I came to New Oriental Cooking School in September this year and started my three-year study. I am now finishing my 3rd month at New Oriental.
Every professional chef has undergone professional training. They usually study with experienced chefs in the hotel’s kitchen, or choose to go to a professional school to receive learning. I chose to go to school to study, which means that I will work hard to become a professional chef. It means that most of the recipes I share on this website in the future will be the results of my learning, and I will cook dishes that belong to my style.
Three year program
The time of my major study at New Oriental is three years. The students will study in the school for 2.5 years, and then the school will arrange for the students to go to the kitchen of a hotel or restaurant that has a cooperative relationship with the school for an internship for half a year. After that, students can choose to stay in the internship kitchen or find other restaurants for work based on their performance. When studying in school, we will go through various assessments: basic kitchen skills; cooking technique; food carving artistry; and so on.
Internship
In the later stage, we will simulate working in a business kitchen. The teachers are our customers, and we serve them in accordance with the standard process. During the internship, students are usually responsible for cutting and matching ingredients, yes, just cutting and matching. Because any professional learning a profession needs to start from the basics, a formal restaurant will not let a novice chef be the head chef. If the person in charge of the kitchen asks a student chef who has not experienced a restaurant kitchen to cook for customers, this is equivalent to making a joke on the quality of the restaurant’s dishes. The food of one dish can make a restaurant lose some customers. So we need more experience to really cook for customers. When we do the cutting and matching work perfectly, maybe the chef in this kitchen will give us the opportunity to take care of some simple cooking.
The journey to becoming a famous chef
Did you discover it? Some famous Chinese chefs are older, usually with decades of cooking experience. Maybe young chefs also have good cooking skills, but this is different. The dishes cooked by older chefs are more flavorful than those cooked by younger chefs. I mean, the taste of experience is integrated into the dishes. Experience and cooking knowledge learned over decades. I hope I can also have decades of experience on the road of cooking. Maybe I can only become an ordinary old chef, but who knows, I also want to become a famous old chef.
Preliminary study in September
In the first month of enrollment, we use the steel practice wok for practice exercises. We raise the steel wok to the waist level, maintain the balance of the wok, and hold this position for 30 seconds. This exercise builds the strength of our wrists, because we usually have more power in the right hand and weaker in the left hand. So, we must exercise.
Since the wok in the kitchen will be bigger and heavier than the wok we use in practice, we add some sand to the practice wok to increase the weight and challenge ourselves. When we can easily hold on for 30 seconds, the time will gradually increase to 45 seconds, then 55 seconds.
October: Learning recipes and demonstration lessons
In October, we started a new stage of our training. The teacher will teach us recipes and demonstrate the cooking for us. All we need to do is to record each recipe and remember the precautions the teacher said. I am very interested in these courses because I rarely get to see professional chefs cooking, because most restaurant kitchens prohibit others from entering. My teacher’s cooking process is very professional. Chinese cooking is very fast when stir-frying, usually 3-5 minutes to complete a dish, but my teacher will spend more time cooking a dish because he needs to let us study. He takes time to explain each step.
After the cooking, he introduces the characteristics of the dish, and lets the students share it equally. Although the amount is small, it lets the students learn the taste of this dish.
November: A new experience
When November arrived, we were filled with nervous anticipation, because the teacher said that, in November, we will be able to practice cooking. Teacher Zhu seriously trained us on safety before we practiced cooking. He didn’t want his students to be in danger. All professions are relatively dangerous. Chefs working in the kitchen need to be careful of fire, hot water, and hot oil. In any case, we all need safe and regulated operation of kitchen utensils.
The first dish we practiced is garlic cabbage. This dish looks simple, but at the same time it has some difficulties for us who are still novices. We must ensure the cleanliness, shape and texture of food. The teacher said that the simpler dishes are often the hardest to cook. For example, shredded potatoes with green pepper: this is a home-style dish, which most families will cook, so almost everyone knows the taste of shredded potatoes with green pepper. If your restaurant menu has this dish, how does your chef make this dish in a special way? This is a difficult problem.
I learn new knowledge in my daily cooking. The dishes I cook in a professional kitchen are not perfect. I need more experience and practice. When the practice does not stop, I will always work hard and improve. I hope I can bring more professional recipes and cooking demonstrations to all friends who follow this website. I believe I can do it.
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