Seventh Week

Each week, this quarter, we orient to procedures on a different station. Daily, the vegetable/starch station provides 8 to 10 half pans each of vegetables and starches to serve on the cafeteria line. Some of us are chopping a large bucket of red potatoes, some are peeling and slicing russet potatoes, some are preparing cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, squash, and bell peppers.
Our student manager is a heavy, bald American Indian, with a tatooed feather on the top of his head. He wears sun glasses in the kitchen and any free moment he has head phones on his ears for his tunes. In spite of his looks, he is very pleasant and easy to be around. We are encouraged to bring recipe ideas from home, to make and try on the cafeteria line.
Class discussion is food cost control, and class practice is making more sauces, in small groups, over portable propane gas stoves in the kitchen. This time the sauces are veloute, (meaning smooth or velvety), butter and tomato. Part of the lesson is "mise en place", or in English, gather everything we need in one place, before we start to cook.
Every other week we have a home work assignment to complete, covering one of the chapters in our book. Then the next week, we have an open book quiz on a couple more chapters. This assures we will at least scan the material.