable, we all learned how to blanch.  

Here are a few pictures of my group's accomplishments:

Haven's Kitchen: Lobster Roll Class

This summer I cooked my first lobster! And I'm so glad I had supervision while doing it.  You know, just in case the crustacean went buckwild on me.  I can now cross this off my bucket list thanks to the 'Montauk Lobster Rolls and Long Island Wines' class at Haven's Kitchen.

Located conveniently near Union Square, Haven's Kitchen is a fairly new establishment that focuses on educating people and promoting local and sustainable foods.  It's an adorable space!  The front part is a store where they carry cute tabletop items, local artisinal pantry foods, and fresh brewed coffees and teas.  It opens up to the classroom with a large communal table and workstations.  They offer a nice variety of classes each month, viewable in their calendar on their website.  

'Montauk Lobster Rolls & Long Island Wines' class at Haven's Kitchen

'Montauk Lobster Rolls & Long Island Wines' class at Haven's Kitchen

We had (I think) ~12 people in class, in addition to one instructor and two assistants.  After donning aprons and sipping some wine, we jumped right in and they brought out a whole tub full of lobsters resting on ice and seaweed.  The lobsters came from the Lobster Place located just blocks away in Chelsea Market (love that Haven's Kitchen used a local and accessible source)!  As the instructor started doing demos and showing us the differences between male and female lobsters, they started waking up and moving around the tub.  [Queue the beginning of my squealing!]

La Cuisine Paris (Cooking School)

You know what they say - when in Rome.... except in this case, when in PARIS, do as the Parisians do. 

One of my must-do's when I was Paris was to take a cooking class.  There are lots of options to choose from.  A search on the internet will pull up lots of classes run out of people's local apartments, and the Ritz is also well-known for their classes.  Trufflepig help set us up with a great option, La Cuisine Paris, an English-speaking cooking school located minutes away from Notre Dame.  

They offer a variety of classes, from cooking to pastries, but we opted for a French classic (and one I've always been intimidated to attempt at home!) - Soufflés!  We learned how to make both a sweet (chocolate) and savory (cheese) kind which I'm itching to try again now that I'm back home.  They both came out delicious.  

Cheese soufflé and vinaigrette salad

There were about 10 students in my class and I was very glad to hear that the instructor was a real honest to goodness American!  Woohoo, no need for that French-to-English iPhone app.  But not to worry, we weren't taking lessons from a newly transplanted American.  No, that wouldn't do.  Chef Randall moved to France over 20 years ago and has been cooking his way through the country since.  We were in good hands.  

Class: Flowers and Cake Design

Last October, Piggy KL and I took our first cake decorating course together at the NY Cake Academy.  There we learned the basics of cake decorating including how to use decorating bags, how to ice a cake with a smooth finish, and how to make basic buttercream flowers.  We had so much fun that we signed up for the second course: Flowers and Cake Design!

My final cake from the Flowers and Cake Design course!

Similar to the first cake decorating course, Flowers and Cake Design is taught over three classes and structured by Wilton.  And so, for the last three Saturdays, Piggy KL and I hauled all our supplies to the NY Cake Academy to further hone our cake decorating abilities.  In this second course, we learned:

Class: Cake Decorating Basics (Class #3)

Ta da! The Piggys have graduated from Cake Decorating Basics!!  We even have a snazzy certificate to prove it! Of course, they are hanging proudly on the fridge...

After three classes, the Piggys now know how to pipe a couple of different patterns, ice a cake, decorate it, and pipe an assortment of flowers, yay!  For our last class, we brought in cupcakes to decorate (thank goodness these came out soo much better than our cakes last week - no unfortunate craters or [pan]cakes this time)!

We prepared a couple of different colors of icing and were ready to go.  First things first, we learned how to pipe icing onto our cupcakes in a swirled motion.

Swirling 'round and 'round, just like so...

Class: Cake Decorating Basics (class #2)

Isn’t this such an awesome cake?  Would you believe it if I told you it was made entirely from scratch by Piggy KL?!  Yes its possible because the Piggys are back in [cake] school and getting our learn on again! 

On an early Saturday morning, two sleepy Piggys dragged themselves to their second class of cake school at the NY Cake Academy (if you haven't had a chance to flip through our recap of class #1, you can check it out here).  There may have been some grumps and moans (*ahem Piggy KL*) but once we got settled into our seats the excitement for the day’s lesson turned us into eager students!

Step 1: Prep for class

Class #2 focused on how to ice and decorate a cake.  We had to come to class armed with our Student Kits, icing, and a pre-baked cake ready to go.  Sadly, this was apparently the most challenging part as my cake came out flat as a pancake and Piggy KL’s had a crater in the middle oyy. 

 

Piggy KL's ready-to-go cake - she flipped it over so that the crater was hidden on the bottom.  Smart girl!

Class: Cake Decorating Basics

The Piggys are in school again! Just kidding.  But we are enrolled in Cake Decorating Basics at the NY Cake Academy.  Granted it's not a baking class so no guarantee our baking skills will be stellar after we 'graduate', but our baked goods will sure look snazzy!

The three lessons in the course are structured by Wilton, but offered by the NY Cake store in NYC.  The class is held in the basement of the store where there are tables and stools set up to accommodate about 10-12 students.

The class costs $100 for three 2 1/2 hour lessons and students are responsible for purchasing some Wilton supplies for the class, including the Decorating Basics Student Kit (comes with fun toys like icing bags, basic decorating tips, couplers, a spatula and a practice board with patterns), icing, icing colors, extra spatulas and other baking tools we still have yet to learn how to use! So far the basic supplies have cost about $60, money happily spent by us Piggys to further our cake decorating careers!

Displaying some of our decorating tools. See all the different tips too? Can't wait to learn how to use them!