Fancy Pants Foodie

Foodie news, reviews and how-tos from Arkansas and beyond.

I Need to Go to IFBC.

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Foodista (you know, the folks who published that cookbook that I’m in) is having a contest. Apparently, they’re giving away three tickets to the International Food Bloggers Conference, to be held next month in New Orleans.

See, the thing is, I’m dying to go. It was at this very conference two years ago that they concocted the idea for above mentioned cookbook. It’s also the absolute mecca for all things on the cutting edge of food, writing and media…all the things I’m into. I was going to write a drippy post about poor old me, I never get to go to stuff like this, pleeeease pick me.

But I decided to be a bit more real.

Here’s exactly why I need to go to IFBC.

  1. I’m a culinary student. Sure, I could say the conference would benefit my upcoming culinary career, which it undoubtedly would. But the real deal is, my session notes would be awesome suck-up fodder for discussion with my chef instructors. I mean, while the other hosers are picking their noses and forgetting their sanitation buckets, I’ll be chatting up video-based culinary instruction, sustainable eating and food science. Win.
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  2. I’m vain. Well, not really, but in certain circumstances, and definitely when it comes to my food. I feel like I have something to offer the world, and sessions about marketing my personal brand and recipe writing and development will help me spread the Fancy Pants Foodie bloggospel to the world. Oh, and Diane Jacob, the one linked above at recipe development, also wrote Will Write For Food, the textbook for the food writing class I took at culinary school. That’s bound to be good for something, if only a, “hey, they used your book in my class,” and she’ll be all, “that’s cool, be my friend.” Or not.
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  3.  I’m a conference junkie. Back in my days as a public relations guru practitioner, I went to all kinds of conferences — tourism, advertising, design, writing. I love the way it makes my mind go crazy. I eventually started taking two notebooks: one for notes of what was said, and another for the brainstorms that inevitably followed. I plan for the same to happen on an epic foodie level at IFBC. Plus, at conferences, I meet a lot of folks that are smarter than me in different areas (I said I was kidding about the vain thing, right?). Foodie world domination partners unite! (Ooh, can we bring superhero costumes?)
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  4. I’m a mom and I need to get out of here. I really love my two adorable kids and super-hotness husband, but let’s face it, a sister needs a break. I really do have big plans for my blog and my cooking/teaching business when I’m done with culinary school, and I need some inspiration and time away to let it gel. Who can write a business plan while fetching the nth sippy cup of apple juice and trying to (finally) convince them that Lunchables are evil?

Christie Ison is a mid-life u-turn culinary student at Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School in Little Rock, Arkansas and writer of the wildly (well, mildly) popular food blog, Fancy Pants Foodie. In former lives, she has practiced public relations, magical stay-at-home mom arts, and engendering world peace one fancy meal at a time.

She’s totally kidding about her fellow students being “hosers.” Mostly.

UPDATE (8-4-11): I WON! Their response was a bit later than expected, so I thought I didn’t win. But I did. So now to figure out how to get hotel and airfare scraped up. 😉

Food Production 3 Final: The Lunch Service

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Today was our practical final in Food Production 3 at Pulaski Tech’s Arkansas Culinary School. For the first time, we served a dining room of guests, who chose items from our own menus. We worked in groups of three on a menu of two each of appetizers, entrees and desserts.

The dish I made for service — coffee- and pepper-crusted pork loin with red eye orange/maple gravy, rice pilaf, caramelized Brussels sprouts and a poached egg on toast.

Not having come from the restaurant industry, this was a unique opportunity to experience what it would be like. It was awesome.

Last week, our chef had us work individually to produce our best three-course meal, from which he would choose the best appetizers, main courses and desserts. We ended up making my Wide-Eyed Pork Loin today, using a full-size loin rather than the tenderloin I used in the home-cook recipe at the link. It worked out great!

I served it with a rice pilaf that included omelet-style ingredients (mushrooms, tomato and peppers) and caramelized balsamic Brussels sprouts, as well as a fantastic last-minute throwback to my original recipe: toast and a runny, poached egg. Yum!

Our group of three was one of several groups in the class offering a complete three-course service. My teammates also turned out an amazing set of goods: raspberry vinaigrette salad, fried cheese dip balls, candied bacon rice crispy treats, and a pineapple glazed poundcake. I didn’t get a chance to see much of the other groups’ goods (we were slammed!), but what I did see was beautiful and well executed.

