quote:
Originally posted by piqaboo:
I love this thread. Such pretty food!
What a challenge culinary school is - I guess its because a 'real' job in the kitchen is also physically and mentally demaning so they try to weed people out?
Being kitchen manager for this class sucks right now but I bet its a nice thing to have on a resume or to bring up in an interview.
Thanks
I do think they are trying to weed people out. If you can't take this kitchen you definitely shouldn't be in a high-end kitchen and if you didn't want to be in one why are you at a LCB school?? Culinary training for people with lower standards can be had for much cheaper.
Being KM is a disaster. I'm managing but oh man. Example: yesterday we had our practical. During the bench rest of our dough (~30 minutes for that bread) we were told to make our starter for tomorrow and measure out the ingredients for our soaker. Before I could start that I had to quick clean the kitchen, there went 10 minutes, then I had to measure everything out for myself and for Chef, there went another 10 minutes. So I had under 10 minutes to produce 2 starters, wash bowls/clean up, properly store both starters, and be back at my station ready to continue on with the practical the second he says go (or minus 10 points on a 50 point exam for not managing time well). UGH. I got it done but I was literally skidding back to my station
.
This class is so hard. There is a lot of math and chemistry which I'm just not great at. I'm also really just not naturally talented in shaping and scoring bread. I'm just not. I'm getting so frustrated. I AM getting better....but I've practiced and practiced and practiced and now I'm at the "acceptable" level. Most people in the class haven't practiced at all and improved just as much as I have. But they started out being better than me too
. Sigh. I will get it...one day. I got an 80 on my practical. Sigh.
We also had a written test. My calculator died, again. Stupid school-supplied calculators are crap. I really need to remember to buy one. I usually just use the calculator on my computer or phone
. So I had to do all my math long-hand which wasn't too bad but I'm pretty horrible at decimal places and rounding (I know, should have paid more attention in 4th grade
) so I was really nervous about. Thankfully I got all of those right, I missed 4 questions but he ended up giving me credit for one of them because I should him the answer in the book so I ended up getting a 94%.
Tonight we are continuing on with our natural yeast starter and making cracked whole wheat bread. Yum!
Darn! Not like we needed two loaves anyway 
the joke might going way over my head at near midnight. The 3 types of yeast we're learning about/dealing with in class are fresh, dry, and instant and I can say all of them 