Stella Culinary School

If you’ve ever dreamed about cooking like or becoming a professional chef, you’ve come to the right place. Hosted by Chef Jacob Burton, an executive chef by day, wanna be broadcaster by night, we feature instructional style episodes that unpack professional level cooking techniques in an approachable fashion, and interviews with culinary taste makers, including chefs, cook book authors, wine makers, brewers, coffee roasters, and anyone else who is passionate about the world of food and beverage.

SCS 075 | Choosing Knives, Grills, BBQs & Smokers! 03/30/2021

SCS 074 | Hydrocolloids - A Practical Approach 03/19/2021

SCS 073 | Greek Salad Challenge, Dissecting A Dish's Flavor Structure, & Searing Scallops 03/12/2021

SCS 073 | Greek Salad Challenge, Dissecting A Dish's Flavor Structure, & Searing Scallops In this episode, I lay out the "Greek Salad Challenge" as a homework assignment. The purpose of this challenge is to drill knife skills, and work on creating baseline seasonings through balancing fat, acid and salt. We then carry this concept over into a lesson on how I would recreate the flavor of a hollandaise sauce if all I had was a recipe and had never tasted hollandaise before. This first principals approach to dissecting a dish through flavor structure will allow you to understand and replicate flavor structures at their most basic level. Then, I walk you through yet un-edited footage of me searing scallops in the restaurant, which leads to a deep dive in the mistakes people make when cooking scallops, as well as some basic plate composition tips. CONTENT REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Culinary Knife Skills: Cooking Techniques (pan roasting): Emulsion Science: HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT For your homework assignment, make either a greek salad, or a salsa / chutney / garnish inspired by the greek salad methodology laid out in the podcast. Focus on the basic knife skill techniques of: The Pinch Grip Guide Hand Julienne. If making a salsa or chutney, focus on the dice, making everything as even as possible. When dressing and building your flavor structures, remember; fat first, acid second, vinegar third. Take it from there. More advanced students, add a protein of choice. Recommended proteins are pan roasted chicken / fish, shrimp, scallops, steak. _____________________________________________________ The Stella Culinary School Podcast is available through your favorite podcast app, such as Apple, Google, Spotify, & Stitcher. If you want to learn how to stop following recipes and start creating, then check out my Culinary Boot Camp & F-STEP Curriculum which can be found here: Get notified when new content is released, by signing up for my free e-mail newsletter: Join our Friendly Facebook Group at Check out our podcast archive here: /episode/index/show/stellaculinary/id/18304478

SCS 072 | Acing A Chef Tryout & Banquet Style Execution 03/05/2021

SCS 071 | Leaving Your Career for Chefdom, Food Safety, How Fat Affects Bread Dough 02/26/2021

SCS 070 | Combi Ovens for Precision Cooking, Execution, and Holding 02/19/2021

SCS 069 | Prepping for Execution, Designing Balanced Menus, Live Listener Discussion 02/16/2021

SCS 068 | Gnocchi by Feel + Anova Combi-Oven Review 02/05/2021

SCS 067 | Food Writers Are Parasites + Tender Stir Fried Meats! 01/29/2021

SCS 066 | Why Grandma's Beef Stroganoff Sucked! 01/22/2021

SCS 065 | Chef's New Toy, Rib Experiments, & a Pot Roast Soooo Good It Will Demoralize Your Culinary Competition 01/15/2021

SCS 064 | Don't Salt Your Pasta Water, Hollandaise Isn't Mother Sauce, & The Best Way To Cook Tri-Tip 01/09/2021

SCS 063 | French Omelette Fallacy, Sous Vide Vs. Crispy Skin, & Decoding Pizza Yeast 05/12/2020

