Adventures in Hyde Park, Part 2

When last we saw our intrepid editors, they had just escaped the smelly--if informative--fish class and where proceeding to lunch.
We went to the American Bounty restaurant for lunch. There are a number of options on campus reflecting the various cuisines the students learn. This one focuses on regional American dishes. After being in the classroom, the Deadline Setter and I were like "I'm so not ordering fish," but our handler said he was having the opposite reaction, which was interesting. He got monk fish, the Other AE ordered a black bean crepe dish which turned out to be vegetarian, and the Deadline Setter got a chicken dish that was served over warm coleslaw (I actually debated it, but we eat so much chicken at home that as a general rule I don't order it out). I had lamb chops with blue cheese polenta and succotash. I studiously picked out the Lima beans, which made me feel a little guilty since I had just spent the morning learning what goes into selecting them. But, come on, they're Lima beans. Everything was tasty. Mine was $15, which I thought quite reasonable for a lamb dish. We were told the restaurants aren't a profit venture, the goal is to have them break even. Really their purpose is an outlet for the food the students produce and to give them real life experience serving the public, even if the environment is slightly controlled since there is a professor there grading them.
Actually, our handler sprung the random question of what are you doing after graduation on one of our servers. He took it rather well, although I imagine when he asked if we had any questions he meant about the food. He said he was going to go on to learn about nutrition because his time there made him realize he was interested more in the chemistry of food rather than the preparation.
Of course, I ate like two chops and had to take the rest in a doggy bag. Still, going back is a viable option. Or it was until gas started flirting with $4 a gallon. It was an hour and a half drive, the gas would cost more than the meal!
After lunch we met with the president. The three of us peppered him with hopefully probing questions. It was interesting to see the high level view and nice to remember that college presidents are just normal people, which is a reminder I need sometimes when I have to call them. We also met with the chief financial officer and peppered him with questions too. They are planning to go from a progressive entry system where a new batch of students starts every 3 weeks to a semester based program. It will be interesting to watch that shake down.
Oh, and I never told you about that strange picture in my last Hyde Park post. I totally ripped it off the CIA website. It's a modern art sculpture made out of 800 lbs of CHOCOLATE. Now, as you might remember, I'm not so much into the modern art. But this one really moved me, or maybe it was the chocolate fumes coming off it....anyway, it was in the lobby of the admissions building. One of the professors made it, and it will stay there until it starts to melt. At which point it might get melted down and used in a new sculpture.
We wandered around campus some more and then I had a flurry of phone calls with Hubby because one of my brother-in-laws is a CIA graduate and a big shot in a national food service company so we were trying to figure out if I should name drop. (Later that evening brother chef called again and said that he was actually supposed to be on campus that day, but had to back out. How weird would that have been? And fun, to have him randomly find us. ha!)
Finally we went back to the American Pie Bakery for snacks before we hit the road. The Deadline Setter got a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich that was just massive. The Other AE and I got root beer float Sundaes. They were served in little mason jars and consist of a layer of frozen root beer, then a scoop of vanilla ice cream, more root beer, another scoop of ice cream and a topping of root beer. Very yummy. I've had root bee float Popsicles in the past, so had an expectation, which was happily fulfilled.
We also got a loaf of focaccia bread for Boss Man as a consolation prize for not coming in person. We were dithering over what to get, couldn't remember if he liked sweets and weren't sure if they would travel anyway. Then we remembered he likes to bake bread, so it seemed a reasonable option. And the most likely to survive the night.
All in all it was a fun trip and we even managed to include something about it in the magazine, so it was totally justified in the end.
Our trip was in mid-April. A recent article in the New York Times discussed unrest on campus and a no confidence vote in the president. We all read it and said, "wow, I totally didn't pick up on that." But then, we were escorted around campus and presented with people to talk to. So I don't think it was any real lapse on our part.

Adventures in Hyde Park, Part 1

Back on April 16, a Wednesday, She Who Sets the Deadlines, the other Associate Editor and I took a field trip to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Boss Man couldn't come because he had Important Meetings at the Office he couldn't get out of, and an interview. Poor Boss Man.
The trip took about an hour and a half, I drove because I like to be in control like that and my car has a navigation system.
When we got there we wandered a bit, then met our guide who took us to the American Pie Bakery for a snack. Obviously he knows how to handle editors. I wasn't hungry so I just had a cup of chamomile tea with this freaky tea bag thing. It wasn't a normal bag with a little tag on a string, instead it was like a long ribbon of tea bag material. It actually was a little hard to manage.
While snacking, we met with the college's farm liaison who told us about the benefits and importance of using locally grown produce. He was, and still is, a farmer before he joined the school, which helped in setting up the program. It was interesting to hear because when I've talked to other institutions about this topic they've said one big hurdle is convincing the farmers that they are serious and will take the produce (providing it is up to snuff quality wise). The Liaison told us the college uses 3 1/2 tons of field greens a year. As though that number isn't impressive enough, remember this stuff is light and fluffy. We also got a tour of the cold storage facility where they store all the produce before it goes up to the kitchens. They try to turn everything over quickly so everything stays fresh and there is no waste. The Liaison pointed out that buying local isn't really more expensive when you factor in the amount that might spoil on a long trip from out of state.
Then we took a little tour of the campus and randomly stopped in a classroom where the students were learning about fish. The front room was small and had little tables and a projector for lectures. The back room, which was separated by a door and big glass window, was where they did the lab practicum, if you will, and actually cut the fish. The chef/professor was one of the original students who attended on a GI Bill when the college was still in New Haven, CT. It surprised me a little because I'm sure he said he was a WW II vet, but he didn't seem as old as my father-in-law (who ran off and joined the army when he was 17 so you don't get much younger than that). But then the chef might not have had quadrupal bypass surgery in the last year, which can wear a person out.
Do I need to point out the overwhelming fishy smell in these rooms? It hit us in the first room, but I grew accustomed to it while we were talking. Of course when we crossed into the second room it was fishy all over again and the Deadline Setter and I looked at each other in panic but couldn't figure a way out. It wasn't really the smell of bad fish, it was just sooo much fish that it was overpowering. And if they are constantly cutting fish in there I'm sure it's not sparkling clean in between so there must be some residue to stink the place up.
I asked the chef, Corky :-), if they discuss the difference and ethics of wild versus farm raised fish, etc. And he said they give them the information but don't say either is right or wrong, so they students are armed to make their own decisions. So there is a critical thinking element, which you might not expect at a cooking school. Although it made me feel good about these interviews you read, or the fancy menu entries you see, discussing these matters. I also asked Corky about mercury in fish and he said the only four species to really worry about are shark, sword fish, tile fish and...I can't remember the other one. He also pointed out that if someone is eating a can of tuna every day they have more diet issues to worry about than mercury. Which seemed a reasonable observation to me.
The school is set up on a progressive entry basis meaning that every three weeks a new class starts (although they are working on switching to a semester format). The way it works is the newer classes do all the prep work for the upper classes--who do the cooking. So nothing gets wasted. The professors in the kitchens let the professors in the prep rooms know what they need and then for their practicum the students will fillet 10 salmon and butterfly 20 trout or whatever. When we were there they were working with cod, which are HUGE and ugly.
To be continued...
(this post was holding me back, it was long and out of control and we weren't even at lunch yet. So I realized I had to post it and move on, or you will never hear about the progress on my Ravelry bag!)