Week 4: A month already?

I cannot believe that it's been almost a month since I started school. I also cannot believe that my first class is almost over! I have finals this week, FINALS! And am seriously wondering when I'm going to find the time to study for them. If only I could read and drive up and down I-5, I'd be set.

Anyway, this last week was made up of cooking massive amounts of vegetables, practicing and having a mock test on our knife skills and starting on the ServeSafe training, which is the nationally mandated food service safety certification we'll need to have.

The vegetable cookery was interesting, starting out with a super hectic first day. I wasn't a huge fan of my braised fennel, which tasted like licoricy mush to me, but the chef seemed to think it was ok. SIDENOTE: I haven't really talked about the structure of the school day, other then the in-kitchen time. We start in the kitchen at 4 p.m., usually do some sort of quiz/discussion/tasting for the first half hour, then get to cooking our meals. Food is supposed to be plated by 6:15 p.m. so we can start tasting and then we have to have the kitchen cleaned up by 7 p.m. We then head into the classroom for a lecture, video, discussion, etc., but only after we spend about an hour talking about the food we cooked. The chef gives his opinions, we all give ours and that's that. Back to the cooking, the second day I got to make glazed carrots, which was actually really fun and simple. I got to use a spice that our chef had received from a friend from Dubai and I was really happy with the look and taste of my finished product. Everyone else seemed to think they were pretty tasty too. The third veggie day, a day when most students venture a little further outside the recipe's "suggestions," my partner and I requested some sausage for our veggie skewers.

Let me just say that sausage (and a little shrimp scavenged by our lab chef) tends to trump almost any other recipe tweaking, especially when we haven't gotten to cook (or eat) any meat yet. The skewers were delicious, and despite being pretty tired from the week, I left Friday night feeling pretty good.

I also had to give a presentation on a vegetable this week. My veg was a beet, which I personally do not care for. But, being the overachieving dork I am, I set out to illustrate BY HAND, a poster that I could hide behind while talking. Come to find out, there are lots of overachievers in my class who gave really nice presentations which made me feel totally silly for thinking I'd overdone it. Next up, Foodborne Illness presentations. YUM.

At this point in school, I'm feeling pretty comfortable. I like my classmates (some of us are even Facebook friends, hi guys!) and despite the impending tests this week, I feel a lot less anxiety about showing up everyday. The things that are starting to wear on me are the 90+ miles of driving I'm doing everyday, being gone from 9 a.m.-10 p.m. M-Th and not having a whole heck of a lot of time with my husband. But honestly, these are literally the only things I can think to complain about. Because the rest of the time, I pretty much can't keep a smile off my face. And I can't stop running through knife cuts when I lay in bed at night.

It's busy, it's a bit intense and overwhelming, but it's a good, good life.

Week 3: No soup for you.

I felt all week like last week's update was all over the place, so I'm going to try a little harder to stay somewhat organized this week. Week three was/is (we have one more recipe batch today) soups. I had two thoughts going into the week, "Soup is easy" and "I don't like pureed soups." One of these statements was true, the other, completely false.

And I bet you can guess which one I'm talking about.

On demo day, my group was responsible for setting up the Cream of Broccoli demo (recipe set was COB and French Onion). The chef only demoed Cream of Broccoli, so when Day 1 came around, I was pumped to try my hand at the French Onion. Besides, it's a staple in French country cuisine, which we all know is one of my favorite things ever. It was really fun and a whole lot of work, and although both my partner and I thought it came out WAY too sweet, the chef was pleased with it. Day 1 victory.

Day 2 was when things got a little hairy. We had group members who wanted to do the Vichyssoise (Cold Potato and Leek Soup) so my partner and I were stuck with the Cream of Cauliflower. I openly hate Cauliflower, so I wasn't too excited to begin with, but if you add enough cream and salt to anything it can't turn out too bad, or so I told myself. To make a long, sad, story short, we used the wrong equipment to puree, resulting in a major loss of texture and thinned out the remaining liquid too much with stock. The chef helped us punch up the flavor and thicken it up at the last minute, but we ended up with a mediocre product and far less than the recipe was supposed to yield.

And despite the fact that the chef was totally kind about his criticism and despite the actual humor of the situation, I did feel a bit disappointed as I headed home that night. It was the first real "bump" in the road in this journey so far, and though it was minor, it still causes you to question yourself a little. At least at did me. But as I laid in bed thinking about it that night, I realized that because the soup didn't turn out quite right, I will 1) never take soup making for granted again 2) think twice about the equipment I use and 3) not assume that a recipe is bad just because it includes an ingredient I don't like. Some of my classmates Cream of Cauliflower were gosh darn good.

