Is art what you eat?

I had the opportunity recently to meet with Food Networks Food Stylist Challenge winner Angela Yeung, a beautiful and successful food stylist living and working in the Dallas area.

Whats a food stylist you ask? Until I watched the Food Networks Food Stylist Challenge I kind of knew they existed but didn't know to what extent they functioned.

Your reading a magazine featuring a recipe of the month with an appetizing picture of creamy fettuccine alfredo, watching a commercial with a steamy bowl of soup, looking at a calendar with a beautiful Thanksgiving spread or passing a billboard with a sweet treat. Food is everywhere we look and everywhere we look it's appetizing and appealing, comforting and begging for us to buy, buy, buy. Who makes this food want to jump into our shopping carts or stop at a local restaurant and devour the delectable goods....food stylists. Using clever tricks they've learned like fake ice in soda and clear rocks in soup to keep garnish afloat, they make food look picture perfect.

Being a future culinarian, I've set out to do some personal job investigation to find out what's out there as far as food jobs. This is one that truly requires thinking on your feet, artistic and culinary skill along with a flare for knowing what a client wants even if they don't know what they want or, doing what a client asks and finding ways to complete the task at hand. Being on a set with models, photographers, designers, and a host of staff with thousands of dollars on the line can add pressure knowing that your product has to work and if it doesn't, it could affect your reputation and future work.

While their numbers are relatively small, its a very competitive field and hard to break into the business of making food look scrumptious. It's all about contacts, networking, knowing someone in the business and a lot of hard work. Some advice Angela gave me for building a repertoire of food styling techniques are various books, trade shows and if there not stingy about teaching their tricks of the trade, interning for a food stylist.

Creativity and culinary skill add to your success in this field so if your interested in making hamburgers look like picture perfect or pancakes that stand up and smile for the camera this is the job for you, but word from the wise and successful, it's not for everyone and it's very competitive and hard to break into. So if your patient and have the right contacts yours could be the next billboard we pass that make us crave an ice cold frothy libation.

New Semester

I think I'll try to be better about updates this semester... I'm going into the advanced classes now which will be challenging and fun. Also found out my cost control class is alot of math and formulas (blech!) Hopefully I'll have a great "teacher" that will actually "teach" me since cost control is actually something that will be useful to me in an executive chef roll.

Here's something you probably never knew: An executive chef doesn't actually cook on a regular basis. Go figure.... They are responsible for cost control, menu planning and most likely hiring and fireing. They perform a "directive" role and delegate the task of running the kitchen to the sous chef who in turn, delegates production of day to day tasks to head chefs, ie.. the garde mange (cold foods) is responsible for getting out all of the cold food, the grill chef is in charge of all grilled items, the saucier is in charge of sauces, etc... Each head chef has a line of cooks that they manage.
All that to say, if you have a well managed kitchen it is thanks to the executive chef who sees talent and leadership in individuals, builds on it and thus a well managed kitchen!

Something I've learned over the years of being an employee: If your supervisor is not threatned or egotistical, they will teach you everything they know without fear and THEY will look better for doing so... Some people haven't figured this out yet.

Here's to a great semester. Hopefully easier than the summer schedule!

Julie & Julia

Saw it, loved it, cried...

Why, well because it brought back memories of me at 12 years old on Saturday completely mesmerized watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin cook the most incredible food I had ever seen. I remembered baking and cooking when my mom would let me in the kitchen after watching them because I HAD to. It was like a force pulling me into the kitchen just to see if I could master the foods I saw them cook and her asking me where did I learn how to make what ever concoction I whipped up and responding with TV or PBS or Julia or Jacques. We were always on a first name basis, they were my Saturday TV buddies along with a host of others.

Seems odd now looking back that a child would be interested in watching cooking shows on a day off from school and chores, but that was me. I'm almost sad to think it's taken this long to figure out that cooking is what I want to do as a profession but I guess it's never too late and better late than never!

First time...

Just finished my 2nd semester of culinary school! And with, for the first time in my life, straight A's. Not so easy to do in the summer when the semester goes by fast and homework is double what's normally assigned for the regular semester. And while taking a nutrition class that seemed like an anatomy and physiology or chemistry class and a baking teacher that gave enormous amounts of busy work defining terms and answering questions that were some what helpful.

Two successful semesters under my belt, 3 more to go!

I've learned quite a bit about baking, more than I probably need. I can say that after this summer session I now have the skills to make excellent flaky pie crusts and flute them very nicely, I have mastered puff pastry, pie fillings, biscuits and rolls. As for breads, I have the basic knowledge, I just need to make them more often to get some practice in. The more you bake the better you get!

