Culinary Schools in California: An Overview

1. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) – St. Helena is one of the non-profitable culinary schools in California offering traditional bachelor and associate degrees in culinary arts. The school also offers hospitality courses and consulting services for restaurant management. For professional educators, recreational classes for home food preparation are offered. CIA was founded in 1946 by Katharine Angall and Frances Roth. Originally named as “New Haven Restaurant Institute”, it was changed to “Culinary Institute of America” after World War II in 1951. The St. Helena Campus offers Bachelor of Professional Studies (BPS) and Associate in Occupational Studies (AOS) in culinary arts. Requirements for admission includes six months of experience in food management.

2. The French Culinary Institute (FCI) – San Francisco is an affiliate institution of the prominent Italian Culinary Academy. Founded by Dorothy Hamilton in 1984, the San Francisco Campus offers undergraduate programs in culinary & pastry arts, wine studies & preparation and special programs in food management. FCI – San Francisco is currently one of the top culinary schools in California. From 2006 to 2010, the International Association of Culinary Professionals awarded the FCI – San Francisco Campus for its excellence in offering vocational cooking and baking programs. The FCI is home to some prominent names from the culinary arts, including Jacques Pepin, Andre Soltner, Alan Richman, Chris Ely and Jacques Torres.

3. The Professional Culinary Institute of California (PCIC) – is a branch campus of the French Culinary Institute. Located in Campbell, California, PCIC offers the following programs: Diploma in Professional Baking & Pastry Arts, Diploma in Culinary Arts and Certified Sommelier Program. The PCIC is noted for its state-of-the-art equipment and “small-class” environment. A relatively new institute, PCIC also offers “hobby” classes and trainings for non-professionals. The “Housing Assistance” meanwhile is offered for students from nearby cities and towns in California.

4. Le’Ecole – is a public culinary institution and restaurant owned by the FCI. Le’Ecole specializes in offering courses on pastry making, cake and wine preparation. The restaurant is regularly open during lunch and dinner, as well as weekends and holidays. Students and graduates of Le’Ecole gains experience during their part-time “back-of-the-house” kitchen duties. Le’Ecole is home to these notable alumni:

Chef Dan Barber – One of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2009.
David Chang – 2007’s “Rising Star Chef” winner and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2010.
Lee Anne Wong – Top Chef Season One 4th Placer.

To learn more about culinary schools in California, please feel free to consider our main blog about culinary arts, as we have written many different blogs on various topics revolving around specific cooking classes, culinary arts schools, and colleges in CA. You can find more of our content by visiting our main blog by clicking here.

Fish Prep Requires Proper Gadgets

When you purchase fish from the fish monger, your initial decisions will revolve around how much you want, and how ready to cook it is. For instance, do you want fillets ready to pan fry, or are you willing to take a whole fish and take care of the flesh, fins, scales, gills, and guts yourself? Do you want tail off or tail on? Fillets J cut or V cut? Pan dressed fish or whole round? Fish steaks? Do you want the skin on so that you get the good healthy fat, or deep skinned fish? Lots of decisions!!

The advantage of buying a whole fish uncleaned is the price. If you are willing to put in a little sweat equity as it were, you can save a bundle. In order to prepare the fish for eating, you will have a little work to do in the kitchen, and you will need to have the right equipment at hand. This article will tell you some of the things that can come in handy. They will likely pay for themselves over time, based on the money you save each time you buy fish at the market!

Here are the basic tools that will come in handy when it comes to fish:

- Glove hand covering is wise if you are dealing with things like shelling shellfish. Those oyster shells can cut you!

- Fish pliers are not just for when you are out in the boat catching the little guys. They come in handy in the kitchen for taking out salmon tines. The home improvement store can supply you with needle nose pliers, and you can clean them afterwards for kitchen use.

- Fish scaling has got to be the ickiest of all fish cleaning jobs, and you know that if you have ever cleaned a whole bunch of fish. While electric fish scalers exist, manual ones will serve you just as well.

- A fish gutting knife or two is essential. It is curved and especially designed for the task.

- Kitchen shears should be clean and sharp.The ones you use for cutting poultry will work, but again, make sure they are clean before using.

- Having a fillet knife is a good thing if you want to be like the pro chefs. You can live without it, but personally, it’s a good thing.

