A Comparison Between Plated and Forage (ingredient/recipe delivery services)

Forage's tagline tells you everything you need to know, "Restaurants can cook any dish in 20 minutes. We prep ingredients so you can too."  I love it, and it's true.  Plated's tagline is "Eating Well Made Easy," and it's mostly true.  Both services have delicious recipes, and the convenience of getting exactly what you need to prepare a meal is luxurious.  (I always hate having to buy a giant bottle of something just because I need 2 teaspoons.)

Thai-style Pork Salad w/ Papaya & Mint - from Plated

One of the main reasons I originally wanted to subscribe to an ingredient/recipe delivery box was because I wanted to be able to quickly prepare dinner after a long day in culinary school.  I also wanted the option of just asking my husband, Bob, to put dinner together and know that he had everything he needed.  Both Forage and Plated provide instruction cards with a picture of the final meal so you know what you're working toward. 

The Plated boxes we've had were all pretty delicious, and there are definitely some recipes I've repeated, but my biggest issue is that their "easy" meals are not that easy.  When I see a recipe that's listed as easy call for more than two pots, then I know that it's not really easy.  I want straightforward and simple so that I know Bob can handle everything. 

Sockeye salmon w/ Farrotto and butternut squash - from Plated

This is where Forage comes into play.  Forage is essentially your prep kitchen.  In a restaurant you or the prep team work on getting things ready for service, this entails putting as much together as possible so you can put the finishing touches on or "fire" the food. (Look at me using restaurant language.)  The point is you're not going to make every dish from scratch as people are ordering it.

As an example here is how a lunch we made at home would look like if Plated had sent it to us:

Prawn Tikka Masala with Cocnut Rice and Green Salad

- chop all veggies
- make the tikka masala sauce
- make the coconut sauce
- cook rice
- cook prawns
- make salad dressing
- assemble

Here's how we made it with Forage:

- chop veggies
- cook rice with pre-made coconut sauce
- cook prawns with pre-made tikka masala sauce
- made salad dressing
- assemble

Yes, it's only two steps shorter, but guess what, it's also two pots cleaner!

While I can appreciate that many people will want to make the tikka masala sauce themselves, I don't.  I want an almost home cooked meal.  I want exactly what I said before: straightforward simplicity.  And so far, every meal we've made was cooked and ready to eat in 20 minutes.

Pork Ramen - from Forage

Again, both services provide great recipes.  I've just decided that if I'm going to take my time to make a more complex recipes I'll make it on my own.  Forage is kind of like our healthy fast food.

Bob did point out to me that Plated does excel at preparing you for what you'll need a better than Forage.  On the recipe cards Plated includes not only the ingredients list, and the steps for making the meal but they also include a list of all the tools you'll need to make the meal.  Yes, you should always read a recipe all the way through at the beginning so you know what you're going to need on hand but it's still nice to have a little list.  Forage does state that it assumes you have the following at home: skillet/frying pan, pot, baking sheet, and knives and a cutting board.  That said, you don't really know what you'll need until your read through the entire recipe. 

 Tikka Masala - from Forage

Overall, I just love Forage a bit more than Plated.  I like that 20 minute prep, it seems less daunting and even if I'm tired I know it's gonna get done fast.  Bob has done an awesome job with the recipes so I know he can handle anything Forage sends us.  What can I say, I'm just a huge fan of Forage!  (Of course, Plated is still a wonderful option.)

San Francisco Baking Institute - Fancy Cakes!

The San Francisco Baking Institute, "is a world-renowned leader in artisan bread and pastry education."(from SFBI) They specialize in artisan bread making and pastry education.  They school runs a really yummy bakery in San Francisco called Thorough Bread and Pastry, and I've bought plenty of delicious treats from them.  They have a professional program as well as one off classes to help amateurs and professionals expand their knowledge of the baking industry.  Their school is not only a classroom/kitchen but also where many of the pastries and breads that go to their shop are made.  It's a massive building, with a great kitchen set up.

I signed up to take the SFBI "Cake Bases, Creams, and Composition" because I thought it would be a great way to expand my knowledge of cakes and improve my decorating skills.  It's a week long class with 8 hour days.  So I essentially worked a full time job of cake learning, making, and decorating.  I was pumped to learn about all the different buttercreams, custards and cakes, and I was not disappointed.

The instructor for my class was Miyuki Togi, who has been working with SFBI since 2006.  Miyuki started the class off in a little classroom going over the syllabus and various kinds of cake methods and buttercreams.  She was really nice, and super patient.  After the class did little introductions - there were sixteen of us, a full class - we headed down to the kitchen to forms teams to get our bakin' on!  I was really surprised by how diverse the class was, in the sense that there were people from the professional program in the class, some people who own their own shops, as well as people like me who just wanted to learn more.  There were people from all over the place in class as well! A couple of people flew down from Seattle, there were a couple of people from Mexico and a gal from Barbados! I had no idea the school was so awesome that it drew the attention of students from outside the Bay Area.

