Thanks are due
July 27, 2010
Ah, culinary school. Sure, it may have been more the home of petty, childish behavior than the intellectual and creative Mecca of food I had hoped, but, still, I learned a lot. So thanks are due. Read more
Should I go to culinary school from someone who has been
July 20, 2010
Despite Anthony Bourdain’s blanket condemnation of culinary school, I would not give it a sweeping no.
But you do need to know what you are getting into. Read more
Let me answer your questions
July 13, 2010
Quite a lot of you have asked questions that, alas, I have not had an opportunity to answer. Let me rectify this now.
And thanks for your patience. Read more
So what happens to me now?
July 6, 2010
I’m going back to journalism. Let me tell you why. Read more
And the culinary school student goes on externship
June 29, 2010
School is over, holiday is taken, and now I am an extern. And you will never believe what I have traded my knives for . . . Read more
It’s a new day!
June 22, 2010
No more school means no more days in a term to count. Which, of course, means no more counting days in the headline.
It is a new day, indeed!
So what does a culinary school student do when school is over? Well, the first thing she does is take a holiday. And eat.
We had one meal so bad it was returned. One meal so good it was gobbled up down to the last crumb. And one, the one in the middle, that was just perfect.
And, yes, the learning continues. Let me tell you all about it. Read more
Day forty: Fin
June 17, 2010
I am now going to say something I’ve been waiting months to say.
Today is my last day of school.
I’m going to tell you all about it. And, as a bit of a treat (if only to myself), I am going to include a few quotes that sum up the way I think of food.
The last quote is unbearably lovely. The first is undeniably rude.
I wanted to warn you about the first quote in case you are faint of heart.
Day thirty-nine: Last day in the restaurant and I cooked …
June 14, 2010
Sweet Line Cook never did show up today and the restaurant was fully booked, so the Chef told me I could have his station: Grill. So, after I set up the restaurant, I did the prep for the grill station.
I was delighted to be cooking again. Read more
Day thirty-eight: Be good to your waitress
June 10, 2010
Today is day two of me playing server. Once again, we had an almost packed restaurant. Like yesterday, I again managed to draw a line across my left breast with my blue pen (it’s not that I am a total klutz, it’s just that I am required to wear my white Chef’s jacket for service and I keep my blue pens in the pocket on my left shoulder, so … ). However, unlike yesterday, today fully one-tenth of our guests were children.
Mostly toddlers. Read more
Day thirty-seven: Where I am now doing the one job I have yet to do
June 7, 2010
My captors refuse to release me preferring, instead, to confine me to a small square of floor where I pace, pace, pace from table to table, forever doomed to ask people, “So, do you know what you want today?” and busily writing “chop” or “chix” or “tang” or whatever phrase my captors insist I use to indicate pork chop or chicken sandwich or tangerine salad (which, irritatingly enough, has not had so much as a single tangerine segment for well over a month and is made with oranges which I know too well as it was not all that long ago that they insisted I segment 10 or more oranges a day solely for their amusement) and then carry platefuls of food to the table, carry armloads of empty plates from the table, and carry back and forth bottles of water, dishes of bread and butter, and heaven help us all, wicked intoxicants from wine to beer even though I am not licensed to handle this stuff but the restaurant manager, who is liquor licensed and is in a wheelchair, has said he will play the handicapped card if the inspector comes in so we need to go ahead and carry alcohol.
I know of a sushi restaurant that serves food on a conveyor belt. Why, oh why, can’t they install one here instead of insisting that I, poor beleaguered culinary school student, act as a human conveyor belt for their amusement.
Ah well. Student labor, unpaid student labor, is always cheaper.
Besides, I’m getting an education here. Read more
