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Tonight, I am extremely proud of myself. Most of the time, I don't brag about my food and I rarely call myself a great cook, but today I really did pull off something awesome and I am so excited how things turned out.
Hilary, Kathleen and I planned a meal in celebration of my Sous Chef job this summer. They wanted me to make something fancy, so, I decided to do the duck breast recipe I love so much from the resort. To make the week-long preparation story short, the duck had to be ordered fresh online and overnighted, then cured for 2 days with a secret combo of spices and herbs. We found that no one in Utah sells demi-glace, which was a crucial element in this recipe. Now, you can make demi-glace, but the real way takes 24+ hours and many ingredients which also would probably have to be made because they aren't found in Utah. Time was extremely tight and I pretty much had zero time left, so I did my research and took 3 different recipes and techniques for a quick imitation demi-glace and combined the recipes with my knowledge to create a mock demi-glace. I'll come back to that later. Pretty much everything about making this duck meal at home is different than making it in a fully stocked professional kitchen, so I had to make everything up based on my memory of the dish from 2 years ago. Ultimately, the duck came out fantastic, the wild rice perfect, the asparagus divine. The balsamic demi-glace was the crown. You cannot have this meal without the demi-glace and it was so delicious. I was legitimately concerned that not having good demi-glace would destroy all the preparation put into this meal. But, I could not believe that the recipe I made up turned out so good. I was completely blown away. The meal was great, the company even more great, and my confidence is just through the roof right now.
I truly love food. Not just like I love food because it tastes good, but I have this profound appreciation for everything about it. The flavors, the textures, the colors, the nutrients, the joy of cooking it, the joy of eating it, the really cool knowledge of where it came from...all these things and more I just love. When I get to talking about food people always comment on how excited I get and how passionate about it I am. I still don't consider myself to be some great cook, but I think I'm getting there and I can't wait for the rest of the journey.
Hilary, Kathleen and I planned a meal in celebration of my Sous Chef job this summer. They wanted me to make something fancy, so, I decided to do the duck breast recipe I love so much from the resort. To make the week-long preparation story short, the duck had to be ordered fresh online and overnighted, then cured for 2 days with a secret combo of spices and herbs. We found that no one in Utah sells demi-glace, which was a crucial element in this recipe. Now, you can make demi-glace, but the real way takes 24+ hours and many ingredients which also would probably have to be made because they aren't found in Utah. Time was extremely tight and I pretty much had zero time left, so I did my research and took 3 different recipes and techniques for a quick imitation demi-glace and combined the recipes with my knowledge to create a mock demi-glace. I'll come back to that later. Pretty much everything about making this duck meal at home is different than making it in a fully stocked professional kitchen, so I had to make everything up based on my memory of the dish from 2 years ago. Ultimately, the duck came out fantastic, the wild rice perfect, the asparagus divine. The balsamic demi-glace was the crown. You cannot have this meal without the demi-glace and it was so delicious. I was legitimately concerned that not having good demi-glace would destroy all the preparation put into this meal. But, I could not believe that the recipe I made up turned out so good. I was completely blown away. The meal was great, the company even more great, and my confidence is just through the roof right now.
I truly love food. Not just like I love food because it tastes good, but I have this profound appreciation for everything about it. The flavors, the textures, the colors, the nutrients, the joy of cooking it, the joy of eating it, the really cool knowledge of where it came from...all these things and more I just love. When I get to talking about food people always comment on how excited I get and how passionate about it I am. I still don't consider myself to be some great cook, but I think I'm getting there and I can't wait for the rest of the journey.
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