Student Diary

Cook Street School of Fine Cooking is proud to offer an amazing and unique professional program. For students who are truly passionate about the culinary arts, we can help you launch a career full of limitless opportunities.

But don't just take our word for it. Below are excerpts from the diary of Linn G., a 2006 Cook Street graduate:

Week 1

I LOVE IT!!!!!!! What a great idea to change careers.  Culinary school is fabulous.  Seven of the students in the class are career changers and all are around my age.  The others are of various ages.  It's a great group of people. 

We were divided up into three groups: hotline (which I am in) cooks the entrée every day, garde manger (the cold kitchen) cooks the first course every day and pastry cooks breakfast, bakes bread and makes dessert every day.  We have a lecture in the morning and then everyone goes to their station and prepares the meal.   Then we eat and critique.  Not a bad way to spend the day, huh? This week I cooked duck breast, pork loin with a red bell pepper sauce, mashed potatoes and potato galettes in duck fat.

This past Friday, our wine instructor had us smell many different kinds of fruits, spices and vegetables. Then we had to smell the wine to see if we could determine those qualities in the wine.  Very interesting.  I never knew some red wines smelled like green bell pepper!  We also had to taste each wine and determine its characteristics.  What a week!

Week 2

I still love it!  I'm learning so much.  And of course, I've had some wonderful meals.  Polenta with truffle oil topped with salmon and shallot Madeira broth, and sautéed chicken breast with garlic, tomatoes, spinach and saffron.  The best, I think, was a cold plate with garlic aioli and blanched vegetables and shrimp.  And of course, french bread and wine. 

On Friday, we had a food and wine pairing exercise so we could taste how wine changes when you pair it with food. Our cold plate consisted of a piece of semi-sweet chocolate, a slice of lemon, walnuts, asparagus, three kinds of cheese and olives.  We had to taste all of them with five different wines to see how the food affected the wine. Very interesting.  Then we had a hot plate with different meats and sauces.  There is so much to learn about food and wine; I think one could spend the rest of their lives learning about it. The pace is fast as well as fun.  Boy, are we ever getting a lot of info!

Week 3

It's hard to believe it's been three weeks already!  Well, another week of fabulous food.  The best meal so far this week was individual mushroom and asparagus soufflés with a saffron sabayon sauce, followed by escolar (a huge white fish from the Pacific coast of South America) wrapped in proscuitto, seared in walnut oil and butter, and served over a wild rice salad.  The most interesting concoction this week was a puréed radish greens soup.  Delicious!

In wine class, we studied the difference between old world and new world wines.  Old world being Europe and new world being the rest of the world; old world being subtle and elegant, new world being bold and fruity. 

Week 4

We studied the food of Italy this week and made pasta by hand and by machine.  There were several memorable meals and wines this week.  There was a boned roasted leg of lamb with polenta.  The lamb was extremely flavorful and the polenta was molded with roasted red peppers and basil on top.  We also made a spinach pasta to go with the MOST delicious lasagna. It literally melted in your mouth.  This may become my signature dish!  We drank a Barolo that was perfect with braised beef and a Valpolicella that was wonderful with the lasagna. 

The most fun/stressful task we did this week was cook without a recipe.  On Friday we were presented with a cart of food and we had to come up with a dish using all of the ingredients.  Whew!  All in all, the dishes were a success but lessons were learned. 

Weeks 5/6

I moved from hotline to pastry.  My first task in pastry was snacks.  Mostly I've made savory snacks like cheese soufflé, crêpes, biscuits with gravy, frittata, etc.  The savory snacks were fun to make.  Next week I will be making bread in the wood fired brick oven. 

Week 5 was egg week.  We learned how to make the perfect omelette; soft, creamy and nothing like I've ever eaten in a restaurant.  We also made mayonnaise, vinaigrette and studied chocolate!  We made chocolate mousse...yum!

Our main food in week six was fish; true Dover sole, lobster, oysters and clams.  Friday was raw and smoked fish day ...smoked trout, gravlax, raw oysters from the East and West coasts, clams on the half shell, Asian roasted clams and caviar.  We also studied custards...crème anglaise, crème pâtissière, crème brûlée, crème caramel and pots de crème.  In one day we had all of the cholesterol we will ever need in a lifetime!  The day started with biscuits and gravy and sticky buns. Then we made oysters Rockefeller, lobster Américaine and crème brulée.  Oh my!  I waddled home! 

