29 appies in two hours- it's a record!

Brett set the record today for the greatest number of appetizers created - 29 in all - for his Cook Advanced appetizer test.

Students are required to produce at least ten different appetizers in the course of two hours. Nine apps doesn't cut it, and the student won't be marked. Chef presents them with the same challenge three days in a row- they are not permitted to duplicate any tidbits they have already made in the previous days, and cannot feature the same ingredients from one day to the next.

 Brett's class had a slow start on Tuesday when Chef Dan presented the first day's challenge, as students put their heads together to collaborate on the groceries for the week. By the third round today though, they all exceeded the required number of dishes, with Brett pulling off almost three times what he needed to complete his final appetizer test.

Visit our Facebook page to view more photos of the students and their appetizers from this week's classes. 

the SPICE OF LIFE (needs a little more salt) - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25 - 7 to 11 pm

 We here at Liaison College Hamilton campus would like to invite you to come and help us support our Chef Bill Sharpe, his wife Misty Ingraham and his sons Barrett and Zander in this time of need. 

On Monday February 10^th 2014, Chef Bill Sharpe suffered a massive stroke at his home and was rushed to the Hamilton General hospital. With his family by his side and our Liaison College Hamilton Campus family awaiting his diagnosis, the unthinkable truth came to be. Chef Bill Sharpe will not be coming back to his Liaison College family nor going home to his family at this point and he will be going through some tough and sometimes frustrating trials and tribulations of a Stroke Recovery. 

This is obviously a devastating blow to his wife, his children and his immediate family and friends. There are times when we all need to pull together, to lend a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen to and a helping hand to support and encourage our family members whether they be immediate family and relatives or close nit friends and colleagues.

 

With this thought in mind, Liaison College Hamilton is having a Fundraising Event called “The Spice of Life” on Wednesday June 25th 2014. This event will be from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm and we will have all of Chef Bill’s favourite catering items, a cash bar (with 1 free drink ticket with your event ticket purchase), live entertainment, door prizes and a silent auction. Tickets are $30.00 (please purchase in advance) and monies raised will go to the Sharpe/Ingraham family. 

 If you are not able to attend but wish to contribute to the fundraising event, Liaison College Hamilton will also accept donations on behalf of Chef Bill Sharpe and Misty Ingraham. We have set up a trust account in Misty's name for this specific event.

 With monies raised on this night, it will be our goal to assist Misty with the necessary retrofit of their house so that Chef Bill can finally go home and be with his family. A homecare assistant for Chef Bill will also be needed and with your ticket purchase or donation, these monies raised will go a long way in reaching that goal.

So please come and join us on Wednesday June 25^th 2014 and help us support our long time LC family member Chef Bill Sharpe, and his family.

Call our Liaison College Hamilton office at (905) 308-9333 to purchase your tickets in advance or to make a donation. Please 'like' our Facebook page (“Liaison College Hamilton”) so that you can be updated on new and exciting details of our upcoming fundraiser event.

Sincerely,

Nicole Harrison

Nicole Harrison

Spam- For entertainment value, it doesn't get better than this...

There are all kinds of perks associated with working at Liaison College Hamilton, not the least of which is the food that students offer us for lunch on a regular basis. Nothing beats Spam days for entertainment value, though. Before Chef reveals this secret ingredient to Advanced students, staff often huddle in the kitchen, waiting for their first reaction.  Who knew this processed meat could be so priceless?

Nelita's a bit unnerved by the can of processed pork product
that she has to turn into a meal fit for fine dining. 

Really? We have to taste it too?

Can't wait to see what Sarah can make with this humblest of ingredients. 

Whetting our appetites...

Last week the PM Advanced students turned out some tasty morsels to fire up an appetite. Each day they were challenged to turn out at least ten appetizers, with no repetitions from one day to the next. By Thursday they were in the groove, demonstrating their skill, speed and creativity as they plated at least a dozen appetizers each within a two-hour time frame. By the end of the day, staff were standing by, waiting for Chef to finish tasting so they could do some sampling of their own.

Tony does a last minute touch up on the rim of his soup bowl.
He created 15 appetizers on Thursday afternoon.  

Rattakone adds some sweet corn to his salad. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Can you guess what sauces are cooking?

Daniel is working on a Chausser sauce.

 Tantalizing aromas routinely drift through the foyer, classrooms and office while the ovens and the stovetops are crowded with meats, soups, breads and pastries. Sauces, though, are a face-to-face affair, their finest qualities only revealed close-up.  

Their appreciation lies in the subtlety of texture, the layering of flavours, their complement to the main attraction, and the colour they add to the plate.

  They are a big part of French Classic Cuisine, so the first full week of Advanced Class is dedicated solely to building a sauce repetoire. 

Students review the five mother sauces,  and learn at least forty more small sauces derived from these basic building blocks. 

Take a look at some of the ingredients that were prepped for the first sauce test last month. Can you guess what type of sauces were in the works, and with which kind of food they would be served?

Mike reaches for the salt
 to finish off his cream sauce.

Susan separates eggs to start a Hollandaise.

Gone Fishin’

How does your food go from this...

It’s not what you think. We’re not kicking back with a line in the water, or nursing a hot toddy over a hole in the ice. And there’s no catch and release policy. It is ‘Catch and Kill’ day at Liaison, and there is not much nostalgia involved.

It is a city kids’ fishing trip, as our students trek over to the nearby Asian market, a cooler full of water in tow. The merchants might think we are strange (they have never said), but are always happy to scoop a dozen or so tilapia from their live tanks and deposit them unceremoniously into the cooler. They handle live fish every day, so this non-event is a contrast to what lies in store back in the classroom.

