The Dreaded Cooking Practical, Pass or Fail

Before we leave on externship, we have to take a cooking practical. We are given 6 different menus that we have to prepare for because we draw a menu that day of the practical. We have 2 1/2 hours to prepare a soup and an entree. We have cooked all of these items during Skills 1, 2, 3, so nothing is unfamiliar. I saved most of my recipes from those classes, so prepping the recipes was not hard. The hard part was the week leading up to my practical

As each day went by before my practical, more and more of my classmates were failing, and those that passed were just barely passing. I started to get worried. The chef was picking out the little things, according to the students. I listened to the tips and hints they could give me about how to not mess up, which was hard for this chef because he had specific ways of doing things that we are not taught in school. I mentally prepared myself to pick out every single detail and avoid failing. I made sure I understood my recipes, made detailed game plans and read over everything.

The thing that is occuring with most classmates is that they are failing the first time, and when they take it the second, they get a very high grade, which apparently is common with this chef. I don't want to go into the practical with the "second chance" mentality. I want to pass it my first time. I am mentally prepared and I know what I am doing, I just cannot get flustered.

I found an externship!!!

For so long I have been stressing out about finding a place to do my externship (internship). I had my resume out at too many places to count, but the reply I kept getting was that either they were fully staffed or that the economy was slowing business, so they could not take externs! As my time here as a freshman was winding down, I was really worrying that I would not find an externship before my deadline of Feb 18th.
When I found out that the Newport Restaurant Group was coming to our school to hold interviews, I scheduled an interview because I had held interest in two of five restaurants. They are located in Newport, RI, which is a massive tourist attraction, especially the timing of my externship (spring into summer). The interview was with the chef of the corporation and the chef of the Mooring Restaurant (a seafood restaurant right on the ocean). The interview went so well that I was offered a position at the Mooring Restaurant at the interview! I told them I would get back to them in a couple days (but I really just responded the next day). I am soo excited because they provide housing by taking a small amount of each paycheck, and the housing is with other interns working within the Newport Restaurant Group.
I am so happy to finally have a secured externship, especially with the NRG, because I have heard nothing but great things about all the chefs of that corporation! I am really looking forward to starting (Mid March or April-ish). I feel like a thousand pounds was lifted off my back knowing that I finally have a location!

VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOT WOOT!!! December 18th was my last day of classes. I have been on vacation for a little over 2 weeks, driving back to my home (CIA) tomorrow. While my first week of vacation was spent out in Lake Tahoe skiing the best snow of my life, I really started to miss school. All of my friends are at that school and I realized how much at home i feel there. It was nice to get away, ill admit, and to refresh my brain before I start my next class (continue reading for more info). It was also nice to be able to shower without having to wear flip flops (community bathrooms, which I can't complain about because they are constantly clean, since we dont have to clean them!) My bed at school is definitely more comfortable than the one here in New Hampsha. I miss my roommate too! She and I are pretty much best friends, so its been hard to not see her for this long (she's been pretty much out of contact because of where she is spending vacation). I get to see her tomorrow though, thankfully. AHH I'm so excited to finally be going back, which is funny, cuz most kids would dread going back to school after vacation.


As for this class I am talking about, its called Cuisines of Asias. The chef is Michael Pardus, who is pretty much a legend in the school cuz he knows so much. He has tons of books written about him and he is wicked smart. I don't wanna say too much, but I hear his class is wicked hard cuz of how he teaches. I am not THAT worried. You just have to be WICKED prepared, like, KNOW your recipes inside and out. I have been pretty good about being prepared, so this will be a good challenge. I am just lucky that I had these two weeks to prepare, compared to the 3 day weekends we usually get between classes! I have a good group for the first few days, so I'm not too worried, I'm looking forward to (excuse my language) getting my ASS KICKED!!!! I'll keep you updated on the drama

AHH I'm so sorry I haven't been writing!!

So its definitely been over a month since i posted something! My bad. Long story short: this last block I was in was called Cuisine of the Americas. Every two days, we studied a different region of America. (New England, Florida and Caribbean, Southwest, Deep South, Northwest, Mexico, South America). I really liked this class because of the different cuisines we studied and the new ingredients we worked with. I ate too much good food (the people in my class cook well, so the food constantly turns out good.

I am really enjoying my time at school. Learning sooo much!

"See Audrey, Sucking up to the Chef is a GOOD Thing"

