Cooking in the Christmas Spirit

Students and staff are getting into the Christmas spirit as they take care of last minute preparations for the Christmas dinner at Hess Street School today. We will be heading over shortly to serve lunch to 300 elementary students! Watch our Facebook page for more photos from this fun day.

 

They may have turkey in the back of their minds, but pork is on the menu today

Our AM Advanced students are making sausage today from pork shoulder. They look like they are having way too much fun!

The sausage attachment on the stand mixer
works well for stuffing the casings.

Nancy (left) and Caitlynn prepare to
link the sausage coil.

Ruthann has separated the sausage into
individual links by twisting the casing.

Merry Christmas! See you in 2014.

Hess Street School Christmas dinner 2012

Our students and staff are gearing up to serve Christmas dinner to 400 students at Hess Street School on Thursday. We are all looking forward to this annual celebration to get us into  the festive spirit and start the wind-down to our holidays.  

There will be no Open House this week (December 17). We will be closed from December 20 through to January 12. Drop by for a visit during our next Tuesday evening Open House, January 14, 2014.

Merry Christmas! We hope to see you in the New Year.

Christmas 2012 at Hess Street School

The toughest job of all.....

Cook Basic students sit down with Chef Bill to sample a
10-course meal, and learn how to talk about food. 

It's not easy being a culinary student: weeks of studying theory, humbling test marks and the ego-busting reality of cuts, burns and burnt offerings when you finally get into the kitchen. The toughest job  of all, though, is actually learning to talk about food.

Cook Basic students are encouraged to taste everything that our Chefs turn out while demonstrating the fundamental techniques, so they will know how their own dish should taste. It's not often, though, that they are asked to give feedback on other students' cooking.

Last Thursday the afternoon Basic class sat down to a ten-course lunch, thanks to the PM Advanced class. The meal gave the cooks the chance to work as a team, turn out creative new dishes on a deadline and practice their plating skills. The lessons for the diners? Try every dish (fence-sitting is frowned upon), listen to the chefs at the table, and learn how to express their opinions on seasoning, presentation and flavour with confidence.

Sweet endings 

To view photos on the Advanced students in the kitchen, and the meal they served to fellow students, visit our Facebook page.  www.facebook.com/LiaisonCollegeHamilton

What's the common denominator?

Our Advanced students are learning to turn out great-tasting dishes with any ingredients that Chef Dan can throw at them. Can you guess the secret ingredient that was at the heart of their challenge today?

Ruthann's stuffed pepper with golden & candy cane beet chips,
raita and bhaji.  

Caitlynn's timbal with onion bhaji, beet chips, and brocolli
stir fry with yellow peppers.

Sarah waits with her two identical plates
while Chef is critiquing her classmates' food. 

To-die-for bread pudding in under five minutes? Only on television...

Chef Dan was featured this morning on CHCH Morning Live, getting a bit of help from broadcast host Annette Hamm. He is a natural in front of the camera, where his wit, humour and the magic of television transformed a one-hour dish into a 4-minute dessert.

The 5-minute appearance in front of the camera should be required study for anyone hoping to host their own televised Food Show. The process actually took several hours, as Chef assembled all the tools, pots and bowls he would need the day before. He made sure he had two sets of ingredients, baking one dish and sauce ahead of time to show as the finished dessert, and prepping the second set of raw ingredients for the camera.

The induction burner that he used on set was the perfect tool for cooking in small spaces where there is no vent hood. It creates energy when a pot is placed on top to close a magnetic circuit, while the only thing that gets hot is the food and the pot in which it is cooked. There is no residual heat to burn hands, or in this case, the milk that boiled over while Chef was instructing Ms. Hamm on the finer points of whipping egg whites.

When the 30-second warning came from the control room, Chef Dan switched his dish-in-progress with the finished one, and closed the segment with a freshly plated Bread & Butter Pudding drizzled with Eggnog Creme Anglaise. Heavenly!

