February 1st:

MilitaryChefs.com and the CIA have sent me too participate in the ProChef I exam. I have decided to post a blog each day for the next two weeks on my experience during the Culinary Institute of America's ProChef I certification program. To learn more about this program please check the following links:

This is an article Staff Sergeant Guy Winks wrote up about the Marines who are going after ProChef I with me:
http://www.militarychefs.com/1...wsCIA090118html.html

Here is the link to the Official site for the ProChef Certification:
http://www.ciaprochef.com/prochef/

Here is the link to the ProChef I Study Guide:
http://www.ciaprochef.com/proc...evel1_studyguide.pdf

Wish me luck. It’s ProChef I, emphasis on “one” It should be easy.. or will it? Right now I’m not sure. It’s the CIA, they always have the highest expectations. I know one thing. I’ll soon find out.

Time to drive to Hyde Park New York!

Monday February 2nd:

Day One

My first week in my attempt to tackle ProChef I starts with the Student Skills II course. I was waiting in the lobby when I saw a couple short haired stocky men walking down the hall with some overly shiny shoes. This could mean one thing --> Marines. So I got up and followed them down the hall to what happen to be our classroom. In the classroom were a couple of course guides. After looking through the course guide I realized that the Student Skills II course was designed as a practice platform for the practical side of ProChef I. The chef came in talked a bit about the days assignments. He tasked everyone with your choice of a cream or purée soup, a fish stock, knife cuts and egg cookery. Then he said go.

Now I’ve been to a few courses here at the CIA and not once has the chef walked in assigned products (especially a product like "what ever cream or purée soup you feel like doing") and said go. It had me thinking "This is going to be a unique experience."

The first thing I notice is how the Marines felt right at home in the kitchen. Talking with the marines I found out they have all been at the CIA for the last 4 weeks preparing for the ProChef I course. They had been to 6 courses so far including – Soups stock and sauces – accompanying the plate – breakfast cookery – and many others. They seemed ready to go.

The fish stocks were coming together quickly and some of the stronger Marines had started on their soups. Everything was being completed with little to no guidance. I was impressed and wanted to know the backgrounds of these Marine Chef types. I figure most of them would be Enlisted Aides.

To my surprise these Marines were all types, all ranks, all levels of culinary experience with only two of them being enlisted aides. Needless to say I was impressed.

So the class was coming to and end. The Chefs started to critique our products and as expected they laid into pretty much everything we had produced. A couple of the critiques that really stood out were a sour cream and spice mixture and a bean soup. The sour cream garnish was attacked by the chef who literally started coughing and chocking after tasting. He said it was horrible and the contrast of the sour cream with the sweet soup (I think it was butternut squash) was extremely unpleasant. He proceeded to see if the marine could handle the taste of the soup and the garnish together. The Marine ate a spoonful and replied “It taste fine chef”. Now that made me smile. The bean soup didn’t look so hot, the chef placed a ladle in the soup brought it up to about eye level than poured it back into the bowl. After doing this about 7 times the chef said you need to research your product and then moved on without even a taste.

Over all it was a pretty mellow day. I was a bit surprised on the lack of recipes and guidance that usually comes with the courses at the CIA. It is ProChef though and I’m getting the feeling that ProChef I may be a bit harder than I expected.

My knives are dull. I sense that I may be going into battle the next couple weeks. Before I get to class tomorrow I’m going to take my knives to Warren Cutlery down the road. He knows how to get my weapons ready.


Pic of the Marines

That's Great! Does the Marine Corps pay for this and they given TDY status while attending this?

Yes, this is what the Marines use as thier advanced culinary program. From what I've seen so far it is top notch.

Tuesday February 3rd:

Day 2

My knives were sharp and I was well rested. I was ready to go for another kick back day at the CIA. Yesterday the Chef talked about the first day of the exam. Day one includes knife skills, egg cookery, and stocks. You are assigned an egg product (overeasy, hard boiled, soft boiled, poached, over hard ect.), fish stock, and many different knife cuts. Pretty cut and dry. Now day two, I’m not too sure about. What I do know is when we got to the class room (15 min early) there was about twenty items laid out on a table with numbers beside them. These items ranged from oyster mushrooms, boc choy, Thai basil to parsley. It was a fun demo even though it made me wonder what score was needed to pass the test. Product ID is a hard test to study for. You need to have had a good amount of experience to ace this test.

