A Monday of Meats

There is nothing quite like waking up to a morning of marinated meat… maybe it’s an acquired taste.

In any event, we began the exceptionally cold winter week with a bang: Beef Bourguignon. After 24hrs marinating in red wine our trimmed beef shoulder was tantalizingly tender. After a quick sizzling sear, we sank the meat into a sea of veal stock and set it to stew in the oven for a good hour.



A quick sauté of bacon and mushrooms later, the braised beef is basted in it’s own sauce and adorned with steamed potatoes and parsley-sourdough crisps.


Just a light lunch.

Round Two: A Roasted Roast Beef

Positively Primal.
The primary cut of roast beef could send any of us into a meat comma. This preparation of simply seasoned and seared beef is like crack for carnivores. My result is a little overcooked by French standards, but as for my own: Brilliantly Bien!



My dish after our brilliant 3-star Michelin French chef got a hold of it:



Isn’t it amazing how presentation can take something from passable to truly palatable.

And then there’s the way my husband chooses to plate his meal:



Weather it’s rustic or refined, you gotta love a man’s approach to meat.


Darcy Jones

New Kids on the cHoPpiNg Block

Exhibit A:



And by 9:30 this morning, I held the distinction of first knife cut of our class.

What a way to begin raw vegetables cuts-christ, a finger doesn't look that much like a carrot! But apparently it does, as mine was just the first in a series of other dings to follow amongst my Basic Cuisine classmates. The injury was in fact sustained while finely chopping the onion-an essential basic to all classic French cuisine. No tears, just a fair amount of blood, and now I'm left toting around this grunge-fashion item (that looks like more like a finger condom if you asked me). Guess there goes my career as a hand model.

So I decided the best course of action was to drown my sorrows while studying, ahem, the art of prep work. Course of action = collapsing at the bar at Scott's. At this art deco W1 watering-hole, the raw starter station is situated in the center of the dinning room. It is one of the best seats in London for people and (more importantly) prep watching.



Watching winter delights like oysters, beetroot, and endive prepped and plated with such perfection was just what the doctor ordered. Isn't it remarkable how much perspective one gains after a couple of pinots...

But if there is anything to take away from today, it's the importance of building a solid foundation. Without learning the correct skills and techniques there is only so far you can go as a chef, and in any profession for that matter. It is exactly what Heston Blumenthal (executive chef of the 3 star Michelin rated Fat Duck) talks about in his rather thesis driven cookbook: a chef cannot deconstruct what he has not constructed. Blumenthal is to modern cuisine as Picasso is to modern art: an innovator whose success derives from explosive creativity applied to fundamental expertise.

So it seems that draftsmanship is the lesson of the day, and the goal of tomorrow. Here's to becoming the best the chopper on the block.

Here was my first attempt:




Darcy Jones