Soups: Day 3 brought Minestrone and Clam Chowder to our group. Our partners wanted to work on the Clam Chowder (which turned out fabulous- and I don't like clams) so we got ready for the Minestrone. As a result of the flop the day before, and the fact that the Minestrone the group before us made received high praise, I was a bit nervous about Day 3. But as we set about gathering up all the ingredients and chopping up all the veggies, that odd sense of chaotic calm set in and I knew we would be okay. The soup ended up really great- I ate a whole bowl for dinner and was even praised by our classmates and the chef. Perfection? No. But it was good and patched me up a little from the Cauliflower wound.

As I spent about 8 hours doing homework this weekend, I thought about how different this experience is from my "traditional" college experience. And even how different my experience is from a lot of my classmates. I used to be the back row sitting, textbook skimming, occasional class skipping kid who gave just enough effort to maintain my 3.0. Now, I'm that nerd who does all of the reading, who washes and irons their uniforms every night and looks ahead in their textbook excited about the chapters to come. I may or may not have spent 2.5 hours going way overboard on a Beet presentation as well. And to be honest, I kind of like being that Hermione-esque front-row sitting, question answering nerd.

Week 2: Settling in.

I spent all weekend thinking that I needed to sit down and write this post, but I was trying so hard to relax, get my homework done and squeeze in some quality time with my husband, that it just didn't happen. In fact, I spent most of yesterday not thinking about school or food at all. Okay, that's a lie, but I tried!

Anyway, week two was really the first week of the routine that we're going to follow for the rest of this term (last day of term is Halloween). We started with "Demo Day," on the first day of the week. My class size is 16, and we are split up into groups of four. For each group there is a batch of recipes for each day. So how it works is each group will complete the entire series of recipe batches throughout the week, rotating by day.

So on Demo Day, my group set up the grains recipes, for the chef to demo. The chef also demoed the other three recipe batches- pasta and pasta sauces, and two different groups of potato recipes. The grains looked simple enough as he cooked them, but I've had a bit of a history with rice, so I couldn't help but feel a little nervous about the impending grain cookery. Plus, it was the first day of actual cooking in the kitchen. I didn't know where anything was, how to work the ovens, how to go about doing anything really. Needless to say, I showed up on Day 1, a little more than nervous.

But I have to say, once I finished slicing into my finger while cutting butter (lesson learned: use a bench scraper to cut butter!) and stopped scrambling around the kitchen throwing all of my ingredients together, and started up the ovens and began simmering my various grains (rice, barley, polenta), this kind of calm set in and I felt like I was "in the zone." My rice wasn't perfect, but it was good. My barley was decent and my polenta turned out, dare I say, quite yummy. No one actually tasted my grains, since there were four of each, during the class tasting time at the end, but I left the kitchen feeling sweaty, yet satisfied. And ready to start stressing out about making pasta the next day.

Day 2, the pasta day, went pretty well also. I enjoyed kneading and cutting the pasta dough, despite my cot-ed finger, and LOVED making a big pot of juicy tomato sauce. I added a little lemon juice and zest and it turned out absolutely delicious in my opinion, though by the time we plated and tasted, it was cold and my fettucini had sucked up most of the moisture in the juice. I lugged home the extra sauce though and Taylor and I have been enjoying slathering it all over our not-so-homemade pasta.

Day 3 was potatoes for our group. I got put in charge of the Gratin Dupinoise, which was actually super fun (using the Mandoline to slice my potatoes). I added some garlic and parmesan to the recipe and slid my pan in the oven. I actually spent most of the cooking time doing dishes, since a 16 people crew produces A LOT while cooking, and though I generally hate doing dishes at home, there was something kind of satisfying about knowing that I was helping my classmates and contributing the larger success of our group. I had a moment where I stopped and looked around at the buzz going on around me and just got a huge smile on my face. "I can't believe I get to do this," was mostly the thought in my head. I probably looked like a crazy person, but it was a great moment. One I held on to as I plowed through page after page of homework this weekend.

We'll finish up our second potato recipe batch today and then move onto Soups this week.

Another part of our in-kitchen time has been tasting ingredients. Last week we tasted spices, sugars, sours, salts and fats. Though it was utterly disgusting putting things like butter, fish sauce and green peppercorns in my mouth, it's been so fun learning the purposes and flavors of all of the things that go into our food. We spent a whole lecture time talking about potatoes and I found myself thoroughly intrigued. There's just so many parts of the cooking process that are interesting on so many levels. The science, the art, the taste, the process and even the relationship piece. It's been a fascinating journey this week and I'm so looking forward to getting back in the kitchen, and even back in the classroom.