One by one, the students, with varying degrees of trepidation, dip into the cooler to catch a fish with their bare hands, while trying to avoid the spiny back and dorsal fins. For most, it is the first time they have ever handled a whole fish, dead or alive. Some are repulsed at the prospect of knocking it on the head to kill it: others find filleting to be the greatest challenge.

The chef-instructors focus on the latter, but there’s a secondary message that they want to relay. Every piece of meat, fish or poultry that budding cooks and chefs will serve to their customers was at one time, a living, breathing being. We must respect and honour that life, and the process involved in bringing it to the table. 

......to this?

Visit our Facebook page for the whole story in photos.

Building a strong foundation with food...

At Liaison Hamilton, we’re all about food. For other businesses, what’s cooking in the kitchen comes second to what’s up in the workplace. But some companies know how to mix food and fun, and build a strong team in the process. Last Friday, staff and board members from The John Howard Society joined Chef Greg and some of our students in the kitchen for an afternoon of cooking and corporate team building. You can find one of the recipes here on our Recipe page. For more photos of the event, visit our Facebook page.    

Eat your greens: brussel sprout salad, cactus pads, broccoli soup and spinach fettucini

Team A served nopales (prickly pear
cactus pads) in a salad and on toasted pita. 

Team A students Chuck (L), Jessica(C) and
Tom (behind) tuck in to Team B's buffet.

Last week our Advanced students returned from Hamilton Farmers' Market with a small mountain of fresh veggies, pumped with the spirit of competition. It wasn't exactly an Iron Chef face-off - more like a friendly round of pick-up. Divided into two teams, their goal was to turn out the best buffet of vegetable-based dishes they could muster. They had to include six vegetable dishes and two meat dishes, and had the chance to prep everything a day ahead.

For two hours they cooked up a storm, but their participation didn't stop when the stoves were turned off. When the two tables were laid, each student sampled foods from the opposing team's buffet, writing a critique of each dish with reference to cooking technique, seasoning and creative use of the ingredients.

     

Chef Bill (L) and Chef Greg (R)
sample and mark the students'  efforts.

The spread offered a great variety of dishes, and everyone on campus - students, staff, and even the visiting computer technician - got in on the exercise. The newest Basic students, still engaged in the theory part of their studies, tasted and critiqued alongside the Advanced students.

Our chef-instructors did their own evaluation, sampling and marking each dish, but were also watching how the students functioned as a team, organized their time and workspace, presented their dishes, and marked their fellow students' work.

To see more photos, visit our Facebook page.

Team B's dishes: clockwise from top left: broccoli soup, vegetable sushi,
 curried potato croquettes, parsnip & carrot hash, rice pilaf, veal stir fry,
Waldorf salad and vegetable lasagna.

Hitting the sauce

The transition is seamless as students enrolled in the Chef de Cuisine diploma complete their Cook Basic training and move on to Advanced Level 2. First on the agenda for the current Advanced class, along with some Basic students and alumni, was three days of prepping, cooking and serving a Christmas lunch to almost 400 children at Hess Street School.

Jessica works up a bechamel sauce.

Kevin starts his veloute with a roux.

The glow of team work and camaraderie that made the Christmas lunch lively, fun and efficiently executed will follow everyone that pitched in to make it work. With such a concentrated curriculum to work through in the next 15 weeks though, our students have little time to digest the experience before returning to the kitchen.

Essential groceries for sauce week-
the reason those sauces taste so good!

After a quick review of mother sauces (béchamel, velouté, Hollandaise, brown and tomato sauces), Chef Dan demonstrated an array of small sauces that are borne from these five. Students cooked up a few of them; the rest were relegated to quick jottings in their kitchen bibles. Chef delivered a homework-in-the-making heads-up: they will be making sauces from their own notes in a few days, and will need to remember much more than turkey gravy and cranberry sauce. 

A lot of sauces start with quality stock,
so this spigotted stock pot is often on the
back burner. 

Students' kitchen bibles are their best friends
when a demonstration includes twenty sauces. 

Culinary Bootcamp will whip your kitchen skills into shape

The atmosphere in the college can feel a little tense as the afternoon Advanced class nears their final exams. At the same time, afternoon Basic class is approaching their deadline for their all-consuming, research- and calculation-intense menu project.

Culinary Boot Camp, in contrast,  helps offset the intensity of the diploma programs. The weekly recreational classes lend levity and balance to the school. Laughter spills from the kitchen as amateur cooks -from 18 to 80 years young – share their love of food while learning knife skills,  recipes and new techniques.

Mushroom ragout in the works
 at Culinary Boot Camp.

Our current Boot Camp is fully booked through mid-December. We have just introduced a 10-week springtime program, though, to run from March 13 to May 15, 2013. There’s nothing quite like a warm and fragrant kitchen on a 

cold and rainy spring evening, but you’ll have to start planning now. Classes fill quickly. Hope you can join us.

Chef's Table - September 27, 2012

Nathan, Devon and Resti created a six-course meal that was big on fall-harvested vegetables and fruit (five of the courses featured apples). They served a dozen guests, invited to join Liaison's chefs in critiquing each course and the overall presentation and creativity of the meal.

The entree for the evening: Braised stuffed veal breast,
served with a warm Brussel sprout salad and root vegetable chips,
placed on top of a scallion mousse. 

Check out more of Nicole's photos on Facebook.