Once more, with feeling

And we're back to our regularly scheduled program!

Giant Corporate Cooking School: Rotation 4, Day 1

The good news, though I am still in the dreaded room of doom, is the class has been halved and lo and behold we all have elbow room.  Save your breath telling me how tiny professional kitchens are (truth: the larger the kitchen the smaller the area for paying customers so most kitchens are tiny), this is a learning environment people.  I need room to learn.

It was an unusual day.  For one, everyone was exhausted (and possibly hungover) and it was pretty much just straight lecture.  (When we finally did have to whip up some crepe batter for the crepes we're making tomorrow, everyone seemed really confused and unsure of how to proceed, like cattle put into the wrong field.  This is why we shouldn't have a week off.)  This go round is all about advanced pastry techniques, which is far as I can tell means we take everything we've so carefully learned how to do and deconstruct it.  I'm all for destruction.  I mean deconstruction.

I'm excited and intimidated.  The in class Chef demos are now a jumping off point for us rather than something that needs to be faithfully recreated.  While it's nice to have some room for creativity, I'm already being a bit spastic about it (how would a dark chocolate and liver truffle taste?  I think it could work).  How are you supposed to know where the line is, if you don't railroad right over it?

You know what else?  Starting today, the end is closer than the beginning.  This is the halfway point if you include the 6 week externship.  If you don't, then halfway through last rotation was the halfway point.  So I'm that much closer to real life grunt work.  Scary, huh?

Ah, the externship.  Still hanging over my head like the sword of damocles.  But I wouldn't know how to function if there weren't something in life making me uneasy.  (I was even supposed to meet with a career counselor to discuss it today, but, alas, she was ill.  Of course I waited around for two and a half hours and didn't find out till I showed up at her office.  Ahem.)   Still keeping my fingers crossed for something wonderful, but prepping the safety schools so to speak.