It is the nature of the industry that no-one actually got a chance to taste this rich, to-die-for comfort food. The upshot? Chef got a chance to let viewers know about our diploma programs, as well as the Christmas dinner that we will serve to 400 school children at Hess Street School on December 19.






You will find the recipe for Chef Dan's Bread & Butter Pudding with Eggnog Creme Anglaise on our recipe page.

The miracle of television can transform a dish.......

... from prep stage........

...to finished dessert in under 5 minutes. 

Chef Dan organizes the ingredients and rehearses the recipe in
 his head outside the studio while he waits to go on air.

CHCH allowed us in the studio while Chef was on set.
Rob Balla (Balla Media) & Nicole (our multi-tasking administrator)
watch from behind the cameras.

The trade-off: fun for feedback

Our afternoon Advanced students worked with Delft Blue last Thursday, dreaming up various ways to serve the company's newest, soon-to-be-released product - a breaded & pressed mushroom burger and an appetizer-sized mushroom petal.

The students got a chance to work their skills and unleash their imagination, while Delft Blue gained some valuable feedback from these future industry professionals. The student with the best creation was awarded a Victorianox scimitar knife for their efforts.

Brienne's winning recipe-A spicy mushroom shrimp burger,
with mozzarella cheese, lemon pepper shrimp and spicy mayonnaise. 

Visit our Facebook page for more photos. 

Hidden talents.....

 Our chef-instructors are exceptionally skilled cooks.  We are lucky to have them on board, and reap the benefits almost every day (Lunch anyone?) It's always interesting, though, to see beyond the plate, and glimpse the other talents that emerge from time to time.

Chef Dan is a talented visual artist and pumpkin carver extraordinaire. 

Chef Bill installed the new fryer in the kitchen recently,
and has built displays for our booth at Food & Drink. 

Chaud froid: For your eyes only...

The design is limited only by the cook's imagination................

Chaud froid is a showcase for patience and ingenuity. Designed to visually enhance an elaborately-laid buffet table, it is more eye-candy than appetizer.

The process involves cooking a piece of meat (our students use chicken), then chilling and covering it with a smooth coat of bechamel sauce.

...........eyesight, and manual dexterity.

The kitchen grows unusually quiet when students focus all
of their attention on developing their micro palates. 

The sauce-coated meat is cooled again to set the bechamel, and to hold the chicken at a safe temperature while the intricate surface design work is prepared.

The French term chaud-froid refers to heating and cooling the food as each step of the process is undertaken.







When the bits of vegetable mosaic are ready, the meat is once again pulled from the cooler, and the design laid on to the white background.

A clear aspic glaze is prepared and cooled to just the right temperature: warm enough that it flow easily over the whole piece of chicken, covering it with a smooth and transparent coat, but cool enough that it does not melt the bechamel undercoat.

Once these creations have been cooled again, they are ready for the buffet table. If they have been handled carefully, and with food safety in mind, they are edible works of art. With emphasis on their visual aesthetics, though, their ornamental value far outweighs their gustatory appeal.

 The white bechamel that coats the chicken is
like  gesso on a painter's canvas. 

Paper-thin slices are shaved from sweet pepper and other veggies for
the chaud froid design.

A clear aspic glaze (foreground) is applied
over the  design to finish these  buffet showpieces. 

GO Cooking (June 11, 2013)

You'll find some of the recipes from this GO Cooking evening on our 'Recipes' page.

Chef Bill got help from students Michael (left) and Jacques (right) at the last
GO Cooking presentation in June.  

Ever the teacher, Chef instructs as he cuts, demonstrating a fast
and simple way to seed and core sweet peppers.

 Jacque (background) sautes sweet peppers that will be incorporated
into the Spanish rice that Chef is preparing.

Michael sautes fresh, Ontario-grown asparagus.

The Cornish hens are pulled from the oven as the
Spanish rice (background)  is near completion. 

