One of the keys to success in the chef business is to be able to work well with others. Consequently, as we show up this morning, Chef Guevara assigns each of us to new stations in the kitchen lab and new partners.

My new partner is Brent, a rather tall and ambitious young man who had run a seafood restaurant near Port Hueneme for a couple of years and was now furthering his culinary education with the eventual goal of opening his own restaurant in that area (likely with a cajun bent). Thanks to his experience and good work ethic, he is a great partner to have. I've also lucked out in that Arturo (who was across my station previously) and my former partner, Danny, are across from Brent and my station. A most excellent combination.

For some reason, perhaps a bit of fatigue, I felt like I was operating in slow motion today. Nonetheless, I was able to stay on top of prepping for our dishes. Organization really helps here. Every night I go over the recipes for the next day and prepare my in-house shopping menu, which includes notes on how each ingredient is to be prepped. It makes it much easier in the morning when I have to figure out how many ounces of carrot need to be brunoised and how many small dice.

Our first task was to put up a mushroom stock, which we would use later for Wild Mushroom Risotto. We used reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms, as well as fresh brown button mushrooms. The resulting stock had an intense brown color and a wonderfully savory aroma.

While our mushroom stock simmered, we put together a simple long-grain rice pilaf with bruinoised carrots. This is a fairly simple dish, where the rice is slightly cooked in oil on the stovetop, the liquid is added (chicken stock in this case) and finished, covered, in the oven. A- for mine being closed to overcooked (spent too much time on the stovetop). Still, the result was quite nice and fluffy in my book.

Two risotto dishes were next. Risotto is a dish that requires attention. It may not have to be stirred constantly as some traditionalists insist, but it certainly can't be ignored for too long. It is definitely a dish that benefits from experience. You have to get a feel for adding the liquid slowly, a bit at a time, knowing that you can't rush it and don't want the rice to overcook.

Luckily, I have a little experience, having made risotto many times at home from scratch. Once you've got the technique down, it is a wonderful dish to experiment with, adding different ingredients and using different liquids (wines, alcohol, stocks) to create a variety of flavors.

In any case, my first simple risotto was really, really good. After tasting it, Chef Guevara said, "You've made this before, haven't you?" If anything, my mushroom risotto (using the previously made mushroom stock) was even better. I sauteed the heck out of the mushrooms before adding the rice and the resulting risotto was a deep rich brown that was absolutely stunning. Chef Perez was quite impressed.

Overall the class did very well. Both of our chef instructors were pleased with the improvement between the two risottos. Most of those who had difficulty with the first made significant progress with their second.

Once again, we also had the opportunity to sample some of the dishes from other classes. Yesterday, for example, we had some wonderful spaetzle as well as oysters on the half shell (how cool is that?) and a caviar and creme fraiche appetizer. Today, broiled rabbit and some really excellent desserts, including a tart with a buttermilk cream of some sort.

Tomorrow we continue our carbolicious week with wild rice, split peas and couscous.