- If you are going to clean shellfish, make sure you have knives for clam, shrimp, and oysters.

If you are embarking on a weight loss plan that includes fish, like the diet HCG weight loss plan, all of these utensils will come in handy. Just assemble them before beginning the diet days. This way you will know in advance that you have on hand all of your necessary and useful HCG diet tools.

Reasons For Weighing Your Food

Up until recent history, if you wanted to measure an object, you needed to have an object similar in size and weight to compare it to. The device was called a balance scale, and you’ll find similar devices in many science class rooms to this day.

In fact, the technology is as old as 2000 B.C. Archeologists have discovered rocks with hieroglyphics denoting weights of rocks in common denominators who balanced them against objects on planks of wood. The good news is that if you want to start measuring your food portions, today’s scales do not require any rocks!

No one disagrees that the overeating problem in America is leading to poorer health and undue death. A recent university study revealed that 49 out of 50 states have an obesity rate that exceeds 30 percent. This is a direct result of huge portion sizes and high sugar/fat content.

With the average fast food meal being 5 times larger than in 1960, or a bagel having as many calories as 5 slices of bread, it’s no wonder our caskets are getting bigger and bigger.

The digital food scale selection we have in this country gives us no excuse for overeating. There are scales varying in quality, price, and size each loaded with features that will make it fool proof to measure your food.

The LCD screens are digital and easy to read. The zeroing out function gives you the ability to add food ingredients into a single bowl without having to do any math. And most models let you pick which metric is easiest for you to understand.

Using a food scale isn’t going to instantly make you loose weight. You have to make the hard choices like measuring tea for your electric tea kettle rather than drinking calorie dense colas.

It will not be a swift transformation, but after weeks and months of dedication you will have a much healthier lifestyle.

Finding the best flavors for Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite dishes.   Not only is it a very flavorful meat, it is also one of the healthiest types of red meet you can eat – it is low in fat and cholesterol.    Furthermore, it is very easy to cook. Now these in themselves are enough to convince most people that pork tenderloin makes a great dish.

However, there is more.  Pork is also an extremely versatile meat, and you can eat it with all different forms of spices and sauces.  Here are some of the best combinations taken from my favorite pork tenderloin recipes:

Berry Sauces – pork goes fantastic with many different fruits, and especially berries.  One of the most popular of my recipes is a pork loin with a blueberry port sauce.  The sweetness goes excellent with the pork, making this a popular combination.

Other recipes I enjoy using fruits are pork with sour cherry sauce (great sweet sour combination), pork with apple and caramelized onions, and roast pork loin with sherry, apple and raisin compote.  As you can see, each recipe is a very distinct flavour, but they all go great with pork.

Spices – pork goes great with rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, pepper, cumin and I am sure many other spices (not all at the same time).  It is sufficient to make the pork loin roasted in the oven with a spice or two, and these spices will really shine through when you taste the pork.  As always, it is important to use fresh spices.

Tangy sauces – pork with tangy sauces is also a great combination, and tends to be a favorite with kids and often with adults.

My favorite of all pork recipes is pork loin with with a maple dijon sauce, served with maple sauteed apples.  Another favorite is pork loin with a BBQ sauce.  It is delicious like ribs, but without all the fat.

Curried pork – the indians and thai do this the best.  Pork goes great with curry sauces…red thai curries or indian yellow curries.  Although a typical curry is not normally make with pork tenderloin, it is a great way to make it, as it is much healthier.

Vegetarian Dishes – Tips to help you Prepare a Delicious and Nutritious Plan

Today, weight loss plans is not a problem. A search on the Internet, you can see flood of options. In fact, the decisions are so many that it can be confusing to everyone looking for a particular diet like a vegetarian meal plan. This is delicious and healthy at the same time and will help you achieve your weight loss goals.

People want to lose weight not only for cosmetic reasons. Obesity can load a variety of health issues – one of the most embarrassing is the sleep apnea. It was observed that more than half of the sleep apnea patients are overweight. Furthermore, only 10% weight reduction in a 14 to 26% reduction in the incidence of sleep apnea lead!

