And the winners are....

Chef Silly has has been quiet lately. My computer died, and I (finally) replaced it with shiny new one, and even set up the wireless router, all by myself.

What else have I been doing? I’ve set up online classrooms for the vocational classes that I teach, and I’m in the beginning stages of putting together a cooking series for another local college. Also, yesterday, I was the floor judge for a cooking competition.  The prize was a scholarship to study in France.

It was a “Mystery Basket”, which means the competitors don’t know what they are going to be cooking before they arrive for the contest.

Eight students were chosen, and nobody backed out when they found out that I was the instructor accompanying them to Provence for two weeks in May.

Because I was not a tasting judge, I didn’t taste any of the students’ food; this event was not gluten-free.

 

Here’s a sampling of what some of the students did:

Why the funny hat?

Hello!

I am a lot of things- a chef, a foodservice consultant, a vocational instructor, a sometimes free-lance writer, a mom, a step-mom (if it makes any difference) and a wife.

As a chef, I am a Certified Culinary Educator through the American Culinary Federation (ACF information: http://tinyurl.com/58dbly) . To reach a level of certification requires education, experience in the field, a rigorous cooking exam, as well as a written exam. I achieved this designation within weeks of learning that I had Celiac Disease.

“If I hadn’t seen you cooking, I wouldn’t believe that these sauces were produced by the same chef that cooked the other dishes”, said the man in the tall toque who would determine if I would pass or fail, “The sauces are bland- technically correct, but not anything special—These other items—the African Braise and the Mediterranean seafood dish are inspired, bold and well seasoned.”

The bland sauces were made with roux, a cooked flour and butter thickener used in classical sauces. I had made the required sauces in a proficient way- but they still, well, sucked. I didn’t taste them. I couldn’t. I was three hours from home, and still needed to load up and return all of my equipment.

I never mentioned that I couldn’t have flour. It wouldn’t have mattered.

I’m still getting the hang of gluten free cooking. There are some things I probably never will master- I’m too vain about my weight to do massive baking recipe de-construction.

Cake goes straight to my butt.

That’s not to say that I don’t do my fair share of baking.

Life is good, however. I have made a roux, just in time for Thanksgiving.
Come along with me as I relearn to cook. It’ll be fun!