Our next project is to put together a business plan for whatever we are going to do with our education.  Should be an eye-opening project.  I almost forgot to mention the most fun day we had...we went on a field trip.  First, we went to a new spice shop in Denver.  If you are in Denver, go by and at least have a smell...it's pretty spectacular!  Then we went to a market that has Colorado produce, artisan cheeses, a meat aging room, pasta and olive oils from Italy, licorice from Finland, some unusual wines...great place!  Finally, we went to a local winery.  Wine is produced the old-fashioned way there...bottled by hand, unfiltered, with its own yeast and no sulfites.  We tasted 16 wines...whoa!  A great time!  I can't believe this experience is almost half-way through! 

Week 7

It's going too fast!  I'm still loving it and continue to learn.  It's just amazing.  This past week we studied the food and wines of France.  I'm beginning to be able to blind test wine and know what grape it is.  I'm smelling things like mushrooms, pepper, bell pepper, fruit, berries, spices, earth, herbs and flowers.  And, boy oh boy, have we tasted some really good wines!

I was on bread detail this week.  The routine is to start a fire early in the morning in the brick oven, keep adding wood until about 10:00 and then spread the coals out.  Once it reaches about 730 degrees, we rake the coals out and mop the oven.  When the oven reaches 620 degrees, we put the loaves of bread in.

The food this week was exceptional.  We had venison, trout and tilapia.  We made sauerkraut and sausages and studied the Alsace region, Provence, Burgundy and the Loire.  Great food!

Week 8

We studied chocolate...how to temper it, make truffles and molded chocolates. I tried to conquer pralines this week.  The first time, I didn't cook the sugar long enough and had already put the butter in. So I had to put it back on the heat.  The result...caramels.  In the fashion of making lemonade from lemons, I coated them in chocolate and made turtles!  The next day I was determined to get them right and even threatened to throw myself in the Platte River if they didn't turn out.  They turned out perfectly! 

We changed kitchens this week and I'm now in garde manger.  We had some wonderful soups...lobster bisque, consommé, Spanish garlic soup (with a poached egg in it) and vichyssoise.  We had the bisque with prime rib and potatoes gratin.  It was delicious!  Our vichyssoise was a great hit.  I am really looking forward to working in this kitchen.

This week we tasted fortified wines, dessert wines, sparkling wines and port.  My palate isn't too keen on the dessert wines but they were interesting to taste.  Next week we're having tapas with the wine.  Should be fun!

I'm getting a bit tired but wouldn't trade this experience for anything.  I will be very sad when it's over.  The staff is fabulous and fun.  I'm truly looking forward to traveling in Europe.

Week 10

This past week we studied mother sauces - hollandaise, velouté, béchamel and espagnole - and lots of derivatives of each.  The chicken and the wine were the highlights of the week for me.  We made a ballotine de volaille.  We boned the whole chicken, except for the leg bones, left the meat on the chicken and stuffed it with forcemeat (ground chicken, pork, pancetta and seasonings) and duxelles (mushrooms).  Then we rolled the whole thing back up into the shape of a chicken and roasted it.  Delicious!

The wines this week were absolutely fabulous...and very expensive.  A Montrachet, a Pouilly Fuissé, a Chateauneuf du Pape and a lovely red from the second vineyard of the Grand Cru Chateau Margeaux.  I swooned!  Now I know what really good wine tastes like.

It's hard to believe next week is week 11.  Wow!  What an adventure this has been!

Week 11

This week we finished up with France.  The most enlightening course was foie gras...plus we had duck liver paté and duck rillets.  The frog legs were grand as was the romesco sauce they were served with.

The big event Friday was a practical exam...cooking without recipes.  We had a timed knife skills test where we were tested on certain cuts and also had to cut 2 ounces of four different ingredients without using a scale.  I can't believe how far I've come!

Weeks 12/13

It's hard to believe this culinary adventure is coming to an end.  BUT...there is still Italy and France to follow!  Last week we deboned a leg of lamb. The week before we deboned a whole leg of veal and cooked it three ways: veal cooked a la minute, veal roast and veal fricassée.  We had to complete a cost sheet for the whole leg of veal and figure out the cost per serving.  Very interesting exercise.

We will have wine class every day this week and will be studying the wines of Italy.  I'm almost a wine snob now!

Last week!

Well, I did it!  And I can't believe how tired I am.  So much information in so little time.  Wow!  What an experience.  I would certainly recommend Cook Street to anyone who is serious about attending a culinary school.  It was a challenging experience and one that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.  The chefs were wonderful. Our wine instructor was so knowledgeable and excited about sharing that knowledge.  My fellow students were great and the whole class had some interesting dynamics and talents.  Now I'm off to France and Italy to learn even more!

*Experience may vary depending on time which you attend.