On August 15, I’ll be back in classes again, this time for a semester of mostly 6-hour labs, plus one classroom class. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope to see some of you on campus, too!

My fall schedule:

  • Garde Manger
  • Food Production 4
  • Banquets and Catering
  • Restaurant Industry

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Food Production 3 Menu

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In my Food Production 3 class at Pulaski Tech’s Arkansas Culinary School, each day we have a menu to produce. In groups of three, we spend four or five hours making a menu for the chef to taste and evaluate. The menus are given to us a few days in advance, so we can write them onto notecards for easy kitchen-reading.

I’m pretty much blogging this so I can avoid finishing writing out my cards for tomorrow (yes, I waited until the last minute). But, I thought you might be interested in what we do. Here’s the menu, and one of the recipes. Risotto is my fave!!!

Food Production 3 Menu for Monday, July 11, 2011

-Potato Soup a la Suisse
-Flounder Poached in Brown Butter
-Lemon and Goat Cheese Risotto
-Broccoli Rabe
-Kentucky Pecan Tart

Lemon and Goat Cheese Risotto (4 servings): 

  • 2 T. Butter
  • 1/2 oz. shallots, minced
  • 8 oz. Aborio rice
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced and zested
  • 1/2 c. white wine
  • 3 c. chicken stock, hot
  • 1 T. butter
  • 4 oz. goat cheese
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
  1. Heat the butter in a large saute pan.
  2. Add the shallots and sweat over medium heat; do not brown. Add more butter if necessary.
  3. Add the rice and saute for about 2 minutes. Make sure the rice is well coated with fat.
  4. Add the wine, lemon juice, and enough stock to cover the rice  by about 1/4″. Add the zest and cook the rice, stirring constantly, until the liquid is completely absorbed.
  5. Add more stock to just cover the rice and repeat the procedure. Stop adding stock when the rice is tender, but firm. When done, the risotto should be very moist and creamy, but not runny. Cooking time should be 20-30 minutes.
  6. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and goat cheese. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Eye Candy from Food Production 3

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I’m recovering from end-of-kid-school, MomCation, vacation and return from said vacation.

I’m writing a few posts for you about my food exploits in Charleston. You’ll like it. Come back.

Meanwhile, I’ll just satiate you (or not) with some yummy photos of what we’ve made so far in Food Production 3, my current summer class. Enjoy.

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Diamond Chef Arkansas Finals Play by Play

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June 7, 2011

I wasn’t able to attend this event last year, so I didn’t realize just how stinkin’ cool it is.

The event of Diamond Chef Arkansas at the Statehouse Convention Center is quite the event indeed. When I first peeked in the dining room, there was a server locked in position at each of the 50 10-seat tables. At 7 p.m., all of us involved with the school, both students and instructors, lined each side of the entryway and greeted guests as they entered, with flashing lights, video screens and exciting music pumping.

I didn’t expect to be able to eat tonight; most of these events, I’m shlepping in the kitchen. I didn’t realize that my friends at the school expected me to blog right at the table, which is cool with me! In fact, all the students are getting to eat, as the convention center has its own kitchen staff. I’ve already enjoyed an amazing mixed green salad with candied pecans, Gorgonzola cheese, hearts of palm and cherry tomatoes.

The Competition

Chef Daniel Capello of the Chenal Country Club, last year’s Diamond Chef champion, is competing tonight against Chef Cindy East-Malik, lead instructor at the Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School. They entered the banquet hall as to a ring fight, each with his or her own music and rally cry to the audience. Chef Malik danced as she entered the stage, set up like Iron Chef or Chopped on Food Network, to “Cause I’m a Woman.”

Chef Todd Gold, director of the Arkansas Culinary School, announced the mystery protein: rabbit. The two chefs were allotted 10 minutes to break down the protein, which they have just completed. They now have one hour to produce their dishes.

Appetizer Courses:
Chef Capello: Rabbit Tacos with cilantro and a mango margarita
Chef Malik: Rabbit Lettuce Wraps with a Southern cucumber salad

Rabbit tacos by Chef Capello

First Course/Entree:
Chef Capello: Parmesan crusted rabbit with gnocchi and sauteed spinach
Chef Malik:  Apricot glazed rabbit side with creamed spinach, glazed heirloom carrots and potato pot pie

Chef Malik's goat cheese and rabbit sausage tart with poached pears and watermelon sorbet.

