Art of Cooking, Spring 2018

During the last day of cooking, we decorated vanilla cakes with icing, fondant, marshmallows, etc. We were told to bring our lunch or to make lunch out of leftovers from the previous days. Our first thoughts were that this was going to be simple and easy to complete. Man were we wrong. We each were told to cut our cakes in half horizontally in order to make two equal circular halves and to cut the top of the cake off. We had extra cakes and were able to make three-tiered cakes. We took some of the Italian buttercream leftover from the day we made cupcakes and filled each of the layers with it. Next we crumb-covered the cake in order to make sure none of the crumbs would fall off and as it chilled for about 20-30 minutes. After it chilled we put one more layer of icing on and chilled it again, making sure the icing was almost solid. Afterwards, we started decorating. We measured, rolled out and cut the fondant in order to completely cover our cakes. Some of us made animals such as a

 Anna, Tyler, and Sierra chopping cucumber for the sushi  Ren, Andrew, and Sayer begin their sushi masterpiece  Spectacular sushi dish created by David Chef Jessica demonstrating how to caramelize our creme brulee David trying out the blowtorch to get a perfect caramelized top The delicious creme brulee!

We started our second week by making macaroons, a small desert made from almond flour, sugar, and  a filling. They were very complicated to make and it took a lot of precision during the mixing process. Since we were only making deserts, we had sandwiches for lunch. We began by making a meringue mixture and heating sugar in a sauce pan. We also added flour and sugar in a bowl, and separated egg whites from eggs. We had to be careful with this step, as any egg yolk in the mixture could mess up the final macaroon. After the process of mixing all of the ingredients together, we began to pipe the macaroons on to our trays. We learned a bit more about the mixing process and what can go wrong, as a portion of our batch was lumpy and not cooked properly. From the look of this batch, is seemed we would've had to make a major error in the cooking process, but the only error was that we mixed this last batch for a bit too long. The mixture dried out slightly and completely altered the fina

Anna mixing ingredients for the best macaroons made by high schoolers Chef Jessica demonstrating how the batter should look when it's finished Tyler piping the macaroon batter into perfect circles Ren scooping icing into an a piping bag while Nathan and Andrew bicker about whether or not the macaroons still taste like play-do David painting his macaroons with edible glitter Finished macaroons!

Pizza, a delicious dish conceived in Italy. Possibly their most famous culinary creation alongside it's rival, pasta. Pizza, despite it's simple appearance, has a rich history. Starting all the way back in good ol' Rome. Roman Rome, not Italy Rome, if you understand. With the focaccia, a flatbread known to the Romans as panis focacious, onto which toppings were added. You can likely see how this stemmed off into pizza, as more toppings were added, more it shaped up into the dish we know and love. The first ever pizza is recorded to have been made in Gaeta, an italian city, in 997 AD. Since then pizza has gone international, becoming so regular here in the US of A that it's considered at home next to American made dishes like burgers. I believe what led to this explosion of pizza popularity would have to be how customizable it is. Dream it up and you can probably put it on a pizza. Ham, sure! Pineapple, go for it. Chocolate, I think. Basketballs, technically. Anyway,

Cupcakes, a sweet treat loved by almost everyone. With the hundreds of ways to make this yummy confection, it is among the most popular desserts in the United States. We made two types of cupcakes, butter pecan and red velvet. The butter pecan cake was soft and creamy, complemented by a fresh crunchy taste of pecans. The pecan bits were coated in pure butter and folded into the batter. The cupcakes were then baked to perfection and were joined by a sweet buttercream icing that was rich and sugary. The red velvet cupcakes were a mouth-watering combination of chocolate and cream cheese. True to its name, these cupcakes tasted as smooth as velvet. Accompanying the cake was a fluffy cream cheese icing that leaves you craving for more.

 Nathan and Ren Prepare the Red Velvet Cupcake Batter Anna pouring boiled sugar into the meringue to make the butter cream The cupcakes look ready to go but can't say the same for Ren Sierra and Tyler have fun decorating their cupcakes Andrew can't wait to eat his cupcake

Andrew, Ren, Nathan, and Sayer sifting the flour onto the table after a buttery mishap. Sierra and David mixing the flour and butter. Ren whisking his cares away Sayer gracefully and handsomely decorates the tarts The finalized quiches out of the oven, veggie on the left, meat on the right.

The history of people eating red meat has been around ever since the first modern men had wandered out of caves and forests onto the plains of Africa. The art of cooking red meat, or more specifically a portion of red meat from a cow known as " steak ", was honed at the turn of the century in 1900 at New York steakhouses, where the first modern steakhouses appeared. They offered potatoes, cheesecake, beer, and of course steak. The steaks we made were tenderloin filet mignons, and were all cooked to a perfect medium rare. We paired the tender meats with baked asparagus gently coated in olive oil and mashed potatoes with compound butter. Finally, we coated everything in a magnificent mushroom sauce, that was savory and light. So far, this has easily been my favorite meal, and will be a top contender for the A-Term.

                                                                                                              Tyler getting the potatoes prepped                                                                                                              Sierra and Anna peeling the potatoes                                                                                                            Potatoes all cooked and ready to mash                                                                                                                   David seasoning the potatoes                                                                                                                        The potatoes say hey                                                                                                             David and Andrew on mushroom duty                                                                                         

Stir fry, a traditional but yet very versatile dish. Stir fry can be cooked in many different ways using different meats, vegetables , and sauces.  The stir fry that we cooked today, was filled with colorful vegetables and chicken cooked in a sweet and salty brown sauce. Before we started cooking, we had a quick introduction and went over basic safety in the kitchen as well as knife safety and technique. Chef Jessica and April showed us how to properly hold a knife and demonstrated various types of cuts that they use in the kitchen. After this, each of us grabbed a vegetable as well as a knife and a cutting board and started prepping the vegetables for the stir fry. We each cut a few different vegetables and got to use some of the different cuts that the chefs showed us. Once we had finished cutting and prepping all of the vegetables, we moved onto the meat. For this stir fry we used chicken so we had to be careful not to contaminate the other ingredients and utensils with raw ch

We began prepping for the stir fry right away. Ren, Nathan, Sayer, and Andrew try not to cry while cutting onions. This is our mise en place for the stir fry. David and Nathan put the chicken and vegetables together and being cooking. The final product!