I’m a bigger believer both in education and in experience.  Given the choice though, I think that street smarts beats book smarts any day!  Sounds weird from someone who studied a lot and pursued more than 1 degree, but I think that people who take a hands on approach to their craft build skills in a way much different from anything you can learn in a classroom.

That being said, I’m going back to school!  No, I’m not quitting my job to become a chef!  That sounds like a great book or movie script but I’m happy being a part time homemaker as the name of this site suggests.  :-)  I’ve enrolled myself in a 5 session culinary foundation course in Enderun Extension in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.  It will run for just 3 hours a day for 5 Saturdays which fits perfectly into my schedule.  I wanted to take the intermediate course because that’s where you really get to cook, but the beginner course is a prerequisite (which makes a lot of sense hehe).

We’ll only be taught the fundamentals, but I know I’ll learn a lot since my knife skills are amateur at best and I know next to nothing about butchery.  And I figure that having good basic skills will make me a much better and more efficient (!) home cook.  Here’s the agenda taken from their website:

Day 1 | Knife skills

Julienne of carrots & leeks; Brunoise of carrots, onion, garlic, celery; Chiffonade of spinach, cabbage, basil

Day 2 | Knife skills

Florettes of brocolli and cauliflower, pommes frites, battonette, use of mandolline, squash, carrots, potato, daikon

Day 3 | Butchery

Trussing, poaching, 8 cut,4 cut, grilling, deboning of legs and breast, ballotine, chicken lollipop

Day 4 | Butchery

Pork tenderloin, pork rack, lamb leg, lamb saddle, beef tendeloin ; chateubriand, meddalion, tips

Day 5 | Seafood

Flat fish, clean and fillet; round fish, clean and fillet ; processing squid ; processing shrimp ; open oysters

If I enjoy it, I’ll definitely look into taking the intermediate and advanced courses next time.  :-)