BIG RED BOX AND OUR FIRST RECIPE BOOK

I've shown you our chef's whites, standard-issue knife set and the tools I've supplemented them with using my student discounts at Broadway Panhandler and Sur La Table. We were also given a Level One textbook with recipes and a red toolbox with some larger tools.

There's a hole on the box and the lid where they meet for a combination or key lock along with the two clasps which keep the toolbox closed. There's a drawer for smaller items that sits at the top of the box on some tabs along the inside.

Below the drawer is the deeper part of the box where you can keep other tools of the trade too big for the top or not flat enough for the knife case. Some of these tools are used more often than others.

At right from left to right, twine, ruler, measuring glass, lemon squeezer, measuring cup, diamond-stone knife sharpener, blind-baking beans, ramekin, pastry-scraper, tac, permanent & dry-erase markers, black & white pepper mills, strainer, scale.

In the image to the right, again from left to right: sauce/soup ladle, balloon whisk, flat straining ladle, plastic pastry-scraper, small whisk, large measuring cup, pepper mill (black pepper, same mill as shown above). I've tried to distinguish my tools from other those belonging to other students with two bands of red tape and sometimes writing my name on them with permanent black marker.

Our Level One book begins with general rules of hygiene, then methods of cooking vegetables and ranges to trussing chickens, cooking lamb, crepes, shellfish and mousses. I can't take you back to January 4th, and our first day of class but you can see how the classes proceeded below through the my abbreviations of what how each chapter breaks down:

Session 1: General Rules of Hygiene
Session 2: Tournage, Potatoes & Artichokes
Session 3: Stocks (fonds) & Emulsified Sauces
Session 4: Liasons, Roux, Glazes
Session 5: Preservation, Beans, Peas, Legumes & Dried Fish
Session 6: Eggs & Omelets
Session 7: Doughs & Batters, Pâte a Choux, Crème Pâtissière
Session 8: Pâte Brisée/Pâte Sucrée, Rolling out Dough & Baking
Session 9: The Potato, Deep Frying, Pommes Purées, Taillage
Session 10: Poultry, Trussing, Quartering, Roasting & Sautéing
Session 11: Methods of Cooking Meat, Beef and Veal
Session 12: Cooking in a Mixte, Lamb and Mutton
Session 13: Poêle Method, Pork, Breaded & Sauteed Meats
Session 14: Pâte Feuilletée, Creams & Custards
Session 15: Pot au Feu, Sauce Raifort, Bande de Tarte aux Fruits
Session 16: Soups, Consommes, Clarification, Purées & Bisques
Session 17: Salads, Cooking Vegetables for Salads & À La Grecque
Session 18: Fish, Preservation, Cuts, Methods of Cooking
Session 19: Fish À La Meunière, Grilled, Stuffed, & Compound Butter
Session 20: Braising, Marinades
Session 21: Crêpes, Pâte a Frire, Brioche
Session 22: Basic Stuffing, Preparation & Cooking Stuffed Vegetables
Session 23: Duck, Sautéing & Braising, Dressing, Roasting & Grilling
Session 24: Organs, Prep, Terrines, Ballottines & Pâtés en Croûte
Session 25: Cooking Shellfish, Crustaceans, Mollusks & Cephalopods
Session 26: Génoise, Sugar Syrups, Buttercream, Crème Anglaise
Session 27: Ices, Ice Creams, Bombes, Soufflés Glacés & Meringues
Session 28: Mousses, Soufflés (Sweet/Savory) Cream & Charlottes
Session 29: Food Control, Purchasing, Receiving, Menus & Prices