Professional
These courses are relevant for the professional training of a chef, teaching the skills required to operate and manage the kitchen of a restaurant effectively and to carry out the functions of a chef. Students acquire practical knowledge and professional experience that then has to be reinforced through practical work in the kitchen. A Chef must be able to acquire a vast range of specific skills and practical capabilities in order to carry out his direct responsibilities as well as to manage all other people involved in the kitchen. This is a demanding learning experience in the culinary arts. This course develops the ability to organise all the operation of preparation and organization of a catering business, to know cooking times for different types of cooking, to recognize different cuts of meat, types of fish, vegetables in season, to choose the correct knives and tools to use, and to know how which flavours to combine pleasantly and which do not. A cook in fact knows cooking rimes, different methods of preparing dishes and their combination, but a professional chef also perceives the harmony between the various courses. These competences and skills can only be acquired through suitable education, followed by lots of practice. We work in cooperation with the Chefs Association and with various restaurants in Bologna. The course is designed to learn or improve techniques applied to many different recipes. It involves repetition of some exercises designed to acquire the basic skills of professional cooking. We will highlight the differences in the use and application of the same technique in different contexts such as, for example, restaurants, canteens, self-service restaurants as well as cooking at home. Throughout the course there will be tests to check the ability of the students to manage their job covering organizing the catering, rationalization of methods and times, plating exercises ant the presentation of a dish.
| 1-2 people per class | |
|---|---|
| 5 Meetings (per week) | Euro 1139 |
| 4 Meetings (per week) | Euro 1020 |
| 3 Meetings (per week) | Euro 843 |
| 2 Meetings (per week) | Euro 604 |
| 1 Meeting (per week) | Euro 339 |
| 3-4 people | |
|---|---|
| 5 Meetings (per week) | Euro 750 |
| 4 Meetings (per week) | Euro 660 |
| 3 Meetings (per week) | Euro 543 |
| 2 Meetings (per week) | Euro 398 |
| 1 Meeting (per week) | Euro 217 |
extra week 10% discount
PRACTICAL SKILLS:
How to manage and tidily organize materials, tools, products and the kitchen area.
Organizing the division of tasks into the various parts of the kitchen.
Basic and complementary operations for working in the kitchen.
How to move effortlessly in the working environment, between furniture and cooking stations for the different areas of the kitchen.
Design a menu, identifying the main factors influencing its structure and determining its qualities (seasons ingredients, cost effectiveness).
Basic cake, bread and pizza-baking.
Italy’s regional menus with some of their traditional or special cooking methods.
Italian and International traditional menus
Being able to collect food from the store-room, according to the qualities and amounts required by the menu, checking the product and hygienic characteristics.
Food storage, correctly applying hygienic and functional criteria.
SOME OF THE THEORETICAL INFORMATION GIVEN DURING PRACTICAL SESSIONS WILL INVOLVE:
Professional role and functions of kitchen personnel.
Brief information on history of cooking.
How to behave with colleagues and customers, relationships with all the other professionals and their specific tasks.
Attention to hygienic measures in touching food and in using tools and equipment.
Basic principles on safety measures in the workplace.
Basic notions of nutrition.
Language knowledge, focused on the technical terminology of this sector.
No specific equirements or experience is required to those who enrol to this course. Those who wish express to work as a professional chef in a restaurant, bistrot, canteen or hotel must have at least a high-school education. Lessons include exercises intended to evaluate the students’ learning level. At the end of the course, Scuola di Cucina Bologna issues a certificate with assessments. Technical knowledge must be accompanied by the successful acquisition of manual skills and speed of execution.
Single Serve Cooking and Cooking for four
Recommended for cooks and professional chefs, even amateur participants can join this lesson, as these methods can also be applied to home-cooking for home-caterers. The course teaches how to invent and create dishes cooked in casseroles with sizes from one to four portions. Food can be served on the table directly in the casserole used for cooking it, or laid into trays.
Cooking with professional equipment
Chefs learn to be creative, but they must know how to utilize at their best the professional tools they find in their working environments. Exercises are made on cooking plants and equipment which is similar to that used in restaurants, only smaller in size. The course will also focus on how to distinguish the various tools, giving instructions on how to deal with different cooking conditions.
Skills
Every day there’s something to be cut, ground, minced or carved up, to reinforce manual skills as necessary
Using knives and chopping boards -
Exercises on how to use professional knives, from cleavers to filet slicers, how to keep them tidily stored and in good hygienical conditions.