Same as Monday the chef came in and started assigning products. Not just a couple products like before. Today each person needed to complete a whole chicken sautéed with a sauce, a Whole Roasted Chicken with a sauce, a shallow poached flounder with a Buure Blanc or Vin Blanc a Deep Poached Salmon in court bouillon with a hollandaise variation and a pan fried veal with a sauce. All in 3 and a half hours.

Now that's some tasking right there. I was beginning to feel in the weeds when he told us who our partners would be. For one person to properly complete all that food to CIA standards would be close to impossible but two could probably make it happen. So we were off!

My partner Sgt. Brian Kauten starts putting things together like he’s been chefing it his whole life. He grabs a chicken trusses it up and move on to pounding out the veal. I grab some vegetables and some spices to put together a mirepoix, and a couple satches and bouquets for our sauces. First thing I do when I start cutting the onions is slice my finger. I thought “Shit.. fricken getting ready for battle huh?” I always laugh when they say sharp knives are safer than dull ones.

I ran over to get a band aid and a finger condom. The class leader GySgt. James Graham is staring at me. Finally he says “Cut yourself?” I just acted busy said “yup” and hurried back to my station like it was normal ops. I thought “Damn.. looking stupid already”

Things started to go smooth, all our products were coming together nicely. The sauces were all reducing and the proteins were either cooking or ready to be fired. I grabbed the pot with the mushroom sauce for the veal. “Damn it” I hadn’t got used the fricken ranges the sauce was completely reduced and my finger was burnt. My right hand had a nice cut and my left had a nice burn. WTF.

Of course I kept going like everything was just how I wanted it. The Chef announced we had five minutes to complete our platters and present them for critique. My partner and I were the last ones out with our food. I was a bit worried until I noticed all but one of the other platters was missing items. We had everything done and had pushed our selves with some complicated variations of the sauces we produce. I was proud of our work and very impressed with my partner.

Then the chefs critiqued everyone’s work. Needless to say they hated everything.

Something took me by surprise while we were eating this evening. One of the servers asked if we would like Crème Brulee. A couple of the Marines didn’t know what it was. After just 4 weeks of training these guys are running around shouting out terms like chinois, oblique, sachet, bouquet, concasse, fumet, mise, rondelle, brunoise, compound butter, en papillote, espagnole, jus lie, matignon, monte au beurre, nappe, paupiette and executing techniques on queue like a shallow poach, braise, pan fry, deep poach, all types of sauces, soups and dressings. They are chefs. Chefs who don’t know what a Crème Brulee is. This was proof to me that some of these guys new very little when they came to the CIA. Now they work the kitchen like they own the place.

It was time to head home but not before we were handed study sheets. Come to find out there are six tests that go along with the ProChef I. The study quizzes for tonight included nutrition and recipe costing. I started reading the recipe conversion quizzes and thought “what the hell is 4 parts watermelon, 3 parts banana, 3 ½ parts diced cantaloupe ect.. is this bakeshop? What wrong with pounds and onces?”

We were also handed the three course meals for four that we had to produce in a 2 ½ hour time frame the next day. I received a Cream Soup with garnish, Tossed Salad with a Simple Vinaigrette, Braised Chicken, mushrooms and a Rice Pilaf Medley of long grain, wild and brown rice.

It was time to study and look up some recipes. I thought to myself as I walked to my car “I hope I don’t make a fool of myself tomorrow.”


Staff Sergeant Guy Winks gives training on product ID.


Cpl. Christian Mitchell practicing for next weeks test.

You Devil Dogs hang in there, you can do it!

Wednessday February 4th:

Day 3:

I woke up with a cough. Marines must have gotten me sick. I had seen a couple of them coughing and blowing their noses. My finger looked like it was growing another finger tip where I burnt myself the day before. I looked at the clock. “Damn” I woke up late. I didn’t have much time to prepare for my meal and finish the quizzes for the day. I hustled up and took off to the CIA Library where they have every resource you can imagine. The library contains all the culinary books in the world along with a video watching center with every culinary video imaginable (great resource for watching the cooking techniques you will be performing that day), a computer lab (I’m here now), and a spectacular culinary theater were guest chefs display there techniques for the students (you are always welcome to come and watch).

