Chapter 7, Day 24

Wow, what a difference a few weeks makes. When I first started this endeavor, Saturdays really killed me. I am just not used to being on my feet all day and having to stand in one spot or even run around like a controlled-chaos idiot. Not to mention the fact that my shoes are most likely a half-size too small (but it's too late now). I would get to the end of class and look for any reason I could to sit down... usually it was after we ate and I would go outside to smoke and sit down (bearing in mind that this is the only allowable break in our day). But really that only made it worse. Go sit for 7 minutes and every joint and muscle in your lower body just seizes up and it makes walking just that much more painful.
Today, I didn't succumb to the temptation... today was actually the first time I didn't feel like I needed to. Don't get me wrong, my feet still hurt like a... ahem... well, they hurt really bad, but it's getting better. It's getting more tolerable. It's becoming ok.
Honestly, that was my only doubt about being able to do this... the physical part... but I've since realized that I'm doing way better than some people who are 10 years younger than me and in much better shape... I'm gonna be ok. It's really going to happen.

Peace

Chapter 7, Day 17

Today... shoo... today was rough. Not only did I wake up with a headache that I thought was going to kill me, but today was our first lab where we started making actual recipes. We practiced some knife cuts for the first hour or so and then our groups (3 people each) began working on our menu. Each group was given three recipes to do and 3 hours to do it in. See, what we do, is all the stuff we cook feeds all three lab classes for the day, so when we say service is at 1... well, we better damn well be ready. There's nothing more intimidating than two other classes full of students who are ahead of you and who have been through what you're going through drooling on the glass of the doors waiting. My group was responsible for a garden salad with homemade croutons and vinaigrette, tuna salad, and corn chowder. All of these recipes seem relatively easy, except you're making enough for 30-40 servings each. There is A LOT of prep work... so, let me back up.
When we were practicing knife cuts, this kid in my group (and I say kid because I believe he's about 20) kept leaving his thumb out when he was chopping where it was only a matter of time before he chopped it off... and I told him that. I said, "man, if you keep that thumb out, you're going to lose it." He was good until we got done with knife cuts. But then, when we started in prepping our ingredients for our menu, he started doing it again. At this point, I told him in my "I'm your boss tone" (thinking that might scare him a little bit) that he was, in fact, going to cut his thumb... maybe cut it off if he didn't stop it. So, thinking that I'd scared him a little, I went back on my merry little way prepping all the veg we were going to need for these big ol' dishes... not 10 minutes later I hear "uh oh" and I knew without looking what had happened. He had sliced his thumb and he had done it well. There was blood everywhere. It looked really bad. So, Chef sent him down to 'Public Safety' to get looked at... Great, we're down a man with all this stuff to do.
So finally, he came back and decided that it wasn't bad enough to leave and go to the hospital. So I'm thinking, "Well, at least he can mix stuff and be a gopher if he can't cut stuff (because they had his thumb wrapped up like he was a cartoon character that had just hammered his thumb)." But it wasn't to be... he just kinda moped around for the first 30 minutes he was back until something snapped in me... I told him if he was going to be here, he had to do something. So, I just started barking orders at him... go get this, do this, stir that. I didn't give that kid a chance to breathe... I have to tell you, that felt pretty good... It felt natural... I'm over here working my ass off and still having the wherewithal to see the big picture and get other people moving... In case you weren't sure, that is exactly what a chef does. I've worked in a couple of kitchens in my life, and that is just what they do. It's their name on the line and they expect that you know it.
It was really satisfying... I must say, in my normal life, I give orders all the time, but I have never been as comfortable doing it as I was today.
These are the little affirmations that let me know that I am making the right decisions with my life... it doesn't happen all that often, so, I'm going to relish it while I can.

Peace

Chapter 7, Day 16

So, tonight in my theory class, we have our first test. It's over the general 500 YEAR HISTORY of restaurants and the folks that began creating them, food sanitation, cooking methods, heat transfer methods, and recipe conversions... I am pretty sure there could not be a more random mix of things for a class to have one single test over. The history part would be so bad if they weren't all french and all of the words they used... well, they're french too. I suppose I'm fortunate to have had 3 years of french in high school and 2 semesters of it at UK (but I think we all know how well I performed there and ALL of the things that I've done since then to destroy brain cells). The food sanitation part is cool because it's just review from the other classroom-class I have this semester. Cooking methods (which also include equipment ID) is tough but it's doable. Heat transfer methods, well, that's just basic physics that I've somehow managed to actually retain all these years. And that leaves us with recipe conversions--breaking down recipes that make 100 servings into smaller portions... simple math, right??? Do you know how many ounces a Grade A Large Egg is? Do you know how many teaspoons are in a gallon?