So if you plan for a meal, delicious, nutritious, and provides variety at the same time looking, it is not necessary that you had to rely on animal protein. It is quite possible that a vegetarian dishes that you can use, create, especially if you are interested in your sleep apnea problem should be rectified by weight loss.

Why use a vegetarian meal plan for weight loss? The primary reason why this option is important because there is a growing trend in the world where most non-vegetarian prefer to be vegetarian in their eating habits. Therefore, it is from Weight Watchers, you could look at the vegetarian and takes not only on animal protein to be interested in the diet. There is no shortage of valuable food in a vegetarian plan. If only you know how to plan and what specific vegetables you need to your diet.

Here are some key features of this type of plan:

To prepare a vegetarian requires the following: Previous planning; knowledge of macro-nutrients and vitamins and minerals in the selected vegetables contain. It is important that sufficient amounts of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B and riboflavin include in your diet.

You can use the main course of a vegetarian meal on two types of design: Combine egg white and milk products with grains, or combine cereals with nuts, dried beans or peas.

Hopefully the above ideas will benefit you if you try to lose weight in order to address their sleep problems with a vegetarian meal plan. Still, you can execute exercises to lose belly fat if you want too.

Saving Money on Food Storage Rotation

If you have a big family, buying food in bulk can be a blessing. Buying food in bulk makes food cheaper, but if you store it improperly, you may wind up wasting money on food that has gone bad. Remember this simple rule when you’re organizing the food in your pantry: the first food into the pantry should also be the first food out of the pantry.

Many commercial establishments have a process by which they rotate food stock to avoid having food go bad. However, in domestic kitchens, life often gets in the way. Commercial kitchens often use automated food storage storage systems and conveyor belts to move large quantities of food.

Domestic kitchens do not have this kind of luxury. Preparing your kitchen and storage area for your emergency food storage is important and should be thought about with your family’s needs.

Often, commercial kitchens will use a system that allows them to insert new food stocks at the back of shelves automatically, rather than depending on human labor, which is more prone to mistakes. They also use a device that looks like a long vertical tube. Cans are inserted at the top and come out the bottom.

This ensures that the cans that are inserted first are always the cans that come out first. This helps to eliminate waste. It also makes sure that the oldest cans are used first. This kind of system is also used in grocery stores to store cans. However, in grocery stores, customers often take out the can to examine the label.

If they don’t like what they see, they’ll insert the can back in the top of the tube, defeating the purpose. Make sure you check expiration dates on cans and jars of food when you’re buying them. These tubes or pouches also save space, because they can be hung on walls or other space that may currently be unused for storage. They do not use electricity, either– they’re run entirely by gravity.

Healthy Meals Children Would Love

Discussions on the topic of meal time and about getting smaller children to eat a healthy meal are helpful to parents. There are a number of things to do to make family meal time more enjoyable, but considering the children to be involve in creating a menu plan is important to ensure that there tastes are incorporated into the family’s meals.

Make sure to cook on a regular basis the foods that are healthy, easy to cook and appealing to the children. It is always good to find new recipes that endomorph body types need most especially in their way of losing weight.

Provide your kids what they want to eat like appetizing recipes that will have them running to the dinner table! Here are included kid favorites like chicken fingers, tuna melts, and good old no-bake mac & cheese, but in more delicious and much healthier preparation!

Giving kids healthy foods at an early age will help them develop healthy eating patterns for life. So, include kid-friendly recipes with a mixture of vegetables. Adding proteins that are naturally low in calories and foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals will be very helpful. These yummy kid-friendly recipes will help your kids to love whole grains. And don’t forget to include calcium-rich recipes to build strong bones. This set of healthy kid-friendly recipes catch high marks from kids of all ages and is intended to make meal planning easier.

Some of this kid-friendly recipes include Fried rice, Mexibake, Pasta with chicken and spinach, Spicy chutney chicken with mixed rice, Chicken schnitzel and salad, Baked penne with bacon., Porcupine meatballs, Spaghetti ala matriciana , Beef stroganoff. This menu can be distributed throughout the week or you can have it mixed with fruits and vegetables.

Those foods give pleasure meal time and provide fitness benefit.

