Carving a Turkey on Live Television

By Sabrina Sexton

One of the perks of my job is that, from time to time, I get to be on TV. On Monday I appeared on “Live From The Couch” on CBS WLNY offering my tips for cooking and carving the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.

Video shoots are always fun and exciting, but live TV can be a little nerve-racking. If it’s a taped show, you usually get a “take two” (or three), but with news segments you don’t usually get that chance. Given the raised stakes, a few minutes of TV time means lots of preparation.

Here’s a “behind the scenes” look at my experience at CBS on Monday morning:

It was still dark out when I arrived at the studio, ingredients and equipment in tow. The day before, I prepared two turkeys, cornbread stuffing, gravy and all the garnishes. Add in knives, platters, decorations and my chef’s jacket – you’ve got a few suitcases worth of supplies to carry. As far as mental preparation, the producer and I reviewed all the questions in advance and rehearsed the segment over the phone.

Upon arrival, I’m taken straight to hair and makeup and fitted with a microphone under my jacket. I unpack my food and spend a few minutes “styling” the bird, brushing it with butter and propping it up on a platter with some strategically placed onions and herbs. Chilled overnight after cooking, the turkey is still cold and the butter – which was intended to make it look shiny – starts to harden. Given the time constraints (and lack of an oven), I attempt to warm the skin with a few backstage footlights. I briefly consider borrowing a hair dryer to speed up the process, but suddenly it’s time for the segment.

During a brief commercial break, I carry the turkey into the studio and am shown where to stand. I have just enough time to meet the hosts before the director starts counting down. We gather around food, and I remind myself to smile and look at the camera.

A few quick questions, an exchange of campy jokes, and it’s over. I carry the turkey backstage, where – still cold – the hungry crew devours it. I clean up, we exchange thanks, and I head back to ICE to teach my morning class. I have a full day ahead and won’t see the segment until later that evening (thank you DVR), but my students assure me there’s an Emmy in my future.

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

The Evolution of Food Personalities

When I start with a new class, I like to ask each student what inspired them to come to ICE. Many talk about a love of cooking (and eating), a career change or gaining more skills to go further in their career. Many students also cite inspiration from watching food shows and chefs on TV.

From Top Chef to Rachael Ray, students have grown up watching chefs on television and see them as entertaining and educational. While some people cooking on TV are more personality with a pan than professional chef and some shows are more about drama than dinner, these shows have undeniably helped raise the status of chefs. The popularity of chefs is greater now than at any time and their influence has gone beyond just how to cook dinner. They inspire people to cook, eat and try new foods.

The concept is not new. Since its inception, people have been cooking and talking about food on TV. James Beard, Jacques Pepin and Dione Lucas were all early TV personalities. The one that influenced and inspired me is Julia Child.

On August 15th, Julia Child would have celebrated her 100th birthday. This iconic woman who brought sophisticated French cuisine to mainstream America still enjoys undimmed popularity eight years after her death in 2004. She not only made complicated recipes seem easy and approachable but she was not afraid to make mistakes. Her enthusiasm, no matter what happened in the kitchen, made cooking fun. She made people want to cook.

I was lucky enough to meet Julia Child several times. The last was at a charity benefit in the Hamptons, where she was the guest of honor. She was in her late eighties and while her 6’2″ frame seemed a bit more stooped and frail, her characteristic warmth and cheerfulness were unchanged.

Enjoying a glass of wine and foie gras, she tirelessly greeted a stream of star-struck party goers, including me. She posed for a photo and we spoke for a few minutes. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with many great chefs, but meeting Julia Child was one of the highlights of my career.

In honor of her birthday, the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. briefly reopened an exhibit about Julia Child that features the kitchen from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Donated to the Smithsonian by Child in 2002, it was the site of three of her television series.

