Cutting, boiling and sauteing vegetables in 35 minutes

Day 2, Monday, June 7, 2010

I pared off sides of my carrot as fast as I could.

We had 35 minutes to cut carrots, turnips and onions. Then we had to cook julienned carrots in a sauté pan and boil turnip batonnets, or sticks, in salted water.

My work area, or poste de travail, was the same as every other student: Bowl of unpeeled vegetables on the left, bowl on the right for peeled vegetables ready to cut and another bowl on my cutting board to collect peelings. The setup makes it easier for you to prepare and assemble your ingredients, or mise en place.

I had cut my carrot right away, instead of peeling all my vegetables. After I took off the sides of the carrot, I looked down at my bowl full of carrot peels and knew I’d get in trouble if I mixed my carrot trimmings with them. Trimmings were given to other classes to make stock. I got another bowl for the trimmings even though the fourth bowl wasn’t supposed to be there.

My classmate Henry* had peeled his carrot, turnip and onion in one bowl. He dropped his peels in the compost bin in one swift move.

I frantically peeled my onion and my turnip. At the far side of the room, Chef X yelled at a classmate for having a messy workstation.

“What is this?!” Chef said. “Clean your station!”

A moment later, Chef X stood next to me.

“What is that?!” he said, pointing at my extra bowl of carrot trimmings.

“What is that?!” he said, pointing to the empty square boy container I had taken from a shelf even though I didn’t need it.

“Clean your station!” he yelled and walked away.

Somehow I got rid of the extra bowl, composted peels and managed to make my station less cluttered.

Henry was already ahead of me, cooking his julienned carrots in a little bit of water, butter and a pinch of salt in a sauté pan and covering them with parchment paper. The method is called à l’étuvée and it’s used to cook vegetables à la minute, or to order.

Chef X appeared at my side again. “Isn’t that better?” he said, passing an eye over my clean station.

“Yes, Chef,” I said.

I dumped my wispy carrots into a pan, stuck it under the faucet to add a bit of water and dropped a pat of butter in there. I looked around for the salt. It was gone from the chef’s table.

“Who has the salt?” I asked.

The chef’s assistant pointed out the box of kosher salt next to the sink.

I darted over there and picked up the box. Another classmate was at my elbow.

“Come on. Come on,”  Phil* said.

I shook grains of salt into my palm. “Here,” I said, tipping my palm and letting salt cascade into my classmate’s hand.

“Thanks,” he said.

I gave a generous pinch of salt to my carrots. I covered them with parchment paper that I had folded into a triangle and cut, so it would fit the surface of the pan.

I blindly cut turnips into sticks, half a centimeter thick. At home, I had carefully cut off the sides of the turnip, sliced it into squares and then cut those squares into sticks. I didn’t have time to be exact.

“Don’t forget to watch your carrots,” Henry warned.

The pan was boiling. I bounded to the other side of the table to lower the heat.

“Now, taste it,” Henry said.

I tasted a carrot sliver. It was still a little crunchy.

I cut more turnips. Then I tasted my carrots again. The julienned carrot gave way under my teeth. The carrots glistened like they were supposed to.

I added more salt to boiling water in a saucepan and dropped in my turnips. Compared to Henry, I only had several turnip batonnets, while he had plenty. I willed those turnip sticks to cook faster.

Other classmates were lining up at the front of the room to let the chef taste their carrots and turnips to grade them.

I fished out one turnip batonnet. I was just about to put it in my mouth when Henry said, “Don’t forget to shock it in cold water.”

“Oh,” I said and dumped the batonnet into the cold water bath.

“Thanks,” I told Henry.

I bit into the turnip. It was al dente, not ready at all.

I sliced and diced my onions, forming two piles on a sheet pan. Chef X would judge them later.

I bit into another turnip, lowering the number of my batonnets to four or five. It still wasn’t cooked enough, but I was past the deadline. I got in line and put my plate in front of Chef X.

He picked up a carrot wisp and ate it.

“These are good,” he said.

He looked down at my turnip batonnets in a pool of water.

He said something I couldn’t hear. Then Chef said, “Zero.”

I don’t fully know why I got the grade, but I could think of a number of reasons; they were too short, there wasn’t enough, they were uneven.

Dazed, I walked back to my station and waited for Chef X to evaluate our cut vegetables.

We had to cut julienned carrots into a brunois — a small form of dice that looks like cubed confetti. We had to turn turnip batonnets, known as a jardinière cut, into a macedoine, or cubes the width of half a centimeter. One half of an onion had to be sliced—the emincer cut. The other half of the onion had to be diced to show the ciseler technique.

Henry had generous piles of carrots, turnips and onions on his side of the sheet pan, while my side had a drought.

Chef X came around to us. He looked with approval at Henry’s vegetables. Then he waved his finger over my vegetables.

“This is no good. This is no good,” Chef said.

My sliced onions were too chunky. My diced onions had different lengths.

I wasn’t surprised at his verdict. But my fear grew. What if I couldn’t do this?

Chef X showed a female classmate how to properly cut an onion. I didn’t feel alone. Someone else struggled just as much as I did.

He cut an onion in half, lengthways.

“Follow the line. Follow the line. Follow the line,” Chef said as he sliced the onion into perfect wisps.

He positioned the root of the other onion half to his left and sliced along the lines of the onion. He cut across those lines. He fluffed the diced onions with his fingers.

I would practice tomorrow.

___________________________
*Not my classmate's real name.

Other posts:
Why I'm going to culinary school
Panic before my first class at culinary school
First class: Who said cutting vegetables is easy?