As for my nutrition class, lots of information that was interesting but more than likely I WILL forget. and a VERY expensive book that lots of people mentioned they want to borrow but for fear they will never return it, it's going on ebay!

2 weeks off then back to the grind stone!

A Good Latte Gone bad

One of the most valuable things I took away from my season working at Starbucks bar none is my espresso machine. Second to that is my latte making skills. It looks easy, but a latte is tricky and very easy to screw up. Under foam and all you have is a milky latte. Over foam and all you have is hot espresso and foam with very little milk (which can be great if all you want is foam and espresso).

Hold the steam wand to low and your bubbles are flat and deflate quickly. Hold the wand too high and the bubbles are large and never melt, which is an extra extra dry latte and no milk. BUT, if you have a good creamy foam to hot milk ratio and fresh shots of espresso, along with your syrup of choice and sugar blended lightly so as not to disturb the creamy foam, this is latte goodness that only a highly skilled barista could replicate. Believe it or not it takes a while to learn the correct consistency and only after making about a hundred lattes do you finally "get it" and from then on unless your just not paying attention it becomes second nature.

I indulged in such a latte this weekend only to have it spill on my sheets while trying to watch the news and enjoy my latte in bed. All that latte goodness gone :( along with an unscheduled laundry day thrown in. Frustration...

Which leads me to my money saving conclusions: 1)If you work at Starbucks, invest in one of their fine espresso machines before you quit, they come in handy when your hankering for a latte and don't want to leave home or pay five bucks. Latte goodness at your fingertips! 2)If you have a good friend that works at Starbucks, take advantage of their great discount (around Christmas is a good time to buy, they try to get rid of the previous years models at sometimes half the original price. That discount plus your friends can mean 75 to 80% off the original price). And please, please if you've never made a latte before get your barista friend to show you how to make a good latte and keep practicing! Finally, if you make a latte at home on a fine Saturday morning and drink it in bed, don't spill it!

New to me

If your going to do a job well, you have to have the right tools. After a semester of using sub-par tools and near misses with dull knives and slippery knife handles, I've now "invested" in GREAT knives. There not new, but they are new to me.

Which leads me to a great tip for buying quality products at half the price. Ebay! I found three of the knives featured in this 9 piece knife set I recently purchased brand new at Sur La Table for $425. I purchased this 9 knife, block holder, steel rod and several different grit sharpening blocks on Ebay for only $435. Yes their used, but with quality knives, unless they are bent or broken, simply re-sharepen and they are like new!

I costed a set like this and it runs well over $1,100 if purchased brand spanking new. I guess knives, like a car, as soon as you take them off the lot, they depreciates significantly. Sadly, most people like shiny new, but used items work just as well depending on what they are and at half the price of new, I'll keep buying "new to me" and save money for other things I may have to buy new.

TV Chefs

Over the last couple of months I've had the opportunity to meet two of my favorite TV Chefs that have visited the Dallas area. Tyler Florence and Curtis Stone.

First off They are both extremely nice and VERY handsome men! Tyler was here to promote his new baby food line, Sprout. Basically organic baby food that tastes good and not full of sugar. After standing in line for about 20, sitting for another 20 he finally came out and talked about his baby food line, then sat for who knows how long to sign autographs. There were so many people there, it was basically have him sign your book, pose for a brief pic and move on. I was hoping for a cooking demo but since he was just promoting baby food and his book there wasn't much time for anything else. All in all a fun time meeting him but since I don't have kiddos, I wasn't really interested in hearing about it. But if you do have kids, it's great baby food!

Curtis Stone was also on a book tour and boy oh boy was he SUPER nice and VERY handsome! The lines for Curtis weren't as long as Tyler's so he took more time with each person. He joked around with the crowd and quite spontaneously agreed to do a cooking demo using whatever ingredients the store had on hand. Talk about pressure! He truly showed his culinary creativity and knowledge by cooking up a pesto pizza with artichokes, grilled corn with a compound chipoltle butter and couscous! He was very approachable, talked about his show and noted how they admittingly target beautiful young females in the grocery store. He also mentioned that 99.9% of the people he chooses will ALWAYS say they will let him come to their house but they have to let them straighten it up first! He also brought along his dad and step mom, he looks just like his dad!

So far those are the two TV Chefs I've met. My friend Sharon Sage made me a tea towel with "Chef Marie" on it. I got both Curtis and Tyler's autograph and I'm planning on getting many more. So, if you know of any coming to the Dallas area, let me know!