Day eighteen: Constipation, foie gras, and a split nail
Welcome to day three of beef cookery. Day one, I had food poisoning and missed class. Day two, my team came second place with another team and we had to make a hollandaise as tie-breaker. As it takes about the same amount of time to whip up a hollandaise as it does to grill a [...]
Day seventeen: Where’s the beef?
Finally, my chance to cook some beef is here. Or so I thought. Because, despite all the beef in the kitchen, I am the one student who never gets to lay their hands on any.
So where does a culinary student go to school?
We moved here for a few reasons, not the least of which was for me to go to culinary school. We’ve been here three months now, so I figure it is about time I told you a little about my new city. Now, I am becoming quite fond of this place: It has great restaurants, [...]
Day sixteen: The culinary school student gets food poisoning
If you had to pick the one, most absurd, thing for a culinary school student to get, it would have to be food poisoning. Knife cuts, sure, are both dramatic and predictable. Burns, ditto. Even spilling hot liquids, smacking into open oven doors, and smashing a finger or two under a filled-to-the-brim 50 gallon stockpot. [...]
Day fifteen: Hello China and good bye (for good) to Complaining Girl
We get two days of dedicated international cuisine (as well as some international dishes along the way). Yesterday, we did Middle Eastern food (with some Greek dishes thrown in for good measure). Today? Today we’re cooking Chinese.
Evening fourteen: The waiter, the police, and the restaurant manager
I though it would be a good idea to learn how to wait on tables. I mean, it can only make me a better cook if I have some idea what happens to my food when it disappears from my kitchen. So I did something incredibly clever. Or brave. Or stupid. I volunteered to be [...]
Day fourteen: Where we have more leftovers than we should
Today, day one of international cuisine and our only day of vegetarian food, my team made a Middle Eastern menu. It consisted of eight dishes. I served seven.
Day thirteen: Where we learn what happens after a “special learning opportunity”
Today, after the “special learning opportunity” afforded my team yesterday, I decided to shift gears from getting my cuts right to doing my cuts fast. See, I had always focused on good cuts over fast cuts because both Grandpa Chef and Nepal Chef told me that if I got it right, the speed would come. [...]
Day twelve: Work in low places
Today, I got a “special learning opportunity.” I suppose this is a restaurant thing. And I appreciate we are being trained to work in a restaurant. But there is one snag. This isn’t a restaurant; it’s a school.
