quote:

Originally posted by rustyfingers:
The atmosphere sounds competitive, and not in a good way. And I thought the pre-laws and pre-meds were bad when I was in school. Unbelievable.

Hang in there. Aren't you glad you aren't like some of these characters you're working with?

Also, what is it with chefs who smoke? Doesn't smoking destroy one's palette?

I'm so glad I'm not like "these people". My partner has flat out said he doesn't give a flip about this class. Ugh. There goes my grade on our shared assignments. I understand that he's culinary and this is the baking course he has to take but come on, you think your pastry chef is going to show up on time or even show up every day? Please. You have to know how to make puff pastry and simple pies and stuff to successfully run your own restaurant (or get hired in a great place).

Between the culinary students that just don't care/forget about half the stuff they're doing and the people like me that are trying their best to start out on the right foot in the program it's a chaotic kitchen.

I'd assume smoking destroys the palette but I'm not sure. It seems like over half of our class smokes.

no chance of swapping partners and getting paired w another baking oriented person?

quote:

Originally posted by piqaboo:
no chance of swapping partners and getting paired w another baking oriented person?

I wish! Everyone else is happy with their partners/no one likes my partner.

Continue to be the bigger person and do what you can to deal with your useless partner. It will reflect well on you and show that you are able to work with people who are difficult. That's an important quality to have in any business.

quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
Continue to be the bigger person and do what you can to deal with your useless partner. It will reflect well on you and show that you are able to work with people who are difficult. That's an important quality to have in any business.

I'm doing my best. I only have to deal with him for another 3 weeks and then we're off to different classes. I can usually deal with useless people, but when it messes up my hard work...very little patience.

Last night went better than I thought it would! I got 39/45 (86%) on my practical (on eclairs and fresh fruit tart). If we didn't have the lumpy pastry cream I would have gotten an A. Oh well. Got a 96% on the written, I only missed two questions! Woohoo

If I did the math right I should have a 92 in the class, the practicals keep dragging down my grade. Ugh. Don't know what else I can do to prepare for them, I study, I practice at home, I ask questions, I stay after class to get help. Oh well.

I was Kitchen Manager last night. That was pretty funny. I have no desire to run a kitchen of 20 people. I don't like raising my voice. But I did it and got it done, glad I won't have to do that again this class!

Don't remember if I mentioned my Chef fell down the stairs last week. He's fine but banged up and sore so he's switching to teaching Accounting at the other campus so he can sit. Our new Chef S is great as well. He's not as technical as Chef W but I think he'll be fun to learn from. He and his wife, also a Chef at SCI, have been on the Food Network often (most recently was over the summer but they just filmed something yesterday too) and together they won 1st place in the 2006 National Bread and Pastry Team Championship, etc. Good guy to learn from even if he isn't a certified master baker .

Pictures!

Eclairs and fruit tart from the practical:





Blitz puff pastry:

Oh my. I'm coming to visit. I just hope I get there before Doug.

I live closer!! I'll get there first!!!

. There's always baked goods in this house, whether it's from class or practicing for practicals. Plenty for everyone and then some. Please take it all away!

I do like to start my day with a tart...

quote:

Originally posted by Doug:
I do like to start my day with a tart...

SM is now spoiled. A good day starts with a tart. A bad day starts without a tart. Guess who's making a ton of tarts?

quote:

Originally posted by musicasacra:

quote:

Originally posted by apple*:
i sure am enjoying this thread and suggest you save your posts as a journal... sometimes posts are lost here.

it's really fun to read.

True, she could have a blog. I was required to keep a journal for my Europe MBA class so I wrote daily blog entries with photos. Now I can go back to that blog anytime, and it's full of details I have since forgotten.

I was thinking the same thing, this would make a great blog! I love reading all of this, and the pictures are even better!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug:
I do like to start my day with a tart...

I'll bet you do.

Today went okay. We had our first 100pt exam in my Sanitation class. Spelling counted on this one and they're long evil scientific names for icky pathogens and germies that we're being trained to keep away from food. I answered all of the questions right...and lost 20pts because I mixed my "e"s and "a"s up on a lot of works (1pt off per LETTER and there were ~15 names. Ugh). So I got an 80, but I had a 100 in the class so now I have a 90? I hope. Sigh.

We met our new Chef in our kitchen class today, he will be our Chef for the rest of the class. He's very nice and is an amazing Chef (I think their next Food Network Challenge will air in the Spring! They taped it last week, not telling the results! FN has talked about doing a challenge just between him and his wife Tracy (they're partners in all competitions) which would be so cool. They're game because then either way the $10,000 comes home ). He's less technical in his production work but still great to learn from. He's a huge stickler about looking professional, which we understand...but our last Chef understood that baking can sometimes be messy. I got in trouble because I had flour on my shoes during production . Oops. Not very professional of me. I iron all of my uniforms but he wants them starched and ironed. Ugh. Polishing my shoes is the last thing on my list to do. Way below laundry and pulling weeds in the front yard. Maybe I can talk SM Sr into doing it...he's gotten really good at polishing work boots. My kitchen shoes are just short versions of those

Today we made chocolate sponge cake aka chocolate genoise. Sounds so much fancier! We also made a yellow butter cake and Italian buttercream. No pictures since we just made everything. Tomorrow we're making the chocolate genoise into a black forest cake and icing it with the Italian buttercream. We're also making a simple buttercream. Then I think the day after that we're learning boarders and script and making the butter cake into a pretty happy birthday cake.