Using the right pots and pans
Each dish requires to be cooked in a specific casserole or pan. During the practice sessions, students are given information about the different tools, their qualities, how to use them and how to clean the cooking tools after the cooking session is over. Before starting a new restaurant activity, on request, the students can have advice to decide what and how much cookware to buy, based on the kind of kitchen, the number of chefs and the intended quality level.
Some examples of presentation and implementation of topics and contexts
1. Various types of ladles, dippers and spoons. This includes all the tools used to stir, whisk, blend and mix food. They can be either made of stainless steel or wood. In this categories are: whisks, various types of ladles and big spoons, flat or holed scoops, various types of froth-makers.
2. Cookware and storage containers. These are all the objects used to cook sauces, make dough, to drain and filter, to measure and measure ingredients. They can be made of steel or plastic, or glass. To this category belong: bowls, strainers, sieves, various chopping-boards, plastic containers with lids, brushes, lemon-squeezers, potato-peelers, palette knives, can-openers and bottle-openers, scales, vegetable mills.
3. Cooking containers or vessels. These are the food containers designed to be heated. To this category belong: saucepans, frying-pans, casseroles, pots, steak-pans, egg frying-pans, fish kettle.
4. Knives are fundamental elements for the cooking equipment. The blade’s shape and size differ according to the knife’s intended use:
Vegetable and fruit knives:
These are useful in different operations, like slicing, peeling, mincing and chopping. Their length are different according to the kind of vegetables or fruits for which they are designed to be used. Blades can be straight or curved.
’Speluchino’ carving knife, can have both a curved or straight blade, and is used to peel and carve fruits and vegetables.
Small paring scalloped knife, has a serrated edge to give a zigzag cut to certain types of vegetables.
Raw meat and fish knives:
Meat or fish knives must have the correct qualities to be able to easily cut into pieces, bone, fillet, and dice meat. The specific knives belonging to this group are:
Fish filet slicer, used to cut sole turbots or other types of flat fish.
Boning knife, generally ’bouscher’, used to to cut meat and separate meat from the bones.
Meat slicer and carving knife, used to cut lean meat.
Cleaver and butchers knife
Slicing knives:
These are knives with long and flexible blades. They include:
Roast Beef Knife, used to cut ham, salami and cooked meat in general.
Salmon knife with alveolar blade, used to slice smoked or marinated salmon or trout.
Cheese knives:
They have different qualities, requiring rigid blades for hard or semi-hard cheese, while light knives are used for soft cheese.
Classic forked-tip cheese knife.
Parmesan knife.
Various knives and kitchenware:
This category includes particular tools and gear utilized for specific operations, divided into:
Steel rod, used to sharpen knives
Can-opener
Butter curler
Meat mallet
Carving fork for roast meat
Chestnut knife
Apple corer
Roller knife used to cut pasta
Round corer
Potato masher
Poultry shears
mandoline vegetable slicer
Basic cuts
First of all, we have to know that not all food we’re about to cut has the same qualities. For our cut to be efficient, it’s important to use the right knife. Therefore, we use:
*Paring knife, used to peel or carve vegetables in small cuts
*Carving knife, used to cut and chop vegetables and salami, slice meat and chicken, etc.
*Roast-beef knife, with a long and thin blade, used to slice cooked meat like roast-beef, pork-shank or various sausages.
*Serrated knife, commonly used to slice bread or crisp cakes
*“Scortichino” carving knife, with a short, quite narrow but hard blade, is used to bone or clean different pieces of meat.
In using the knife, it’s necessary to pay maximum attention (sorry for repeating myself, but I deem it as necessary). First we position next to the chopping board all the food products to cut, making sure we always have a clean and dry knife. Then, holding it firmly, and accompaning its movement, we let the blade run exerting pressure on the food itself.
The most common ways to cut:
Before being used in the kitchen, food has to be reduced in its size, for two reasons: first of all so that it can be cooked in a more homogeneous way, and second, to improve its appearances.
To proceed with the various cutting techniques, it’s necessary to know that they require good manual dexterity, precision, practice and, most importantly, extreme caution in using knives. Needless to say, it won’t be easy to teach you all this, but we trust in your effort and goodwill.
Let’s start from the first steps. First we organize our working-corner, starting from the cutting-board. By the way, buy a white cutting-board made of some washable material, not a wooden one, as the latter is un-hygienic and hard to disinfect. The cutting-board has to be placed on a wet cloth; this will insure it to be totally sturdy, minimizing the chances of it moving while we work. Starting from slicing (a very common way of cutting) we could have many different types of cuts of different food. If we slice, for example, a potato, with a ½ cm cut, we will have potato slices.
