Salads and a Guest Lecture

Today was a good day.  To start my morning off, Chef gave us back our tests and mine had a 100% at the top.  Caroline for the win.  Then we learned all about salads.  It was actually a rather informative lecture.
Here's a "cliff notes" version (aka what I jotted down in my notebook):

• There are 3-types of salad (yes there's such a thing as salad classification): Simple i.e., one main ingredient and a simple dressing, usually a vinaigrette. Mixed i.e., several ingredients and Composed i.e., each ingredient is separately prepared and dressed then plated together e.g., salad niçoise
• You should store lettuce/greens away from tomatoes and apples or else they will wilt.  
• Microgreens can be the shoots of virtually any plant.
• Always dry leaves before dressing them.  That way the dressing with adhere to the leaves, and water won't dilute the dressing. 
• The ratio for a vinaigrette is usually 3-4 oil: 1 vinegar
• If using olive oil, avoid over whisking.  It will become bitter
• To dress a salad, pour small amount around the edge of the bowl and then toss.  Don't just dump it in the middle.
• Extra-Virgin Olive oil comes from the first cold press of the olives. Olive oil is graded by levels of acidity. With EVOO being less than one percent.  Also, oil doesn't age well like wine.  Fresher oil will always be better.
• Canola Oil aka Rapeseed Oil had a bad name for marketing, so canola is actually an acronym: CANadian Oil, Low Acid
• Champagne is not a generic name, can only be called champagne if it is produced in the Champagne region of France.  Rule applies to alcohol and vinegar.

And now some pictures!

Cooked Vegetable Salad:

Chef's

My attempt at something modern

Salad Niçoise: This was a pain to make as each item had to be cooked and dressed separately.  A lot of work for one plate.

Throughout the day it's common for one of the other chefs or students to bring food by our classroom.  Today Chef Mark handed me some mousse.  Diet's clearly going well (JK, I showed self control and ate just one bite).

Only to void my efforts by attending a demo after class (which let out way late cause we were slow). The visiting chef was from New Zealand.  He showed us how to make several dishes and let us sample them all.  It was kind of fun and I was loving the accents. 

The salmon he made was like butter.  It was really, really, good. It was served on a julienne cucumber and scallion salad.  Behind are asian flavored mussels.  Good flavor, not so good texture.  I gave my second one away.

I ate lamb, which I don't care for, and it was pretty good actually.  It had a honey flavored rub which added a nice touch of sweetness. It was served with a mid eastern/Moroccan-esque squash stew. 

Last was venison, which was really tough.  It was a very lean meat, and despite it being a baby and the chef saying it was tender, it was really hard to bite through.  Very chewy.  It had a walnut pesto thing going on with it that wasn't my fave, but I liked the plating. P.S.  Loved when the chef casually mentioned he had a venison farm, like it was normal.  I don't know if this bambi was from his farm but yeah...I didn't like his pets.  

we got baby versions