I'm pretty sure if I stick one more number in my head right now, my frontal lobe will fall right out... right on to the floor in front of me, do a little dance, roll over and laugh at me, and then proceed to steam and melt away a la the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.

What a world...

Ah well, this is what I signed on for so, suck it up Harris!

Chapter 7, Day 10

Not much going on in theory class last night but Saturday in lab, I must say, I kicked ass. I rocked at chiffonade, concasse, blanching, pasting garlic, and poaching. Minus the hiccups with battonier and brunoise (that are still beating me up) it was a really good day. I'm feeling a lot more confident after the second lab for sure. I just needed to absorb the first week and remember to relax. This is going to be fun...

Chapter 7, Day 8

Pardon my missing a few days, but I didn't really think you guys would want to know what I did on my non-school days because it wasn't much but work and study...
So, last night... Last night was good. We started in on parasitic infections and shellfish contamination and all I can say is, people need to stop pooping. Every infectious, food-borne illness that I have learned about in the last 2 weeks has something to do with poo. People don't wash their hands and have poo on them, they make you sick. People poo a lot and the water isn't treated correctly, the plants and animals get sick and then YOU get sick. All the way down to shellfish... they have toxins that stem from contaminated water that can make you sweat, then puke, then twitch, and then forget that the whole thing even happened (which, if I were going to get sick, I suppose that is how I'd want it to happen). Like I said before, the odds are in your favor that you won't get sick, but jeez.
Well, that's what I learned last night... people and animals poo too much. Oh yeah, and I got a 97 on my first test :)

Chapter 7, Day 3

Today... well, today was brutal. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a discouraged moment. This is just the truth. Six hours of standing in one spot trying to make perfect julienne carrots and potatoes is a gut-wrenching experience. I fully understand that chefs are on their feet for very long hours and work for very long stretches without stopping for anything. I know that this will be me in a short amount of time. But let me tell you, when you have a mainly desk-type job for 8 years and don't do a large amount of strenuous activity because you're a lazy slob like myself, 6 hours of standing in one spot with new shoes bent over a table with a knife in your hand is like asking a drunk for directions... it's just painful.
But like all things that are worthwhile, there is pain to be had and lessons to be learned. Today I got a really good lesson in "This is what happens when you are a lazy son-of-a-bitch"

No more, my friends... no more.
:)

Chapter 7, Day 2

So, phew... got the first day under my belt and it's all good. However, since the class I go to on Thursday nights only meets one day a week for three hours and forty minutes, we took the obligatory 30 minute "this is who I am and this is the syllabus" time and then we dove right in to the wonderful world of Food Sanitation... let me tell you that it is safer not to eat and starve to death than it is to actually put food in your mouth... well, not statistically speaking, but who really likes any situation where the odds are one to anything that you'll get intestinal infections, vomiting, bloody stool, and severe abdominal cramps (or maybe even dead)? And it doesn't matter if it is flora or fauna... everything can be contaminated. Luckily though, I'm not one of those people who tend to worry about stuff like that (obviously) so it doesn't really bother me all that much. I'm pretty sure I've survived a few food 'taintings' in my day.
So, anyway, I hope to keep this blog rolling with all kinds of pathogen-induced, food-borne illness stories to keep the general population in a frenetic state for as long as I can. Why? Because I can :)

Chapter 7, Day 1

Well, today is the day... Today I start the next chapter in my life. My 'first' day of school. It's weird... I went to bed last night with the same butterflies and restlessness that I remember having on the night before the first day of school when I was a kid. It was kinda cool though because I never really had that feeling when I started at UK, or back at LCC to try and make some sort of effort to not waste my life. I was excited and nervous just like a kid again.
I have to say that this is the most satisfying decision I have ever made for myself. I'm certainly not discounting other decisions that I have made that were awesome, but this is by far makes me feel... what's the word... ah yes, content... like I'm comfortable in my own skin for one of the very few times in my life.
So, at 6 o'clock tonight, I start Chapter 7. When I write the book, this one my not be the longest chapter, but I know it will have the happiest ending. I hope it rubs off on Chapters 8, 9, and 10
:)