Ugh I'm so pissed. Tonight we were preparing danish/croissant dough. It's many many layers of butter (or some kind of fat) and dough. So there's a lot of folding and rolling and resting. When it's resting we wrap it up and put it on our tray in the walk-in fridge.

I made my dough, and had folded/rolled/rested it 2 times. I put it in the walk-in wrapped up with my name, time I put it in the fridge, etc on the wrapping on the tray with my name and other info on it. Then I went to wash up my station and whatnot for the next 20 minutes. Come back to the walk-in....my tray is EMPTY. My dough is GONE. I couldn't find it anywhere. Our Chef comes over and can't find it either.

We found someone's unmarked badly shaped dough not even on a tray, just on a shelf in the walk-in! Chef thinks someone took mine and left theirs' there. What in the hell???? Their dough wasn't savable it was so badly done. Chef thinks they softened their butter instead of creamed it or something.

Since we couldn't find the dough and didn't have enough time to make more and finish in the class period I'M the one that got a ZERO for the day. I'm livid. It's only 5 points out of the 750 for the class but STILL. Those are supposed to be the EASY points. Show up and make something edible, shouldn't be hard!!

So now I have to go into class hours and hours early to complete my dough so I don't miss out on learning how to shape, etc the dough tomorrow and lose even more points. Which means now I have to find a babysitter and so on and on. It's 11:30 here, too late to call anyone to see if they can watch SM tomorrow. I guess I'll start begging people early in the morning! (SM Sr is usually home before I go to class or we meet at my school and pass SM off in the parking lot. No way for him to get off that early tomorrow).

I know I didn't complete the work so I cannot receive the points but UGH. So unfair.

Who the hell takes something, especially in a class, that isn't theirs?????

And I got pulled over on the way home (because some lowlife took the registration tag off my plate. SM Sr explained it once a long time ago. No big deal, no warning no ticket) and treated like a criminal because I had my knife kit IN MY TRUNK. WTF????? I guess I should just keep my big mouth shut. I said "Officer my driver's license is in my backpack from school in the trunk of my car. So you're aware my knife kit is also in my trunk, I'm not going to touch it. Just officer-safety, wanted to let you know." So stupid flipping calls for back up and has his gun out, the whole 9 yards. I bet I could have just said my ID is in the trunk, may I please get it out and they would have never know there are huge knives right next to me. So the traffic stop that should have been just a few minutes to run my license and verify that my registration is real turned into 20-30 minutes when I'm already dead tired and pissed off from class.



Now I can't sleep .

Well that s*cks. Especially the gun part.

That just sucks, MS! Who DOES that to someone in their class?!? It sounds like a Top Chef moment for sure!

And there is nothing worse than getting in trouble for something when you've done nothing wrong except for being HONEST and doing the right thing (ie. letting the officer know about the knife kit). If you hadn't said anything and he decided to take a look-see at the contents of the case for your kit, you would, no doubt, have gotten the "Why didn't you tell me?" routine.

I hope today is 1 million times better! And that your dough theif's croissants are destroyed when they're shaping them.

Somebody stole your dough?????

That is insane. God will get the malefactor for this.

Did you get the name of the gun-wielding officer? SM, Sr. needs to have a word with him.

Better yet...I'll come out there and do it.

I do have the same of the officer, and the name of his sergeant.. SM Sr. will be calling on his lunch break today. Having a knife kit fits into the category of items that could be used as weapons but are not weapons. Little confusing but since they were in my trunk, zipped up plus in their protective thingys, and then the whole thing was buckled closed....yeah there was NO threat there.

I found an expensive sitter service for emergencies, so we will be using them again today so I can go into the kitchen a little after lunch so I can finish my dough before my other class at 4:45. Sigh. I'm so tired after 4 hours of sleep each night for several nights that I don't think I'm going to get any productive studying done this morning. I have my first two exams TOMORROW. So if I can't get much productive studying done today and have class all night and SM has doctor appointments tomorrow....ugh. Juggle juggle juggle. SM Sr. usually has Wed-Friday off to help me but not this week! At least he'll have Sat-Sunday off like me so we might be able to spend some family time together.

If this is what is going on after only a couple of weeks in classes, it is all sounding like a nightmare that is only likely to get worse as things get tougher at school.

Perhaps you have bitten off more than you can chew?

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Zimmer:
If this is what is going on after only a couple of weeks in classes, it is all sounding like a nightmare that is only likely to get worse as things get tougher at school.

Perhaps you have bitten off more than you can chew?

Sssshhh. I know I've bitten off more than I can chew but they've already got my ridiculous amount money and I think I can only get back a small amount of it now. So I'm going to stick it out and wrestle through. I want straight A's obviously but I do know that my GPA isn't written on my certificate if that doesn't happen.

