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Students Get Real Practice

‘You Don’t Make Food. You Make Chefs’

Clean-up time in the busy kitchen at Hewes Center BOCES. Photo by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

ASHVILLE — Any one of Chef Russell Furdell’s students can recite his motto “You don’t make food. You make chefs.” His foodservice class at Hewes BOCES Center functions like a well-oiled machine, with each student having responsibilities and knowing when and how to carry them out.

The students convert their classroom into a dining room every other Thursday and sell desserts the opposite weeks.

“The food is delicious, better than in a restaurant,” says Carol Howard.

“What we had today was excellent,” adds her husband, Gary. “I would compare it to a 5-star restaurant.”

This was the Mayville couple’s second opportunity to partake of the class’s bi-weekly offering. Their daughter teaches cosmetology at the center and their granddaughter happens to be in the foodservice class that prepares the food.

Chef Russell Furdell takes educating the students in his charge very seriously. He has worked in nearly every aspect of food service, including owning businesses in the industry, has written a book on the topic and has been a teacher for many years. Submitted photo

The theme of the meal was Italian. Crepe-style manicotti, Italian sausage, Tuscano soup, salad and tiramisu were on the menu. Amazingly, every dish was made from scratch right down to the ingredients used to put the dishes together. The manicotti was made from the ricotta cheese and crepes made by the students. The stock for the soup was homemade, as were the breadsticks and lady fingers and mascarpone used in the tiramisu. Three dressings, Thousand Island, Ranch and balsamic vinaigrette, all made by the students, were served. And the Italian sausage? Yep, made in the class’s kitchen.

“We do a lot of smoking,” claims the teacher. “Turkey sausage, andouille and Goteborg sausage and a few weeks ago we made a Chinese sausage. Ever since we made bacon four years ago and it tasted so good, we have made our own bacon. I go through a lot of pork.”

“I try to eat here every Thursday (when lunch is offered),” says Bonnie Thorpe, Secretary for Career and Technology Programs. “They do such a nice presentation with soft music. Even the drinks on the table coordinate with the type of food they are serving, right down to (the music of) Dean Martin playing.”

There was some discussion about the homemade ginger ale that is sometimes served. It appeared that this meal came off very smoothly, in spite of being short-staffed with students being out due to sickness.

Kerry Christ, Teaching Assistant in the Criminal Justice class, ordered meals to go “for a wonderful dinner at home. It’s fabulous. Delicious. We love it.”

Boule de Neige Photo by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

Some years the class has had 20 students in both the morning and afternoon sessions. This year there are 10 students in the Junior class and 12 in the Senior class. Fran Michalak has been the teaching assistant for the last three years. She corrects papers, sets up the cash register and works with the students in the classroom setting.

The culinary teacher is a Safe Serve instructor. Most students are taught this “to save a college course.”

Aside from learning in the classroom and preparing the dessert/lunch components, another fun business is the chocolate factory which is set up across the hall. Cacao beans from Venezuela, Guatemala and Ecuador are ordered for the sweet project. Venezuelan beans are used in the production of dark chocolate and the remaining two go into the milk chocolate process.

Four pounds of beans are roasted at a time. They are then put through the melanger where they are ground for 20 hours. An organic milk powder is used in the chocolate. They hand temper on granite or use a temper machine. Some of the chocolate is put into molds and some is used to coat the delicious Hewes Bar, a candy bar made with a caramel and roasted almond filling, covered with a thick layer of chocolate which is then sprinkled with sea salt.

This is the fourth year for the chocolate project. In the second year, Furdell entered his students in the World Chocolate Awards where they competed with participants from all over the United States and the Pacific Rim. Their entry proudly received Honorable Mention.

“You’re a great chef and a great cook,” says 19-year old Joyceanne Wiltsie to the teacher and mentor.

Wiltsie had wanted to be an executive chef, but the Frewsburg Central Senior has decided teaching Home and Careers may be a better fit for her. She carries a worn, folded “cheat sheet” her teacher has made up for his culinary students. The paper is a handy, quick reference showing a diagram of the sizes of dices, measurement equivalents, metric to customary conversions and product conversions. It gives amounts held by hotel pans and scoops, sheet pan yields and basic ratios. Heat effects, cooking methods and doneness and thickening notes, along with several other items of information are provided on the two-sided sheet, but the most important may be the safe temperatures for heating and holding. It is an invaluable resource for all cooks, but especially for those in the food service profession.

