Welcome Miami Spice

So each year when its time for Miami Spice alot of restaurant ranging from Lou's all the way to Emeril's make a prie fix menu. They show off a couple dishes they made. I work in kitchen 305 at Newport Hotel beach and Spa and this was our 35dollar prie fix menu.




Shrimp kabob salad. This is a mixed green salad with caramelized onion and avocado. Shrimp marinated in a cilantro aolio sits above the salad all finished with a warm drizzle of a homemade dressing.
The other choice was a seafood bordallaise soup with garlic bread



16oz blakend cowboy steak that has been grilled sits atop a homemade scalloped potato. Fresh grilled vegetables and a cheddar cheese jalepeno wrapped bacon. Finished with a nice demi.



Cornish game hen with a jalepno stuffing on top of a creamy corn mash. Wilted spinach and a herb cream sauce.


Miami Spice is a great opportunity for you to go out and enjoy 5 star dining at a 3star price. South Florida is the melting pot of many cultures, food and people. Leave your nest and get out and try something new =]

Hungry

Blackend chicken breast that has been grilled with saute mushrooms and swiss cheese. Home made onion straws sit atop a toasted but with a southern homemade chipotle mayo. Regular frenchfries, and to top it off a oreo cookie milkshake =]

I was at work and was just hungry. Sometimes people run to make a sandwhich with like bologna or something...haha not me!

Fresh Herbs

Meet Plant Ferb. Inspired by one of my favorite t.v shows Phineas and Ferb i decided to grow a few different herbs. The summer time can be boring for some, fun for others. I just really think its a matter of what you do and how you choose to do it which makes all the difference. Like these plants grow into something beautiful =]

Give Kids the World

This event was actually "Give kids the world" annual gala. This was held once a year at the Peabody hotel in Orlando. They raised millions of dollars and for me to be behind the scenes working in the kitchen to make this event happen has truly been an experience. I am currently working on a video for this event and will post it up within the next week. To get out there and volunteer for something..anything, you should try it...never know what you can learn.

I'm sorry about lack of updates

My culinary journey has braught me to a stand still. Currently im in Academic classes so cooking as far as JWU is sort of at a standstill. I recently participated in something called "JWU Iron Chef" with a good friend of mine, i will try and find pictures and than post something.
I will also be going to Orlando to an event called "Give the Kids the World" its a BIG charity event, and i will also post a long blog about that, besides that my culinary blog will be a little boring until towards the end of May in which case the summer time will begin and than real experimentation can begin.
I want to start buying chemicals and start experimenting, for this i will need my Tiger who is way more advanced than me, unfortunately he too is doing his own thing back home. Once the dust has settled i will be sure to update my blog spot on the normal bases like i am suppose to...
So i leave you guys with this


STAY TUNED =)

Learning the proper way to serve

Cooking food is GREAT knowing how to cook food is even better, but without the skills to serve food your restaurant or even establishment can't survive. In Essentials to Dining room students learn how to properly serve food. The unique part about Johnson and Wales is that because there are lab segments and Serving is one of them, when its time to serve food, you serve food that another class has made. Under the instruction of Mr.Messal we learned all about alignment of silver wear, and if one thing was not in align than he would deduct points from your grade. A restaurant can have the best food but if the host, servers and bus people aren't good than the entire restaurant could fail.

Grilled Pizza????

Something new that I learned that wasn’t known to me previously was the process of grilling pizza. Such a technique that seemed to be brainless produced a flavor that wasn’t familiar with me when it came to pizza. It gave the pizza sort of a smoky flavor. We began this process by making basic pizza dough, than added a little oil and grilled it. After that we added pizza sauce and applied toppings. The odd part is that in that class my eyes were opened to a whole new light of pizza toppings and sauce. From basic tomato to béchamel. We applied several toppings which are shown below.

Bascially

Johnson and Wales doesn’t only teach you new and exciting things, they know that none of this would be possible if they didn’t teach you the basics. Here is chef Rouch displaying how to align a knife. You must hold the knife at 45 degree angle to do this. Something that a lot of people don’t know that the only way to really sharpen a knife is to use a sharpening stone. The hand tool is only used to align the the blade, not to sharpen the knife. The basics are also displayed in these pictures like how to peel a carrot and peel an onion.

Wine tasting

In my opinion of the more important classes was Essentials of Dining room. I will post my overview of the class on a later blog once i upload the pictures. We did a wine tasting, it was actually pretty cool. My very first wine tasting ever and we had sheets of paper with differnt profiles on it ranging from colors to scents to tastes of the wines themselves. We also had a plate of different fruits and cheeses to help bring out the taste of the selection of wine.
Wine is a very unique beverage, ranging from a variety of flavors and scents, i thought it was made with differnt blackberries and blueberries etc...turns out that the soil in which it was cultivated has a great impact on the flavor profile of that respective wine. That my friend is the very basis on what i want my career to be.

My apologies

Dealing with class and projects than work and other college things i haven't had the opportunity to blog in a while. But im pushing foward to try and blog atleast once a week.

Eating is fundamental =) (grilling deepfrying and roasting)

In class it's nothing like eating your own food. Each chef has his or her own set up. Some chefs like to lecture than cook, eat than clean. Other chefs prefer to cook, eat than lecture. When you eat food in your class, your not just eating and playing games. You eat and you talk about the food that is being cooked. Cooking food is not fun if no one can eat your food. In this class period we set out all the food and pretty much had a feast on what everyone cooked that class period.

Children are the future =)

These are two different instances "Wildcat Weekend" and "Big Chef Little Chef," Wildcat weekend is something that CAT(Collegiate Ambassador Team) puts on. Future students come and check out the campus and take part of a basic culinary class. They can see just how wonderful JWU is, lol.

Big Chef little chef is what i LOVE!!! to do. This is when 1st and 2nd graders come to the school and learn about food by cooking it. They also take part of a little exercise class that helps teach them to be fit. One of my favorite things actually...<3333 =)

Emerils Restaurant

I took a trip to Emeri's restaurant, and i had Salmon atop sweet mashed potatoes and balsamic glazed mushrooms on top. They gave you the perfect portion, not to much and not to little. Everything was cooked wonderfully, and i had no problems....=) sadly a gentlemen had worked there for a couple years and he still hasn't seen Emeril.....

the old the young we all have to learn (trip to Publix)

Up above is Sue, she has masters degrees and PHD's etc... she even has her own dental business. The funny thing is that she still wants to learn food. gota love passion and the idea of learning something new =)
At Johnson and Wales they teach you ALOT about food, and each chef is different. In my class we took a trip to Publix to learn about different cuts of meat and there uses. Its funny how whats advertised as far as meat is not always the best cut of meat to use for the job:
Wrong Advertisement: Grill the Chuck for best cooking method

Learn from your mistakes (Braising and stewing)

Plate presentations are sometimes difficult to do when you have to deal with braised and stewed items. It is not enough to just plate good for, one must also learn from their mistakes of bad food as well. With the pictures around there are different errors, rather it be non-edible food as a garnish or just the placement of foods which is the problem. Learning is the key to any culinary endeavor.

Brief intermission with family cooking

My passion is not just food, i strongly believe anyone can cook. Helping one to cook something is truly better than cooking a dish by oneself. I have learned this on my own culinary endeavor. In the photos you see below i am with my own family ranging from the age of 4 to 14 we made breakfast for the parents.