MKCulinary ▲▽ Week Two
Hello everyone, hope your week is going well! I'm currently in my third week of the level 1 course at Matthew Kenney Culinary. But first, let's have a recap on what happened in week 2! Incase you've missed out, here's my blogpost on week 1 !
For the past two weeks, we would spend an hour at the beginning of the day on knife skills🔪! Batons, juliennes, fine juliennes ... you name it. The best part is, we get to enjoy a fresh cuppa juice (or two!) daily🍹. Sometimes, Chef Kaitlin (one of our two lovely instructors) would make flatbreads out of the dry matter from juicing. Otherwise, all compost are collected in bins to be used as fertilisers - no waste!
Knife skills errday! From top left clockwise - Orange supreme; carrots: baton, small dice, julienne, brunoise, fine julienne, fine brunoise; julienne red bell peppers; julienne celery and spinach chiffonade
So here are the main dishes we made this week!
Sesame Noodles // almond chili sauce / zucchini noodles / tamari almonds - lime supreme on the side. We made activated almond butter for the sauce - it was delish!
Marinating these apples for the next dish. Look at those colors! This pink-fleshed apple is found here in LA, known as Rosetta apple.
Apple Carpaccio // vanilla Ice-cream - My first quenelle... not quite there yet but do you see Dino's head 😛?
¡Tostadas! // cabbage slaw / pico de gallo / avocado / cacao mole
Look at those layers! Cacao mole (on plate) - so good on its own!, guac, slaw, pico de gallo (tomatoes, cilantro, onions), picked jalapeños and jicama, topped with "sour cream"
Deconstructed version of the tostadas! Great for sharing🙏. Which one do you like better?
Kimchi Dumpling // cilantro / ginger foam / purple cabbage
These beautiful dumplings were made from coconut meat and cilantro (for the flavour) & spinach (for the color!) juice
Me going coconuts! Ooh and what's in addition to free juice? Free coconut water! YUM!
Flatbread // hummus / muhammara / pickled fennel & capers / mint oil - like a little garden! I enjoyed the flatbreads so much!
Butter lettuce salad // radish, avocado, honey mustard vinaigrette - BEST DRESSING EVER!! How lovely would it be to have salads looking this beautiful and taste amazing served back home? Look at those colors!
Raw banana bread topped with pecans - ready to be frozen for the mixture to set and to be dehydrated thereafter for bread to be warm 🍌🍞
On Friday... we had our midterms 📝: Knife skills test, practical and week 1 & 2 written test. We take things seriously here at Matthew Kenney's!
In the knife skills practical exam, we did 5 different cuts with 5 veggies (without a ruler). Chef Casey then examined each and every cut with a ruler, only allocating points when dimensions were exact. I love how serious things are taken here - love being a nerd. Oh btw, It has been 2 weeks since I've been vegan! (Except for that OMG IT'S NOT VEGAN moment when I took an accidental bite of brie on my friend's baguette!)
I feel so blessed to be experiencing such a different lifestyle here - vegan, yoga & sunshine everyday on the other side of the world, and to able to share this experience with a group of fun-loving and diverse classmates is the cherry on top! We're from all over the world - England, Scotland, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, America & Hong Kong (me!). Imagine all the cuisines we will be tasting in our final presentations (Week 4) when we create our own three course meals!
That's it for this week! Stay tuned for my journey with MKCulinary on Instagram or Facebook!
Thanks for reading!
tee xo.