12.02.2008

Week 1-3 of school in review



School has been coming along quite well. This is a short quarter for me, it's only 6 weeks long. You'd think we wouldn't get into "too much" because of that... HA! Yeah right! This chef instructor that I have may be the strict-est, mean-est, crazy-est one I'm ever going to have. I'll let you in on some of the "rules" of his class.

1 - If you're late to class you peel potatoes for 6 hours
2 - If you're not in complete uniform, and ready to begin right at 6p, you wash and clean the entire kitchen for 6 hours.
3 - There is NO MAKE-UP work ever, and once an assignment has passed, there's no way to ever turn it in.... basically your S-O-L if you're absent.

Even if you break rule 1 or 2, and manage to come into class, you get a "0" for the day and can't make up the points. Since the class is only 6 weeks (5 1/2 if you want to be technical) you've screwed yourself right out of a passing grade.

The first 3 weeks haven't been all bad, I've met some pretty cool people - my first "industry friends!" I met them during the initial orientation (I sat right next to Kim) and now we make up Table #3 in our CUL1125 class. So far we've met blueberry muffins, cream scones, brioche (pictured above - braided), country rolls and some other bread that I've since forgotten about (also pictured above - dusted with flour).

As someone who "bakes" often I must say that the classroom kitchen is pretty intimidating. I mean, there's 4 different types of stoves, 3 refrigerators, a proofer (who knew), 5 sinks, blah blah blah. Add to the fact that my instructor is CRAZY and it only makes it much more intense.

Yes Chef!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greetings from Shizuoka, Japan!
I'v never been to cooking school as I was lucky to be born in Bourgogne in a family bent on cooking all the time.
One of may brothers holds his own restaurant there and my father (83) still cooks!
But I do not worry too much as cooking is a work of love and you will be so happy to learn in a few weeks whta it takes years for other people!
In Japanese "go for it!" is "ganbatte!".
Cheers,
Robert-Gilles