This week has been a special week for me here at NECI. Chef Emma has gone on vacation to Vancouver, leaving us in the Food theory class in a flux. We were going to get Chef Stephano, a skilled and talented chef in the kitchen, but it would have left him stretched to teach us and run the kitchen. So Chef Emma got in touch with Chef Lyndon and they decided that Chef Jean-Louis Garin would fill in as our teacher. I was ecstatic to say the least, overjoyed and beaming. I have heard so much about him and really couldn’t wait to go back to class. I have learned so much in this week so far and we’re not even halfway thru this week. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

         Today we had Chef Lyndon as a fill in because Chef Jean-Louis was away on business. We covered emulsions in a culinary kitchen. Temporary emulsion like salad dressing, semi-permanent emulsions also salad dressings, but with mustard to help with the emulsion. Then we did permanent emulsions, mayo and hollandaise. We covered the basic recipes, and then talked about derivatives of those sauces. We talked about how we can use these sauces in everyday cooking applications and how we can make them sound fancy without making them harder to pull off.