He has written a very comprehensive book, “The Practical Chef’s Reference-A Compendium of Charts, Formulas and Ratios,” which deals with everything one would want to know about cooking, including weights, measurements, pan sizes and how much they hold. Information such as the sizes and weights of eggs, coagulation temperatures and composition are included. Knife identification and common uses, scoop weight and volume and everything imaginable about fats, fish characteristics, seafood yield and sizes and poultry cuts can be found within the covers of the handy little book.

When discussing the countless nights and weekends put into the book, he says, “I talked to a lot of experts in the different fields.”

His book, which has sold 5,000 copies on amazon.com, helps with recipe development, following recipes and costing and ratios. “Ratios is a much easier way to cook. It is beneficial when ordering food.”

The teacher admits it is difficult to write recipes using measurements, as he is a pastry chef and weighs all ingredients used in baking.

The Hewes team and three other BOCES teams prepared food for 500 people at a “Get Stuffed” fundraiser this past Wednesday at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens Restaurant in Depew. The fundraiser which is in its 15th year, is run by the New York State Restaurant Association’s Western New York Chapter. It raises money for scholarships to support local culinary students involved in the national ProStart culinary competition. The money goes toward college scholarships and the expenses of entering competitions. Chef Furdell’s team offered profiteroles, sopressata and Nutella bombolini.

The chef and seven students will be leaving at 3 a.m. on Friday to travel to a competition at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. A team of four students and a fifth, who will serve as the expeditor, will make an appetizer, an entree, two desserts and a side dish for the judges. Four of the 60 Master Chefs in the nation will be judging with some Head Chefs from Johnson and Wales, Paul Smith and Wegman’s. Competing teams will have just one hour, including plating, to prepare two servings of all of the meal components on two butane burners with no power.

“If you want a powder, you’d better bring a mortar and pestle with you,” chuckles the dedicated teacher.

This will be the 14th year the educator has taken a team to the event, which has been held in various locations in the state. All ingredients must be taken in coolers. The temperature is checked when the teams arrive and if the food is even one degree below the safe temperature, the food is thrown away.

Some of Chef Furdell’s students join the workforce after graduating, but several have gone on to study culinary at Paul Smith, Culinary Institute of America and Johnson and Wales.

Furdell has been involved in food service since 1971. He owned a food distribution company which supplied restaurants and supermarkets. He later added a push cart from which he sold frankfurters and sausages at Third and Pine streets in Jamestown. He honed his pastry and baking skills while working as Pastry Chef at Fredonia’s White Inn in the late 1980s. From 1992 to 1998, he worked as a quality assurance technician and maple syrup cook for Red Wing Company in Fredonia. He taught at Job Corps for two years before his 16-year tenure with BOCES.

“I almost switched to being a culinary librarian,” he says. “If I had it to do over again, I would have gone into food science.”

The teacher practices yoga and meditation. During his summer break, he enjoys traveling with his partner, Mary Lee Lunde. They have season tickets to the Buffalo Philharmonic and enjoy jazz concerts. He confesses to having 80 bottles of wine in his cellar.

The couple has one daughter and an 11-year old granddaughter who reside in Oakland, Calif.

The Bourbon Pecan Pie and Chocolate Mousse Cake recipes originated at The White Inn and Chef Richard Orloff.

Boule de Neige

1 ¢ c chocolate chips

2/3 c coffee

2 T instant coffee powder

1 c plus 2 T sugar

¢ c plus 2 T butter

5 eggs

2 c heavy cream

1/3 c confectioners’ sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Lightly grease a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan. Mix instant coffee with the brewed coffee. (Coffee is optional. May substitute water or perhaps a mix of brandy and water). Preheat oven to 350∂F. Place chocolate chips, coffee mixture, sugar and butter in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave, stirring every few minutes, until thoroughly melted. (This could be done in a double boiler on the stove top.) Wisk in eggs, a couple at a time. Pour into loaf pan. Bake approximately 45 minutes until puffed and cracked. Cool. Whip cream to stiff peaks, adding sugar and vanilla after cream reaches soft peak stage. Scoop cooled chocolate mixture onto serving plates. Completely cover with piped whipped cream. Makes 10 servings.