SCS 063 | French Omelette Fallacy, Sous Vide Vs. Crispy Skin, & Decoding Pizza Yeast Discuss this podcast in the Stella Culinary School Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1437680866415097/ IN THE DISCUSSION SEGMENT ... We talk eggs, omlettes and the "French Omlette Falacy." I also walk you through how to make a classic, American style breakfast omelette (fully loaded of course). Original post by John: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1432663070250210/ Resources Mentioned Jacques Pepin French Omelette Video: https://youtu.be/s10etP1p2bU Jamie Oliver's Omelette Video: https://youtu.be/OQyRuOEKfVk How to Make A Classic French Omelette with Geoffrey Zakarian: https://youtu.be/O51dA1kpeGs Alton Browns Omelette Special: https://youtu.be/nX7g5A50IuE IN THE TECHNIQUE SEGMENT ... ... we weigh the pros and cons of sous vide turkey and poultry, how to crisp the skin on the re-therm, and alternative methods and approaches. Original question by Autumn: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1433111250205392/ "Planning to do a 14 lb spatchcocked turkey sous vide. I have it dry brining for the next 36 hours, then will cook 150F/6. I then plan to ice bath it and refrigerate until two days later when we serve it-doing it this way due to lack of fridge space. Trying to come up with the best way to retherm and obtain a crispy skin. Baking at 375 F till internal temp reaches 140 was suggested in one of the sous vide groups, but I’m trying to determine how long it will take for it to reach that temperature (so I can plan the rest of the meal accordingly). Thoughts? Also, is 375 F too low a temp? When I completely oven bake a spatchcocked turkey I usually go 425 F. Thanks!" Resources Mentioned SCS 035 | Sous Vide Cooking - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - https://stellaculinary.com/scs35 SCS 036 | Sous Vide Cooking at Home with Jason Logsdon - https://stellaculinary.com/scs36 Turkey Cooking Playlist (Including Spatchcocking) - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpkj3Cc40ZCqyWzjGmVHpxEsiGrb0wKJc Sous Vide Beef Bourguignon - https://stellaculinary.com/cooking-videos/cooking-techniques/ct-029-beef-bourguignon-sous-vide-with-glazed-vegetables Sous Vide Lamb Rack - https://stellaculinary.com/cooking-videos/completed-dish/tcd-009-sous-vide-lamb-rack-pan-sauce-and-sauted-vegetables Sous Vide Chicken Breast - https://stellaculinary.com/cooking-videos/completed-dish/tcd-010-sous-vide-crispy-skin-chicken-breast-spring-vegetables Chef Jacob's Sous Vide Temperature Guide PDF - https://stellaculinary.com/PDFs/Sous%20Vide%20Cooking.pdf IN THE Q&A SEGMENT ... ... I answer the following questions: Mark C. via E-mail "Hey chef! Glad to see you’re back doing the podcast again. Hope this e-mail finds you well. I had a quick question about pizza yeast. My wife picked some up from the store the other day because they didn’t have anything else. We made some white sandwich bread, and the loaf came out pretty dense. We’ve made this particular recipe quite a few times in the past without any issues. On further examination of the packet, it says specifically not to use for bread baking. What’s going on? I thought yeast was yeast. Why would you need a different yeast for pizza than bread dough. Thanks! Mark C." Resources Bread Baking Video Index - https://stellaculinary.com/sb Kevin via SCFB - https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1436163809900136/ "Question about tangzhong in bread. Could it replace fat in recipe? Where the fat isn't used for flavor or maybe a way to reduce the fat content in recipes? Seems like tangzhong provides similar affect to the final loaf as the fat. Anyone attempted this? Google wasn't any help." David | Plum Blossom Water | https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1435144506668733/ "I was in my garden today, quite despondent over the looming threat of two nights of temperature going below 30F. I’m not worried about the veggies, as they can be covered. I’m worried about my fruit trees. This is the first year I’ve had blossoms on my pear trees, and one of my plum trees decided to blossom this year as well. These trees are simply too big to cover, and probably too expensive as well. So I was wondering. The plum blossoms have an intoxicating aroma. Intoxicating is good. I’ve heard of making rose water, and orange blossom water. Does anyone have experience in making orange blossom water? I don’t think I have enough blossoms on the tree ghis year, but maybe next?" Resources Make Shift Distiller Using a Pot | https://youtu.be/oOzyjMbxOJ0 ANNOUNCEMENTS & SHOUTOUTS Join the Stella Culinary School Facebook Group - https://facebook.com/groups/stellaculinary Trudy for applying the F-STEP Methodology to Skyline style chili - https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1430643413785509/ Mason for successfully making neapolitan pizza using my recipe in his Ooni Roccbox Oven. https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1435555486627635/. Pizza resource page with instructions on how to make the neapolitan pizza: https://stellaculinary.com/pizza Walter made Canadian bacon that turned out great: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1432847886898395/ Graham for helping Pamela troubleshoot her Sweedish Meatball recipe, by posting a recipe of his own: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StellaCulinary/permalink/1434205610095956/ PURCHASE CHEF JACOB'S CULINARY BOOT CAMP AND F-STEP CURRICULUM HERE: https://stellaculinary.com/f-step-written-curriculum-digital-download /episode/index/show/stellaculinary/id/14391125

