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?

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The butchers, the bakers and the kitchen team makers....

Tom and Chuck learning
butchering techniques

Alec with Chef Greg 

Jacques making shells for
apple tarts in Basic class

Cook Basic students emerged from five weeks of cooking theory at the end of January. While the four novices filled the kitchen with the smell of freshly baked bread, the Advanced students were learning butchery skills. During their side-by-side lessons, the more experienced cooks broke down a leg of veal into steaks, cutlets and chops, at the same time that the Basic class was discovering the difference between lean and rich doughs, straight doughs and sponges.

Francesco making fruit tarts

Tom 

Our kitchen accommodates sixteen students at one time, so the size of one class is determined by the the other that shares the same time slot. Each level has their own chef-instructor and covers their required material on a pre-determined schedule, but they often have the chance to work together for special occasions, catering or community events. Their time in the kitchen together helps them build rapport, and gives the less experienced students early exposure to the concepts and techniques they will encounter when they move on to Advanced level.

fruit tarts by Francesco

Spinning veal into gold

 Chef Dan instructs on how valuable good butchery skills can be to the bottom line. 

With his gloved hand, Chef cuts carefully
around the knuckle and along the bone.  

The leg of veal was courtesy of Delft Blue Veal. The entertainment value was added by Chef Dan Notley. With practiced skill, a sharp knife and an alchemist’s outlook, he demonstrated how to transform a $200 primal cut into steaks, roasts and cutlets, and bits and bones for burgers, osso bucco, soup, stews, sandwiches and sauces. Those can translate to at least $1200 at the till in an upscale restaurant: not bad for a one-hour date with a skilled butcher. 

After the demonstration, this hindshank was braised for a couple
of hours until it was melt-in-your-mouth tender.