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Cecily Goes to Chef School: An Introduction
Hello! You might have seen my name on this blog sometimes, but let me properly introduce myself: I’m Cecily McAndrews, Associate Food Editor at All You, cook, bicyclist, lover of cookies, inveterate...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Learning the Not-So-Basics
Culinary school is a disorienting experience. Think about how you usually cook: at home, wearing whatever you happen to be wearing. You’re probably cooking for your family, with knives you acquired as...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Meat Meat Meat! Plus, a Bonus Lesson on Knife Safety
The first few weeks of culinary school were fascinating, but now we’re getting down to the meat of it. Literally. My latest classes have been protein-o-mania, where we learned how to identify, clean,...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Time Management in the Kitchen
Some things we learn in chef school have limited application outside of professional kitchens. Depending on where you live, oyster shucking might be of little use, and I could probably have made it...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Persistence in the Kitchen
Recently, we’ve been up to our elbows in various sauces, sometimes literally, but something nerve-wracking is happening this Saturday: our first practical exam. A practical exam is exactly what it...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Cook Perfectly Browned Meat and Fish
That’s it, guys: I’ve gotten my money’s worth from culinary school. I know, you might say, “But Cecily, it’s only been 6 weeks! You’re approximately 15% in. How could you possibly have earned all that...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Grilling Tips from a Pro
Cooking in a professional kitchen has a few advantages over cooking at home (powerful gas stoves, consistently sharp knives, staff dishwashers), but there is one thing home cooking has going for it,...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: A Lesson on Loving Your Leftovers
In culinary school, every dish starts differently. We wash what we’re cooking, then chop, or cube or trim. From there, the food might be browned or stewed or fried or baked. It might cook for minutes...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Make Perfect Eggs
So how do you like your eggs? My answer: all the time. Now, maybe my post about leftovers tipped you off (item number 2: put an egg on it), but I just love eggs. This stems from practicality (it’s hard...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Make the Best Salad Ever
During the summer, I’m not so into cooking. Instead, what I really want to do is assemble — that is, take a bunch of nice, fresh ingredients and arrange them together so they’re as delicious as...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Make the Best Grilled Fish Ever
One of the many things I love about cooking is that you can learn so much just by having dinner. Last summer, a friend had a crowd over for dinner. She took some clams out of the fridge, cleaned them,...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Make Fresh Pasta
A few cooking confessions: I’ve traveled over an hour to buy the right ingredient for a recipe. Whenever I visit a new place, one of my first stops is to a food market, so I can scope out what’s good...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Outdoor Food Safety Tips You Need to Know for 4th...
Fourth of July is a day away! What are you looking forward to for the holiday? I’m excited about a few things in particular: seeing family (hi Mom!), fireworks (duh), and having a few days off from...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Make Sushi
I’m not sure how the weather is where you are, but here, it’s hot. So hot that every conversation starts with “Wow, it’s hot, right?” So hot that wearing anything more than a tank top and a skirt feels...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Make Your Food Beautiful
Our current chef-instructor has two favorite sayings: The first? “Get over yourself!” He says this probably three times every class, and it’s not nearly as harsh as it sounds. It functions as a...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: How to Throw the Best Pizza Party Ever
A month or so ago, we were breezing through the Italian unit. We had cooked our way throughout the peninsula, and we were about to move onto Asian dishes, when I had a moment of fear: What about the...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: A Guide to Chocolate (Sweet!)
1. Some chocolate is milk. Some is dark. Some is white. 2. Do not store in your pocket. (Discovered when I was 8 or so and tried to hide a Crunch bar for later. Disappointment ensued.) 3. It is perhaps...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: Cooking With What You Have On Hand
One of our most hotly anticipated classes arrived recently, but before we even started, Chef had a stern reminder for us: “You HAVE to use what’s on hand. I’m not getting any more ingredients for you.”...
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Cecily Goes to Chef School: 10 Things I Learned (That Aren’t About Food)
Oh, culinary school. What is there to say? As you might know by now, a lot. I’ve written about salads and eggs, grilling and pasta and food safety. Looking back, we covered an incredible amount of...
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