While you can’t step inside, visitors can view Child’s kitchen from all different sides. I love the popular exhibit so when I was in D.C. last month I ducked into the museum for a visit. As always, it was filled with scores of people admiring the kitchen and the accompanying Child’s memorabilia.

Her Grand Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and her Legion D’Honneur, awarded by the French Government stand next to one of her Emmys. A television screen plays clips from her many shows, reminding everyone of the charismatic blend of skill, fearlessness and humor that helped make her a success. The kitchen feels like hers: warm and comfortable but well organized with a touch of a professional. A Garland stove and hood stands alongside a homey wooden table covered with a simple yellow tablecloth. Bright blue walls are covered with neatly hung copper pans and equipment. An impressive selection of kitchen utensils and gadgets line the counters that were custom made to accommodate her height.

I was excited to discover that soon Child’s kitchen will become the centerpiece of a new, larger exhibition. In November, the Smithsonian will open Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950 – 2000. It will examine how the changing American culture and new technologies changed the way we eat. I’m sure it will feature lots of exhibits about current celebrity chefs and how much has changed in food and television since Julia Child. I can’t wait to see it!

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

Practice Makes Perfect

My current Mod 3 students are fast workers. Organized and efficient, they usually finish their daily recipes with time to spare. I want to get the most out of the four hour class and since I don’t like them standing around with nothing to do, I’ll give them extra practice.

One day last week, when we had some down time, I said to the class, “ok guys, we have an hour before our food will come out of the oven, so everyone grab two potatoes and practice tournes.” Not surprisingly, this announcement produced a good natured groan from the room. We had been working on these all week. Tourne is a football shaped knife cut, carved out of potatoes and other vegetables. It is difficult to do and takes lots of practice.

The students began their tournes, focusing on cutting seven curved, even sides from each piece. Despite their focus, it is a challenging knife cut and students struggled with the mechanics of it. Jokingly, the students continued to protest. “Is there a machine that will cut these?” one asked. “Can we ever do another knife cut?” another wondered aloud.

As they worked, I moved around the room, checking their progress. My critique of each set was almost always the same, they’re better than last time – keep practicing.

Each day, the students learn something new: new techniques, new ingredients, new ways to present and plate food. We try to expose them to as much of the food world as possible while they’re at ICE and they expect new information every day. This is unlike a restaurant, where usually the cook is repeating the same recipes, again and again, day after day. Menus don’t change very often and cooks will work the same station in the kitchen for a long time.

Doing the same task over and over again can feel tedious, but this is how chefs begin to master different techniques and recipes. Repetition is the key. Still, it’s hard sometimes for the students to remember that each flawed tourne is a small step in this journey from apprentice to master. It’s not always easy to see your own progress from one day to another. Recognizing the students’ frustration, I offered to demo one. The students watched me produce a (nearly) perfect tourne and asked me to show them the “trick.”

“I wish I had one,” I answered. “The trick is doing it a thousand times.”

This is true of any craft. Whether its julienning a carrot, playing the piano or hitting a home run at Yankee Stadium, these are only done flawlessly after lots of practice. And whether it’s Daniel Boulud or Derek Jeter, you’ll usually find those individuals that have “mastered” their trade still practicing, still regularly devoting time to maintain and hone their skills. Mastering any skill takes time and while we all may not relish the practice, it’s something we all can use – no matter where we are on our career path.

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

ICE: The Institute of Constantly Eating

Other than cooking, the most important thing the students and I do in class everyday is taste and eat. After hours of cooking, it’s great to take a few minutes to enjoy the delicious results of our hard work, but the time we spend tasting is about more than that. Tasting gives us a chance to critique our food, to try new foods and experience familiar foods prepared in new ways.

At a high end restaurant, a chef is constantly tasting. Sauces, side dishes – a sample of anything that can be tasted before presenting it to the customer. In every professional kitchen I’ve worked in nothing is served without being tasted multiple times, often by several people. Dishes that chefs made hundreds of times before are still tasted every time they are prepared.