After going through all my products I put together an ingredients list and a half ass timeline. The Marines had warned me the menu I was given was tough. The rice pilaf three ways has three types of pilafs cooked separately and the chicken fricassee is easy to burn if you don’t watch the range/oven. I also had to come up with a salad and a soup. I felt like I was at a disadvantage receiving this menu for my first practical. I figured I would keep my soup and salad simple to give me a fighting chance. The chefs had mention to never do a cream of broccoli soup. No one gets it right. So of course I decided to do cream of broccoli soup and a salad with a lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Once I got to the class room I checked my time slot. I had an hour before I was up. It was perfect. I hadn’t started my practice quizzes that were due. It was back to the 4 parts watermelon, three parts banana, 123049 parts of every other fruit you can imagine recipe conversions. I can convert any pounds, ounce, cup or gallon recipe but this parts stuff was foreign to me. Luckily I had 10 Marines who have been hitting the books for the last month. They helped me out with some formulas . This quiz also had a good amount of questions on ratios in basic food preparation. Some examples are “How much stock to use when making long grain rice pilaf?”, “How many pounds of Chicken bones are required to make a gallon of stock?”, "How much ground meat is needed to make 1 gallon of consommé.” and so on.

The next quiz was filled with your typical nutrition questions. I decided to review nutrition this weekend before the exam.

My time was coming up fast. I grabbed four salad plates, soup plates, dinner plates, underliners and dollies. Went to my station and was off to work. I grabbed my tools, pans, pots, plastic cups, sanitizer, food bin, trash bin, cutting board, apron, towels, hat, gloves, bowls and everything else I could fit on my little station. I started gathering my ingredients to find out there was no broccoli.. but there was cauliflower so I made the switch.

Time went by fast. The Marines weren’t kidding. Handling three pilafs a soup and the braise on a range with four burners (one with the kitchens chicken stock on it) was a bit excessive. The chef who was the floor judge was over my shoulder constantly making comments on my cleanliness, waste, cooking techniques, and sanitation. Needless to say it felt pretty stressful. On top of everything else I knew two more chefs will be tasting the food and slaughter my meal in front of all these Marines. I took a deep breath and kept moving. If I’ve learned anything in food service it is to keep moving.

Everything came out in time. Two military chefs I look up to (couple of the best chefs in the military), SSG Guy Winks (Army) and CS1 Michael Edwards (Navy) came by to watch me plate. They both had a WTF were you thinking look on their faces and gave me some very good suggestions for next time. Both of them have been through the program and had a good idea on the chefs expectations.

Time for the critiques. The chefs went easy on us I think. The Pentagon Channel was filming. I think this may have changed their demeanor. They said my rice was the best they had seen in all the prochef exams they had given. I thought that was a pretty good compliment. Then they asked me if I knew what a braise was. Ouch.

Critique was over. I passed. It was time to go home and start the process over again. The next day I had an easy menu of Roasted Chicken, Pan Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Glazed Carrots, Salad with and Emulsified Dressing, and a pureed soup. That sounded like we were going back to galley days.

I had a headache and my throat hurt. It was time for some sleep.

Video: First Practice Critique http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxx6lUx4tJg



GySgt. Antonio Cortez gets a critique from Chef D on his practice practical.


Cpl. Matthew Russell picks out greens for his salad.

Thursday February 5th:

Day 4

I woke up Thursday morning feeling great. I had an easy meal to prepare and plenty of time to study for next weeks written exams. After hitting the library early to study and get my time line ready for the days practical, I stopped at the student’s galley for lunch. There are two places that I know of were ProChef Students can eat without paying. The Continuing Education Center has a banquet hall style dining room that provides full service preset three course meals to all of the CE/Baking students and staff. The meals are always excellent (unless you are a picky eater). The meal is set. So you get what you get. Another thing to consider is your time frame. If you don’t have an hour to sit down and enjoy your meal, you need to head to the students galley in Roth Hall. Here you can grab your choice of around 6 different plates (all very high quality) and sit down in an absolutely beautiful cathedral style hall with all the culinary students. Today I grabbed some braised Oxtail. It was excellent.

