THERE WAS NEVER A DULL MOMENT IN THE KITCHEN
UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF CHEF AVRAM WISEMAN, AND
GABRIELLA TOOK IT ALL IN.
was when we were given a whole fish to
cut up, but I did get over it and now I’m
okay with it.
“My favourite day was charcuterie day –
where we learned to make sausages, or in
my case, boerewors. We made the filling
from scratch, stuffed the kishka casing
ourselves and then baked or grilled them.
All I needed was some pap and I would
have been the world’s happiest person!”
The budding chefs were taught everything from knife skills to the art of plating, from working with fish, meat, veal,
lamb, and a variety of vegetables (including some unfamiliar ones) to sauces,
stocks and even a bit of pastry, to make
sure they became well-rounded chefs. The
students learned to prepare dishes from
America to Asia, and what’s more, they
made almost everything from scratch.
“The school tries to use every modern
cooking technique that exists. We learned
all the big cutting styles as well as knife
decorating techniques – like supremes,
fluting, and tourning. We learned how to
sous-vide meat and vegetables (a method
of cooking in which food gets sealed in
special plastic bags and then placed in
boiling water at a regulated temperature,
which ensures even cooking of each item),
and how to blanch and shock food to
make it look presentable. We learned the
arts of grilling and frying, how to flip
eggs, and almost every major technique
that one needs in the kitchen.”
All of this made Gabriella grow as a
cook, but what changed her more was the
way she grew as a person while she was
there. “Being born and raised in Joburg, I
realised how I was sheltered and not very
grown up – but after three months of living in America, I learned a lot about myself, and I grew up overnight.” While her
classmates laughed when it came to her
turn to sweep, she learned to hold her )