My team consisted of Amy, Deb, Heather and myself - each team had four people.  Amy had taken some classes with SFBI before and was happy to be back.  Deb was there for the first time and is an avid cook.  Heather has a background in engineering but wants to bake, she was absolutely wonderful.  Heather asked really great questions that I never would have thought of but that were good to know. 

 My awesome team! (from the left: Me, Amy, Heather, Deb)

We were all stationed at our own large granite topped baking areas.  Every person got a little kit with offset spatulas, a paring knife, straight spatula and a serrated knife.  Each team had a little electric cook-top, and two kitchen aid mixers.  The classroom was very well equipped and everything was pretty easy to find.  Also, so much light! The kitchen was wonderfully bright and open.  Even though we were in teams of 4 every single person made their own cake.  You might work with your team, or just in sets of two to mix batter but every person ended up making their own cake.  I was really surprised by this because I'm more familiar with having to split a creation at the end of class so you can share, which is sad because it destroys the beautiful food you made.

And speaking of food, omg we made so much cake!  I expected a few things but I took home 8 cakes and 8 cupcakes in a week class.  Other than the first day we made two cakes every day of class, and not just ho-hum cakes, beautiful finished masterpieces!  I took home cakes that looked like I'd been baking fancy cakes for years. 

 Chocolate Peanutbutter Cake and Carrot Cake

 Inakati Roll and the Black Forest Cake

 Sachertorte

 Le Fraisier

Princess Cake

 Not my Opera Cake (I don't seem to have any picture of it, but this is very similar.)

As you can see, many wonderful things were made in class. The cupcakes were not photographed as they were devoured ravenously but I assure you they were delicious.

In short, I had a wonderful time at SFBI.  The cake class more than met my expectations and I honestly cannot wait to take another class.

 That's a Flat Stanly, helping Heather and me make the Opera cake.

Foodily - My New Favorite Food Site

I stumbled upon a food site the other day, which I'd never heard of but turned out to be a great resource.  Foodily!  It's kind of like a giant library of various cooking blogs and home cooks who share recipes.  What's really great about it is that I can find everything I want in one place, and all the food bloggers I followed were already on the site.  I can choose to follow the bloggers I like and get updates about new recipes they post, or I can just search the whole system based on almost any key word.  There are so many options that I truly believe I could find a recipe for anything I'd like to try making.

The site has also done a really great job of directing people back to the Blogger's actual sites.  You can search for recipes and view a list of ingredients for the dish you want to make, but in order to get the instructions you follow a link back to the source of the recipe.  It's really smart, at least I think it's really smart.

And like any good site today you can connect your Facebook account so that if you have friends on the site you can see what they've made and recommend.  I find this feature to be really helpful because if a friend of mine has liked or even disliked a recipe I have a better chance of knowing if I'll like the recipe.

I gave Foodily a shot last night and had a small dinner party.  Everything I made was from recipes found on the site.  We had:

 Pork Belly Roast - From The British Larder

 

Sichuan Green Beans - From Sunset

Tomato and Watermelon Salad with Feta - From Steamy Kitchen

Everything was so good that I unfortunately forgot to take pictures - these pictures are directly from the recipe pages.

And last but not least, another reason I really like Foodily is because I can save the recipes to various lists that I've made myself.  If I want to make a new side dish I can look in my "side dish" list, or if I want to be fancy I can look at my "entertaining" list.  Recipes can be saved to multiple lists and it's really easy to use.  Foodily also has an app, which works very well - at least on my iphone - which means if I have to pop into the store I can easily pull up a recipe I was interested in and get my ingredient list.

If you want to connect to me on Foodily, or check out the stuff I'm making here's my profile, and if we're friends on Facebook it's even easier to find me.

Week 6 of/at San Francisco Cooking School

I still have all my fingers, and I've managed not to burn myself.

OMG, this week has been amazing.  It's been the week of "FISH!"  I fileted, gutted, dismantled and pureed fish and other fishy sea creatures this week.  I loved every single minute.  I mostly think I enjoyed it because unlike other animals I don't really care about fish so I don't mind ripping them apart.  I fileted rock cod and petrale sole, and I was honestly pretty awesome at it.  Now when I tell people, "Imma gut you like a fish," I actually know how.