A side affect these Marines have experienced spending six weeks at the CIA is the amount of food they have tasted. Every type of cuisine and every type of ingredient has touched their palate weather they like it or not. You have no choice at this place but to learn about food while you take a break and eat a meal. There is no Mc Donald’s. Just well cooked interesting meals.

There are also a few places you can pay to eat. Each one is run by the students. American Bounty for higher end American style meals, St. Andrews Café for a more casual setting, Apple Pie Bakery Café for baked goods and Café Cuisine, Caterina de' Medici for high end Italian food and Escoffier Restaurant for classic French cuisine with a contemporary touch. All these restaurants are very reasonably priced for the quality of food they serve.

Lunch was great. It was time to get to class and start my second practical.

It was over in no time. I thought it went well. Until the critiques.. I don’t think anyone did well. I don’t know if they were trying to prove a point or they were just unhappy with the work. The chefs went off. It was like boot camp but with grown Marines. It was very unpleasant. I won’t go into specifics but I heard a couple marines whispering things to each other things like “let it go” and I guarantee everyone in that room was planning to go and purchase some sponges, cut them into four pieces, place them in zip lock bags and fill them with water and a couple drops of vinegar. Ass chewings all around and that’s all I’m going to say about the critiques.

I think I understand why they run the course the way they do. I heard they had a failure rate of 8 out of 12 Marines prior to the new approach to this six week program. From what I understand they stopped babying the Marines and started holding them accountable, expecting them to perform at the ProChef level. Once they changed to this no BS style of training (who better to do that than Chefs) the Marines started passing around 8 to 10 per class. I came in late to this program, but what I do see is 10 Marines who want to pass this class at all costs. They want to earn the title of ProChef I.

Are they miserable with all this negativity coming from the chefs? No, they like the Chefs and they like the school. But what’s most important is they perform like chefs and they take criticism like chefs. It’s the part of the chefs culture.. and if you want to be a ProChef in 6 weeks, you better jump on board.

As we were leaving, the chefs announce they are cutting 30 min from our cooking times the next day. In exchange they would take the salad course off the menu. I thought to myself “Crap.. the salad only takes 5 min.” I looked at my menu for Friday. I got a hard one again. Chicken Consommé, Shallow Poached Sole with a Vin Blanc, Fleurons, Haricots Verts and Parslied Potatoes.

And 30 minutes less.

On my way home I thought to myself "now that was a good day. Tomorrow should be even better"


SSgt. Phillip Harrison practices a roasted chicken for next weeks exam.


GySgt. Antonio Cortez makes up some pasta.

Friday February 6th

Day 5

Ahhh it was Friday. It was time to get this over with and get some rest before the real exam starts. I couldn’t wait for the weekend so I could study without all these practicals getting in the way. I had to get through this one last meal though. I hit the library again, ate lunch at student galley and headed off to take my 3rd practical.

While I was cooking I made a HUGE mistake. No one will find out what it was until I pass my ProChef I and hopefully that will be soon (maybe not). All I can say is that is was funny as hell and my consommé came out like tap water. Other than that, the chef liked my bruinoise in the soup, but said they need to be cooked longer, he liked my sauce, didn’t like how I cut my potatoes, really liked the fleurons, said my green beans were a bit under done, like how the fish was cooked but thought I needed more. Typical critique, minus the fact that my soup failed.

Next week if I screw up the soup and put out an average salad and main I will fail the practical. If you fail any one of the four practicals you fail ProChef I. You can’t redo practicals. This certification is not a cake walk even at level one. You make one mistake and you can fail.

Next week is game on. We have 6 written tests and 4 practicals with no idea what we will be cooking. I better check my knowledge and then check my knives.



Sgt. Brian Kauten rushing for his mise.


I wonder who's going to pass and who's going to fail??? Nah.. I'm just messing with you Christian, it was a long hard week. Get your rest.

Monday February 9th

Day 6

Everyone arrived today at about 0630. We welcomed a few new civilian chefs who were going for their ProChef I. After a bit of review we hit the kitchen to start our first practical. During the weekend I had ran through practical #1 with Staff Sergeant Winks and put together a solid time line. It made the day a breeze. The test was on knife cuts, egg cookery and stock production. Nothing to complicated or demanding.

We received our menus for the week. All the chefs were either disappointed or relieved. You could tell immediately (by their reactions) if they knew their products well or not. Everyone started talking with each other about how to do this and that, although what not to do with each product seemed to be the main topic.