On a bit of a side note, I was reminded this weekend how easily my priorities/focus can get messed up. This whole amazing process of us deciding I was going to go to school, that we were going to make some financial and time together sacrifices, and feeling like this was really God's plan for us was suddenly washed out of my mind and replaced with stress about being "good enough," worry about learning everything and being able to be good at it and anxiety about planning out my culinary future. I spent most of Saturday feeling irritable and frustrated. But as I sat in church Sunday, and we talked about an upcoming series we're going to be doing, I was reminded just where my mind needed to be at and where my priorities need to be. I love to cook. And, I think I want to open a catering company. And I like to succeed, and learn, and be good at things. But I gave this choice, this opportunity to God to do with me as He wishes, and I just really felt reminded that this process is a step in His plan, not mine. I'm going to a place everyday where I am surrounded by 15 new people who I get to love and care for, to do something that I really enjoy and learn skills that I may need to use for His glory at some point down the road. And as I realized this, all that stress, worry and anxiety faded away. His plan is better than mine, and I am so lucky that I get to be a part of it.

Week 1: Getting Started.

As you may have heard-slash I've been shouting from every form of social media I use- I started culinary school this week. It seems simultaneously unreal and also like I've been doing it forever. I never thought I would ever say this, but this three day weekend has seemed a bit long and I kind of can't wait to get back into my uniform and back into the kitchen. So I guess you could say I'm liking it so far. :)

Wednesday was orientation (photo on left). Walking into that room, with the piles of uniforms and books on the counters was both daunting and awesome. I couldn't wait to get my hands on those books and get into my uniforms, but the crowd of unfamiliar faces sitting across from the goods weren't quite as inviting. The chefs and other faculty gave us a welcome, a few tips, rules and guidelines, loaded us up with our gear and sent us on our way. It was short and sweet. In one hours time, I went from regular person to culinary student. To put it dramatically. :) And, I was assigned my first homework. Which I raced home to do. Tools and equipment was the chapter assigned and I dove into my shiny new textbook with glee.

Thursday, after waiting nervously all day, I changed into my uniform and drove over (a wee bit early) to find a parking spot and get ready for my first class. I tried to wait until I was only slightly nerdishly-early to go in, but when I arrived in the place I thought I was supposed to be, there was no one around. I waited about ten minutes, until only a few minutes before class was supposed to start and began to panic a little. Finally, I started to wander about the halls and a friendly chef pointed me in the right direction. I spent the next three hours learning the in's and outs of our T1 (Term 1) kitchen and the tools and equipment I'll be using for the next two months (length of T1). After our three hours of kitchen time was up, we headed into the classroom to go over schedules, syllabuses and homework assignments. And the crowning glory of my first day was receiving my knife kit, aprons and towels. But mostly, the knives. At the end of the night, while I packed up my bags and walked to my car to make the drive home, I couldn't have wiped the smile off my face if I tried.

Friday, my day off from work, went quickly by due to a morning dentist appointment. When I got to school I remembered the chef had said we would have a quiz on some of the tools and equipment we went over the day before, so I looked over  a classmates shoulder as she crammed from her book a little. When he let us in the kitchen, there were 40 items set out on the prep tables and numbered for us to identify. I had a little rush of panic, "what if I don't remember anything!" and felt a flashback to a college Biology lab quiz when I truly did not know anything, but it quickly passed as the first item on the list was something I recognized. I ended up getting a 35/40 and really only got one item entirely wrong, the rest of the points missing were because I forgot to include the sizes. After the quiz, our chef pulled out his collection of knives that he has acquired since his years at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). (SIDENOTE: He may have mentioned that he attended the CIA with an old buddy he affectionately referred to as "Tony." Yeah that one.) We went over the different kinds of knives, then how to perform a batonnet cut on a potato.

Before I knew it, we were released to go and perform the cut on our own potatoes with our own knife sets. All of a sudden, I was chopping away, holding my tiny potato pieces up to the guide sheet and praying the chef wouldn't come by and throw them all in the trash. When it was my turn to face the music, the chef stopped, picked up my batonnets, held them up in a little bouquet and said, "These are lovely. Have you done a lot of cutting?" I managed to squeak out, "Just for fun," before my blush set in and I turned back to my potato, immensely relieved. Between the quiz, and the praise of my few perfect little batonnets I had a pretty great first day. We finished up in the classroom going over the recipes for this coming week, and I drove home again, with an insatiable grin.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty blessed. This schedule is going to be nuts, school is going to be challenging and I already miss seeing my husband, but the joy I've felt every day this week when I woke up has been worth it for sure. Until next week! :)