Chef-instructors create games that involve blindfolded students tasting and identifying spices.
Culinary schools incorporate creative and unique methods of instruction that utilize games and competition as learning tools. Among these include identifying spices, hosting cooking competitions between teams of students and recreating recipes produced by chef-instructors using visual cues and sense of taste. Many of these exercises are performed on a credit or no-credit basis and are intended to instill camaraderie among students and introduce the rigors of working under pressure.
Spice Identification
The ability to determine a spice by its taste indicates a chef's palate has been exposed to an array of flavors and denotes empirical experience in the field. In this exercise the chef-instructor places various spices in ramekins and arranges them on tables. The assistant chef-instructor provides a blindfolded student with a tasting spoon containing a small amount of a spice and a cup of water. The student cleanses her palate with the water, tastes the spice and identifies it within a limited amount of time. Using smell is not advised, as it prompts the aspiration of the spices. Most chef-instructors limit the number of spices to 30 or 40, as most students' palates have not matured enough to accurately identify many more.
Ingredient Identification
Similar to spice identification, this exercise involves blindfolding students and providing them with tasting spoons of various foodstuffs. A student must determine the contents of the spoon by taste, smell and mouth-feel. This game tends to prompt laughter from observers, as many chef-instructors use the opportunity to reintroduce uncommon ingredients. The items commonly originate from varied and opposed cuisines, such as Korean anchovy oil, Chinese chili paste and French harissa. The difficulty is increased by placing similar foods in a group for differentiation, such as grape oil, olive oil, peanut oil and sesame oil.
Cooking Teams
Some culinary classes, such as Culinary Skills II, groups students into two teams and has them vote on which member will serve as the chef. The groups then have a prescribed amount of time to compose a menu, delegate responsibilities and execute the menu. Other students in the same entry class (such as first-year), but in a different course, judge the products and vote on which team exhibited the most skill. The judging criteria include taste, presentation, creativity, complexity and technique.
Timed Cooking
Timed cooking games usually consist of two groups of students from the same class who are given a basket of ingredients that remain unknown until the day of the competition. Prior to the competition, students vote on who will lead each team. The chef-instructor allows each team one hour to create three distinct preparations using the basket's contents. The students may also use staple items, such as kosher salt, flour and spices. This competition is usually judged by chef-instructors and performed in front of an audience comprised of students and administrators.
Recipe Recreation
Advanced culinary instruction involves "dissecting" recipes using sensory cues. The chef-instructor prepares a recipe before class and gives each student the opportunity to taste, smell and study the item for 10 minutes. Each student must then reproduce the recipe as closely as possible to the original. Students must not confer with each other, and the chef-instructor provides no guidelines other than the model dish. This exercise is typically reserved for students in their final semester of practical instruction.
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