This class ends in less than a month and then I will no longer be with 95% of these students. They're mostly culinary and this is their gloss-over baking class they have to take. There's 5 people in my program in this class and we will continue on to another block together. As long as it wasn't one of them that took my dough....

And hopefully I'll be on a better wavelength with my next Chef. This one is very nice and wants you do to well one-on-one. But during the session all he does is yell. I understand in a huge kitchen with a bunch of people that won't shut up that yelling is sometimes necessary, but not always. I hate yelling and very rarely raise my voice myself. But who knows what Chef I'll have next! It could even be the same Chef as he does teach the rest of my courses but it's usually rare to have the same Chef back to back. Watch my luck now...

I think this chef respects you. His people skills just need work.

Of course you've bitten off more than you can chew. Once a woman gives birth, taking on any commitments other than keeping her offspring fed, clean, educated, and alive means she is biting off more than she can chew. If she wants to have a life, she just has to do it anyway.

Someone stole your dough? That is so unbelievably tacky and discouraging. But bad juju will descend upon the bread thief, I know it.

What can you do about it? Does this mean you have to stand guard in front of the refrigerator?

Maybe you can make a decoy loaf that's beautiful yet full of salt or something.... talk about how it's the best one you've ever made, and leave it right in the front while you go out for a long break.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Someone stole your dough? That is so unbelievably tacky and discouraging. But bad juju will descend upon the bread thief, I know it.

What can you do about it? Does this mean you have to stand guard in front of the refrigerator?

Maybe you can make a decoy loaf that's beautiful yet full of salt or something.... talk about how it's the best one you've ever made, and leave it right in the front while you go out for a long break.

The only thing I could do is buy a freaking huge cooler and put it under my station and not use the walk-in. Which is impossible so I'm stuck using the walk in with everyone else. I might wrap my entire tray with saran wrap so you have to cut it open to get to my product. But that's also a huge waste of materials (even though I've paid out the nose for materials) and I'd probably get yelled at for it. But I figure I'm going to get yelled at anyway....

So the instructor knew your dough had been stolen by a fellow student? And did your instructor speak to the class about it? If you have a fellow student who is a thief -- a cheat -- it's going to affect everyone. Whose work will be pinched next?

I would demand the instructor address the stealing issue to all of the students, if he has not done so.

I would want the fellow students to know that their work could be stolen too. Heads up for the cheat.

quote:

Originally posted by musicasacra:
So the instructor knew your dough had been stolen by a fellow student? And did your instructor speak to the class about it? If you have a fellow student who is a thief -- a cheat -- it's going to affect everyone. Whose work will be pinched next?

I would demand the instructor address the stealing issue to all of the students, if he has not done so.

I would want the fellow students to know that their work could be stolen too. Heads up for the cheat.

Our Chef reamed out the whole class about it. So everyone is aware of the situation and the consequences of the situation (if they get caught they could be suspended or expelled or at the very least kicked out of this class). Still no luck in finding the dough and I'm not surprised, after that no one was going to fess up!

Good, at least they've been warned.

quote:

Originally posted by Muffin's sister:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill_D:
As far as culinary chefs and baking go, most, but not all, don't do well at both.

That being said, down here on our PBS station, they are running a series by Hubert Keller, who runs Fleur de Lys in San Francisco and Vegas, Burger Bar (SF, Vegas and St. Louis) and SLeek in St. Louis, who not only is one of the top chefs in the US these days, but also is quite at home as a pastry chef (probably due to the fact that his family ran a bakery and that's the first thing he learned to cook).

I adore Hubert Keller. We've been the the Fleur De Lys in Vegsas, yum yum yum. I'll have to see if our PBS is running the same series!

You could always come down here... I've been recording them. And he posts ALL of the recipes on his website:

http://www.fleurdelyssf.com/

I have to admit that when I first saw his series (Secrets of a Chef) I wasn't all that impressed... but as I continued watching, I quickly realized he was everything (and more) he claimed to be... born and raised in Alsace, France (which explains his German surname), well trained, and is ranked in the top 30 of American chefs...

One of the tricks he presented was the substitution of melted French vanilla ice cream for creme Anglaise. Frankly, I would have never thought of that... but it does work.

While we probably won't make it up to Vegas anytime in the near future (although it's tempting to go see the Love show) we will put it on our "to do" list next time we are in San Francisco.

Sheesh, what a low life to steal your dough. You could try next time putting a little note with your dough that says "If you take this you will be cursed to die a slow and painful death" (people are surprisingly superstitious) or "I have placed a hidden camera".