Hello, Bryan!

Today was BIET day. Only one more day in that class, Thursday, a final, a paper, and a presentation to go, and I will be done! I swear that I am only actually in BIET class for four hours but it seems like four days. Granted, I like Ms. Migoya and I find what we talk about and learn to be interesting, but time goes by much more quickly in Design, when I am doing my own thing for six hours and forty-five minutes. I guess when I am actually in the bake shops, working with my hands, using these ingredients and equipment, I will not be complaining so much.

We started the day talking about eggs. And, as always, I try to impart some wisdom that I learned to you, hoping that maybe y'all will learn something new as well. (Sorry, Brittany, it is more baking lameness and no food talk, but I promise that will come soon enough.) Grading eggs is voluntary and is a representation of quality and appearance, NOT freshness. Now granted, if you select grade AA eggs that have a use-by date of thirty-two days from purchase, the eggs are probably going to be rather fresh. Over time, the porous shell releases carbon dioxide, the white inside thins out, the pH increases (becomes more basic), and the egg is less stable. Grade B is never sold in supermarkets but these eggs are used to make other ingredients or in egg products.

Next, we switched topics to milk and other dairy products. Once again, we separated into our teams to illustrate whipping and dairy products. Half and half, my team's milk product, does not whip, no matter how long you try and introduce air into it. Half cream and half whole milk (not half and half but actually mixing those two) creates a half-whipped product. The cream whips but the milk does not. There were four other different things we "whipped," but basically, in the end, we learned that products that have been ultra-pasteurized and homogenized will not whip. If cream has been ultra-pasteurized, additions must be made for the product to whip at all. Homogenization creates a stable emulsion between fat and liquid, thus preventing whipping.

Sweeteners and sugars were the next objectives. Did you know that light and dark brown sugar are actually the same thing? Manufacturers simply add a caramel coloring to the dark brown sugar for just that, added color. We tasted different sugars from granulated to baker's sugar to light and dark, etc. We also sampled different molasses, removed from points in the sugar refining process. Ms. Migoya gave us a sugar cane stick, if you will, to bite to taste the juice. I think I have done this before, at some point in my life, on a sugar cane farm, or did I dream this?!

Cacao and chocolate were maybe my favorite topics today. Our chocolate tasting consisted of everything from the cocoa bean, to cocoa butter, to cocoa nibs, to cocoa powder, to milk, white, and unsweetened chocolate. Some were gross. Some were amazing. Of course, we talked about the process of making chocolate from cacao pod to roasting to fermentation to tempering. Food Engineering I came back to me when we were talking about the two types of crystals in chocolate, alpha and beta, the "good" crystals; we made fudge at different temperatures to taste these crystals and understand them better.

We ended our very long day with fats. It was not so glamorous going from chocolate (which is considered "sexy," you know?) to fats. Shortening. Butter. Margarine. Oil. Blah. Blah. Blah. When talking about fats, of course, hydrogenation is discussed, as well, the process of adding hydrogen gas to form saturated fats. Each team performed an experiment to see how much water could be added to our creaming of sugar and our fat of interest. Water did not mix with Team Four's fat, margarine. Water did mix with one shortening, which had the addition of emulsifiers, and these emulsifiers formed an emulsion with the fat and added water.

In the downstairs Cuisines of the Americas kitchen, it was Mexico day at dinner time. I was pretty excited about this because I have not experienced Mexico day yet here at the Culinary. I ordered the Turkey Enchiladas, with soup and salad, and I was the last order for this dish. Phew. Sam (NJ) and I both thought they were delicious, but I think I would have enjoyed the stuffed pepper I keep hearing about from Mexico day, which was not on the menu tonight for some reason.

I worked on my homework for a bit in the student computer lab in the library, which is the room near the Danny Kaye Theater. I wanted to be close enough to the Theater to be able to hear what was happening in there, to ensure I was able to get a seat for tonight's presentation. Tonight, Bryan Voltaggio from Top Chef Season 6, who placed second to his brother, came and demonstrated a dish in the DKT. Bryan is a graduate of the Culinary ('99) and is now the owner of Volt in Frederick, Maryland. He prepared a caprese salad with his own spin, with savory dippin' dots, basil agar agar (gelatin-like), small tomatoes, etc. He used a lot of techniques that I, once again, learned in Food Science, using a dehydrator, liquid nitrogen, etc. He made enough for everyone in the Theater to sample. So, I can now say I have tasted a dish prepared by a Top Chef competitor. He was extremely gracious, and he mentioned several times that it was a great honor to cook for students at the CIA. He said that he always hoped to be considered "good enough" to show a demonstration, for which he saw many during his time here, back at the CIA, and he could now say he had made it. He was one of my favorites on the show, and now I like him even more. This industry is not the easiest, but he seems to have the heart and passion for food, the ultimate reason for working so hard in the hospitality business.

Design tomorrow. One more project, our final exam project. I can do this, right?

DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT

Hay Reh

*I hope you had a great first day of your SENIOR year, Karen Swann. When did Baby Karen grow up? Stop it. :)