I was really pumped on Thursday when we had Thai Squid Salad.  I specifically request that my teammate, Jeff, and I get to make the squid salad because I really really wanted to dismantle the squid.  I was pleasantly surprise when I told Chef that I wanted that recipe and she gave it to us!  Did you know that squid have a spine piece called a quill?  It's amazing, it's like a piece of plastic in the squid.  Check out this video that shows you how to clean a squid, and imagine me doing it and loving it:

Then on Friday Jeff and I made Shrimp Quenelles, which are essentially shrimp balls.  We pureed shrimp and petrale sole with egg whites, cream, butter and some spices and then poached them in salty water to create these light fluffy shrimp ball things.  It was weird, but pretty delicious.

The sexy squid salad.

We cooked a whole octopus too!  My classmate, Harriet, and I asked Chef Catherine if it was "Paul" the World Cup octopus, and then we got to inform Chef about the famous Paul.  (If you don't know Paul, check him out here.)

My classmate, Mandy, found a stowaway in the mussels we made this week!

I really loved fish week.  While I'm not a big fish eater I really enjoyed learning about how to identify a "good" fish, as well as how to filet and cook fish and other sea creatures.  We also had a great field trip to Monterey Fish Company.  We met up at 5:30am to watch the fish being sorted so that they could be delivered or picked up.  

 

Me and some rock cod at Monterey Fish Market.

I had my first meeting with Chef Catherine to talk about how I was doing in class and it went great.  She told me she liked that I could be so loud/excited/energized but could focus as soon as I needed to.  I told Bob what Chef said and he asked," Did you tell her you don't have A.D.D.?" 

We finished off week 6 with a visit from Courtney from Bar Tartine.  We learned all about fermentation.  Jeff and I pickled Kimchi, preserved lemons, and beets.   We made kimchi with cucumbers, I can hardly wait to try it out!

Next week we're going to butcher a lamb!

:)M

Week 4 at San Francisco Cooking School

Week 4 went pretty smoothly.  I still have all my fingers and I didn't burn myself.  My poor teammate Tracy, unfortunately burnt herself on that same scary convection oven - it's a beast.  She currently has about a 3 inch long scab on her right wrist.  It's nasty and looks horribly painful.  Hopefully it healed up nicely over the weekend.

This week brought about the revelation that I loath making stock.  Yes, I know it's straight forward, but something about it makes me fume with rage.  I can't put my finger on why, I just know that every day that involves my team making stock I go home disgruntled.  I'm working on making stock be less unpleasant for myself.

We had a couple of awesome visitors this week.  First we had Gonzalo Guzman, of Nopa/Nopalito, come to class and tell us about how he chose the food for the menus, and how certain items are made.  We help grind up corn for masa which was then turned into sopas, and corn tortillas.  He made a couple of really awesome hot sauces and showed us how to pickle onions just using lime juice.  It was a really awesome demo, and we all enjoyed awesome food at the end.

And to finish up the week, on Friday Eugenio Jardim taught us about wine tasting.  We learned about how every wine tells a story before you even taste it.  Soon I'll be able to sound like I know what I'm talking about.  I will of course have to drink more wine. 

We made a lot of vinaigrettes and mayo/aioli this week.  Infused our own oil with herbs, and just generally emulsified our food. 

And of course, we had a lovely plated meal day, here is my sauteed chicken with a mushroom pan sauce and veggies. 

We have a practical exam, and a written exam this week so wish me luck!

:)M

Week 3 at San Francisco Cooking School!

As many of you know this was the week that I finally got burned.  So, I still have all my fingers, but I can no longer say I didn't get burnt.  The good news is it was the tiniest of tiny, miniscule some might say, burn.  I burnt myself on a gigantic roasting pan while browning chicken bones for stock.  I was a super trooper and didn't even make a noise when it happened.  I kicked that pans ass by remaining calm and collected.

So, what did we do this week you ask?  EGGS!  We played with eggs.  I feel like I excelled awesomely this week with all our great recipes, mostly because I bake so much at home.  We kicked off the week by poaching eggs.  I'm pleased to say I can poach a mean egg.  And of course we whipped up hollandaise sauce because as everyone knows you can't eat a poached egg with out a sexy egg sauce on top.

 Our amazing lunch on Friday. (Grilled veggies, tempura shrimp, fried scallops, garlic custard, goat cheese souffle, spinach souffle, and salmon souffle.)

We also made custards, and souffles!  I'd never made a souffle before, but it was easier than I had anticipated.  We made a salmon souffle, a spinach souffle, and a goat cheese souffle.  We made spinach custard, mushroom custard and garlic custard - garlic was obviously my favorite.

On Thursday Barb Stuckey came in and taught us about taste.  That's right, I said taste.  The whole presentation blew my mind!  For instance, did you know that butter doesn't have a taste?  It has a a smell that leads us to believe it's a taste.  If you plug your nose and eat unsalted butter all you get is the texture of butter in your mouth, there's no actual taste!  It's crazy!  You can read all about the awesome things I learned in Barb's book: Taste What You're Missing: The Passionate Eater's Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good  I highly recommend it.

I've also made excellent headway with the Curiosity Crawl by visiting:

 

 Saigon Sandwich with Sam, Tracy and Mandy! (Thanks Jen for taking the picture!)

 Craftsman & Wolves - Eating "The Rebel Within."

Four Barrel Coffee - Eating a "laminated" pastry. (aka chocolate croissant)

You'll all also be happy to know that my awesome nurse friend, Hazel, gave me great tips on keeping my hands from turning into little husks and keeping them hydrated.  I now own a pair of white cotton gloves that I wear to bed.  But wait, the fun doesn't end there!  First I slather on really thick awesome hand cream.  Next think you know I'll be wearing curlers and cold cream.  

 My sexy gloves.

It was a great week, as you can tell, but man am I happy it's the weekend!

:)M

 

Week 2 of SFCooking School!

Good news, week two is over and I still have all my fingers!  (I also managed not to burn my face off.)

Week two saw my classmates and me delirious and forgetful.  We've been cooking so much we can barely remember what we're cooking.  We made vegetarian onion soup (made with vegetable stock, in place of chicken stock) on Monday, and when we completed it on Wednesday no one could remember when we'd made it - thank goodness we label everything.

On Tuesday Galen Garretson who owns TownCutler came to class for a knife sharpening demo.  We learned about wet stones and how to properly sharpen our knives so we can take better care of them.  A sharp knife is a good knife!  I ended up buying a stone so I can sharpen all my knives at home and take care of my knife kit for school.

 My awesome new sharpening and polishing stones from TownCutler.

My class also got an awesome surprise on Thursday.  There's a friendly little competition going on with our class, the part-time culinary class, and the pastry class.  The instructors are calling it the Curiosity Crawl.  It's a list of restaurants in the Bay Area with specific dishes to try, as well as a list of places to visit, and a little recipe scavenger hunt.  So if you see pictures on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram tagged #CuriosityCrawl you'll know I'm taking names and kicking ass!  Check out the list:

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Where	What
Locanda	Fried Artichoke
Terzo	Hummus
Zuni Cafe	Bloody Mary
Saigon Sandwich	Bahn Mi
Roli Roti	Porchetta Sandwich
Camino	Brunch
Nopalita	Carnitas
Mission Bowl	Burger
Spices II	Fried Fish in Chile Pepper
Old Mandarin Islamic	Onion Pancake
Marlowe	Brussel sprout chips
La Ciccia	Octopus Stew
b. patisserie	Kougin Amann
Craftsman & Wolves	Rebel Within
Z & Y	Chicken w/ Explosive Chili Pepper
Bi-Rite	Ice cream
Turtle Tower	Pho
4505 Meats	Burger
Plow	Breakfast Potatoes
Tacolicious	Tuna Tostadas
Delfina	Spaghetti
Golden Boy	Pizza slice
Primavera	Chilaquiles
Swan Oyster Depot	Oysters
Fatted Calf	Charcuterie
Insalata's	Fattoush Salad
Liguria Bakery	Focaccia
Shanghai Dumpling King	Lion's Head
Acme at the Ferry Building	Baguette
Four Barrel Coffee	Laminated pastry
20th Century Cafe	Honey Cake
Mandalay	Tea Salad
Bake Sale Betty's	Fried Chicken Sandwich

We finished up the week with a plated and coursed meal.  Everyone in the class made braised artichokes, sautéd chicken with a velouté sauce served with glazed carrots and chateau potatoes, and we ended with a blood orange, date, and pistachios in an orange flower, and honey syrup.  My team was also tasked with putting together a veal stock.  It was a hectic but fun end to the week.

I've cut so many carrots, and my hands are so dry from constantly washing them that the carrot juice has soaked into my hands.  I constantly look like my hands are filthy and my nail beds are atrocious.  Oh well, I wasn't going to be a hand model anyway.

:)Margaret

San Francisco Cooking School

Eeeeeek!  On Monday, January 6th, I start culinary school with the San Francisco Cooking School!  I'm ridiculously excited about it and have been waiting for months for my program to start.  I was accepted back in July but opted not to start until now because Bob and I had so many plans already set up for the Autumn of 2013.  But now the time has come!

My hope is that I will be able to bring you all along on my culinary adventure. 

I will continue to work on my personal cooking challenge, but I'll also be intermittently letting you know what I'm up to at school.

Let the journey begin!!!

:)M