Presentation care
In a restaurant, the way dishes are presented plays a vital role, as visual memory is much more effective than taste and smell. All cooking exercise end up in a plating phase, so that every student can have plenty of chances to put the theoretical aspects into practice. Creative dish presentation, in fact, is based more on psychological than technical rules. Unpleasant flavours must be avoided and instead, mouth-watering experience must be fostered. Mouth-watering is very important in order to ensure a better digestion. To all this must be added a correct handling of all organizational aspects of the output zone and a rational management of this process, which is underestimated by many.
Food shopping
Before you start buying food, write down a list of everything you need, always checking what you already have in the fridge or in the pantry. By the way, remember to always carefully check leftovers, both expiry dates and product appearances. If you’ve got tinned food, check the can’s integrity, and avoid using squashed, rusty or bloated cans. If you have open containers inside your fridge, and you’re not sure about when they’ve been opened, do not hesitate to throw them away at once. Always check carefully both pasta and rice supplies, especially if you forgot to seal the container with a peg. Otherwise, you could find uninvited guests inside the soup or pasta you just prepared!
But let’s get back to our shopping list! It might seem stupid, but writing down a shopping list could surely be useful to those who tend to get carried away make unnecessary purchases, harming both your finances and your diet resolutions. As it often happens, families don’t eat lunch at home, and if this is also your case, avoid having a full fridge, but buy instead only what you need at the moment. It’s anyway good to always have at home some food that can be defined as un-perishable, like:
Vinegar – Oil – Pasta – Rice – Flour – Salt – Sugar.
Something else that’s important to consider before you go food shopping, is knowing the amounts/portions/weight we have to buy. In other words, how much pasta, meat or fish do I have to buy for each meal.
On a food-package label, you can find very important information. It’s not always easy to understand it, but an attentive analysis of what’s written on the label can make your food-shopping more aware, more rational and more importantly, safer.
First of all it has to be very clear that inside the package, information that you can get from the commercial description which should not be lacking in detail. For example, it could happen that you buy a food package on which there is an image of a custard tart but when you get home you find it contains many ingredients except the custard that you required. Moreover, it’s very likely that you are buying a mixture for the tart which contains millions of preservatives and colouring. That is why it is obligatory that all the ingredients have to be shown on the label in a clearly visible way, except from food made up of one single element. In this case the trade name is enough. All ingredients have to be listed in a descending order based on the amount. This rule allows us to understand what’s the quality of a product, evaluating also its cost-effectiveness compare to a different product with a similar price. Doing so, looking at the order in which the most valuable ingredients appear, as for example eggs and butter in snacks, or checking if a product is in extra-vergin or oilseed, or if a mayonnaise has been prepared with fresh eggs or dried or frozen eggs, you can have an idea of which one is better. On the label you find also the weight, the place where the product has been produced and the name of the company which produced it, and, when necessary, also the suggested modality of preservation and preparation.
Expiry date. To make a safe purchase, you always have to focus on the expiry date and durability. The first one, indicated by the phrase: “Use before...”, must be strictly respected; while the latter, “Best before...” simply states an advice and doesn’t imply that the product will go off after that date. Clearly, all these instructions are to be considered valid only if the product has been stored in an un-opened package and following the preservation conditions written on the label.
On the label, you can also find: 1. The Nutritional chart, where energy values, the amount of calories in 100 grams of product, and the amounts of the main nutrients are specified; 2. The organic indication, if it’s a product coming from organic farming methods, you can read “made thorugh organic farming. EEC control”.
After food-shopping, put frozen food into the freezer as soon as possible (it would be even better buying cool-bags, made for carrying frozen food), and by the way, remember to always buy frozen food last, before you leave the supermarket. When you store food in the fridge or freezer, make sure you put what you just bought behind what was already there. This way, you’ll use the “old” food first, to avoid them going off without you realizing it. Put first the food which needs to go in the fridge and then what is stored in the cupboard. Store them in an orderly fashion: pasta with pasta, tinned food with tinned food, etc.
Aperitifs and starters
Aperitifs and starters are getting more and more important everyday. During this course, you learn the basic techniques, how to reuse parts of other food-preparing, how to present them. Since finger-food and aperitifs are also a social-life fashion, you’ll learn how to optimize the time it takes to serve each course, to ensure that the customers don’t wait too long. Being a cook, in fact, also means being able to manage the correct timing in sending out dishes, and reducing the resulting stress.