Buffalo Meat and Planning Road Trip Snacks

Everyone likes to take a road trip with their family and have some fun on the road. Even better when the kids are coming along for the ride or to a favorite destination. If you’re taking the road trip in a car, family meals, food, and snacks are usually a priority for all parents to make a checklist of what they’re bringing in the car.

buffalo meat is the new healthy “red meat” and parents and kids like it without knowing their eating it. Buffalo jerky is a family favorite that can easily be traveled with and eaten in the car without any mess.

Buffalo Meat and Meal Planning for the Family Road Trip

Aside from getting to the destination with smiles on everyone’s faces, a good healthy snack can really add to the energy level and making sure that everyone has a full belly and ready to get out and explore once you’re at the final destination.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve brought along snacks made from beef, buffalo meat, chicken or any other type of meat, it simply needs to taste good for the family to be happy.

Fruit snacks and vegi slices are another great source of nutrition and family friendly snacks. Not only are they healthy for you but the kids tend to love getting a fruit stick or fruit snack that they can munch on while going down the road. Parents are smiling because they just need to throw away the wrapper.

No matter where you’re headed, or what the weather is like, always be prepared with plenty of snacks and drinks for the road trip.

Family meal planning, while at home and on the road, is a staple in any family “checklist” and can save the day when everyone is Hungary, or if you’re traveling and can’t find a good place to stop for a quick meal or snack. Get your kids feedback on what they enjoy, you may be surprised at what they say!

Picking A Great Canner

There is one pressure cooker/canner that outsells every other and it is the all american 921 all-american 21-1 2-quart pressure cooker canner. It is by far the most popular model currently available so let’s take a look at just why this is the most popular option and the most popular All American canner as well.

It basically comes down to the capacity that we need. The 21 quart model will hold 19 pint jars which is more than adequate for most peoples needs.

Most home canning enthusiasts simply do not need a larger capacity that that. It allows us to can plenty of produce without the actual pot being too heavy.

The much larger models are for the very serious cook only and are not really needed on a day to day basis. We will find that this is the perfect size for those that want to combine canning with using the pot as a pressure cooker as well.

21 quarts is sufficient for even very large meals to be made and get the great benefit of using a pressure cooker. Rather than losing essential vitamins via steam as is the norm when using a pan we get to seal in the nutrients and the flavor with a pressure cooker.

Plus it saves us a lot of time. We get to cook food at least 70% quicker and this is certainly not to be ignored. We will find that although All American pressure cookers are not the cheapest they are the best so it really is worth going for this brand if we want the absolute best results and a model that is basically going to last us for a lifetime.

The best in the world and designed to never break, minimal moving parts makes it the best option currently available in the world and the best investment a chef could ever make.

Fruit Smoothie Recipes for Kids

So with life being very busy and stressful for families and single parents, it can be very difficult to get any type of health and nutrition in your child’s diet, particularly if you’re not a very good chef, or you’re not a very good bargainer with your children when it comes to getting them to eat things that don’t necessarily taste like candy.

The good news is that there is a savior for you! In the form of fruit smoothie recipes for kids! These smoothie recipes can be both tasty AND healthy because not only can you use fresh or frozen fruit, But you can also include healthy supplements or “greens” which will turn your humble fruit smoothie into what is known as a “green smoothie”.

A green smoothie is a fantastic way to sneak in some greens and other types of vegetables into your child’s diet such as kale, spinach, and chard just to name a few. And to sweeten the deal, you can often use very bright or dark colored fruits such as blueberries for example to mask the color of the green if you think your child wouldn’t be receptive to it based on what looks like (not all children object to green colored smoothies of course). One supplemental ingredient I highly recommend you can add to make the smoothie that much more healthy for your child is flax seed oil for much needed omega-3 fatty acids which is crucial for child development.

Also please remember to always buy organic produce and juice whenever possible, so you can avoid giving your children and possibly yourself unhealthy pesticides and toxins that are present with traditionally grown produce. This goes for frozen or fresh fruits and vegetables!
Here is a Basic Fruity Green Smoothie to Start You Off With:

• 1-2 Cups properly filtered water
• 1-2 Cups Fresh Strawberries
• 1-2 Cups Fresh Blueberries
• 3-4 Generous handfuls of Spinach
• 1-2 Handfuls of Ice Cubes
• 1-2 tsp of Organic Stevia
• Blend and Enjoy!
  

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  • Culinary Schools in California: An Overview
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