George Brown BBQ-style Cooking Class

I enjoyed my experience with the George Brown Culinary Arts 1 Class a few years ago. So I came back to do another class in the fall term. Unfortunately, the class I really wanted to take (American Regional Cooking) was cancelled due to low attendance, so instead, I decided to try BBQ-style Cooking.

The class style is rather unique for the Continuing Education program. Instead of everyone individually cooking their dishes for themselves and taking home their own individual trays like in Culinary Arts 1, everyone in the class works together on cooking all of the items in the course outline and everything gets portioned out evenly at the end of the class for students to take home.

The course outline by week was as follows:

Week 1

 B.B.Q. Strip Loin Steak with Chimichuri Sauce

General Purpose Grilling Spice

Asian Beef Short Ribs

Balsamic Grilled Green and White Asparagus

Week 2

Cider Glazed Pork Chops with Grilled Spiced Apples

Slow Cooked BBQ Pork Butts

Sweet Chili and Smoked Paprika Rub

Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Blue Cheese Coleslaw

Caramelized Onions

Week 3

Grilled Striped Bass with Lemon Thyme and Ginger

Miso Honey Glazed Salmon Fillet

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Acorn Squash

Week 4

Roasted BBQ Chicken with Sichuan Peppercorn Rub

Stock Ale BBQ Sauce

Jerk Chicken Legs

Lemon and Herb Fingerling Potatoes

Chili and Lime Rubbed Corn on the Cob

Week 5

Char Siu BBQ Pork and Spit Roasted BBQ Pork Ribs

Ginger and Chili Grilled Flank Steak

Peanut Crusted Grilled Beef Yakitori with Honey Wasabi Glaze

Week 6

Slow Cooked Beef Chuck Ribs

Grilled Back Ribs with Tunnel Style Sweet and Hot Sauce

Grilled Banana Peppers

November 5, 2017

I forgot to take pictures of the food from the first week - but the steaks and short ribs were delicious (and we learned how to make char marks on the grill). I learned some interesting things (like white asparagus is asparagus grown in the dark and had a lot of fun working with my table/team for the first week. 

November 12, 2017

Cider Glazed Pork Chops with Grilled Spiced Apples
So yummy! The apples were delicious and they had such nice grill marks too. The pork was so juicy. 


Trays of Caramelized onions...

Smoked BBQ pulled pork (from the pork butt)
The sauce was delicious and the pork was really tender - pulling the pork when it comes out from the oven kinda hurt - but the pulled pork was worth it.

November 26, 2016

Fries!
Which are surprisingly easy to make with a deep fryer filled with hot oil, salt and pepper. Once you've made them, it gives you a whole new appreciation for thin cut and thick cut fries.

Striped Bass with lemon
It doesn't look very flattering with the skewers of lemon holding the stomach of the fish closed, but it tastes delicious!


Salmon and our two side dishes - so yummy! And surprisingly easy to make.

 December 3, 2017 

Chili and Lime Corn on the Cob
Definitely an interesting way to eat corn on the cob - but I wasn't a big fan considering the corn was sweet enough to just eat plain. Also, the chili powder was super messy.


Jerk Chicken drumstick - so tender and juicy!


BBQ Chicken and Jerk Chicken in one tray and fingerling potatoes and corn in another.
So much chicken...

December 10, 2017

Chef Ian and some of the students working on the grill. 

The world's biggest sauce bowl. 

So many ribs and char siu! 

The ribs were good, but the char siu sauce was a little overly sweet (lesson learned). 

Yakitori Skewers

These were okay - I wasn't a big fan of the honey wasabi glaze. 

December 17, 2017

Our last class surprise was: Pig Roast Day!

Yes - we cooked this whole pig and split it into trays to eat!
Surprisingly easy to cook this with an industrial convection oven - spray some brandy and water onto the pig skin to crisp it and push it in. It'll be ready in a few hours.

 
While we were waiting, we went back to one of our favourite class appliances --> the deep fryer and made some onion rings (without batter) and fries.

Stuffed Banana Peppers - These were delicious! Even if you don't eat spicy food, these were so good!

 
With the leftover stuffing (we ran out of banana peppers first), we made little rice balls and then threw those into the deep fryer. (They were a little bland - and needed more salt).


Beef Chuck Ribs
There was so much meat on these ribs and the beef was very tender after being in the oven for so long.

Back ribs with Tunnel Sauce
Interesting Fact: Tunnel Sauce (a type of BBQ sauce) originated in Windsor, Ontario. It has a pretty sharp flavour from the vinegar - and smells super strong when you make it - but it's great on ribs.


The Roast Pig!
It broke in half - but the crackling skin was delicious!

Fantastic Course with Chef Ian! He's so funny, helpful and just a great passionate instructor at George Brown's cooking school. I would love to do another class with him again!

George Brown Culinary Arts 1

I found that since I've been taking the George Brown cooking class (part of continuing education) that I haven't been eating out as much.  The class gives you a different perspective on food and I found that it makes you think about the quality of the dishes served in restaurants and almost makes me question what goes into their meals. It's amazing what you learn about tastes, textures, how to put things together and what works and what doesn't when you start experimenting with cooking.

Great experience! I would highly recommend it (even though it costs $750 for 12 weeks - but that includes the ingredients and uniform - except the steel toed shoes and the knives and utensils). 