Alumni stories- A golfer in chef whites

photos by Terry Asma; 2020studios

Chef Fred Smith is relaxed in the kitchen at Paris Grand Golf Club, even as a tournament gets ready to roll out on the course. Despite his mature years, he doesn't look like a man ready to slow down. 

"I've always said I'll leave when it stops being fun," says the Executive Chef, a graduate of Liaison Hamilton. 

He had already worked a full career- thirty-two years as a production mechanic with American Can Company & Ball Packaging - when the Hamilton factory where he was working shut down in 2000. Being an avid golfer, his first reaction to layoff was to head to Glancaster Golf Course. He hit the fairways three days a week, not to golf, but to cut the grass. When the season came to a close, he decided to pursue another of his passions – cooking.

His strategy for getting connected in the culinary field? He enrolled at Liaison Hamilton, immersed himself in his studies, and jumped on every opportunity to help with errands and catered events.

“I would advise all students to volunteer for every benefit function they can. I received several job offers from chefs during these events. You don't earn pay but the experience is a gold mine. Other chefs see you perform, you gain experience, and networking is invaluable in this business.”

Despite his expanding network, he planned to go back to cutting fairways after graduation. 

“Gene (co-owner at Liaison) really encouraged me to find work in a kitchen. He kept telling me, ‘You’re really good at this. You should try it out for a while.”

Chef Fred graduated top of his class in 2001, and landed a breakfast cook position at Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville.

“It was my first time in a professional kitchen, and stressful to be thrown in with the wolves.” Once he found his footing, though, he moved to Scenic Wood Golf Club. He has been Executive Chef at Paris Grand now for five seasons, handling weddings, banquets, parties and tournaments with his kitchen staff, and taking advantage of the free golf when he gets a few hours off.

Reflecting on his second career with satisfaction, he credits much of his success to the chefs that trained him. Still he has some cautionary words for anyone new to the culinary field. “It’s long hours and a lot of work for low wages and little thanks. If you don’t love it, if you don’t have the passion for it, get out now.”

Click here to see our video on Chef Fred Smith. 

Tension, taste and technique

Chefs do a blind taste-test of the soup course. 

 All is quiet in the kitchen again at Liaison College Hamilton Chef School, and the air is heavy with concentration. Our Cook Basic A.M. class is in the midst of their final practical exam, creating a meal from soup through to dessert. Their timing is critical- chefs expect each course to be served at the exact time specified (no sooner, no later), and at the correct temperature (hot dishes served hot, cold ones still chilled).

Each course is blind taste-tested: students are assigned a number, delivering their food to the empty classroom before the chefs enter to sample from each dish.

James pipes decoration onto his dessert plate. 

Cole delivers his chocolate mousse to the test tables.

While the students work through their soup, main course, sauces and dessert, the chefs make careful notes on seasoning, taste, texture, temperature, and technique.

The dessert course offers an opportunity to explore garnish, presentation styles and sugar work. It also marks a drop in the intensity that permeates the campus on exam days.

Even when the last plate has been delivered to the tasting tables, students still wait on edge until their evaluation is complete. One by one they are called to discuss their meals with the chefs, emerging with relief or concern written across their face.

Chef Bill and Chef Dan finish their test notes before liaising with students. 

Join us at our next Chef’s Table!

Answers the following questions correctly, and we will enter your name in a draw for a pair of tickets for a gourmet, eight-course meal at Liaison College Hamilton.

 

These dinners are a private affair, and are not open to the general public. Our chefs share the table (and their stories and insight) with eight to ten carefully chosen guests. You could be amongst them.

 Our Advanced students plan the menu to highlight the cooking and presentation skills they have learned, then prepare and serve the courses one by one, from amuse bouche through entrée to luscious dessert.

How to enter:

1. Contest deadline is August 19, 2013
2. You will find the answer to each of the quiz questions somewhere on our website www.liaisonhamilton.ca.
3. Email your correct answers to us at katrina@liaisonhamilton.ca, along with your name and a phone number where we can reach you during business hours.
4. We will draw the winning entry on August 20.

