Culinary Arts The Things We’ve Learned Gaylene Greenwood & Diane Cluff Our experiences with Nationals.

Gaylene’s Guidelines #1 TEAM WORK, TEAM WORK, TEAM WORK #2 PUSH THEM BEYOND THEIR LIMITS #3 BE HONEST AND UPFRONT – IF YOU DON’T LIKE SOMETHING TELL THEM AND CORRECT EVEN THE LITTLEST THINGS. Constantly remind them that they need to wash their hands. Point out times when cross contamination can happen. #4 PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE #5 Don’t Assume that they know how to do things. If you don’t know either ask a professional. #6 PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Seasoning Teach them to season ◦White pepper is much stronger than black pepper. ◦Don’t season without tasting. Prepare them for un- for-seen circumstances ◦Varying amounts of sodium in different stock. ◦What would you do if you don’t get enough stock? ◦What to do if you get premade Roux.

Cleanliness and Organization How to set up Mise en place. What to do with your equipment when you are done or are not using it. Keep dirty equipment out of view, under prep tables if possible. Keep meat preparation area’s away from other preparation area’s.

Proper Uniform Shoes non-melting uppers and nonslip shoes. Pants hemmed properly. Jackets should be clean. If it has a yellow oily stain, that happens, but it does not mean that it is not clean. I have my students press their coats before so that they are not wrinkled.

Misc. info Proper cooking temperatures. How to warm and cool plates for serving. Don’t keep checking food (releases heat). Patience is a virtue. Know how long things are going to take. Knowing recipes before hand there is no excuse for not knowing your time plan in advance. This comes with practicing the recipes. At home and with the advisor. Have them get a bag of carrots or two and practice knife cuts at home. What if scinerios. Bring in professional’s.

Miscl. Info If something goes wrong pretend you know what you are doing instead of drawing attention to the fact that something went wrong. Make sure that they understand the score sheet and how they will be scored. Teach them to have fun and put some love (passion) into their food. Sample Menu’s will be posted on the national website by December 1 st.