Week two

Our first quiz is today, covering the first two chapters of our 20 lb book. It is open book but helpful to have read and studied the chapters, (which I had). The chapters cover the history of French cooking and food safety.

I am on the chef's station again this week. One of the students with me is a skinny kid who looks about 18 years old. Some of our jobs are chopping vegetables for stir fry tomorrow, frying the garden burgers on the flat grill, transferring leftovers into clean pans, and thawing the frozen fish in plastic bags under cold running water. Learning to clean the hot flat grill when we are finished using it is tricky, to avoid burning your hands. We spread vegetable oil on the grill and use some sort of a pumice stone to scrape off the burned bits while it is hot.

One of the fellas sitting at the lunch table today mentions the cooking jobs he had in prison. It is an interesting group!

Banquets

I worked for 6 hours yesterday in the school culinary department. What they don't tell you is the requirement for 28 "banquet" hours. Usually the school puts on several banquets and the students manage them and serve. This year they are short on banquets, so we need to pick up the extra hours on Fridays.

One benefit is that the food is better since there are no left overs and everything is cooked fresh on Friday. Since we get to eat lunch from the menu as part of our lab fees, we enjoy it more on Friday.

Today is a warm fall day and a good time to take a picture of the uniform we wear.

Kitchen duty

This week I am on the chef's station. People working here make gravy and stock as well as preparing and cooking the raw meat. There are ovens, a large flat griddle, deep well frying oil, and a couple of multi burner gas stoves. The stocks and gravies stay warm on these stoves in double boiler type water baths. It's pretty warm in the area, even with overhead exhaust, and faces are pink most of the time. It's interesting to watch the various people present around the kitchen and their participation. Not everyone functions with the same level of interest. The second year students are taking management classes, so they are usually pretty efficient.

Apparently we do not wash the pots and pans or run the dishwasher. There are carts for dirty whisks, ladles, and pans, and a room where several non students are busy cleaning. We only wash(and sharpen) our own knives.

Class is from 8-9am, and today George is going over jobs to be had after one finishes culinary arts classes. As he describes them, he reinforces my hunch that all of them are tough and very few people make a fortune. It's like the lottery...if one has an idea that takes off and sells, there is a chance for the big bucks. He tells us about a friend of his who is a success at making and selling soup. He pays his son $2,000 a week and the kid refuses to take over the business. (I wonder why)!

First Day of Culinary Arts at Clark College

What an interesting and informative day! The instructor and I are about the same vintage, no one else comes close. As expected, there are more males wanting to be chefs. One of the females has orange hair, pierced lip, pierced nose, and paper clips in her pierced ears. We are told that more people are applying to the program because unemployment is up in this area.

Today, we are in class from 7AM to 1PM, with many breaks and lunch at 10:30AM. We have a daily"free" lunch, paid by our lab fees, and must be chosen from the hot foods and salad bar before the cafeteria opens for lunch to the general college population.

The instructor tells us that magazines and newspapers are a good way to learn about food trends and recipes. He reads an article telling about "dump cake", which he has never heard of before, and all of us home cooks recognize instantly.

George, the instructor, gives us a list of the things we will be covering during this 11 week quarter. They are: making sauces, making entrees,

learning to clean as we go, washing pots, making salads and salad dressings, running the dish washing machine, setting up the food line, running the snack bar grill, running the cash register, serving customers, end of day clean up, preparing vegetables, making sandwiches and beverages for the snack bar, setting up and waiting on tables.

We will be rotating through 10 stations and each station has an instructor, a manager, an advanced first year student, and a new student.

We all must wear the same uniform and once in a while we have a banquet to serve on a Friday or after hours.

Tomorrow is more orientation in the class room, and then Wednesday we go to the kitchen. The normal day is one hour of class and 5 hours of hands on learning. We have home work and quizzes from our fat, 20 pound book, every other week.

amendment to previous blog

I forgot to add Alex to the beginning blog story. She was the 5th person in our traveling group!

The Beginning...

Labor Day weekend, Merlin, Anders, Karen, and I took Continental Airlines from Seattle to Anchorage. Annika and her family picked us up at the airport and hosted us until Monday evening. We all hiked over Matanuska Glacier, watched fireworks from the State fair, visited the fair, talked with Annika's cousin and family from Fairbanks, hiked to an alpine lake, ate the world's best ice cream and joined all of Wasilla in watching their former Mayor become the Vice Presidential candidate. Sarah Palin's parents live three doors down from Annika, and her youngest son goes to school with Sarah's daughter Piper.