Square One Pizza - Real version

After Chef Vicky allowed us to experiment with our own pizza doughs, she demo'd a pizza assembly for the bistro. This quarter we're making pizza in advance and selling by the slice. Customers can also wait for a made-to-order pizza, but they don't have to. In previous quarters, they were baked to order, but since that took a long time, Chef changed it. I bet sales will go up, because pizza-by-the-slice is probably a popular lunch option.

One thing that Jess, one classmate of mine, said is that you must be careful when transporting the pizza from the stone oven to the cutting board. One of her perfectly baked pies fell face-down on the floor. Sad panda.

Chef Vicky's Square One Pizza Dough

Yield: 5# dough

Sponge
1#8oz Double Zero bread flour
1 Tbsp Honey
0.60 oz SAF Yeast
1.5 qt warm water

Mix together sponge ingredients and allow to ferment for about an hour in a warm spot

Add in
3#8oz Double Zero
3/4 oz (1 1/2 Tbsp) Kosher salt
4 oz Olive oil (Pomace)

Combine the sponge with the additional flour, salt, and olive oil in the really huge Hobart Mixer. Mix for about 3-5 minutes or until the gluten develops and the dough is really stretchy. Transfer to oiled mixing bowl and allow to rest.

Portion into 5 oz dough balls. Place in lightly greased hotel pans and cover with plastic.

I'll work on converting this recipe to a home size... but for my classmates, that's the recipe :)

Pink Together

Each year, different companies join together with the Susan G Komen Foundation to help bring more awareness to Breast Cancer. This year, I had the opportunity to get involved as a product sampler from General Mills as part of their participation in the Pink Together campaign.  General Mills sent bloggers a gift box of all sorts of things, and my box included a box of Total cereal, a cookbook, a water bottle, a little pink backpack, and white-and-pink headphones.


Okay, okay, get off the floor and stop laughing. If you know anything about me, you know that pink isn't really my personal pick. Fortunately, I have a beautiful mother who loves pink and who will likely sport the pink pack, water bottle, and headphones.


I have been nibbling away at the Total cereal, and I think I'll probably make it part of a mixture of muddy buddies and other snacky foods. I'm all about health, but I don't actually eat much cereal in its traditional form.


Anyway, General Mills didn't send me the box of toys and Total to wax eloquent about the ways we can use its cereal. They want us to talk about breast cancer awareness.


Breast cancer affects thousands of families every year, and it affects women of all sorts of ages. In addition to the women being affected by breast cancer, men can also contract breast cancer, but it's rare.  The Susan G Komen for the Cure Foundation was founded in 1982 in memory of Susan Komen who fought cancer by focusing on opportunities to educate others about breast cancer. Nancy G Brinker took up Susan's fight and the foundation was established to raise funds to help raise awareness about breast cancer and ways to address breast cancer risk. You can find more information about the Foundation at their website. 


General Mills has partnered with the Foundation in the Pink Together program, and some of the proceeds from the sales of different General Mills products will go towards the Foundation.  I was also sent a Yoplait yogurt coupon, and I selected the Whips! Strawberry. I really like the Whips flavors because they're really light and have a dessert texture rather than a breakfast yogurt texture. That's a pathetic description, but if you've had mousse and yogurt, then you'll get an idea of what I mean.


Breast cancer has affected people I care about. My English teacher from high school had successfully resisted cancer several times, but in 2006, she passed away. Her strength through the treatments was amazing and inspiring. Her influence on a generation of scholars was also significant. Mrs. Penny Sandford taught AP and IB English, and my classmates and I had her for three years through International Baccalaureate years. She taught us to write dialectic journals and read classic literature with a critical eye. I actually don't read the Classics any other way, though I've stopped highlighting and analyzing sentences now. However, the exercise of examining writings for literary tools truly makes reading rich and interesting.


In addition to giving bloggers samples, you also have the opportunity to enter a drawing to win a grand prize of samples similar to mine. I will select a winner, so look for the directions below. Here's what you could win:

Your prize pack and your giveaway winner´s prize pack will contain:

A 16 oz. box of Total cereal

VIP coupons valid for one box of Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios cereal and one cup of Yoplait yogurt

Betty Crocker Living with Cancer Cookbook Pink Together Edition, which includes a collection of more than 150 delicious recipes with complete nutrition information and a 32-page Pink Together Survivor Ambassador bonus section that shares inspirational personal stories of survival as well as recipes

Water bottle and removable silicone awareness bracelet

Drawstring sport backpack

Rhinestone ear buds

To enter the drawing, you must be a new follower of my blog and of my Facebook page. Then answer this question: What is your favorite cancer fighting food? I will select one winner on October 30th.  Two runners up will also receive coupons for samples of Green Giant's Steamers vegetables. 

