Hi,

my name is SARU and this is my first year in chef school at George Brown College.  The program allows us to take a nutrition course and brings us today’s writing. Today’s writing will talk mainly on my point of view as a chef on nutrition, and the importance and difference of using credible websites.

 

State one topic in nutrition that interests you and one that you would like to learn more about?

 Historical diets(changes in generational)

diets are ever changing and will continue to evolve as technology grows more rapidly.  The food we are eating at this time of age is unique then what was present 100 years ago. There are new genetically modified plants that are sustaining our food source created by humans, where years ago nature was the only power source. The food today is very complex and delicate while in the past it was simple but powerful. Previously a caveman may have had a big cut of meat roasted on fire while today the same person if living, may have a small steak baked with seasoning with sides french fries and a saucy caesar salad.

Diabetes

Sugar is very common is everyone’s diet no matter how much you avoid it, it’s in everything. Is sugar good or bad?  We need sugar but only need natural sugar found in fruits and vegetable. The sugar we are more used to is the complex sugar made from beets and sugar cane and even corn. That sugar is processed and inefficient for the body to digest, thus resulting in increased body fat. Many people sugar intake is greater than the recommended amount, mainly due to the large supply of procced food. Corn syrup is an inexpensive solution to a sugar agent, thus more commonly used especially in pops and beverages. Corn syrup is a foreign enemy to the body as it is very complex to break down but very craved by the body due to high sweet content. It very cheap to manufacture so many companies use it and thus why the world index for obesity is ever growing. Many people in relation to me suffer from a condition called Diabetes but I know very little of it expect the fact its caused by increase sugar in the body or the lack of. I’m more particularly interested in the science and the biology of it at the cellular level.

 

Do you feel, currently and in the future, nutrition will play a more important role in the culinary industry? Explain why or why not?

• yes,  chefs are responsible for what you eat if you are the majority that eats out often. The well being of the customers is important and vital. Demands for quality ingredients will increase as clients become more aware of the source of the food. Rise in weight in the average city will result in a change in federal regulations. Companies will market on the continued growth of green food movement, and detour from the heavy animal option on their menu.

Website with today technology and widespread use of the internet makes it virtually anyone to create their own website for practically nothing. This basically means the majority of the websites on the internet contains unreliable information.  Information that holds scientific standards do exist but take a longer time to find, but evitably do exist. Great ways to find it are first, who wrote the website. If the website is from a kindergarten student with no professional background, it can be safely assumed that has no real support to it and should be used only as a reference.
Secondly, find out what the qualification of the author is. Are they qualified to write about the topic? do they have the relative background or experience to make them an expert in the field? Does the Author have any formal education in the matter like a Ph.D. or a certification? A great way to figure out the qualification is to look at the website and in particular the “about author section” with may tell you more about the qualification of the writer. When the website is designed by a professional who is recognized by the mass a legitimist and also has certain qualification makes the website more noteworthy and structural. Finally, if the author references his finding and information then the website is a gold mine, thus meaning there are support and evidence for the logic.

 

Hi, guys welcome to my second blog!

Today I will be sharing two of my recipes for pickling and fermentation.  pickling and fermentation as you guys know have been done for thousands of years as the mean of persevering and enhancing flavors. Both methods involve time and duration as the main part of the process, and some longer than the other depending on the intended product. All around the world people incorporate these techniques and can vary by different regions, but none the less everybody uses it.  Even common things like when you eat a hamburger for lunch, the bread or the pickles on it has been fermented or preserved. In my household, we make this traditional recipe from back home that is similar to roti but thinner and batter like that taste great with chutney. it is super easy and takes one night of preparation to make. Let’s assume you want to have this dish for breakfast then you can get mixture done the night before so it has enough time to fermentate.

here we go…

So we start by taking 2 cups of all purpose flour (rice flour could be substituted if gluten allergy). Then 1 tablespoon sea salt and 2 teaspoon turmeric powder for color and taste.mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly and now comes the hard part, add 500ml of hot water and stir with hand. Try to avoid too many clumps. I say it hard because it is never perfect so according to the texture add more water to get the desired batter like texture. You don’t want it to be too watery or too thick! now that’s done all we do is blend it in a blender for 60 seconds so we can have a smooth finish.  Now the easy part, cover in plastic wrap and set it on the counter for overnight. when you wake up in the morning you should find the batter is light and bubbly.

The way to cook is just like cooking pancakes, using a pan and a ladle. You can spice it up adding sauteed vegetables or egg on it when cooking it.  Due to its simplicity of ingredients, this dish makes a great choice for a healthy breakfast.

 

 

Thanks for reading on as now I’ll share a pickling recipe. Pickling recipe is super easy as it takes very little effort and time to start.  First, go pick up some quality glass jars at Canadian tire for about $25.96 for a pack of 20.  You will need glass jars because plastic is a bad choice because it can leach into the food over a long time and with glass, it can be used again and again. Next, you will need to grab the produce you want to pickle. My neighbor has kindly let us use his garden and even shared his pickling recipe. My neighbor has been growing his garden for months so instead of going to the grocery sometimes he gives us the fresh produce he just picked.