(Sorry, students and graduates of Liaison College are not eligible. You must be 19 years of age or older to enter.)

Get to know us at Liaison College Hamilton. Answer these questions correctly for a chance to win a pair of tickets to our next Chef’s Table.

1. What is the name of our program that helps students with resumes and career planning? 

2. How many hours is our longest program?

3. Our Cook Basic students study eight major topics. Name three of these.

4. What kind of catering do we do?

5. Name one hotel at which Chef Bill Sharpe has worked.

Filling a knead

Bread making is one of the first things that students learn when they get into the kitchen – a skill they use time and again from Cook Basic through their final weeks of Chef de Cuisine. It is a fundamental in most households around the world, but one that has been nearly forgotten in our current fast-food culture.

Some students get hooked on the flavour and freshness that can’t be matched by a store-bought bread; others find the process rewarding. Even those who are experienced cooks are often surprised how simple it is to turn out a great loaf once they’ve grasped the basics.

Working with variations on the flour, sugar, water and yeast combination, they learn about scaling (weighing ingredients), blooming the yeast (activating it with sugar in warm water), developing gluten (kneading), proofing (letting dough rise) and finally, baking. Bread making starts out as a lesson on its own, but is quickly incorporated as part of an overall meal preparation. Focaccia, potato bread, ciabatta, French bread, challah, English muffins; by the time graduation rolls around, the question is not “Should we make bread?”, but “What kind of bread should we make?”

More photos on Facebook! 

Silence, and mis-en-place

Christina starts the Genoise sponge early in the evening so it can bake
while she prepares most everything else. 

“No talking!”

Chef Greg Singh is usually soft spoken, but his voice cuts across the thud of knives on cutting boards like the crack of a judge's gavel. I mutter my apologies to Chef and to the student that I have been chatting up, sinking back into silence as I snap photos of this part-time evening class. It’s their last week of studies, and the tension in the kitchen is near-tangible. The relative silence is both a blessing and a curse: There is no chatter to distract students from their mise-en-place; chopping, mixing, baking, preparing everything for their final, practical exam on Tuesday. But it also means they must rely on their kitchen bibles – the notes that they have kept throughout their hands-on lessons. No borrowing recipes. No last minute hints, tips or warnings of impending disasters. No talking!

Scott chops vegetables for soup, stock and main course. 

On Tuesday there will be no talking, no recipes, no kitchen bibles. The soon-to-be graduates will have to trust their memories and their own judgment to get them through the three course meal. They will need good timing and all the confidence they can muster, and it all starts today with silence, and mis-en-place.

For more photos, visit our Facebook page. 

Now for something completely different........

We like to focus most of our posts on our students and the ups and downs of their culinary training,

Nicole during pool training. She loves food, but it is her passion
for the open water that drives her. 

while the people that keep the school ticking along are usually in the background. Once in a while, though, we need to claim bragging rights on the talents of our staff.

Our fearless administrator, Nicole Mallette, is a multi-tasking, multi-talented woman with a heart of gold and an unbeatable talent for organizing. It comes as a surprise to many people, then, that her first passion is not fine food: it is competitive, long-distance swimming and her unstoppable drive to challenge herself on the open water.

This summer, Nicole and four other women – all of them long-distance swimmers – will challenge Lake Ontario in a relay swim from Kingston to Burlington to raise money for their favorite cause; Plan International’s “Because I Am A Girl” campaign.

This inspiring team, swimming under the 'Because Girls Can' banner, hopes to raise $300,000 in donations to support education and opportunity for girls around the world. In pursuit of that dream, they will set a world record with their 305 km. marathon. Their determination is compelling, and their cause is life-changing. We hope you will help us to cheer them on. 

To find out more about the swimmers and their cause, follow their progress on their blogs, Facebook page and website.