A couple minutes later Chef D, one of the chef instructors, came in and asked if anyone had seen Iron Chef last night. To my surprise more than half the class started talking about it. These Marines spent most of the weekend studying and preparing for the test and what did they do on their down time??? Watch Iron Chef? “Man” I thought “The CIA has turned these Marines into a bunch of foodies.” I was talking to SSgt. Phillip Harrison the other day. He was telling me how he watched 6 hours of the food network in a row one weekend. He said he enjoys it now that he understands everything the celebrity chefs were talking about. He even points out the mistakes they make according to CIA standards. If nothing else, the CIA has these Marines excited about food. Not to mention their culinary knowledge has increased at least 10 fold during thier stay here (I guarantee that).

This leads me to Chef D…

I have only been here one week and it has become very apparent that (out of the many chef instructors we have worked with) Chef D is running this course. He has everyone in check. I don’t know how he does it? It's this half boot camp, half nice chef style of leadership that keeps everyone happy yet scared shitless. I've been nothing but impressed with how he handels this class.

It was a short day. Which was good. We have time to study and prepare for the rest of the week. I hope we all pass tomorrow. We have two written tests (Nutrition and Sanitation) and practical #2.



Exam Day 1


SSgt. Tekyron Williams Exam Day 1 Critique

Hey Chef...

I had a blast at the CIA last week. I have no doubt you are going to pass the exam. I'll be reading your bolgs.

CS1 Edwards

P.S. See you at Fort Lee.

It was great seeing you again Mike. You overestimate me. I'm not a super chef like you.

Thanks for the tourne knife. It saved my ass yesterday. I'll get it back to you at Fort Lee.

Tuesday February 10th

Day 7


It's starting to get busy!

This is for real. We had a civilian chef come in yesterday. He was talking it up. “I cook 200 plates a day” “I know this technique and that” “don’t you guys just slop food on a plate from the steamline” ect. He took his 2nd practical today and failed. He had cold plates, portions were off, salad was a mess, white meat was over done, dark meat wasn’t cooked all the way and a couple other things. He spent over 2000 dollars of his personal money for this week and he has failed on day 2. You need to be prepared for this certification. The CIA won’t hand it out to just anyone, not even at the ProChef I level. ACF Certified Executive Chefs fail the ProChef I. If you come here unprepared and you fail one practical, the test is over. You can stay and finish it out to see the rest of the exam, but until the next time you pay for the certification test, you have failed ProChef I.

I have a feeling a couple of the Marines didn’t make it either. Of course no Marine is going to blurt it out like the civilian did. They will stay through till the end and learn how to be better chefs from this great experience.

There’s another civilian chef who seems to be much more prepared for the exam. He is close to having the highest score in the class. He must have studied the hell out of the ProChef study guide before he got here. He seems to have a good grasp on what’s going on and knows many of the answers during our study groups.

For today’s meal I attempted the consommé again for my clear soup (bad idea). This time it wasn’t for practice, this was the real deal. I wasn’t happy about the results. The flavor was lacking, I didn’t season it well and it was a bit oily. None of it matters though because this time the judges passed it (they didn’t tell me it tasted like tap water like last time and I’m still not going to say how I screwed up my last consommé until I pass)

My meal didn’t go as well as I would have liked. I was so focused on my consommé (I decided to broinose celery, carrots, and red bell peppers for the garnish and I kept playing with the raft) that my time line went to crap and I was 9 min late on service. That was a huge no no. 9 Points right off the bat. I was lucky my dishes came out well..

I passed.

Tomorrow we have two more written tests (Recipe Yields and Weights and Measures) and Practical #3 Once again I hope everyone does well.

Video: Critique #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjPWdoJmGxw


SSgt. Tekyron Williams moving fast, doing two things at once.


Sgt. Brian Kauten is being watched.


The floor judges are out and about.


Staff Sergeant Winks and a Floor Judge

James,
great job on your test today and good luck the rest of this week. I know you will pass your prochef I this week. Keep up the good work my friend
Lee

Jimmy,

Thank You for providing your personal experience into the PROCHEF process. By adding your comments equally about your successes and failures provides a view that the test is realistic and has an achievable goal. I enjoyed your commentary on the process Good Luck with your remaining task.


SGM Warren