How I ended up in cooking school
Posted on | February 9, 2009
My last cooking adventure involved using a homemade canvas pastry mat. See, I had read in one of those happy 1950s cookbooks (“You, too, can make a meatloaf your husband will thank you for!”) that canvas pastry mats were perfect for rolling out pastry.
And that canvas mat turned out to be my magic carpet ride to cooking school.
See, the book said that canvas pastry mats were perfect because they were nonstick. What the book didn’t say is that what makes them incredibly nonstick — their amazing ability to hang onto flour — also makes them incredibly horrible to clean.
Horrible because the only way to get the flour off the damn thing is to wave it frantically in the air like a WWII wife waving a damp tea towel at her departing soldier husband. Which is a sweet picture unless you are the one waving because all that frantic action sends sheets and sheets of silky white flour raining onto your head, your shoulders, your chest, your arms, and your legs.
My husband took one look at me and said, “You need someone to write ‘Wash Me!’ on your bosom.” Then he thought a minute more and said, “Isn’t it about time you went to cooking school?”
Fast forward to me, in the office of the president of the school, telling him I wanted to attend. And, more importantly, write about it.
I’m a writer, after all.
Emails, discussions, negotiations. Finally. They waive tuition and promise to let me attend the culinary and pastry and baking programs. My one condition: To be able to write honestly about the experience. They agree. Their one condition: To not tell other students for fear of mutiny regarding my waived tuition. I agree.
And then I pack.
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3 Responses to “How I ended up in cooking school”
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February 9th, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
Congratulations!!!
I graduated from CIA in November 93. At that time there was a guy within 9 weeks of finishing. He would have been done sooner but he had to delay his return after Extern because he had a heart attack. You’ll do fine.
One of my instructors said: What does this say about us that we take in 70 people we know nothing about and give them sharp knives. What is wrong with that?
Enjoy yourself wherever you go and take ever advantage of EVERY learning experience you have the chance to come across.
July 27th, 2009 @ 12:12 pm
The more I use the internet the more I understand that good sites are few and far between. This site is a gem shining out among the garbage. thank you so much, Paula Coates
October 19th, 2009 @ 8:59 am
I’m considering cooking school so I’m going back through and reading your posts. Your husband sounds like mine. He’s the one pushing me to actually chase the dream as it were.
Hoping I can gain some insight from your blog.