All is quiet but the whisk and ladle

All is quiet, but for the sound of the whisk and ladle.

Tom starts on his risotto,
the second course of the day.

Our weekend class- a new addition to the Liaison schedule in the past few months- hit the kitchen about the time that the rest of us were putting our feet up for the weekend. These students were often overlooked in our blog and Facebook page for this reason. In the midst of their final exams though, Chef Greg took a few minutes to capture them at the height of concentration.

Students from this class will be amongst our lineup when we hold our next graduation ceremony in January.

Aaron

Students prepped everything they needed the day before, so they were at the
stoves right away starting their mushroom soup and  risotto.

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. 

Chef Elaina Ravo makes us gush

Chef Elaina Ravo amongst the books that she loves best.

We train a lot of chefs here at Liaison College Hamilton, and meet many more who do great justice to their chosen craft. We are proud of all of our graduates, but we don't often melt into a barrage of superlatives. Chef Elaina Ravo, though, is worthy of all the accolades we can summon, and we are extremely happy to count her amongst our graduates.

Chef Elaina's story is the latest in our series of alumni profiles on our website. Check out this recent addition to our pages (Graduate Success Stories), and get in touch if you, or someone you know, has a story to share.

Gearing up for the final stretch

BEFORE: students' evaluation depends
on matching the dish to its rightful owner. 

AFTER: Chef has to try them all, but a
spoonful is all he needs to determine
if the soup is done right.

Gearing up for final, practical exams, Chef Bill challenged his Basic students with a couple of black box days, named for the culinary competitions that present competitors with surprise ingredients, and a short time-frame in which to produce a dish from them. Our students were kept in the dark about what they would cook, though they had already learned how to prepare the dishes at some point in their lessons.

Tom works with melted
chocolate for his mousse

As they set up their stations, ingredients were revealed: all the fixings for cream of mushroom soup and chocolate mousse with Genoise sponge. The deadline for the first – 45 minutes, no more, no less – presented hot, in a warm bowl. The timing for dessert: finished, ready to unmold and plate the following day, when they also had the challenge of producing a risotto and a main course of stuffed chicken supreme.

Joleen whips egg whites for her Genoise sponge.

These challenges were a lead-in to exams last week, both hands-on and written. As the last pen was laid down, the knives laid aside and the ovens shut down, silent tension made way for giddy relief. For better or worse, exams are over.

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.

Food dreams come in all shapes and sizes....

Graeme Smith graduated from Liaison College Hamilton in 2009.
photo courtesy of Terry Asma, 2020studios

Gorilla Cheese was not the first food truck business in Hamilton, but owners Graeme Smith and Scott Austin might have been the first to announce their ever-changing location on Facebook and Twitter. It’s this urban-savvy marketing combined with their innovative curbside menu that attracts great crowds wherever they set up shop.  

The inspiration for Gorilla Cheese’s gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches took flight while Graeme was studying at Liaison College Hamilton.

“Originally I developed the project as a restaurant,” he recalls. After graduation, he was ready to follow through with his plan until his long-time friend got him thinking outside the box. “Scott came up with the idea of a food truck. We started researching the same day. I had no idea until then that they were such a massive trend in the United States.” 

Gorilla Cheese’s popularity is no accident. With a small crew of employees they work long hours in a hot truck, producing comfort food with a twist. Who would have thought a grilled cheese sandwich could create such buzz? By adding things like bacon, apples and maple syrup (the Lumberjack), or turkey, pear and cranberry sauce (Quirky Turkey) to the requisite cheese and bread, they have elevated the status of North American street food to a new level.

After just one year in business, the demand for their portable menu has outstripped their one-truck capability. “It kills me to turn down so many functions,” says Graeme. Their second truck is on order, and should hit the streets in late 2012. “Another truck will let us travel out of town, or be in two places at once in Hamilton.”

That’s great news for fans who check their phones before deciding on lunch, and for the rest of the Golden Horseshoe hungry for a twist on tradition.

You can follow the Gorilla Cheese schedule or check out their imaginative menu at http://gorillacheese.wordpress.com

Twitter: @gorilla_cheese

There's always a crowd waiting in line for Gorilla Cheese's
gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

Baking week... sweet!

Focaccia with caramelized onion- one of

the bread techniques that students learned during 

their baking week.

When Cook Basic students move from classroom to kitchen, Chef Bill Sharpe puts them through their paces with baking, sugar work and chocolate work. The first hands-on week is chock-a-block making a variety of breads, fruit tarts and pastries. The lessons are fast-paced and fun, incorporating a number of formulas, techniques and principles that will follow students throughout their careers. 

Chef makes it all look like child's play, but kneading and proofing doughs, hand-whipping creams and batters and getting just the right temperature to bring sugar to a pliable, caramel state all take patience, practice and good timing. The outcome on first attempt is rarely perfect, but is usually delicious, and the lessons are always priceless. 

See our Facebook page for more photos.

Spencer works on a garnish of

caramelized sugar.