My chef for Skills 3 is amazing! She yells a lot, but she says her bark is worse than her bite, which is true. She likes to push us to motivate us and keep us moving. Before the class started, I was told she was horrible, but I was also told that she likes girls and gay guys, haha. So true. She and I get along so well. It is important that in her class, you know what you are doing, because she will come to your station a lot and ask whats going on, and you better be able to give her a straight answer. I found out she worked in NH for a long time, so as a NH native, I figured I would use that to my advantage. She LOVES using Maple Syrup and is always telling stories about "when I worked in NH, we would do blahdeblah." I brought it up one day and since then, she has been so nice. She has been pretty nice to me since day one and I think its because my friend down the hall had her last block and she said that she put in a good word for me. She is never really breathing down my back. Today was actually really funny. Our group was running behind, but she was helping us. I opened the oven to check the beef stew and she comes over and starts yelling. "WHY ISN'T THIS SIMMERING! THIS SHOULD BE SIMMERING!" and I say, Chef, it WAS simmering, I just pulled it out of the oven. And she reaches into the oven and yells, "THIS OVEN ISNT EVEN ON!!!!! WHY ISNT YOUR OVEN ON!!!" And everyone is looking at me and I say, "CHEF, the oven IS ON! LOOK!" and she looks at me so only I can see her face and she goes, "im totally just playing around, just go with it" and starts laughing then stands up and starts yelling again. I yelled back to her, "YOU'RE KILLING ME CHEF!" (cuz she says that all the time, just as one of her catch phrases). It was so funny because everyone was like, OMG AUDREY, what did you DO!???!" hahahha. She's hilarious. Oh and yesterday, i made "SNACKS." She likes to make snacks for us during class and because we were ahead of schedule yesterday, she threw some flour tortillas on our station and told us to make quessadillas. I have made them many times, so I was happy to. I started buttering the outsides and she comes over and goes, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!??!" And I say, "well, buttering the outside chef, to make them crispy and delicious" and she goes, "AH YOU'RE KILLING ME!" haha. Its a good thing when she says that. After they were done, she ate one and thought they were absolutely incredible. I have learned that the secret to pleasing her is just to be confident in what you make. Give her a straight answer, and all will be good.

I'm the Queen of Procrastin Nation

So Its been quite some time since I have written in my blog, and I am sorry. But its a good thing. I have just been so busy with school. I get up at 5:30 every single day, go to class, cook my pants off, finish by 1:30, come back to my room, shower, do laundry, homework, eat dinner, chill with friends (if I'm lucky) and go to bed....turning it into a very full day. Writing on my blog has not been a priority of mine, so I'm sorry. I have so many stories, but my fingers would fall off trying to type them. I am going to try to be better about writing. Let's start with talking about the class I am in right now: Skills 3. This is similar to Skills 1 and 2 because we are cooking what we made in those classes, but instead of just cooking one portion for ourselves, we are cooking enough for 10 portions. Our group of 17-ish students is divided into 5 smaller groups of 3-4 people per group. I had 4, but one kid left, so we are down to 3. YAY I can do math! haha. We start class around 6:30 and by 10:00, we have to have enough food done in order to make a demo plate for the chef to show us how to plate the food. We start serving at 11. Students come to our kitchen (we are one of 8 or so to choose from) for lunch. We always have a fresh fruit platter, salad, and sometimes a soup. Then they come to which ever station they were told to go to. There are 5 stations in our kitchen. Two stations make the same dish and the other two make another dish (so there are 2 entree options). Then there is the salad and soup station. Who ever is "Sous Chef" of the day calls out to each station whenever a student orders a meal. Here's a scenario: A student walks up to the classroom, reads the menu, decides she wants to eat the beef dish. She says to the Sous Chef (different student in our class is a sous chef every day) and that person calls out, "STATION 4, BEEF!" and we yell back, "BEEF HEARD!" and we start plating. The next person that ordered a beef would be sent to station 3, to alternate who plates. Oh man, i just got very overwhelmed with how much I need to talk about. Oh well. Just call and ask me if you want to know. haha

Burn Baby Burn

Yup, that's right. I burnt myself last Monday (the 27th) . I was making rice pilaf and it is cooked in the oven, so when I went to take it out, I had my side towel to grab the hot handle. I put it on the counter, walked away for a second and totally forgot to pick my side towel back up. I wrapped my hand around the handle that had just been in the 400 degree oven and pulled it away in a flash in pain. I rushed over to sink knowing it was bad. I had an ice bath I had used earlier to shock my vegetables, so I shocked my hand, haha. I submerged it in the ice to take away the pain, but the damage was done. I looked at chef and said to him how I had really really really burnt my hand. And he says to go to the nurse. I told him that my food was due at 10:15 (currently 9:45) and that it was already cooking. So i told him I would manage to finish my food and then go. I asked if I could go as soon at my food was done rather than waiting until my assigned time, and thankfully I could. I kept my right hand submerged in the ice whenever I could. My food actually turned out great, but how I wish I could say the same about my hand. It was smothered in burn cream when I went to the nurse and wrapped in gauze. The pain was unbearable. During break, I walked back to my room while crying on the phone with my mom. I was so worried I would not be able to cook, since I do pretty much everything with my right hand (my left hand is just along for the ride, haha). I love my mom. She assured me everything would be okay and that I was just emotional and to just see what happened later that day before freaking out. Three hours later, the burning sensation subsided, but I still could not really do much with my hand. When I woke up the next day, it did not hurt at all, but I wrapped it in gauze and bandages and headed off to class. I actually cooked my best on Tuesday because I was so careful about everything and I was careful and cognizant of everything going on because of my burn. I wore the bandages for the rest of the week to keep it covered, and continued to put out great food. I actually learned a tip from Chef how to remind myself something is hot--sprinkle whatever it is thats hot with flour, so in the case, I sprinkled the lid and the handle of all the pots that were hot. I have not yet made the mistake of grabbing a hot pan. I learned my lesson the hard way.