Second Course/Dessert:
Chef Capello: Hazelnut crusted rabbit, blue cheese ravioli, chantrelle mushrooms and a tomato sauce
Chef Malik: Goat cheese rabbit sausage on a tart shell with microgreens, poached pears and watermelon sorbet.

WINNER:
Chef Daniel Capello.

Chef Malik: 78.77/100 points; Chef Capello: 81.42/100 points.

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Diamond Chef Finals Tomorrow

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Chef Malik reviews her mystery box ingredients during the March 2 preliminaries.

June 6, 2011

Today I was in the kitchen at Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School, the first day cooking for my summer class, Food Production III. I’ll write a separate post about that…stressful, but ended up okay!

While I was there, I noticed Chef Cindy Malik (known to some students as Chef East, as she got married last semester) and her hubby chatting with some of the other chefs. She was in street clothes — I hardly ever see her out of chef whites — but she meant business.

She’s playing two roles this week, both as lead instructor at the culinary school and a competitor in tomorrow’s Diamond Chef final, hosted by the same school. She won the preliminaries on March 2 against a bevy of local heavyweights to compete against last year’s Diamond Chef winner, Chef Daniel Capello of the Chenal Country Club.

Chef Dan Capello finishing his dish at last year's Wildwood Wine and Food Festival.

I’m sure it’s an awkward balance for her this week. She has worked very hard to practice, study, learn new techniques and memorize all kinds of possibilities for tomorrow’s black-box style competition (think Chopped on Food Network). Meanwhile, all her colleagues are putting together the actual event, including the secret ingredients that she can’t know anything about.

Chef Malik, from what I overheard, was informing the others about what she’d be bringing, since the competitors are allowed to bring some of their own equipment and product. After she left, the others whipped back into action, packing up all the pantry ingredients and equipment that the two competitors will have available during the competition, as well as the top-secret mystery baskets.

The Diamond Chef competition, a fundraiser for the Pulaski Technical College Foundation, will be held at the Statehouse Convention Center tomorrow night (Tuesday, June 7), with a reception at 6 p.m. and program at 7. Food fans can purchase tickets for $150 and enjoy a three course dinner — not the ones prepared by the competing chefs, but by the school’s other professionals and students — and watch the two competitors sweat and chop it out.

I was sick and wasn’t able to attend last year, so I am totally excited to be going tomorrow. I’m so excited, in fact, that I was willing to send my husband and kids ahead on our vacation to Charleston, S.C. without me, and I’m flying out Wednesday morning to meet them.

The school has me scheduled to help in the kitchen, but if I’m at all able, I hope to live-blog the event here and on Twitter as I did the Diamond Chef preliminaries. If you’re a Twitter bird, follow me at @ARFoodie. If nothing else, I’ll send some awesome behind-the-scenes photos of food and frenzy.

Deets:

June 7, 2011
Diamond Chef Arkansas – Finale
Statehouse Convention Center
6 p.m. Reception
7 p.m. Program
Table of 10 – $1,500
Individual Tickets – $150
For tickets, contact Yvette Henton at (501) 812-2271 or yhenton@pulaskitech.edu

The conclusion of the ultimate culinary competition will unfold on center stage. Chefs will have 60 minutes to prepare a three course meal for judging that features a mystery ingredient revealed just before the clock starts. Chefs are judged on creativity, taste, presentation and technical skills.  Guests are treated to a three course meal including wine.

Diamond Chef Arkansas is presented by Pulaski Technical College Foundation.

2011 Chef Ball this Sunday

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PTC ACS instructor Chef Cindy East-Malik (they spelled her name wrong!) and Chef Bob Wolf appear on KTHV Ch.11 promoting the Chef Ball.

Yes, all the food events seem to swarm lately, with Diamond Chef preliminaries just wrapping up.

But if you love amazing food — not to mention a grand show of local culinary mastery — you need to be at the Chef Ball at Pulaski Technical College this Sunday night, March 20, 6 p.m. for hor d’oeurves and 7 p.m. for dinner. If it sells out, at least check back here at Fancy Pants Foodie for some photos and such. The event is held by the American Culinary Federation Central Arkansas Chapter, and tickets are $125.

Diners will enjoy a six-course meal prepared by some of Arkansas’ best chefs, including many instructors from Pulaski Technical College’s Arkansas Culinary School. Think you have a good palate for picking out ingredients? Each course will include a mystery ingredient that will be revealed during the dinner.