SCS 062 | I'm Back. Community Questions & Updates 05/05/2020

SCS 061 | Chef Alex Downing 07/22/2019

SCS 060 | Party Foods, High Volume Execution & Listener Questions 02/07/2019

SCS 059 | Christmas Cooking, Soup Solutions & Listener Questions 12/23/2018

SCS 058 | Live Listener Call In Show with Chef Jacob 11/26/2018

SCS 057 | Thanksgiving Tips & Industry Talk with Sous Chef Sean Munshaw 11/21/2018

SCS 056 | Trends & Trade Secrets of Fresh Milled Grain 11/06/2018

SCS 055 | Advanced Artisan Bread Loafs & Sourdough Baking with Nicole Muvundamina 10/15/2018

SCS 054 | Large Party Entertaining, Creative Flavor Structures, & Learning Food Science - Your Cooking Questions Answered 10/10/2018

SCS 054 | Large Party Entertaining, Creative Flavor Structures, & Learning Food Science - Your Cooking Questions Answered You can call the show and leave a voicemail: 775-204-8389 In this episode, more listener questions and voicemails answered. Some sample questions include: Crispy Skin question from Philip "OK, it’s time to squash this once and for all one way or the other. The question is: ‘Does salt draw out moisture from a protein product’? I always hear people saying to rub salt on the skin of a protein product to draw out moisture in order to crisp up the skin. The most recent example was yesterday when I watched a video of a chef cooking pork belly. The skin on pork was quite thick and I began to wonder how exactly the salt can draw out moisture from within the skin. I could see how it would absorb moisture that was already on the surface because the salt would be making contact with it but how could it be possible to draw moisture from within the skin? Is this just a myth (which is widely believed even by some of the best chefs in the world) or is there some truth to is. Unless the salt is acting like some kind of magnet on the water and pulling it out of the skin I really can’t see how it could work. Are there any science food geeks that can explain exactly how the salt works please? Also, I would love to hear your opinion on this Chef Jacob, Thanks" Creative Flavors from Vicky "i’d like to know how chefs come up with (especially unusual/modern) flavour combinations… like, i’d never have thought of combining chilies and chocolate, wouldn’t ever even imagine those would go together, if i hadn’t tried chocolate bar with chilies. or, like, the dishes in fancy restaurants (e.g. fat duck, noma) or on tv cooking competition shows (e.g. uk master chef) have like 19 thousand elements (like 5 dots of whatever reduction and half a teaspoon of whatever foam)… how the hell do they come up with the idea of putting all those seemingly unrelated things on the same plate? My question to you: in the video i watched, you mentioned that almost all dishes need a bit of acid. and when i think about all the recipes i’ve seen/read, it’s true that a lot of them call for just a tad of vinegar or lemon juice, in such a small amount that one wouldn’t actually taste it when eating the finished product. it’s something i’ve never thought of doing. what does a tiny amount of acid do to the overall taste of a dish? why is it important? what sort of dishes wouldn’t need acid and what sort of dishes benefit the most from it (besides obviously sour tasting dishes)?" We also answer voicemail questions from Eric, Robert, Andrew, Juan, Shmilie, Leslie & Melva. Thanks to everyone for calling in. /episode/index/show/stellaculinary/id/7144371