Basically, we begin with a handful of jalapeno, orange habanero,  red caroline pepper, and ghost pepper in each can. Before you put them in the jar, cut them into the desired slices. After that add:

• 4cups of white vinegar
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 2 tablespoon of mustard seed
• 2 tablespoon of celery seed

once you have all the ingredients in the can put the lid on it and store it in a dark cool place for the longest shelf life. The cool thing about pickling it is that the longer you have it in the jar the stronger the flavor becomes. The pepper is good for 6 months and longer and once opened you have to consume it within 3 weeks

 

My neighbor grows some great tomatoes so why not show you how to make canned tomatoes since we are on the same topic.  It is closely similar to the process of the pickled peppers but with a bit more steps.

1. take ripped tomatoes and blanch in hot water for approximately 30 seconds.
2. remove the skin as you will see it come off with ease after the blanching
3. cut the whole tomatoes in half
4. stew tomatoes on low heat for 10 mins with a 2 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and 200ml water.
5. boil jar in hot water for sanitation to remove bacteria
6. Put stewed tomatoes in a jar with a lid and pasteurize tomatoes by placing the full jar in hot water until lid level for about 30 mins.

pasteurizing the tomatoes helps to preserve the shelf life of the tomatoes by removing any bacteria and stopping the formation of future gas in the jar. The canned tomatoes come in handy for pasta night or when making pizza sauce as the can are good for 3 months and longer.

Thank you for sticking till the end with me and recommend you guys to get inspired and pickle something for yourselves tonight.

 

 

Hi Readers,

My name is SARU and the purpose of this writing is to knowledge you the reader a bit about myself.

I was born and raised in Toronto which is a food loving city. At 16, I got my first job flipping burgers at “hero certified burger”. On my first day, I told myself I will never go back but later my family convinced me to try it again. I loved working there after that day, and that was my first step into the food world. My peers tell me that the food industry is hard and boring, but I find it to be fun and worth while. After that job, I continued to work at more eateries that focused on healthier eating and fresher produce. I went straight into business school at Ryerson after graduating high school, but later found out it wasn’t for me. Instead of completely dropping out, I transferred into hospitality and tourism management. The program spoke about restaurant and hotel skills, and the courses were very enjoyable.  It later dawned on me that the restaurant part was fun but not the hotel aspect, so the decision was made to focus 100% on restaurant education. My parents weren’t really impressed at the idea of culinary school, but with my persuasive talking convinced them to let me go.

My Track Record

• 16 worked at Hero Certified Burger (grill)

  

• 17 worked at Freshii (team member)
• 18 worked at IQ foods (food artist)
• 19 worked at Ricarda’s restaurant (barista/server)
• 20 worked at B.GOOD (team lead) (current)

Personal Philosophy on Cooking

I personally believe cooking is a way for one to express their feelings and creativity through food. My personal beliefs on cooking is that it should be simple and basic with very little human intervention. I believe that the fruits and vegetable found on the planet is full of flavour and taste. To preserve the beautiful taste the chef should focus on natural whole foods and discover ways to bring more aroma/taste out of the fruit/vegetable. The dish should look simple and basic, and taste very simple, but have a taste that can could only be brought out by the nature of the food. I also believe in very small portioning and not filling your belly. This is because the more full you are the less attention you place on the food.

 

Culinary Institute Quotes, from http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/culinary-institute-quote-a-chef-cant-hide-behind-the-kitchen-door

Another philosophy of mines is that a good chef is able to talk to customers and employees. They should be able to treat their customer just like their food. You can make amazing food but if you can’t educate it your customer, then they wont truly value the dish.

My Favourite Blog

      I really like this blog because it share recipes that focus on healthy eating and shares lots of vegetarian recipe. I also like the fact that the blog is very visual; has more pictures than words. The blog is also simple and basic with a lot of white space, the way I prefer it. Something that could be done better is having better photographed pictures, as I believe the blog lacks creatively taken picture as most the pictures look like it been taken in the same angle.     

use this link to access website- https://naturallyella.com

I hope with my blogging journey, that it will inspire other interesting people to start a blog them selves.  Also internet is getting bigger each day and so I hope with this blog, I could improve and practice my internet skills.

Reference

“Culinary Institute Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2018, from http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/culinary-institute-quote-a-chef-cant-hide-behind-the-kitchen-door

“Free Stock Photo of Appetizer, Close-up, Cuisine.” Free Stock Photos, http://www.pexels.com/photo/appetizer-close-up-cuisine-delicious-434258/.

“Seasonal, Pantry-Inspired Vegetarian Recipe Blog.” Naturally Ella, naturallyella.com/.

“Citation Machine: Modern Language Association 8th Edition Format Citation Generator for Website.” Citation Machine: Modern Language Association 8th Edition Format Citation Generator for Journal Article, http://www.citationmachine.net/mla/cite-a-website/search?utf8=✓&q=http://www.citationmachine.net/items/828556048/parenthetical&commit=Search Websites.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton