First Gourmet Academy 5th Cooking Session

This cooking session is probably my favorite. Why? Because I love to bake and I want to be a pastry chef.

There's a science to baking that I really enjoyed. I guess it is because you need to be precise when baking. I love how you can bake and you can create something out of flour. This is why this cooking session is my favorite.

We had so much fun baking and even though it was tiring, the end result was fantastic! i love the bread, cake and cookies we made!!!

That's me trying to be a pastry chef/baker. Hahahahhahahahhahaha.

Basic Lean Dough for Bread. We enjoyed eating this while we dip it to balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Pound Cake. I love eating this with coffee for breakfast!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Simple yet so good. I think the whole family ate all of the cookies I took home..

Well that's all! I think the pictures explain it all. It was a great lesson in cooking class that I know I'll treasure forever.

Keep on eating and blogging!!!

First Gourmet Academy 4th Cooking Session

On the 4th day of my cooking session, me and my cooking classmates are now all noisy and having fun. I guess we can relate more with each other because we love food.

We are studying about a cooking method called combination heat cooking technique. Braising and stewing are the most common cooking method people use and it is something I want to be good at this so this lesson was really helpful. We also learned about about more techniques to improve your cooking.

Here are some food we cooked that day.

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Goat Cheese Mousse  

I love this dish! Roasted vegetable is another relevation for me because it adds more flavor that I like. I'm not a big fan of vegetables salad but when you roast it, it tastes great!

French Beef Stew in Red Wine with Mushrooms and Pearl Onions. This is our main dish. I'm not a big fan of the sauce of this dish (I guess I'm not used to food cooked in red wine) but the beef was so tender! You can also taste the sweetness of the onions and the mash potato is perfect with this.

Crepe with Pastry Creme and Pineapple. I love this dessert! It's harder to cook than I thought it would be. The crepe needs to be really thin. And the creme and pineapple really goes well together.

Once again this cooking class made my heart and tummy full. I love cooking and it is great I am learning it the right way!



Keep on eating and blogging!!!

First Gourmet Academy 3rd Cooking Session

This is the our 3rd cooking session and by this time me and my cooking classmates are getting better now. I think we are faster and more efficient in the kitchen.

At this session we learned about dry heat cooking method like frying, roasting, sauteing, broiling, grilling and deep frying. I learned a lot from this cooking session like the proper way to saute mushrooms and how to deep fry properly. This is one advantage with cooking class, you'll learn the right way to cook and you'll realize that you are actually making some mistakes. You get corrected and you become a better cook. Anyway, here are some more pics.

   

This is my group of the day. Yeah we're the wacky ones...

Corn Chowder. Not a big fan of this though. I like the clam chowder better...

Breaded Pork Loin with Salami and Mozzarella served with Mushrooms. One of my favorite dish! I love the pork loin and potatoes on this one and it was really cool that part of our cooking class, chef Mats also teaches us how to plate our food. I feel like I'm in a restaurant eating this.

Strawberries in Red Wine and Frozen Yogurt. Okay whoever thought of placing strawberries with red wine is a genius. I love this dessert! This is especially great for people who doesn't like sweets. The yogurt and the strawberry really goes well together.

Panoramic view of the room and as you can see we are all more comfortable with each other.


I hope you guys like my post.

Keen on eating and blogging!!!

First Gourmet Academy 2nd Cooking Session

In this picture Chef Mats is showing us how to prepare the ingredients the right way. This is what I really love during the cooking class I took on First Gourmet Academy. Chef Mats is really a hands on chef. This is the second cooking session we had.

That session we learned about different cooking methods especially moist heat cooking method that we used to cooked our dishes that night. 

My classmates listening intently at Chef Mats.

Poached Salmon with Vegetable Julienne and Star Anise Sauce. I must say that dish really surprised me because the fish and the sauce really goes well together. I even tried to recreate this at home. And I now know a new way to cooked my vegetables and still make it yummy.

Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Capers. This is probably one of my favorite in the class. I actually made my own recipe for tomato sauce based on this dish. I'll post about it next time. I love how the olives and capers goes well together with the tomato sauce. I love pasta!

 Creme Brulee. One of my favorite dessert. Sinfully delicious!

Waiting our turn for the creme brulee!

Well I hope you guys like this post.

Keep eating and blogging!!!

First Gourmet Academy 1st Cooking Session

I have attended an 8 session on Fundamental of Culinary Arts. And this is probably one of the best culinary experience I have ever done.

Why?

By taking this class, I finally confirmed to myself that I want to have a career in the culinary world. This is where I belong and I feel really happy with this experience. 

So when my friend Marie told me there was a voucher where I can have a big discount for this class, I took it right away even if it was my only savings during that time. I never regret it though because the lessons and the experience I got from these classes are priceless.

When I arrived at Capitol Green Street where the school was located, I was nervous and excited at the same time. I don't know what to expect from this class. I felt it was like the first day of school (except you get to eat a lot.)

Our chef is Chef Mats Loo. He was really nice and easy going. He explained the lessons well and he was really hands on when we were on the kitchen. (He's really funny too and yeah this guy can eat a LOT, hehehehehehe). And yeah, he's a world class chef, I only found out about that later when I got home and I googled him. 

On the first session he explained about food safety, basic knife skills, different knife cuts and different kinds of stocks. This was really useful for me especially with the knife skills. Now I know how chef cut their ingredients so effectively! 

These are the following dishes we cooked that night.

Fish and Shellfish Soup with Saffron and Tomatoes. This was really good but it made me full right away. Perfect food for a rainy day and yeah being Filipino I wished we had rice that night! LOL

Caramelized Walnuts and Blue Cheese Salad. I'm not a salad person but this really surprised me! It was yummy! The blue cheese and dressing really went well together. 

Chocolate Mousse. I love this so much that I asked my seatmate if I can eat hers. She said yes. Yay for me! 

That's me and my group. We were really serious!

My first time on this class was really great. The food was great although we were quiet when eating. I guess it was because we don't know each other yet. But of course that would change after a few sessions.

Yeah, of us are eating quietly and of course this would change after a few session.

This is the panoramic view of the kitchen. It was really clean and organized. I love it! 

It was a great first day class and when I went home I talked nonstop about it. Well I'll blog more in the next few days...

Keep on eating and blogging!!!

By the way, This is the website of First Gourmet Academy. Check it out! http://firstgourmetacademy.com/home.html 

Hummus

When my friend Marie brought me in a Middle Eastern restaurant once (I forgot the name of the resto) and she insisted that I tried their "hummus". I was like, what is that? Vegetables? She said it was made from either chick peas or eggplant. I was really curious and I was glad I tasted it because I love the taste! Perhaps it was the texture or the nutty flavor, I really love it.

That's why when my friend who came from UAE (she worked there for a couple of years) told me she knows  how to make hummus from scratch, I immediately asked her to teach me how. I wasn't satisfied with the result but it tasted okay. I guess the restaurant have a different recipe, but here it goes.

All you need is to blend chick pea with lemon juice, olive oil, sesame oil, water (you can use the water from the chick pea. Season with sale and pepper. You can garnish with paprika and parsley. Easy right? And this is  the end result...

I didn't have pita bread when we made this and use flour tortillas instead. You can just heat it up for a few seconds and you are ready to eat! You guys should try this very simple dish and I'm sure you'll love it.

Keep on eating and blogging!!!

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