SCS 053 | Your Cooking Questions Answered - Community Q&A 10/09/2018

SCS 053 | Your Cooking Questions Answered - Community Q&A I'm back with two in-depth questions regarding the F-STEP Curriculum to answer. The first one from Dave: "I’ve been through your book, and I love the idea that I might be able to learn to cook without using recipes, something I hate doing and something that stresses me out in the kitchen. I had already decided that recipes don’t work for me, and I realized I am still missing steps, but I had only added the prep stage to my process, not the F-STEP steps, so your book has expanded my thinking, which is good. However, everything I’ve read is all theory and as you know, its not possible to learn anything from just theory. I am wondering why there are no practical examples, or run-throughs to demonstrate how the entire process works in stages, and in particular how your worksheet is supposed to function. It looks like something you would give your in-class students along with an explanation, you’ve included it in your book, but I couldn’t find the explanation. Is this some sort of homework? Do I have to figure this out for myself? It’s like my old math teacher telling me there is a great formula to calculate something, but then not showing me how it works using real numbers. It would be good to have some real examples of these “childhood” favorites, and other popular dishes, what their flavor profiles are and then run them through your F-STEP stages of technique, execution etc…, following your worksheet, to show how they are completed, the whole process beginning to end but in practical demo mode. To be honest I’m slightly disappointed and not sure what to do next. I can see its the answer to my cooking problems, but how do I implement it? By the way, I understand that I am not in your normal group of people who already love cooking and are looking for a different approach. I hate cooking, I think recipes are the most illogical thing ever invented, which is why I am looking for an alternative. There are many people like me, but all my friends who love cooking, and love reading recipe books don’t understand the problem, so as a professional chef I might be a new breed you’ve yet to meet. To let you know how much research and thinking I’ve done, I am halfway through building an AI driven voice chatbot to talk to me, as a guide, step by step as I am cooking. I can see that I have missed some vital steps as I mentioned before. So one of the reasons I would like to understand your worksheet better, is because I am wondering if I could include the theme of it in my chatbot, and make the process more complete. Let me know if you are interested, because right now it is a personal project, but who knows. I am a professional chatbot developer, so this is not a hobby :-)" Second question is from Cher: "I've now watched and read the sections of flavour + sauces. I have question regarding to how it might improve a sauce I make frequently- it's a lentil tomato sauce. In my opinion it's a reduction type sauce, according to your description of modern sauces. These are the main ingredients PASTA SAUCE: 1 Tbsp olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced (3 cloves yield ~1 1/2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup carrots (very finely diced) 1/4 cup diced tomatoes (optional) 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce* 2 Tbsp tomato paste 1 pinch sea salt (plus more to taste) 1/2 tsp red chili flakes (divided) 1 Tbsp dried or fresh oregano 1 Tbsp dried or fresh basil 1-2 Tbsp sweetener of choice 1 Tbsp parmesan cheese 1/2 cup dry red lentils (rinsed in cool water for 1 minute)- cooked in 2 cups water As you can see, there's no stock, and also there isn't a deglazing step in the recipe. According to your video on sauces, a tomato sauce base should have tomatoes + stock + roux. So my question is, would it be better/ appropriate to add a stock, deglazing step, and roux to the recipe? If so, what kind of stock base should it be? Veggie, chicken? When should I deglaze? I would assume that it would be after frying the aromatics? (onions, garlic, carrots etc) What should I deglaze with? When should I add the stock and roux? Would it be after adding the tomato sauce?" /episode/index/show/stellaculinary/id/7144175

SCS 052 | Ancient Grains & Fresh Milled Flours with Jade Koyle 07/12/2018

SCS 051 | Pan Gallego, Sourdough Modifications, & Dough Salt Ratios - Listener Bread Questions Answered 07/07/2018

SCS 050 | T is for Technique 07/03/2018

SCS 049 | Taste Vs. Flavor, Black Pepper Corn Sauce, & Hipster Bone Broth - Your Questions Answered! 06/27/2018

SCS 049 | Taste Vs. Flavor, Black Pepper Corn Sauce, & Hipster Bone Broth - Your Questions Answered! In this episode, listener questions covering flavor structure and sauce making are answered. If you want to have your question answered on an upcoming episode of the show, you can thru this page here, call the hotline (775-204-8389), or e-mail me, . Don't forget to download your copy of my . You can also join the conversation over on the , or ! In This Episode ... We start the show talking taste vs. flavor, what makes up great flavor structure, and where does texture play a part? Shout out to Chasay over on the SCFB group for his awesome comment that spurred this discussion. We discuss an important concept I wish I had included in my Flavor Structure Lecture; a concept I call "Flavor Spectrum". Then we head on over to the Stella Culinary Forum, to answer rbg1000000's question on , and possibly offend a few hipsters along the way. Next, we discuss Loren's black pepper corn sauce, and I walk Michael through how to make a restaurant quality morel mushroom reduction that will go perfect with a steak! We finish the episode with a trio of questions from SCFB member Sigfried, covering various puree sauce options and approaches, when to use different thickeners in the sauce making process, and the delineation between an emulsion and a puree. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave me a rating & review, and don't forget to subscribe to our ! Lecture Videos Referenced Note: If you're clicking on the above video links in the future and are coming across a message that says something to the effect of "Video Not Available," that's because I've finally came to my senses and realized that this information is too valuable to be given away for free! If not, then I've either forgotten all about this and moved on with my life, or you're very luck! ;-) Connect with Chef Jacob (That's ME!) /episode/index/show/stellaculinary/id/6749308

SCS 048 | Culinary Boot Camp Day Two - S is for Sauce Part 2 06/14/2018

SCS 047 | Culinary Boot Camp Day Two - S is for Sauce Part 1 06/13/2018

SCS 046 | Death of Bourdain, Home Kitchen Appliances & Beer Brewing | Community Questions & Comments 06/12/2018

Stella Culinary School

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