Apparently there was some sort of filming going on all Sunday in our kitchen and we students arrived to find large racks of clean pots and pans piled near the sinks and few where they should be. So, first thing we had to restock all of the stations with the proper equipment. Mondays.

Carbs, carbs and more carbs. The first half of this week is devoted to carbohydrates. And which carb to begin with but that humble, yet versatile and delicious new world staple, the potato.

Our lecture started with basic nutritional information about carbs and their importance as part of a balanced diet. There was a bit of a discussion of the glycemic index, though Chef Guevara didn't refer to it as such. We then moved into a brief discussion of starches and common providers of them, before delving into an indepth discussion of potatoes and their various types.

There was a very nice sample box of many different sorts of potatoes as a visual example for the lecture. I thought I knew potatoes fairly well but there were a couple of varieties in that sample box I'd never heard of. Call me crazy, but it will be fun working with potatoes in all their variety throughout my culinary schooling.

Today, however, we started with four classic dishes. Mashed potatoes, Pommes Anna, Pommes Dauphinoise and Potatoes Roesti (a sort of hash browns/potato pancake made with grated potato and onion). Not only did we learn how to work with potatoes, but we were also learning more time management and working with baked dishes, since everything but the mashed potatoes is finished in the oven. Timing was an issue because you couldn't fit everything in the oven at once, and you needed to multitask dish preparation in order to have everything finished in time.

It wasn't particularly stressful, but we are certainly gearing up for more intense production.

Overall, I did well. A- on both my Pommes Dauphinoise and mashed potatoes. Just a little more salt needed for my mashed potatoes. They like a lot of salt in all the dishes and I try to add more, but I'm always afraid of over salting. You can always add more, but you can't remove salt once added, so I aim for a little on the conservative side. As for my Pommes Dauphinoise, the thickest part was slightly underdone, but the good thing was I learned an easy way to check if it is done, by placing my knife on top. If it slides to the bottom without resistance, it's done. You should check in two spots, just in case one spot was cooked more for one reason or the other.

My Pommes Anna got A+. A thing of beauty.

On the other hand, my Potatoes Roesti definitely needs work. The problem was that my pan wasn't hot enough when I added the shredded potato/onion mixture and it stuck to the bottom instead of sliding around the pan readily as it should. When I removed the pancake from the pan, not all of it came and I was forced to salvage what I could ... so my pancake was about half the size of the successful ones, though it was still nice and round. Chef Perez said, upon seeing the diminutive Roesti, "Aw, how cute. Where's the rest of it?" Fortunately, it was seasoned properly and tasted pretty good so it wasn't a total disaster.

Of course, this is why I'm in a class, so I can make mistakes and learn from them (such as the correct placement of the die in a food mill, i.e., not upside down).

Tomorrow: rice.