Fresh Pasta and Bread
Even though a cook doesn’t have necessarily to be specialized in making fresh pasta, it’s still important to know basic steps and to be able to make at least the basic preparations. Therefore, a lesson will be focused on making doughs, rolling it out and cooking it, giving information on differences between fresh and dried pasta, home-made or industrial. Similarly, one lesson will be focused on bread-baking, making sure that cook aspirants acquire the necessary knowledge to bake bread and baguettes, being able to diversify their offer to customers and customize this important part of food serving. During one month, these exercises will be repeated many times, giving everyone the chance to acquire the required manual skills.
Cooking meat
Many lessons and many exercises will be focused on preparing and cooking meat, with cooking times and temperature charts for roast meat, information on cuts, preservation, tying, and resting. Apart from roasting, other cooking techniques will be explored, like flambé, braised meat and boiled meat. For those who have to manage purchases, we also cover meat cuts, hanging, preservation and pre-cooking techniques. On request, students can visit a meat processing center.
Frying
The smoke point of the fat you’re using to fry isn’t reliable enough, because the chart isn’t reliable. The smoke point of fat depends on the product (lard, oil, butter, other kinds of fat) and also on the variety of the product, on the seed or fruit the fat is taken from (croatine, belice, taggiasca, etc.); and also the production year has an impact (acidity percentage, poliphlenol, water, ecc.), even the way it’s preserved and exposure to light play a role. The chart only gives some directions, nothing more. Only specific products can be tested, that will have different values when purchased again.
Fish and seafood. Given the sea-products’ importance in Italian and International cuisine, part of the lessons will be focused on preserving, preparing, cooking and serving fish and seafood. There will be exercises on various cooking techniques such as cooking in foil wrapper, in the oven, in a frying-pan or sauté, so that the students can learn a good range of methods and recipes to present, and to use for their own subsequent experiments and personal creation on.
Given that these kinds of food are highly perishable, we will also cover bacterial contamination direct and cross, hygienic rules and cold chain will be covered. Many exercises will focus on fish filletting (basic aspect of any chef’s training) and fish-smoking.
Desserts
Even if a cook hasn’t specialized in confectionery and pastry making, anyone who deserves the title of a cook must be able to prepare at least some desserts. During the course, various dessert will be prepared, like Crème Caramel, Creme Catalane, and chocolate mousse. To enable the students to create original decorations, some tests will be focused on caramel and on preparing delicate structures with melted sugar. Also in this case, great importance will be given to plating and food presentation, discussing how to organize, to optimize preparation and serving time, and preservation.
Pasta
Dried pasta is made of durum wheat flour (semolina) kneaded with water. Durum wheat flour is rich in proteins compared to soft wheat flour, and for this reason it stays firmer after cooking. For preparing the dough, you add to semolina approximately 30% of water. To make dried egg pasta you add at least 400 grams of hen eggs, while to make special kinds of pasta you can add dry spinach, dried tomatoes or squid ink.
Another important element is wire-drawing. We often hear about “bronze wire-drawing” pasta. Wire-drawing is made through the die, a utensile that shapes the pasta. Basically, the dough is extruded through the die and, thanks to its moulded holes, pasta exits with the desired shape. Traditional wire-drawing was made mainly with a bronze die, but in the latest decades these have been replaced by steel or teflon-coated ones. Results are different though, as wire-drawed pasta made with bronze has a more wrinkled surface, that holds sauces and condiment better.
After wire-drawing there is the drying phase, that has to take place gradually and in many steps. Italian regulations calculates a dried pasta humidity of maximum 12,5%, therefore the drying process has to take place in tunnels where hot air circulates. Pasta drying can take place at different temperatures, depending on the pasta shape, from 40° to 80°.
Fresh pasta is usually prepared kneading soft wheat flour "0" or "00" types with or without eggs. It’s optional to add other ingredients or many other types of flour. The Queen of fresh pasta is Egg Pasta, used to make tagliatelle, tagliolini, maltagliati or filled-pasta like lasagne, cannelloni, tortellini and ravioli. The ideal proportions for egg pasta are: 100 g of flour for every egg, but the amounts can change according to traditional taste. Some use even 3 egg yolks. For 4 people, 300 g of flour and 3 eggs are enough, if you serve standard portions without any broth. If you serve it with broth, 1/3 of the normal amount is certainly enough. If you want to add spinach-mash or red turnips, you have to increase the amount of flour, as the water contained in squeezed and chopped vegetables will make the dough much more tender.
You can use a handy pasta-machine: there are both manual and electrical ones, or you can use the rolling pin and then cut pasta with a pasta-slicer. Filled-pasta just means you wrap meat or vegetables to make tortellini or tortelloni, ravioli or agnolotti. Traditionally, these are made of fresh pasta, but nowadays there are also dried and vaccum-packed products. The filling can be made of fresh vegetables, meat, fish, egg or dried food.
TORTELLINI is the most well-known type of filled-pasta. The popular legend says that the toretellino-shape comes from Venus’ belly-button. Most of the tortellini produced are industrial and sold in vacuum-packed or frozen packages. The most common way of preparing tortellini are with cream or ragù, but the true tortellini are served in broth, made with beef, capon or hen meat.
AGNOLOTTI (or agnelotti). It’s a traditional food from Piemonte, filled with meat. They originally were invented in order to used the meat leftovers, and there are many variations.
RAVIOLI are half-moonshaped kind of filled-pasta, that you can find with many different fillings, but originally the filling was made of ricotta cheese and turnip leaves. Their name comes from turnips, whose ancient Italian name was "rabiola" . Ravioli appear in a document from the city of Cremona from 1243, then they spread in many Italian regions.
RISOTTO.
1. Toasting. Whether you prepared a vegetable gravy (usually the classic onion gravy) to give the rice a particular taste, or you didn’t, first you have to toast the rice in a saucepan together with some fat. This insures that rice will close up its pores and it will stay firmer after cooking, so that it can be “al dente”. If you omit this step, the final texture of the rice will be similar to that of normal boiled rice.
2. Pour in some wine, usually white wine for the risotti that will have to have a light colour when served, otherwise red wine for risotto al radicchio (chicory). Wine has to always evaporate. Only when you stop smelling wine, you can proceed in the preparation.
3. Pour in some broth. The broth has to be steaming, not to decrease the cooking temperature. The secret is actually this: during the whole cooking time, the rice has to be lightly boiling, this way the rice-grain will never melt, but will remain solid.
4. Final Creaming with butter (“Mantecatura”). This is where all tastes melt together enhancing each particular quality. First you have to taste your risotto, to understand how far cooking has progressed and if its taste is ok. If rice is cooked enough, you have to put out the flame and move the pan away from the fire, adding butter and parmesan. Only this way you can have a perfect creaming. Remember to do this while the rice is still a fairly brothy, otherwise it will get too dry. Blend together butter and parmesan stirring quickly, then let it rest for a minute before serving it.
Many chef believe that preparing risotto with the onion gravy is an insult for their cooking art, claiming that browned onion would take away from the taste of the main ingredient, covering its taste. So they start from toasting, adding the ingredients little by little, and they finish off with creaming. Their philosophy is that if we start up from a good broth (where onion is present together with other vegetables) we don’t need to add onion in the “soffritto”. Some other chefs keep preparing their risotto with the initial “soffritto”, instead. For most of the risotto types, onion gravy insn’t necessary if you have a good broth. A good onion gravy is required only for those rice-dishes that follow traditional historical recipes, linked more to tradition than to the final taste. The amounts to be used for preparing risotto is usually 80g per person. Keep in mind that rice increases its volume threefold, while pasta only doubles it. Cooking times for rice depend on the various types, for example if you use brown rice, it won’t be ready before 30 minutes, while for a normal risotto, 16-18 minutes will be enough for a good “al dente” rice. During the course, many tests will focus on creaming, on butter acidification, and on the parameters allowing you to control risotto’s texture and acidity, so that the new cook can understand where their intervention space might lie for creating a new dish.
Meat
Sirloin: This is one of the leanest and finest cuts, but because it has no nerves, it has a tendency to become stringy especially when cooked for a long time. If it’s cut together with tenderloin, you have the classic “fiorentina” steak. If Sirloin Steak has been boned, it can be cooked in any way you choose, even though the most common and classic is always char-grilled or cooked on the griddle, giving the Tuscanian “bistecca”. If cooked without tenderloin and boneless, we have the classic roast-beef.
Tenderloin (Fillet:) This is the noblest and finest part of the animal, located under the loin. This is a particularly tender and juicy cut: the frontal part of the fillet is especially suitable for steaks, “tournedos” as they say in French, while the central part is used for preparing medallions, named “chateaubriand” in French, and the back part is used for stewballs, called “filet-mignon”.
Beef rump: It’s an important piece, formed by big muscles. It is located next to the hip, it’s a very fine part, suitable for making stewed-beefs cooked in wine, stews, roasts and “Pizzaiola style” steaks ( with tomato, mozzarella, etc..).
Silverside: This is a cilinder-shaped cut, part of the thighs muscle: it’s a very lean part of the animal, suitable for making roasts and carpaccios.
External Rump: It’s a very fine cut, particularly suitable for making roasts, roast-beef, cutlets and steaks.
“Noce” (Inner part of the hindquarters) — It’s a first-class cut, very fine, egg-shaped, located in the first part of the hip; it’s good for various types of casserole cooking (braised meat, stewed beef, “Cacciatora”) and also for delicious steaks and cutlets.
Internal Rump: It’s formed by the big muscles in the upper part of the thigh, fairly lean and semi-flat in its shape. With this cut we can make different dishes, from the classic steaks and cutlets, to breaded cutlets. If we have the whole rump, we can make stew with the external part and good steaks with the central part.
Fish muscle (or “Campanello”): It’s a small cut, formed by the muscles close to the leg. It can be used to make small steaks with the external parts, to be braised, but it’s usually used for stews or cooked in a casserole. It’s also a very good cut to be boiled.
Back Shank: Also called “muscle”, it’s the upper part of the leg, made of a group pf muscles. This cut is suitable for making ossobuco, stews and boiled meat.
Flank with skirt: It’s a very fat cut, covered by cartilage. It’s usually cooked on the griddle or in the oven, we can get very good ribs. Once boned, it can be used to make meatballs, hamburgers or ragù.
Shoulder Rump: Once all the fat part has been take away, this is a good cut to make steaks, escalopes, “pizzaiola” and, if not previously tenderized, cutlets as well.
“Copertina”: this frontal part is particularly suitable for making boiled meat and pot roast. Also gulasch and stew are good.
Shoulder silverside: It’s a geometrical shaped cut, with a flat trunk. It can be used to make steaks, roasts or boiled meat and stews.
Royal cut: It’s made of intercostal and latissimo dorsi muscles. It’s used for stews, boiled meat and ragù.
Chuck/Under-blade (or “ Shoulder Pernice”): This cut is recommended for long cooking, therefore very suitable for making boiled meat, braised meat and also gulasch and stews.
Frontal shank (or frontal muscle): As the back one, is made of a bundle of 13 muscle fibers, commonly called “ossobuco”.
Brisket: Here we have to distinguish between
a) Point cut – This is an ideal cut for making boiled meat, but can be also used for roasts and to make a good broth.
b) Flat half – This cut is made of the muscles crossed by plenty of veins of fat: it’s particularly recommended for boiled meat.
Neck: .This cut is rarely used. It’s formed by a big muscle mass divided into two parts: the upper part which is leaner and the lower part, with a little more veins of fat. It’s used to make boiled meat, stews, meatballs and ragù.
How to arrange an etiquette lunch: rules to follow and manners to keep when at the table.
Knives: information on their quality, materials, shapes and criteria for choosing which ones to use, with exercises on the main ways you can use them (cutting, chopping, slicing) and how to sharpen them.
Cookware: Theory on materials, heat conductivity, shapes, manteinance and use of casseroles, frying-pans and other professional pots and pans.
Hand-made pasta: types of flour, how to knead, cooking techniques, preservation and condiment.
Risotti: qualities of rice-grains, cooking techniques for risotto (either “mantecato” or not), Pilaf, how to prepare acidified butter, and creaming, deglazing. Each risotto base will be prepared during the course. No pre-cooked product will be used.
Broths, gravies and sauces. Meat broth, fumet (consomme), brown sauce, mayonnaise, Dutch sauce and other sauces. Deglazing. Each base will be prepared will be prepared during the course. No pre-cooked product will be used.
Frying: Fats to be used and smoke-points. tests on deep-frying, crumble-frying, batters, temperatures and roastings.
Finger-food, aperitifs and starters: Choux pasta and savoury puffs, croutons, Maki, hummus, fillings and examples on how to use raw materials.
Roasts: how to use the oven and the temperature-chart. Adjusting and tying meat, checking the cooking through thermometers.
Fish and seafood: rules for hygiene and preservation, preparation, filletting and boning, main oven-cooking methods: in a casserole, baked in foil.
Meat, fish and vegetables smoking: basic principles and exercises with different dishes (smoked pork fillet, smoked trout or salmon, etc.).
Spherification: theory and practice on how to use caviar (liquid spheres) in molecular cooking.
Dessert : tiramisù, whipped cream, chocolate mousse, Crème Caramel.
