HawkenProjects_2019_Shum

When I got to Chef's house this morning, we were already starting off the day in focus mode. Instead of having casual conversation while working, Chef was pretty direct and he wanted to get things done. First, we prepared the chicken with some of the ingredients that we cut up on Sunday night. We used chicken thighs since it would be the moistest part of the chicken, mixed it with potatoes and onions, and seasoned it with paprika, salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic. We made multiple batches which we put in the oven at 400 F for around 40 minutes. We worked pretty orderly, with one person on the seasoning, one person on the mixing, and another on cutting potatoes. This allowed us to finish the chicken early. By the time it was 10:30 am, we were just waiting on the last batch of chicken. Meanwhile, we went over to the catering refrigerator and loaded up all the other ingredients in Chef's car. We put them in special containers that would maintain the temperature of the ingredients...

Last week when Chef Lyons gave us a bag of all the produce we had to cut for Monday, he showed us examples of what they should look like. To ensure the cut vegetables would be the best quality for tomorrow, I waited until Sunday at 10 pm to prepare them. The first vegetable I cut were cucumbers. Chef gave us a total of two cucumbers, one diced and one sliced into sticks. The diced one would be for the couscous, and the sliced one would be for the hummus dip. For both of them, I cut them into segments and quartered them (cutting them vertically 2 times), used the knife to get rid of the seeds, then julienned them. For the dice, I just lined up the julienne and diced them up. The next vegetable was the potato. For the potato, I didn't have to skin it because it would be roasted with the Spanish chicken so there was no need for it. I literally just cut them in half and went through a whole bag of them. The most time-consuming vegetable to work with was parsley. I had to manually go th...

Today, Chef Lyons wasn't feeling too well, so we had an off day. Although I wasn't cooking at Chef's house, I was at mine! In the morning, my friend Eli came over to help me build a new computer for college. I had all my parts ready, but I didn't know how to assemble it... that's where he comes in! As the day progressed, we were starting to get hungry building the computer, so I thought it would be a great idea to make a stirfry for lunch. I made stirfry on the 3rd or 4th day at Chef's house, but it was fairly easy to make. I had bought the beef, produce, sauces, and spices from the local Asian market and Giant Eagles yesterday night, so I was set on the prep. First, I cut onions and bell peppers. I did the bell pepper first because I knew the onions would make me cry, thus effectively blinding me.To cut the bell pepper, I cut off both ends and made an incision in the flesh to make it rolled flat on the cutting board. To get rid of the seeds and the bitter pith,...

Today, we began our morning at Chef Lyons's house as always, but we prepared a dessert for another catering event: s'mores for 100 people for David's mom's event at University Hospitals! To recreate s'mores in an elegant and sophisticated style, we used Chef Lyons's recipe, which involved creating chocolate ganache (melted chocolate basically) and using that to cover marshmallows on sticks, coated with graham cracker crumbs. We started off by sticking marshmallows with sticks, which took a couple minutes. Afterwards, we went over to the stove and melted Hershey bars through the double boiler method which involves placing a bowl over a boiling pot of water to melt the chocolate. If we just had a pan on the flame, it would scorch the chocolate. The double boiler method reduces the risk of the chocolate turning into inedible black carbon. After we melted the chocolate, we dipped our marshmallow sticks into the melted chocolate then rolled it in graham cracker crumb...

Today was all about testing the menu for next Monday. First, as a warm-up we started off making chicken thighs and potatoes for the speech and debate team. We first marinated the chicken thighs with teriyaki sauce and a bunch of other Asian sauces and spices. Next, we cut herbs and potatoes and put everything in the oven. To begin testing our menu for our catering event, we tried making Spanish chicken. If it didn't taste as good as Chef Lyons's teriyaki chicken we would just choose the teriyaki over the Spanish. For the Spanish chicken, we roasted potatoes and red onions with paprika, herbs, and salt and pepper. We also added a hint of lemon zest and juice to elevate the flavor even more. It actually tasted amazing and fit perfectly with the required Mediterranean theme for the event. For lunch, we roasted our own Korean barbeque short ribs, which were amazing. After lunch, we made the perfect hummus after trial and error. Each time we made a batch, Chef Lyons made sure we all...

In preparation for our final project where we will prep and cook for 100 people at the Rise and Dine event at the Ronald McDonald House, Chef Lyons drove us early from Hawken to his house to come up with a final menu, with the theme being Mediterranean food. We all shared our ideas which we brainstormed over the weekend, and the list became: hummus/veggies for our appetizers, salad with oregano Greek dressing, Gazpacho soup, Israeli couscous, and a roasted Spanish chicken. Chef Lyons wrote down everything, and the ingredients we had to purchase. Also, our timeframe gave us a little under a week to test everything on the menu. At around 9:30 am, we headed to Dean's Supply, which is basically a department store for chefs. Although it is an exclusive shopping place for chefs, Chef Lyons told us we could use his business name in the future if we need to buy anything for college there, which is a huge bonus since everything there is extremely discounted and top-notch quality. For lunch,...