We do the same thing in the classroom. Disposable tasting spoons at the ready, the students cook, they taste, then I taste. We taste and taste and taste. No matter how many times we’ve made the dish before, we taste it again, evaluate, tweak, taste again before serving. A dish can always be improved. If a dish isn’t right, you can fix it. They also taste each others dishes and compare to their own. Why do they taste different? All the tasting, comparing and critiquing we do helps the students develop their palates, teaches them to recognize favors and helps them learn how to improve their food through minor adjustments to the ingredients.

Sometimes when people ask me to describe my job, I tell them: “I show students how to cook, then I taste their food and tell them how to improve it.” I know this sounds like a dream job to a lot of people, but its not always easy. Sure, some days it means tasting three or four plates of Homemade Fettucini with Ragu Bolognese and Tuscan Roast Pork with Garlic and Rosemary but other days it means sampling sixteen different Mayonnaises.

For the students, all this tasting can be a challenge too. Of course, most culinary students like to eat and are excited to taste new things but often students enter ICE with food preferences. In this era of special diets and food phobias even culinary students will dislike foods before they try them and avoid tasting them if possible. Working in most top restaurants, only religious beliefs and allergies are acceptable excuses for not tasting the food you are cooking. To be a great chef you have to be willing to expand your food horizons and try new things. Over time you can develop an appreciation for foods you may not have liked before.

I admit that sweetbreads didn’t always make my mouth water, but over the years I’ve cooked them many times in restaurants and after learning how to cook them properly and tasting them every time, I’ve actually grown to like them. I’m always enthusiastic about eating new foods and I try to encourage the same enthusiasm in my students. Great chefs are always evolving, trying new foods and creating new dishes while always trying to refine and improve the cooking they have done in the past. Really tasting – thinking critically about the food that they create and constantly working to make it better is the mark of a true professional.

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

February 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

April 2012

March 2012

February 2012

January 2012

December 2011

November 2011

October 2011

September 2011

August 2011

July 2011

June 2011

May 2011

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010

November 2010

October 2010

September 2010

August 2010

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

Success in the Professional Kitchen: Cooking with Attitude

Years ago, when I was starting out in restaurant kitchens, a well known chef said to me, “I can tell how good a cook someone is by watching them work for five minutes.” At the time, this mystified me. What did he see so quickly? Was he judging everyone too quickly? Didn’t he want to taste their food? Didn’t he want to see how many derivative sauces they could name?

Now after years in the kitchen, I know what he meant: it’s not just about the cooking. Of course mastering cooking techniques is essential, but being successful in a restaurant kitchen means more than knowing how to cook a few classic recipes. It’s also about having the right attitude and work habits. How you cook is just as important as how well you cook. A couple of tips I often share with my students: know how to organize your mise en place, work in a clean setting and with a sense of urgency, never standing around if others are busy and integrate a sense of teamwork into the kitchen. These are ingrained in every successful chef. Along with all the cooking, we work on these skills in class from lesson one. Sometimes these may seem like quirky details to the students, but they are important parts of their education.

My current class is in Mod 3, the time in the culinary program when students begin to look for externships. This means trailing which is working a shift in a restaurant kitchen to see if it’s a good fit. For many students, this is their first time in a professional kitchen. Understandably many don’t know what to expect. Worried they’ll be asked to cook something we haven’t covered (or worse yet, that they’ve forgotten), I get asked a lot of questions.

My advice is always the same: arrive early and be willing to stay late, ask questions if you have them, don’t be afraid to admit if you don’t know something (you’re students – you’re learning), jump in with both feet and act like you want to be there. If you have basic cooking and knife skills, chefs will show you how they want each dish prepared. Setting up a kitchen station correctly, cleaning and working professionally are skills you should have when you walk through any kitchen door.

None of this should come as surprise to my students because we practice it every day and have been talking about this from lesson one: a good attitude will take you far.