Bourbon Pecan Pie

Pie crust dough for a single 9-inch crust

5 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

3/4 c sugar

3 T unsalted butter, melted

1/4 c plus 2 ¢ T light corn syrup

™ c plus 2 1/2 T dark corn syrup

¢ cup plus 2 T heavy cream

3 T bourbon

1 1/4 c pecans, chopped

Roll pie dough into a 10-inch round. Place in a 9-inch deep dish aluminum tin and brush with egg wash. Pre-heat oven to 350∂ F. Blend eggs and sugar. Blend in melted butter. Blend in corn syrups. Blend in heavy cream and bourbon. Place nuts in pie shell and then pour in filling. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, until center is puffy and slightly cracked.

Butter Tarts

1 lb pie dough

™ c raisins

§ c brown sugar

2 T maple syrup

¢ tsp salt

4 T butter, unsalted, melted

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 375∂F. Lightly grease muffin tin. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut 3 3/4-inch circles. Gather scraps and repeat, ending up with 12 circles. Gently press dough circles into muffin cups. Place 6 raisins into each dough lined cavity. Blend brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, melted butter, vanilla and egg until smooth. Pour ™ cup (2/3 full) in each cavity. Bake 16-18 minutes or until it just starts to bubble. Remove from oven. Run a knife around edges. Allow to cool and then remove from muffin tin.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

2 § c chocolate chips

5 eggs plus 1 yolk

2/3 c sugar

1 c heavy cream

™ c brandy

™ c coffee, brewed

2 c heavy cream

1/3 c confectioners’ sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350∂F. Lightly grease a 9-inch aluminum deep dish tin. Whip eggs and sugar until light and lemon in color. Whip heavy cream to soft peaks. Melt chocolate chips with brandy and coffee in a microwave at half power, or stove top in a double boiler. Allow to cool a bit and then fold in eggs. Fold in heavy cream. Pour into prepared pan and bake 40 minutes until puffed with a firm dry surface. Cool. To de-pan: carefully swirl over a hot burner for 30 seconds and invert on a plate. Completely cover with piped whipped cream.

Chocolate Puddin’ Cakes

2 c chocolate chips

4 sticks butter, unsalted

3/4 c sugar

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

4 T cornstarch

1 tsp salt

8 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 350∂F. Line 2 standard 12-cavity muffin tins with paper liners. Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Melt butter until very hot. Add melted butter to chocolate and stir until smooth. Place sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt in a medium bowl and mix well. Blend flour mixture into chocolate mixture in 2 batches. Add eggs in two batches until just combined, do not overmix. Fill cups §

3/4 full (1/4 cup). Bake 25-35 minutes until cakes are slightly puffed, with tops starting to crack and when a toothpick inserted in edge comes out clean. Center should be slightly moist.

Creamy Pralines

2 c sugar

1 c buttermilk

1 tsp baking soda

1 stick butter, unsalted

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c pecan pieces

Use a 4-quart pot, preferably a heavy bottomed Dutch oven. Be prepared and use mitts, as product will foam up and spit a bit. Line a large sheet pan or 2 half sheet pans with parchment or waxed paper. Use a wooden spoon when preparing recipe. Add sugar, buttermilk and baking soda to pot. Bring to a boil, stirring until mixture reaches softball stage (235∂F) or when a couple drops dripped in ice water will form soft balls in your fingers. Add the butter, vanilla and pecans and continue stirring, while bringing back to softball stage. Remove from heat. Rest stirring arm a minute and then stir vigorously until the mixture begins to feel thick. Scoop/spoon in 1/4 cup portions onto prepared trays. Allow to cool.

Pie Dough

5 c flour, pastry or all-purpose

1 1/4 c shortening

3/4 c butter, unsalted

1 c water, cold

2 t salt

To make pastry flour: mix ª all-purpose flour & 1/3 cake flour, or just use all-purpose flour.

Chill water, shortening and butter. Place flour in a medium-sized bowl. Add salt and mix. Slice butter thinly and add to flour. Flake butter into flour to the size of lima beans using hands or a pastry cutter. Flake shortening into butter/flour mixture to the size of peas and coarse cornmeal. Be careful not to overmix. If it stops looking floury, stop. Add measured amount of water to flour/fat mixture and toss to distribute water and form a shaggy dough. Lightly dust the top of dough and press down to about 2 inches. Trifold 1 to 2 times. Portion into three pieces. Lightly form a circle with each piece. Wrap with film, refrigerate or freeze. Makes 3 lbs.

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