Some of the photos aren't mine (and belong to my classmate E).

Week 1: Learning to make stock
Intro week - we watched the Chef make beef, fish and chicken stock (not that we got to try it or anything) and we went to the store to pick up our uniforms.

Week 2: Tuscan Bean Salad
Our first chance to make food! Chef Frank demonstrated how to make three salads and we got to make our own tray of Tuscan bean salad which was tangy and delicious with beans, peppers and prosciutto. Week 2 was all about learning proper knife skills and learning how the kitchen worked as well as the logistics of our stations and how to share food with the other 3 people at our table.

Week 3: Piquant Vegetable soup
Chef made some cream of wild mushroom soup and the vegetable soup. We graduated to using the stove top and my vegetable soup was rather chunky and not as piquant or flavourful as I would have liked it. Well, I guess it's all about experimenting.

Week 4: Lasagna al Forno
One of my favourite classes and definitely the longest class that actually took the full 4 hours (and we learned how to use the oven!). We made our bolognese sauce with meat and vegetables and then layered the pasta sheets with cheese and sauce and then baked it. Yum! Surprisingly simple and yet so time consuming - I could see this as a recipe that I'll use again in the future.

Week 5: Rainbow Trout Vin Blanc (poached filets of trout in Riesling wine sauce) and duchesse potatoes

My portion of the Chef's demo (trout and potatoes)

The potatoes were so pretty and really delicious - but it was the trout that was AMAZING! It was actually better than most restaurant trout I've had - which makes sense since they train the next generation of chefs out of George Brown.  It was like I was eating high end restaurant food for free! 

My rainbow trout 

Also, really good - but I couldn't recreate the Chef's balance of flavours and perfectly cooked fish.  It's great that there's an ideal to try to live up to, but a little sad when I can't perfectly recreate what he served us.  Another recipe that I'll use in the future! 

Week 6: Crabmeat quiche (and Chef Frank made hollandaise sauce)

 

Quiche and Eggs Benedict on an English muffin with asparagus and hollandaise sauce

After watching Chef Frank make the hollandaise sauce from scratch, I'm not sure I'll ever order it again at brunch.  It was really yummy and great that we actually got to try the real thing after he made it right before our eyes. However, watching him put in all that butter and egg yolk made me a little queasy and knowing that most restaurants make it using powder is kinda gross. The things you learn in cooking school.

  
Our quiches and in a take home container. 

  

Looks amazing right? And this was actually so simple to make that it's almost crazy to think that they charge $5 and more for a slice of this (or $6-$10 in grocery stores for a full quiche). 

Another recipe for that I'll use (although I probably won't make the pie crust from scratch again - I tried really hard to follow the instructions to a T and I still couldn't get the pie crust right - it seemed a little soggy).

Week 7: Carbonnade a la Flammade (braised beef Flemish style)
The carbonnade that the Chef made was okay - not my favourite dish.  We got a tougher cut of meat that required more braising to make it tender, but despite leaving the beef in for a long time, my meat still came out really tough.

Week 8: Roast Chicken
Surprisingly, another super easy class! The roast chicken recipe was actually really simple and chef made it look like a walk in the park and the chicken was really juicy and perfectly seasoned.  This was one recipe that I had no issues recreating and the chicken was perfect! The downside of this class? I burnt my hand on the oven door...owie.

Week 9: Beef Stroganoff and spatzle

The Chef made the plate below (and this was also the approximate size of our take-home portions). The beef stroganoff was made using a better cut of beef, so the meat was easier to handle (but you also didn't want to leave it too long on the stove to toughen it) and it had a much easier time soaking up the flavour of the espagnole (gravy) sauce. We didn't get to make the spatzle though - and when the Chef made it - it looked so easy! 

Week 10: Poached chicken breast with curried lemon grass cream and mushroom rice pilaf
Chef made some delicious poached chicken with an amazing curry lemon grass cream sauce. It was a little taste of Thai cuisine with the lemon grass sauce. Another amazing dish! We didn't make the pilaf, but my chicken was fantastic - even with my nutmeg heavy sauce.

 

Week 11: Roasted pork chops with apple and Stilton and bread pudding
I really dislike blue cheese - it's strong, pungent and makes me a little nauseous. So who would have thought that Stilton cheese would work so well with apples and pork chops? The blue cheese complemented the sweetness of the apples and added a punch of flavour to the pork, even my mom (who hates blue cheese and the smell) really enjoyed this! And we had savoury bread pudding with it too. This was a seriously gourmet and delicious class! And all the food was surprisingly simple to make.

 

Week 12: Roast leg of lamb with goat cheese and onions and cauliflower polonaise
We each got a young boneless lamb leg to make our roast.  The Chef's lamb was really good! Not gamy at all, but the goat cheese was a little too overpowering for me. Also, he made a beautiful cauliflower polonaise with hard boiled eggs.  I would have never thought of eating cauliflower this way with the polonaise sauce - totally expanding my horizons.

  

My classmate (E)'s lamb and cauliflower polonaise (because I'm terrible with taking pictures when I'm focusing on cooking). 

And to top it all off, Chef Frank made us a dessert bread pudding with caramel sauce! I can't believe it was so easy to make after he demonstrated it (and it was phenomenal!).