Servsafe – Day 2

TODAY’S TIDBITS

• The pasteurizing of milk can actually make it MORE vulnerable, because often the natural bacteria give it defence.
• Many cheeses in Europe are un-pasteurized and taste better, they’re not allowed in North America however.
• Cooking will kill parasites, and bacteria, but not their toxins, not all viruses, not all spores.
• If you’re going to serve raw or uncooked fish, the safest is fish that has been frozen, because freezing kills parasites (but freezing doesn’t kill anything else).
• Don’t use copper or aluminum pots, particularly with acidic foods (uh oh, I’ve been using aluminum for years)
• Temperature Danger Zone (41 – 135 F)

OUCH, cut myself today – and not while doing anything fancy, just taking a knife out of the knife kit. Oh well, it wasn’t too deep. A band-aid and finger condom, and I was off to more chopping.

Many of us needed coffee to stay awake for part of today. It was safety day, so Chef Bauer (from Alsace) took us through the ServSafe curriculum, which, while important, was not that exciting. I think he knew it too, half way through, he said “You all need a break don’t you”, revealing that cool French sarcasm. The owner of Lutece popped his head in today. There are lots of French chef heavyweights walking the halls. I was “co-sous-chef” today which means you go upstairs and bring down lunch (who is cooked by another class) for the whole class. Today was steak with chimichurri –yum!

Off to write up my recipe cards for tomorrow. (We’re not allowed to have our textbook in the kitchen as it uses up too much space, so we have to write the recipe on a 3×5 card in advance of class). Our first recipe is ratatouille (coincidently the first recipe I did from Julia Child’s book).