Student Culinary Arts Club

I am pleased to announce that the students have formed a student culinary arts club.  They have set some lofty goals for themselves, this year.  Last week, Tuesday, the club held it's first fund raiser.  Even though the weather was less than cooperative, they still managed to raise in excess of $80.00!  A job well done, indeed.
This week on December 3, the club will assist with the annual event: Breakfast with Santa.  This should be an outstanding, and very rewarding event for the club to participate in.  I will try to post some photos from the event next week.

Until then.
Happy Eating
Chef Leslie Bartosh
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas 77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu

Dress Code

This post is for all current and future students.

A quick reminder, the dress code for the culinary arts program is full uniform in lab: white long sleeved double breasted chef jacket, check cook pants, full length white bib apron, white skull cap or beanie and black non slip shoes. 
The only jewelery allowed in lab is a plain wedding band.  No bracelets, watches etc are allowed.  No earrings or visible piercings with studs, etc are allowed.  Painted finger nails, acrylic nails, inlays on nails  and artificial nails of any kind are strictly forbidden.  These guidelines are in compliance with the Texas Department of Health guidelines.
All instructors in the program will be charged with enforcing the dress code starting January 2012. 
If anyone has any questions regarding this policy, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Chef Bartosh

Other Photos

Sometimes in the course of business we get photos that are not class related.
Such is the case with these two.

In this photo, Erick and Kim are showing off the Vitamix food processor that was donated to the program.  This photo was used in a local press release.

Flame On!  John, flamin', for a publicity shot for the program.

Until next time.
Happy Eating
Chef Leslie Bartosh
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas 77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu

A couple of more photos for Saucier class

Saucier came to end last week Thursday.  As always seems to happen, I spent most of this week almost catching up.  Here are the last three photos from the class.

We make salsas as a part of the class.  The one above is a black bean based salsa.  It was pretty good, even though the onions were cut a little big.
We also had a fruit based salsa; Caribbean salsa.  It was nice, light and refreshing compared to some of the hot salsas the class made that night.

And in the class room sometimes things happen.  Imagine how the student who made this Hollandaise Sauce felt.............

I hope to have some pictures up in the next week or so for Intermediate Food Prep.

As we rapidly approach Thanksgiving, you may wish to visit the information we posted previously on safely preparing a juicy turkey.  There are also many phone numbers to different help lines for those who need a little assistance.  The information can be found at the following url:  http://alvincollegeculinaryarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/tips-for-safe-and-juicy-thanksgiving.html
Have a happy and safe thanksgiving.  Share food and fellowship with those you love.

Until next time.
Happy Eating
Chef Leslie Bartosh
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas 77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu

The Simpsons "The Food Wife,"

This is a humor alert.  Sunday 11/13/11 The Simpsons episode will be titled the "Food Wife".  It will star Mario Batali, Tony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay, among others.  This should be quite a hilarious situation.  I hope you enjoy.
Makes me wish I had a dvr!

Until next time
happy eating and happy laughing
Chef Leslie Bartosh, CEC, FMP
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas 77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu

Netherlands Antilles

On October 31, 2011, a visitor from the Netherlands Antilles, visited our blog.  This marked the 100th country to visit.  I can only say thanks for coming by.  It seems just a short time I ago I was writing in Praise of Poland.

It truly is a honor to be visited by some many, from so many different countries.  If you visit and you see photo of a recipe or dish that you would like the recipe for please let me know.  It would be my pleasure to help you with your request.

The act of sharing food, is one of the universal truths of mankind and sets us apart from the animals.  Please share food with someone you love and even with someone you don't.  It is a unique opportunity to reach out and make someone feel good.

Until next time.
Happy Eating
Chef Leslie Bartosh, CEC, FMP
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas  77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu

Saucier

Those of you who have followed this blog know i post photos of the classes.  This year I am trying to take some photos with students in the shot as well as some pictures of dishes we have not posted before.  But before I post any photos, I have to tell you:  The class made some really nice fish mousseline last Thursday.  When coupled with Sauce Nantua, my!  My taste buds were singing.


So, here we go.  This is the first batch of photos from the 2011 Saucier class.

One of the things we do in this class is make a mother sauce and turn them into leading sauces.  In the following three photes you can see three different small sauces being served with sauteed chicken breast, duchess potato variations and broccoli with beurre blanc.

 Poulet Roulade aux Provencal:  Chicken roulade provencal was the star one evening along with fresh egg pasta.  The next two photos show the roulades being seared, followed by a plate.

Compound butters are one of the things we make.  You can pack a lot of flavor into these versatile butters.
Pictured below, clockwise from top left, is:  Shallot Parsley Butter , Marchand du Vin Butter, Bearnaise Butter and Maitre d'Hotel Butter.  They are wonderful melted on top of grilled Moo Cow.

 As a part of the class we cleaned some fish so we could make fish stock and then use the fish in some dishes.  Here Kim and her fish are seeing eye to eye.

 Stephanie did a great job of filleting her fish.

 As mentioned earlier, we made fresh egg pasta to go with the poulet roulade aux provencal.  Savannah is shown here cutting some of her groups dough.

 Ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise are among the sauces we make in this class.  Monse is running some ketchup through the food mill.

 Of course, we had to make ravioli with to go with the pesto sauce.  Young Zach was kind enough to do the honors for his group.

When we made Coq au Vin, to learn how to use the thickener, Beurre Manie, we made spaetzle as an accompaniment.

So, there you go.  The photos speak for themselves but can not do the quality of the food justice.
The class has done an outstanding job, so far.  I hope to have a few more photos to post later this week or early the next.

Until next time
Happy Eating

Chef Leslie Bartosh, CEC, FMP
Alvin Community College
3110 Mustang Road
Alvin, Texas  77511
281.756.3949
chef@alvincollege.edu