For my breakfast home lab, I made pancakes with a blueberry syrup with a mixed berry smoothie. The dish smelled very fruity, felt smooth, warm and soft, looked very bright coloured, and tasted fruity. I chose to create this dish because I wanted to challenge myself to put a different spin on classic pancakes. I also felt that I could do a good job show some creativeness when designing and cooking. A big challenge that I faced was making all the food at once because there were three components to my dish. I overcame this challenge by working very hard to multitask well, for example, preparing all the ingredients at the same time as cooking the syrup, since that takes the longest. Since I made it a focus to multitask, this challenge became my greatest success and I take pride in it because I had plenty of time to wash dishes and clean up in between. The adult that I cooked this for was very impressed and thought that it tasted great and was seasoned well.
Food Studies 10
Most Challenging Food Lab
Above is a picture of a thin crust pizza with mushrooms and tomatoes cooked in a cast iron pan. The pizza sounded crunchy, tasted and smelled cheesy, felt crispy, and looked bright and colourful. This was my most challenging lab because the process of rolling out the dough was not to the product standards. because it was too big. I met the other product standards but the crust was on the sides of the pan. I overcame this challenge by moving the crust on the pan and holding it there so it partially set and would stay upright. The successes were still making a good pizza despite having a large crust. I am very proud of my ability to work through the challenges and come up with a way to still make the lab work.
Most Successful Food Lab
My most successful foods lab was the omelette with sautéed onions, spinach and cheese on a bed of arugula, topped with basil and cherry tomatoes. The omelette felt soft, smelled cheesy, tasted fresh, was light yellow with color contrast from the tomatoes and arugula. This was my most successful lab because the process was smooth and seamless. I completed all my preparation by cracking my egg and cutting the vegetables so I was ready by the time my partner was, because we had to cook them at the same time. Also, I was very careful to use a low heat and to not break the egg when it was cooking. I completely met the product standards because it did not have any browning, was still moist, and was very colourful. I had to overcome the challenge of inexperience because I am not familiar with cooking omelettes. I overcame them by reading and following the recipe to the best of my ability. My greatest success was the whole process and the effort I put in which made my final product perfect. I am proud of my ability to overcome my inexperience and produce an excellent product. This lab taught me some knife skills and egg cookery for omelettes which I didn’t know before.
Cooking at School Favourite Lab
The picture above is of a baked bacon mac and cheese with a caesar salad side. The dish smelled cheesy, tasted rich, felt smooth and crunchy, and looked colourful and inviting. I chose this as my favourite lab because I got to express some of my creativity and put together a more exciting and revamped version of a classic mac and cheese. Some challenges that I came across was overcomplicating the dish by adding too many things to it. I overcame these challenges by keeping focused and just enhancing the mac and cheese experience. My greatest success was layering flavours as well as keeping it balanced with the salad. I am very proud of how the dish turned out in terms of taste and looks because I do not make mac and cheese very often.
Safety and Sanitation
Safety and sanitation are very important when cooking and that was highlighted in the above picture of the scone food lab. The lab went well, the scones looked nice and the blueberry compote was really good. Something I could have improved on was working a little bit faster, because the butter got a little bit too warm. The safety and sanitation concerns in this lab were spreading germs. In this lab we were concerned about spreading the flu, a cold, and now Covid-19. To be safe, I made sure that I first washed my hands thoroughly and put away any utensils that we were not going to use anymore, therefore making the countertops clean. This is very important because now more than ever, we do not want to be passing around sicknesses especially in a foods class where we are eating the product.
Kitchen Tools and Appliances
Most Useful Appliance
Before I discuss the most useful appliance in my opinion, I will discuss the food lab we had that showcased it. I had great successes in this lab when it comes to following the technique. I do not feel that I had any challenges because the lab went smoothly and the omelette turned out great. Now as you may have guessed, in my opinion, the most useful appliance to me is the stove. I picked it because it is invaluable for cooking meat and for omelettes, sautéing vegetables and cooking eggs. A fun fact about stoves is that induction cook tops are the most energy efficient, where 90 percent of the energy is transmitted to the food, while it is only 40 percent for gas stoves and 74 percent for electric stoves. Overall, I believe that the stove is an invauable appliance which dates all the way back to 1642.
References
My Most Memorable Food Experience
My most memorable food experience was when I managed to make a good steak. This happened in the summer of 2020 and was made in the evening. This meal stands out for me because I was able to produce a pretty good steak although I was hesitant to do it. The steak was significant because I was able to recreate the texture of other steaks I have had before. The steak had a strong beef smell and taste and had a soft texture. I hope to make more steaks with other cuts to expand my skills.