Iron Chef

I have to express my excitement about the new guest chef they have brought in. He has recently moved back to France from Japan, where, among other more serious accomplishments, he was a contestant on the real Iron Chef. He says they really didn’t know the ingredient ahead of time, and that they only get about five minutes to plan their dishes. Anyway, he’s been the practical chef for our last three practicals, and he is great. He helps us be organized, he helps us gauge our time, but it never gets frantic. He is very calm and patient. Not to say he doesn’t make little jokes at other people’s expense or that he isn’t a harsh critic, but he’s still really great. He’s the Chef Walter of cuisine; a huge sigh of relief when he walks in the room.

Besides the chef, today was an excellent cuisine day: roasted rack of lamb with sautéed endives and potatoes dauphinois. Dauphinois are boiled in cream on the stove top with garlic and salt, pepper and nutmeg, then they are poured in a baking dish, cheese is put on top and they are finished in the oven. They are divine. The lamb had a roasted garlic and herb crust. It was a “must not mess up” meal. I have to say, I executed it well, except my jus. I browned the bones to a deep caramel, until there was plenty of glossy fond on the bottom of the pan. I carefully estimated the correct amount of onion and garlic to sweat into the fond. I deglazed only to halfway up the bones. I let it reduce slowly and just enough. When I strained it, it was a perfect chestnut brown. Success! Until I tasted it- so sweet! It tasted only of onion. I tried to compensate with salt, but that only ruined it further. The French say that when one over-salts, it is because one is in love. I think it is because one has panicked.