My Mussels Story...

My first two years off apprenticeship were a big challenge for me. Having to work 15 hours a day when still being 15 years old did not make me happy at all. I had to spend that time with hard working adults that did not have much patience for the spoiled, arrogant kid that I was. They quickly made me understand that I was just the, "little new guy," and I would need to obey to their rules. 

The sous chef, Didier, was first in line to make sure I understood the new environment I was in. I was his new help. Everything I could do he wouldn't have to do. We never got along well for diverse reasons, but today I am thankful that he push me the way he did. After dealing with him as a sous chef, I could now deal with any kitchen Caporal chef. He made my introduction to the professional kitchen world a two-year nightmare which made every other place I worked in an easy gig.

The first task he gave me was to clean wild mussels, not the one you see in your local supermarket, the ones that look completely cleaned and even in size. We are talking the wild stuff with: algae, large beards and tiny parasites on the shells, the ones that needed to be "completely cleaned".  I would scrub them for hours. At first, my still-then young soft hands would eventually develop blisters and clefts until they would eventually develop some tough skin. A good year after cleaning my first 20 pound bag of mussels, he tells me (as I was showing the new apprentice in town how to do the job), "Hey why do you waist your time removing every single thing on those, just give them a good brush making sure to remove the beards and they'll be just fine..."

With that, let's learn how to cook some mussels by watching my video: Mussels in a Curry broth.

When I learned how to butcher whole fish...

Here is my most viewed video, how to fillet a salmon and one catching up to it, how to fillet a Monkfish. Butchering whole animal, fishes or meats is something I started doing very early during my apprenticeship at the Repair de Cartouche, a French Parisian restaurant when  I was 15 years old. One month into my new career my real mentor, Chef Raphael Puchios put me in front of 2 large styrofoam boxes one with 4 salmon and the other one with plenty of small monkfish. He quickly show me how to butcher one of each and went onto is afternoon break while I was suppose to finish the work. As he left he told me, you might do a terrible job, try your best, take your time and just follow the bones this is the best way to do it. After is departure I looked at those creatures and wonder for a moment, the flesh was so cold and firm, it was my first time hearing the crack of fish bones against a knife. The salmon were easier than the monkfish which have slimy skin, usually a sign of freshness for fish, monkfish have as two skin that need to be removed but only one bone, the back bone, when salmon and most of other fish species have plenty of pin bones added. 

My break that day consisted of cleaning fish, and trust me I was bitching a lot because it was not that fun at all, I had much prefer being at the bar next door  playing baby foot or like we say here, fuss ball sipping a panachée, a mixture of beer and sparkling lemonade, yes you can do that at 15 in France. Today I am glad I did it so I have a story to tell. How to become a chef!

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my blog. It is all about cooking method and some extravagance cooking techniques. My name is Chef Rogers. I was a chef Instructor at the French Culinary Institute in NYC for 12 years before becoming the Director of the Culinary and Pastry Art program at the International Culinary Center In Campbell California. I started uploading cooking videos for fun back in 2008, my first demo one was, How to butcher a Rabbit.

In 2012 I was ask to join the Youtube Partner program and started uploading more work based on French Cooking techniques and methods. As the channel was growing nicely. After loosing my job in November 2013 I decided to create Worldwide Culinary Apprentice, an online cooking library reference for people all over the world via my youtube channel. Next to that I want to have a blog where I could post the Recipes and advice on all the work I produce thru my videos.
So here we go... You will have to forgive me for my French accent even noticeable into my writing.