Participating chefs are: Chef William Ginocchio, CEC, PTC Arkansas Culinary School; Chef Coby Smith, CEC, Fox Ridge Retirement Community; Chef Jamie McAfee, CEC, Pine Bluff Country Club ; Chef Cindy East, CEC, PTC Arkansas Culinary School; Chef Dan Capello, CEC, Chenal Country Club; and Chefs André Poirot & Heidi Eppling, Peabody Hotel.

Sounds like fun to me! I’d buy a ticket, but I get to watch for free because I’m helping serve folks at the event and all. Or, I may be cooking behind the scenes. Either way, I’ll get a unique look that you’ll want to read about later.

To buy a ticket or get more info, contact Renee Jeffrey at Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School.

Diamond Chef… There can be only one.

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Note: Scroll down for live coverage.

Continuing to position itself in the forefront of Arkansas’ culinary scene, today Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School and the Pulaski Technical College Foundation host Diamond Chef preliminaries at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Little Rock. The event, held in the hotel lobby’s bar area, is free to the public and helps raise awareness and funds for the state’s only culinary school accredited by the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation.

Diamond Chef is patterned after competitions such as Iron Chef and Chopped on Food Network, placing the state’s top chefs against each other for the year’s esteemed title. For the preliminary competitions, chefs are presented a mystery basket of ingredients and given 40 minutes, with the help of one sous chef, to prepare a dish using all the ingredients.

Last year’s champion, Chef Daniel Capello of the Chenal Country Club, will defend his title later this year against today’s winner.

Capello, who has been executive chef at the Chenal Country Club since 2009, has been cooking professionally for two decades. Before moving to Arkansas, the Texas native was an executive chef at several Houston restaurants, as well as for the corporate dining facility of British Petroleum. He’s one of just a handful of chefs in the state who have earned the American Culinary Federation’s Certified Executive Chef designation.

Tickets to the final Diamond Chef competition, to be held June 7 at the Statehouse Convention Center, are $150 and include a three-course meal. (For tickets, contact Yvette Henton at (501) 812-2271 or yhenton@pulaskitech.edu.)

As a student of Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School, I encourage you to follow along, or even come by and watch the excitement. If you have a little extra cash floating around, consider bidding on one of tonight’s dishes by live auction, and/or purchase a ticket for the June final. Both will help buy equipment for the school, so we can continue bringing up the next generation of great Arkansas chefs.

Stay tuned for live updates!

Chef Jamie McAfee and sous Duke Eyman take a few moments to evaluate the mystery ingredients.

 

 

Chef Cindy East-Malik quickly removes items from her mystery basket, alongside sous Billy Ginocchio.

Round 1 winning dish by Chef East-Malik and sous Billy Ginocchio.

 

 

Heat 1: Chef Cindy East-Malik (Sous Billy Ginocchio), PTC Arkansas Culinary School vs. Chef Jamie McAfee (sous Duke Eyman), Pine Bluff Country Club.
Mystery Basket: Coffee-flavored Patron, Hershey chocolate bar, ribeye, catfish, pork rinds, horned melon, pineapple, blood orange and nectarines.
WINNER: Chef East-Malik.

Heat 2: Chef Brian Kerns of Country Club of Little Rock (sous Jon Bobo) vs. Chef Jacob Peck of Forty-Two.
Mystery Basket: Skirt steak, red drum, Cocoa Krispies, granola bars, white asparagus, assorted fruits, Bacardi aged rum.
WINNER: Chef Brian Kerns. Note: Win was by only 1/4 point. Kerns, 33/50; Peck, 32.75/50.

Heat 3: Chef Paul Clinton of YaYa’s Euro Bistro (sous Matthew Loman) vs. Chef Jeremy Reeves of Fox Ridge Estate (sous Mark Elliot).
Mystery Basket: Veal, trout, Fruit Loops, Chex party mix, squash blossom, assorted fruits, Gentleman Jack bourbon.
WINNER: Chef Paul Clinton.

Heat 4: Chef Brian Kerns of Country Club of Little Rock (sous Jon Bobo) vs. Chef Cindy East-Malik (sous Billy Ginocchio) of PTC Arkansas Culinary School.
Mystery Basket: Top sirloin, soft shell crab, mini marshmallows, Pringles potato chips, cipollini onions, assorted exotic fruits and Patron Anejo tequila.
WINNER: Chef Cindy East-Malik, who will go on to the final round against Chef Paul Clinton for tonight’s win.

