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.