You can follow the Pink Together campaign on Facebook and watch videos of survivors and loved ones of cancer patients on YouTube.  In memory of Mrs. Sandford, here is my favorite Emily Dickinson poem, which we analyzed in English class. This poem and many others can be found on Poets.org.

Fame is a fickle food (1659)
by Emily Dickinson
Fame is a fickle food Upon a shifting plate Whose table once a Guest but not The second time is set. Whose crumbs the crows inspect And with ironic caw Flap past it to the Farmer's Corn – Men eat of it and die. "Disclosure: The Pink Together prize pack, information and coupons have been provided free of charge by General Mills through MyBlogSpark."

Square One Pizza Demo

At the beginning of each quarter, the chefs will teach the students how to cook some of the dishes. This is particularly helpful because we operate rather independently of each other once we start cooking on the line. Chef Vicky demonstrated the pizza dough rolling and prepping method, and then we had a chance to experiment. Good thing our first tries weren't sold to the public.

It seems that lots of us knew to bring camera phones the first days, because it's pretty hard to remember everything covered during the presentations.

Here is my photo reel of the pizza demo.

Flour your board - see the dough we made to the chef's left?!



Portion control!

Gently roll the dough; you shouldn't need to put much weight on the pin

Or you can pick it up and stretch it (maybe she could, but I couldn't)

Spread onto the pan (We used full sheet pans because we were doing student lunch)

Now you try! Rob is trying to help me with my awkward method

We divided into groups. Lyle worked while we watched

Apparently it takes some concentration

Culinary School: Third Quarter Report

The third quarter at SCA is so different from the second quarter. We now get to serve our food to the public, and the public pays for the food!

Whereas second quarter emphasized quantity cooking, third quarter focuses on developing line cooking skills in different stations. In addition, we get to cook cuisines from around the world. I have really been looking forward to third quarter for various reasons, including the "real cooking" aspect of line cooking. I have also been anticipating studying under Chef Vicky McCaffree for two quarters, since the first day that she shadow-taught Chef Gregg Shiosaki's first quarter class last Fall.

The contrast between Chef KG and Chef Vicky is almost comical. Chef KG is a more traditional Japanese chef who likes to see how we attempt a project and then floats around to correct us when we're wrong. He was almost famous for saying "Why you do that?!"  Sometimes, it was because I didn't really know what I was doing, or because I was going rogue (anyone remember my pulled pork sandwiches?). Other times, I totally misunderstood what he was telling me. I enjoyed studying under him, but the preparation for each rotation was rather intense. I would Youtube cooking methods - especially the butchery station - because our demos were fast-paced and sometimes hard to track. I wrote time-sensitive checklists to make sure I wasn't dragging behind. The sushi station was famously difficult, though I managed to get done on time.

Chef Vicky's demos tend to be hands-on in an experimental way. When she was teaching us to make Paneer (Indian cheese), she distributed recipes to us and had volunteers cook the recipes and see how the product turned out. We then got to eat the experiments and see which method we preferred. Chef Vicky also jumps in and demonstrates how we should prepare or plate a dish as we're doing it. We are also responsible for just 12 portions of a dish and usually have enough time to prep our own stations more easily. As far as falling behind schedule, there wasn't much that we could actually be behind in - the restaurant opened at 11:15, and we sure-as-heck better have our dishes ready.

Another reason I really enjoy learning under Chef Vicky this quarter is that she doesn't really bust me for messing up a dish. I didn't fry my frites quite crispy enough, and she came over with the plate of soggy frites and said "let's fry the next batch together." It's nice that she does it that way, because working the line can be intimidating and stressful enough. It's much easier on the soul to have the chef collaborate rather than holler. (On a random side note, that's why I enjoy working at Stopsky's Delicatessen - the chefs and cooks there recognize that I'm new and are more than willing to show me and explain the "why" behind the cooking method)

So far, third quarter is going well. We've done some really interesting things. More to come!