Heat 5/Final: Chef Paul Clinton of YaYa’s (sous Matthew Loman) vs. Chef Cindy East-Malik of PTC Arkansas Culinary School (sous Billy Ginocchio).
Mystery Basket: Beef cheek meat, oysters on the half shell, Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, broccoli rabe (a.k.a. rapini), assorted exotic fruits and Tanqueray Rangpur gin.
WINNER: Chef East-Malik.

Chef East-Malik, lead instructor for Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School, will battle Chef Daniel Capello of the Chenal Country Club on June 7. See above article for ticket information.

Here, Piggy, Piggy…

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I apologize straight away to my vegetarian friends.

And to Kat Robinson, my writer friend at Eat Arkansas/Tie Dye Travels who is tragically allergic to pork.

But in culinary school, we have to do it all, and that includes butchery of our favorite, pink barnyard friends.

In my Meat & Seafood class at Arkansas Culinary School, we recently went from whole pig to the dish of our own choosing. Below are some photos of our adventure.

Remarkably, I wasn’t as grossed out as I thought I would be at cutting the poor thing. I managed to remove some feet and skin a ham.

Friends, give homage to your butcher.

And bring home the bacon.

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The Little Chicken that Could (A Finals Story)

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My final dish: Roasted chicken breast, mushroom risotto, steamed carrots and broccoli, with mushroom and fried parsley garnish and cream pan sauce.

Some of the most demanding classes we take at Pulaski Technical College’s Arkansas Culinary School are the Food Production classes, which we presumably take each semester (hence FP1, 2, 3 and 4). These classes develop all the basic techniques needed to cook and present professional-quality food.

I just completed Food Production 2, which was terribly exhausting (especially at 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes from where I live) but equally rewarding. The practical final was like a little capsule of the whole experience: terrifying and exciting.

Did I mention I made an A in the course? By some combination of miracle and loving a challenge, I pulled it off!

For our practical final (as opposed to the written final, which was a week later), we were going to have a “black box,” kinda like what you see on Chopped. (Turns out it wasn’t nearly that glamourous, as the ingredients were just hidden in the fridge, but same difference.) We’d get a few minutes to plan a menu after hearing the ingredients, which had to demonstrate at least two different cooking techniques (i.e. roasting, boiling, steaming).

The ingredients:

  • A whole chicken
  • Arborio rice
  • Carrots
  • Broccoli

All the other students in the class proceeded to cut up their chicken to use the quick-cooking breast or other smaller pieces. As I am severely deficient in butchering (that’s a class next semester) and I rather like whole roasted chicken anyway, that’s what I went for. Risky, considering we only had a little over an hour. But doable.

We had roasted whole chickens just a week or two earlier, and you’d think none of us had ever cooked before. We took nearly an hour just to get our birds prepped, trussed and in the ovens. This time, I had it down in under 10 minutes, stuffed with rosemary, garlic and onion and drizzled with oil, S&P. And it was bee-u-ti-ful.

Of course, the arborio rice had to become risotto for all of us. But I may have had a slight edge because I scoped out the dry storage the day before and found dried mushrooms. (Hey, the chef said we could go look!) I reconstituted these in some hot water, used that water while cooking the rice, then added the mushrooms at the end. I have to say this was the best risotto I’ve ever made!

For the veggies, I wanted to do a simple steam, but with finesse. So I cut the carrots down into large dice (something we haven’t had to do since “boot camp” Food Production I) and trimmed the broccoli down into small florets.

The chicken came out just before the done temp of 165, letting it catch up with carryover cooking. I cut out a small (6 oz-ish) breast portion, trying to not load up a big, heavy plate. But then I got worried it wasn’t enough, so I cut two!

We also had to make a sauce for the chicken. Although I chose a simple cream pan sauce, it took too long and put me past my assigned presentation time! Ughhh.

But when my next time came up, I had it together. Frazzled, not sure the chicken was really done, but still fairly proud of what I had done, I turned in my plate.

Usually, we get immediate feedback, but this time we had to wait until the next class (a whole week!) for a response. Mine: The sauce was runny. The chicken was fine. Top marks on veg and rice. Yay!

I was supposed to take Food Production 3 next semester, but as much as I loved this class, I need a break. My kids need some attention, and my poor body needs some rest! I’m prone to illness if I get stretched too thin, and I’ve gone there too much lately. But I’m sure I’ll love my other classes just as much. More later on my next schedule and the *surprise twist*!